Gary Warnett's Top 10 Sneakers of 2013

I think there's a danger that we're only focusing on triumphs from the late 1980s and early 1990s. I like this shoe a lot and that outsole and toe thing is pretty insane. If they had a swoosh on, the Yeezy Stan bloggers would go wild at these. I think some of the innovation in the construction here will inform some shoes that the footwear conservatives will take to. There's a misconception that the shoe collector thing is stronger than ever right now, but it's just a load of people excited by the same ten silhouettes in suede or nubuck - at least when the last shoe boom imploded, they were wearing Dunks based on bears.

I don't understand why people cared for the Fear Pack IVs because they just looked pretty average to me but the Toros are good. These don't touch the Vs from a while back with the same colors, but I think that white midsole was a nice touch over the current spate of all red shoes that the leather sweatpant brigade love. Thought these looked lame, picked up a pair and retracted my opinion immediately.

I like the Zoom Revis a lot and I like the Talaria. Why nobody has resurrected the neon Talaria is a mystery-I know it nearly happened in 2005 but it's an important design. The mid cut version of that shoe is cool but there's no substitute for the original and the Zoom Revis is built on some learnings that the Talaria brought to the table. This is a way more logical tribute than sticking the colors on an Air Force 1 and the lettering inside the Velcro, use of color and the little details brought 1998 and 2013 together nicely. Salutes to SC on their tenth anniversary too.

I actually wanted to put the 70s Chuck in here but a personal no retro in original colors rule kept it out of here. So this just reps that shoe in general. These and the Year of the Snake editions were great and the packaging and paint concept stayed true to the Margiela aesthetic. It's a pair of shoes dipped in paint and they really irritate people, whether it's for the concept or the fact that paint flakes everywhere. I like that no compromise approach to the project and it's better than the majority of designer efforts at doing the sports footwear thing. This was the year when the 70s Chuck became my everyday shoe - it's good to finally get a pair of All Stars I can wear without annihilating my toes.

I think these were good. If you're pissed off that the Royal Blues aren't here, they're a best shoe of 1985 or 2001 and one of my all time favorites, but it's in every list everywhere else . Shoe design pretty much peaked in the mid to late 1980s and this Knicks edition feels like a really good Retro+ of this shoe from the early 2000s. The quality isn't bad at all - when we say good quality for a Jordan I think we need to reiterate that that's in comparison to other 2013 Jordan releases and not NBs or anything like that, otherwise these would get ethered by a single panel on an M13000. But that OVO Drake line looks like it's good quality - so Jordan Brand can bring it when they want to. Why these were accompanied by a Chicago Jordan I reissue in inferior materials with a Jumpman on the tongue makes absolutely no sense, but if you look for logic in big brand footwear you'll end up in an asylum.

Some people are gonna say that these are boots and not sports footwear but they've got Flywire and Lunarlon and of this was 1989, I'd have the Baltoro in a list. This is a sneaker, albeit a giant one. So the LunarTerra Arktos belongs here. I love Ashikos and all that other progressive Nike trail stuff and these feel legitimately All Conditions in the execution. Modular shoes done right are super interesting. So, so good.

Japanese spots like atmos and mita continually kill it, and the fact mita went back to the drawing board and reissued a prototype of the Air Max 95--that you could see in old Boons--is awesome. I decided not to include straight retros in this list (they belong in lists for their respective years) but this never came out before, so it belongs here. Remember when shoes weren't about a bunch of nerds standing round a table, lists or conventions? This takes it back to a happier time of Japanese exclusives. I wish they had PSI branded air bags though.

I know people like the Asian-made collaboration stuff, but I only really like Asian-made NB when they're something out of the ordinary, or MT580s, but those have been played-out for a while. Too many puffy toes. There's no substitute for the US-made NBs right now and Concepts killed that new hundred dollar bill theme. It ties with the expensive status of the shoe too. Looking at the M998 on the table with all the other shoes, it makes everything look like a bootleg.

The LeBron 10 was great and the 11 is a good break from the formula of 2009-2012. That was a great formula to me that had some Uptempo Max DNA in the mix but this looks like a Jordan VII if Stark Industries was on design duties. It's insane. Normally I hate story led colorways, but the King's Pride, Miami Night and Terracotta Army editions are very good. There's a lot of ideas in these shoes that we'll see in other silhouettes in 2014. I'm down with shoes that look like concept space cars and whenever I see people commenting that they look like they're going to transform into a robot I think they're missing the point a little - THAT'S A GOOD THING. If a signature shoe can still sell, even if the signature athlete isn't wearing it, that's a debacle dodged and that's a testament to how good the shoe looks.

It's interesting to see how HTM went from the kind of thing only nerds on message boards cared about to the byword for resellable rarity when it came to Flyknit. Flyknit is still one of the best things to happen to shoes and the Chukka just looks good - that whole snow concept and the marl grey look is phenomenal. I liked the rainbow colored Trainers, Racers, Lunar 1s and HTM designs too, but these were a personal favourite. Plus, limited means limited on these - no bullshit restocks or silly stuff like that.