The 25 Best Sneaker Nicknames

Thousands of sneakers have released over your lifetime and it's impossible to go off of product codes and strict color makeups to ID each one. Thankfully, the streets is watching and people have blessed shoes with their own nicknames so it is easier to identify each sneaker. Eventually brands started taking notice and to help market a pair they would give a shoe a nickname as well instead of calling them "white/red/black." Some of the names have been bland, some have been too-forced, and some will stick with us for life. We decided to group together The 25 Best Sneaker Nicknames — let us know which ones ring out best.

Follow @ComplexSneakers

Sneaker: Air Jordan I, Air Jordan IV, Air Jordan XI
Year released: 1985-present

Black and red sneakers shortened up to Bred, how genius. This sneaker name annoys most people who have been buying Jordans before 2010 but we can't lie, it gets the job done and doesn't really marginalize the sneaker. Proceed.

Sneaker: Nike Air Foamposite One
Year released: 2009

Colorway nicknames are either hump or dump but the obscure fruit reference was intriguing to most unless your pasta was incomplete without it at Sunday Dinner.

Sneakers: ASICS GEL Lyte III
Year released: 2011

Fieg heard the people talking and after samples of the navy and salmon ASICS surfaced there was no way he was getting away with keeping them to himself. The "Salmon Toe" concept quickly became one of Ronnie's best sneakers and the name stuck with sneakerheads and newbs alike. Even your girl was begging you to get her a pair because they sounded dope.

Sneakers: Reebok Classic
Year: Various Releases

The Classics are a must in any hood and if you put in any work on the corners you already know your soldiers don't need any tear drops, meaning you don't need to get any blood on your crispy clean Reeboks.

Sneaker: Air Jordan IV
Year released: 2006

A murdered-out sneaker with an ominous alias that was also commonly used as the greatest athlete of our time's nickname. We know these are on your prayer list for shoes to be retro'd in the immediate future.

Sneaker: Nike Dunk Low Pro SB
Year Released: 2005

Only released in The Big Apple and limited to 202 pairs. You know what that meant, right? Mayhem. Just 30 pairs were released at designer Jeff Staple's Reed Space where the ensuing chaos made the tabloids mainstream media. Only in NYC, is droppin' shit like a pigeon a good look. 

Sneaker: Nike LeBron 8, Nike LeBron 9 PS ELite
Year released: 2010, 2012

After LeBron announced he was taking his talents to South Beach it felt like the cities moniker would forever have a negative connotation—that was until we got a look at the filament green and pink kicks that shared the same name.

Sneaker: Nike Air Force 1
Year Released: 2007

Bobbito's Air Force 1s rate high with most sneakerheads but the name itself doesn't get enough props. Most terms are a bit over-forced but the baroque brown and army olive describes the sneaker perfectly—just another reason Bobbitto is the greatest.

Sneaker: Nike Air Trainer 1
Year Released: 2005

Before Huf started cooking up its own crack, they worked with Nike's SB division for some underrated concepts, including the "Gold Digger" Trainer 1. How did Kanye not rock these when promoting Late Registration?

Sneaker: Nike Dunk Low Pro SB
Year released: 2004

The force is strong with these kicks and the Jedi Dunk looked back 20-plus years for inspiration, all the way back to "Return of the Jedi." The mix of drab tones set off by the neon laces and gum sole was unstoppable.

Sneaker: Nike Air Trainer 1, Nike Dunk Low, Nike Blazer
Year Released: 2003

Being too preppy has never been cooler until Kanye and Pharrell came along and in 2003 and then Nike released pack of colorways deemed the "Twisted Prep" collection. The colors used have a standard boarding school feel but what really set them off is the argyle print on the insoles. Good luck trying to hunt the kicks down but if you do somehow get your hands on a pair consider your cool points to have gone up drastically.

Sneaker: Nike Dunk Low Pro SB
Year released: 2005

Feel fortunate if you aren't all that familiar with Tiffany and Co., that means you have went this far in life without having a girl that has forced you to buy her an over-priced bracelet for Valentine's Day. The colorway is the shit though and the SB Dunk still holds up as one of the greatest and most expensive sneakers—your woman wants diamonds, you want grails.

Sneakers: Various Nike Models
Year released: Various release dates

Before "Volt" and "Bright Crimson"—"Orca" was the go-to colorway for Nike between 2007-2009. The color scheme is influenced by your favorite childhood whale, the Orca from Free Willy (don't act like you didn't watch it a dozen times). Nike dropped the clean and more luxury look on Dunks, Forces, and even Kobe's second signature shoe with The Swoosh to help make a large splash with the new color treatment.

Sneaker: Air Jordan V
Year released: 1990

The Fresh Prince made them popular and this was the start of an era where describing a shoe went from a multiple color descriptions to one simple word that summed it all up. Things would never be the same.

Sneaker: Nike Zoom Kobe VI
Year: 2010

Kobe debuted the Sixes on Christmas Day, appropriately named the Grinches after Dr. Seuss' most infamous character thanks to the volt and green mix on the upper. They even gave out pairs to anyone lucky wealthy enough to score court side tickets for the Lake Show's game.

Sneaker: Air Jordan VI
Year: 2010

Jordans have always been king, but in 2010 it reached a new level and the nicknames started getting crazier and crazier. We don't fault the blogs and marketing teams for coining the black and white Sixes as the "Oreo" Js. Imagine the resale prices if a "Birthday Cake" pack of cookies and kicks dropped in 2013. Shake your head, but seriously, bunch of savages.

Sneaker: Nike Air Foamposite One
Year released: 2010

When sneaker employees got a look at the Foamposite they quickly ditched the black and red description and named the kicks after your survival tool during an intense cold (or hangover). Word to the Smith Brothers (no, not J.R. and Josh).

Sneaker: Air Jordan I
Year released: 2011

Banned from TV, literally. When Mike first laced the black and red sneakers he thought they were a bit too devilish and Satan David Stern agreed. The Commissioner fined Mike every game he rocked them for not meeting the NBA's uniform color code. In 2011 Jordan Brand commemorated the shoe that started it all by releasing 9,000 pairs at random Nike outlets.

Sneaker: Nike LeBron 8 V1
Year released: 2011

What sneakers were cooler than the impossible-to-get, leather-jacket-and-jeans inspired, Clark Kent designed denim LeBron 8s? If you got your hands on a pair somehow, your sneaker status was legendary like the man they were named after: James Dean.

Sneaker: Nike Dunk Low Pro SB
Year released: 2003

Dunk fans weren't really feeling the colorway of the navy, green, and chocolate release in 2003 — apparently designed after classic Polo outdoor apparel — and they let it known when they coined the model "Barf" Dunks. Tell us how you really feel.

Sneaker: Air Jordan XII
Year released: 2009

Originally just the black and red or Playoff XIIs, Jordan Brand celebrated Mike's inhuman performance in the '97 Finals (and recognized the adopted nickname) with a retro featuring a "not feeling well" emoticon on the heel. Definitely one of our favorite nicknames and sneakers in recent memory, no one did it like MJ.

Sneaker: Air Jordan VII, Air Jordan I
Year Released: 1992, 2009

MJ's seventh signature sneaker was one of the best-performing sneakers of its time but the white and off-white colorway became the sneaker of choice for none other than Bugs Bunny. The "Hare Jordan" nickname has stuck with this colorway through retros and then some.

Sneakers: Converse Pro Leather
Year released: 1970s

The Converse Pro Leather was one of the first readily available leather basketball shoes, and as such, it was worn by a wide variety of professional ballplayers. The most prominent among them was ABA and NBA legend Julius Erving, who was gracious enough to share his nickname with his shoes.

Sneaker: Air Jordan XI
Year released: 2000

Mike actually wore the black and blue Air Jordan XIs for the first time against the Orlando Magic in the 1995 NBA playoffs — but the Bulls lost the series. Then he wore them in Space Jam, and that was that. By all rights these should be called "Nick Andersons," but no one wants that.

Sneaker: Nike Air Force 1
Year released: 1982

Most of the nicknames on our list are new-school sneakerheads doing but Uptowns take it back to the real OG sneaker culture. The term originated in the hoods of uptown NYC, where Air Force 1s first took hold. (To a REAL old head, "Uptowns" mean Pro-Keds 69ers.)