The Best Sneakers of 2018 (So Far)

The first six months of the sneaker calendar are always the hardest to judge. It can lead you to believe that the year is going to pan out to be boring, but that’s rarely is the case when it’s all said and done. Brands off-slate the majority of their releases in the fourth quarter, with a few gems sprinkled around New York Fashion Week and All-Star Weekend. This year is a bit different, though. It’s been pretty, pretty good.

There have been great Jordan retros, awesome Nike runners, solid Adidas Yeezys, and a strong run of collaborations. There’s been something for everyone, even for the soccer fans during the World Cup. And we can’t forget the importance of the dad shoe during 2018.

With all those choices, it’s been tough to countdown the best sneakers of 2018 (so far), but that’s what they pay us the big bucks to do: to argue about which sneakers are better than others. So without further adieu, here they are.

The New Balance 990v4 first released in 2016. While we typically don’t put new colorways of old-ish sneakers on this list, there’s a first time for everything. 2018 has been the year of the dad shoe, and there’s no sneaker that deserves that title more than the v4. It’s been worn by hustlers, New York cool guys, and dads alike, and New Balance released one of the most special versions of the shoe this year. The original 990 was the first sneaker to break the $100 price point in 1982, and New Balance paid homage to that bit of history by releasing just 1,500 pairs of a special version of the shoe for the original price of $100. Storytelling + a good sneaker is always a surefire way to have a great release and New Balance did just that.

LeBron James has had a hard time selling sneakers over the past few years, so Nike needed to make changes. It slimmed down his tank-like sneakers, gave them a knit upper, and added some cool marketing. The result was the LeBron Watch, which gave the LeBron 15 colorways from archival Nike sneakers from the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Deion Sanders, the ACG line, and the Air Max 95. Better yet, the brand would debut them in-game on LeBron’s feet and then sell them on the SNKRS app that night. The game plan was a huge success and had people talking about The King’s shoes again.

Every rapper has their own sneaker these days. Some are really good. Some are fucking awful. The partnership only makes sense when it’s done with a shoe that the artist would proudly wear without an endorsement check attached to it. When Travis Scott received his own Air Jordan IV this year, it was like a dream come true for fans of Scott and Jordan Heads alike. Toss into the mix the fact that the shoe was inspired by the Houston Oilers, Scott’s O.G. hometown team, and it made even more sense. Even without that backstory, the light blue, red, and black sneakers looked great on their own.

Everybody who wants Yeezys is slowly getting their chance to get them. It might not be a pair of 350s that everyone had their eyes on a few years ago, and maybe that’s a good thing. The sock shoe trend is played the fuck out right now, and Kanye and Adidas are giving people the opportunity to have Yeezys with a bit of bulk to them. The Yeezy 500, aka the Desert Rat, is built off the brand’s Feet You Wear technology from the ’90s and has a suede upper that’s comprised of layers upon layers. Adidas made a ton and dropped them during Coachella. Kanye claims they sold 250,000 pairs in one hour. If true, people got their Yeezys.

It’s hard to beat a good Air Jordan IV. What if it’s not an O.G. colorway, though? Doesn’t matter, at least if it’s as good as the collaboration between Levi’s and Jordan Brand this year. Following up on their project on the Air Jordan 1 mid in 2008, the two cherished American brands got together for a much better shoe than their previous effort. The Air Jordan IV wrapped in raw denim, complete with a leather tongue tag and a red tab on the upper. It was the sort of thing that even non-Jordan heads could get into. The more you wear them, too, the better they look. Some people went out of their way to destroy them with bleach, paint, and knives. We say do it the old-fashioned way: by wearing them into the ground.

The Nike Air 180 isn’t one of the more famous sneakers in the Air Max line, although it should be. It hasn’t been re-released in 1,000 different colorways. You can’t walk into Foot Locker and buy them year round. But there they are sitting pretty high on our best list. Thanks to Comme des Garcons, the 180 was released in three colorways that all featured varying levels of pink. Not only did the CDG name up the shoe’s profile, but it did so for the price, too. They retailed for $260, literally double the shoe’s standard retail price, but people didn’t mind. They bought them anyway. Sometimes it takes the right brand to reinterpret an offbeat shoe to create something great, and that’s exactly what CDG was able to accomplish.

The best sneaker of 2017 was easily the Off-White x Air Jordan 1 (although some might give that honor to Virgil Abloh’s Presto). Following that trend, one of the better sneakers of this year was another colorway of the same shoe. Kind of boring choice, we know. But it’s hard to deny Abloh’s success with Nike in the sneaker game over the past few years. It was also cool to see him do a Euro-exclusive release—a place where Jordan Brand historically has struggled—on the literally off-white pair and have them become more sought-after than the ones that are inspired by Michael Jordan’s alma mater, the University of North Carolina. Any way you shake it, Virgl x Nike is still a big deal, and these sneakers are the biggest deal out of the bunch.

Some are going to say: The Waverunner first released in 2017, why are they on this list? Well, because they saw their official, broad release in 2018. And that’s why they’re on here. Chances are that if you got a pair it was this year, so quiet down, sneaker nerds. This is Kanye West’s first full-on, chunky dad shoe. It has encapsulated foam, a thick sole, and bright colors and layers on the suede and mesh upper. Ahh, sounds lovely, doesn’t it? It quickly drew comparisons to ’90s running sneakers. And there’s a reason for that. If you know, you know. It’s also the most requested Adidas sneaker of all-time, at least according to Kanye West. The $300 price tag was steep, but everyone who’s gotten them says they were worth the money. Yes, that’s a proven statistic.

It will cause a literal fight—or at least it would be awesome if it did—if you ask what’s the better Air Jordan: the 1 or the III? There weren’t any mind-blowing Air Jordan 1s released this year, so we’re going to talk about the III for a minute. The grail of all grails. The Air Jordan III “Black/Cement.” It’s been a certified classic since Michael Jordan wore them in the 1988 All-Star Game, and 30 years later they’re back in their purest form. Nike Air on the back. Tumbled leather. Cement print on the toe. They’re great and Jordan Brand made 1 trillion of them (that’s an actual count). Everyone in the streets was wearing them, to the point where it became ridiculous. Sometimes when something is that good, you have to let it rock.

No matter what you think of Sean Wotherspoon or his business, Round Two, it’s hard to deny that he made the most popular sneaker this year (so far). Inspired by vintage Nike hats from the ’80s, Wotherspoon’s Nike Air Max 1/97 had the upper of the Air Max 97 in a rainbow of different shades of corduroy, complemented with an Air Max 97 sole. It won last year’s Vote Forward competition for Air Max Day and came out this year in larger numbers after a very, very limited release in 2017. There were a lot of activations around this shoe: Wotherspoon himself drove around in a van that was painted like the sneaker and released pairs at special locations. There are a handful of negative things I could say about the sneaker and the collaboration, but when LeBron James himself is wearing the sneakers, you know you created the right shoe. It’s going to be interesting to see if Nike is going to continue to give sneakers to resellers and if this is a genre-breaking collaboration. Only time will tell, but the first release was a success.