The 25 Best Sneakers of 2014

What were the best sneakers of 2014? We broke down the top 25 of the year.

Literally hundreds of sneakers—if not more—drop in any given year these days. It's no easy feat to discern which were the best of the best, but here we are. With endless debate and staff members fighting tooth and nail over which release deserved to be on such a year-end list, the Complex Sneakers team finally came to a consensus. We pored over which drops should be included from a variety of factors such as cultural significance, performance standards, limited fanfare, and just straight up dopeness.

you're wondering why some of these differ from our midyear list, it's because we sat down with a group of editors and writers to hash every one of these out, and to be clear, no retros of any O.G. colorway were included to make this fair. From super dope collabs to new signature sneakers, from old school classics to new age runners, here are The 25 Best Sneakers of 2014.

25. Nike Dunk SB High “Diamond”

24. Nike Air Huarache “Triple Black”

23. Pharrell x adidas Stan Smith “Solids Pack”

22. J. Crew x New Balance 998 “Independence Day”

21. Nike Vapor Tour 9 “Black/Cement”

20. adidas SL Loop Runner

19. Nike Free Orbit II SP

18. Nike Free Mercurial Flyknit HTM

17. A Bathing Ape x Reebok Instapump Fury

16. Nike Zoom Hypercross

15. Fragment Design x Air Jordan 1

14. adidas Tubular Runner

13. Riccardo Tisci x Nike Air Force 1 Mid

12. Nike LeBron 12

11. Lance Mountain x Nike Air Jordan 1 SB

10. Jordan Future

9. Supreme x Nike Air Force 1

8. Kobe 9 Elite High

7. Concepts x adidas Stan Smith

6. Y-3 Qasa Racer

5. Nike Air Yeezy 2 “Red October”

4. adidas ZX Flux

3. Air Jordan XX9

2. Kobe 9 Low HTM

1. adidas Pure Boost