Why Are So Many Excellent Sneakers Going Laceless?
Looking at the most popular sneaker releases from over the past couple of months, you'd be forgiven for thinking there was a mass shortage of laces on the market.
Every week, we round up the best sneaker releases to hit the shop floors and currently, more slip-on shoes than ever have been creeping into the top six.
For a small insight into some of the most notable releases that have arrived in the first quarter of 2024, it has included: Salomon and The Broken Arm creating technical clogs, a wildly spikey take on the Mostro from PUMA's recent fashion show, and Crocs making moves in the sneaker game.
Of course, this uptick in slip-on sneaker releases isn't confined to only the past few weeks. Rather, the recent back-to-back laceless bangers are a crescendo moment for a trend that has slowly been bubbling away for the past couple of years (at the least).
The rise of slip-on sneakers can be put down to a few things and a main culprit is a change of perceptions in technical trail running and hiking footwear.
In the process of making highly functional footwear, the likes of Salomon, On, and HOKA have inadvertently become some of the hottest sneaker brands around. And while most of the focus is put on models such as Salomon's XT-6 or HOKA's Clifton, their squishy recovery sandals and slip-on foam mules have started to be used for more than just soothing the legs after a run.
Models like HOKA's new Ora Primo slip-on shoe has been dominating Instagram curation accounts while Salomon's RX Moc has been used for some of the brand's most coveted releases (with Jah Jah and Sandy Liang creating the best versions of the shoe so far).
Slip-on recovery shoes of this art have a lot to answer for the amount of laceless sneakers hitting the market but they're not the sole reason behind it — there's also some nostalgia involved.
In the early 2000s, some of the most exciting, futuristic sneakers were embracing the simplicity of a lace-free life. And many of those archival sneakers are now getting attention again, being posted on Instagram pages like Obscure Sneakers or being sold through specialist vintage stores such as Inside Tag.
Models like the PUMA Mostro, Nike ACG Moc, or Oakley Flesh Sandal have all been subject to this increased online attention. However, it goes beyond just social media hype on sneaker-obsessed pages, all of those pairs have also recently been re-issued by their respective brands.
Different current footwear trends have all come to the same conclusion: that slip-on sneakers are the future. And there are a lot more still to come (including some Highsnobiety-exclusive pairs).
