Gary Warnett's Top 10 Sneakers of the Summer

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone on the planet more knowledgable and eloquent about sneakers — rather, trainers — than Gary Warnett. One of the minds behind Crooked Tongues, he also manages to keep his own blog and supply Complex with some of the most well-researched (mostly from the depths of his own brain) top 50 lists you'll find anywhere. So with no further ado, here are Gary's picks for the top 10 releases of the summer. Pay attention.

Gary says: Campus 80s are amazing — one of the best shoes ever made. The whole B-Sides thing isn't for me, but adidas Originals put through some great shoes beneath the radar. Ballistic nylon makes shoes incredible and while suede is the definitive Campus fabric, I hate scuffing them and getting bald spots — then they're a write off. This application has that matte effect, but they're built to last, too. Smart application, great shoe and the suede stripes were a good touch.

Gary says: You know what I hate? Concepts for the sake of concepts on shoes. Vans Syndicate is the best top-tier line of any shoe company. The presentation, materials and use of partners that have EARNED their position, plus that strict distribution has been on point for well over half a decade. This shoe with Berlin's Civilist is based on the UK and USA troops occupying Berlin after the wall went up in the early '60s and how the uniforms and army surplus entered the local skate sub-culture. From the bag to the box and the badges to the pocket tee and printed matter, this project was incredible. The shoes weren't bad either.

Gary says: I'm a big fan of the Zoom Hyperfuse, but Hyperfuse on Sportswear never had me convinced until I saw these and the original white/grey colourway of the AF1 Hi (which I still need) in this application. The Infrared just pops on these, which is kind of the point of the makeup. They're not better than the original (one of the best shoes ever made), but they complement the source material nicely. I'm quite biased when it comes to this release, just because they were a Crooked Tongues BBQ exclusive.

Gary says: This was going to be the Denim Air Force 1 in this list, but they combine with jeans to make some kind of weird jeggings. So they got excised. You knew the SB Koston would be an interesting shoe (I heard crazy rumours) but the way these were simple externally but concealed a Lunarlon drop-in sole was a smart move. Huarache meets Bruin meets Presto...sick. Koston is a connoisseur and the shoe reflects that.

Gary says: These were some acceptable flamboyance for the hot weather. Homer Simpson said something about Hawaiian shirts only being for gay guys and big fat party animals, but these were different. Like Syndicate, Vault just goes in...the boxes for each project and execution is perfect. Steve Van Doren (son of the founder) wears a lot of wacky shirts and these sit alongside the brand's origins as a place where Mr. Van Doren could put a fabric you supplied on a deck shoe. The enzyme wash tones things down a little too, and the lack of stripe on the sole makes it all work. I can imagine Rodney Dangerfield wearing these, or Chevy Chase sporting them in a lost scene from 'Fletch.'

Gary says: I love the Lunarglide 3 and the rest because the whole Nike Running line gets better and better — 2012's line is insane, but the Nike Free Run+ 2 in Rio de Janeiro is nuts. That green, the speckle, the asymmetric lacing, the underlays mimicking tendons and all the rest is too much. Free Run+ iD options are phenomenal too. I gave up on new Nike runners in 2007, then the 2008 rollout had me obsessed again. On the subject of new shoes, the Zoom Huarache TR Low in Knicks colours is stupid underrated too.

Gary says: The idea of a J. Crew New Balance reeks of smugness, but the executions are super simple, the suede is of a good quality and they're made in the U.S. factory, who are just crushing it at the moment in terms of quality. 1400s aren't the most widely available shoe usually, so it's nice to get hold of this model via friends in NYC and LA. I'm sure they're the same price that they were in the mid 1990s, with no deterioration in quality either. These and US-made 998s are the sort of shoe I'd probably save in a fire.

Gary says: The Griffeys from '09 were a serious retro, but these are my personal favourites, despite a half-assed retro a few years back. Like the SC II, this model's up there as one of those pieces that distracted me from Jordans in its day. Yeah, they're not the most comfortable shoe, and the carbon is fugazi this time round, but the aesthetic appeal's still there. I'm glad Ken's still down with Nike, because the Swingman is important to the shoe, and the absence of key branding (see those atrocious Tech Challenge reissues from a few years back) murders a shoe. In fact, were these a spring rather than a summer release? I don't care. Griffeys are a year-rounder.

Gary says: This shoe shaped my childhood, and like the best retros, owning it is a form of closure, because I made do with the non-Air lows back in the day. I believe this is the second-best Cross Trainer from Nike (Air Trainer 1 is the illest), and the Supreme Court II just about takes out its SC predecessor (another of my favourites) in my affections. The general releases earlier in the summer were okayish, but the materials weren't on point. These use real leather and just look right. They even restored the correct Velcro for this edition — these will be sought-after one day.

1. Air Jordan 1 'Banned'

Gary says: Forget adding shoes that were retroed ten minutes ago to this list. I'm suffering from AJ3 fatigue. This is the best Jordan retro since that glut of amazing XI Retro+ releases at the start of the '00s. The whole outlet-only rollout was cleverly engineered and I ignored them until I saw a pair on some feet and discovered that they were actually made from leather. Nike Air on the tongue and that yellowed inner lid on the packaging are unexpected attention to detail. Just when the AJ1 got played out by being treated like a Dunk, this came along and all was forgiven. Pleather is a legacy killer — seriously, use leather and charge a little more. People will still buy.