For the Snobette Sneaker Awards this year, it felt like there were more sneakers designed by or with women than ever before, so many that we thought about putting together a woman-only top 10, which would have been a first in our 10 years of putting together a list.
In the end we chose to stick with our formula, which shoes that stood out to us at Snobette as informated by our five panelists. We want to extend a huge thank you to Kari Cruz, Key Lee, JerLisa, Grace and Dali (click on their names to see their top five picks), all of whom upped our knowledge base and rallied around shoes (we’re looking at you Nike Sunder x Kids of Immigrants) that for whatever reason wouldn’t have made it on our list.
Check out all our picks below, starting with our No. 1, Miu Miu and New Balance‘s highly influential 530SL. We like the cinannomon suede ones, but any version will do.
Adidas kicked off the low-profile sneaker trend with Samba, but Miu Miu and New Balance took the baton and and ran with it, creating a shoe that was sporty, playful and effortlessly chic. Miu Miu has been setting the trend table for several years and its take on the 530SL is no different. While many brands used the shoe’s silhouette as a blueprint for their own low-profile shoe, the brown suede material was equally powerful and opened the door for jacket and coats made of the lush material.
Nike and Kids of Immigrant’s Sunder’s No. 2 sport was powered by our panelists, four of whom included the vivacious shoe on their top five lists. There’s a lot of good will for Kids of Immigrants, who evoke feelings about the immigrant family experience in way a lot of our panelists could relate to, however, it was more than just a feel-good story. Our panelists also loved the details and color story that elevated both colorways versions of the shoe and made it special.
New Balance design manager Charlotte Lee, whose NB resume includes the enormously popular 327, had sneaker culture buzzing over the 1906L, a hybrid shoe blending sneaker and loafer design elements. Hybrids are always controversial and the 1906L was no exception. While Lee created her first sketch of the shoe in 2022, timing is everything and when it was officially rolled out this year, the moment felt perfect given the rise of quiety luxury and the growth in popularity of loafers.
Adidas and Bad Bunny have been a match made in heaven, delivering banger after banger and defining the elements of a great collaboration whereby two separate entities come together and create a greater whole. Adidas’ terrace shoes have dominated the low-profile trend and Bad Bunny’s take on the Gazelle added some new energy to the look. Using a light touch, the team brought together a color and material story that felt like an authentic tribute to Puerto Rico, the island that’s the foundation of Bad Bunny’s artistry.
It’s been a rough year for Nike and Jordan hasn’t been immune. Despite setbacks, Jordan’s Retro models retain a position of power within sneaker culture. Epitomizing sneaker luxury like no other, the brand’s consistent ability to draw high-volume sales for shoes priced over $200 is very rare. This year the Air Jordan 4 in a Bred Reimagined colorway was the star of the show for holiday 2024. A simply beautiful shoe, the AJ4 epitomizes the swagger exuded by Michael Jordan himself.
Straight out the gate, Illinois-born and New York-based fine artist Nina Chanel’s take on Jordan’s Retro 3 model turned heads. The shoe features an appealing, of-the-moment bicoastal green and malachite suede and canvas upper, combined with a soothing fossil outsole and laces that bring the temperature down just enough. The leather heel tab was adorned with chenille Nike Air logo, introducing a uniquely playful touch to the silhouette.
In case you don’t know this, Snobette is low key a Rihanna fan site, we really, really like her! And while admittedly, Puma and Fenty‘s reunion got off to a slow start, the two brands did something special with the Avanti pony hair capsule. In step with the low-profile trend, the two shoes were elevated by a pony hair upper. Like two signs of a coin, one was a seriously classic white (a signature shoe color for Robyn for many years), while the other took a bolder approach with a speckled print.
As Jordan resets, it’s begun to tap a new generation of collaborative partners. The brand’s debut partnership with Who Decides War‘s Tela D’Amore kicked off with Flight Court, a low top featuring a black suede upper and a velvet lining along with a removable heel tab that features an embroidered Jumpman overlayed against the silhouette of Who Decides War’s signature stained-glass motiff. Tweaking the concept of Jordan beginning and ending with basketball, D’Amore pushed the envelope and instead chose to create a “multipurpose skate shoe,” paying tribute to her younger brother, whose skateboarding provided an entry into a career as a creative
Adidas landed three low-profile silhouettes on our top-10 list and the brilliance is that they’re all distinctly different from each other. Clot and Shanghai-based designer Caroline Hu‘s version of the Samba is an exuberant celebration of feminine whimsy. This is the type of shoe normally limited to a handful of custom silhouettes but Adidas handed over the keys to the creatives and were rewarded for it.
You can look at Wales Bonner‘s Samba as No. 10 on our list, but you can also look at it as a collaborative partnership that’s provided a foundation for many of the shoes featured above it. When Adidas collaborative partnership with Grace Wales Bonner kicked off in 2020, she leaned into color, texture and details at a time when sneaker culture was mainly themed on white leather and black leather shoe stories. Even as other brands have begun to catch up, Bonner continues to lead the way with innovative material stories that have kept Adidas’ low profile silhouettes fresh
