The Best Sneakers of 2019 (So Far)

Image via Complex Original

Nike's Breaking2 came and went with an unsuccessful attempt at a sub-two-hour marathon, but it did kick off a new era of high-performance running for the brand while introducing a new design language to the category. The Zoom Vaporfly Next% picks up where the 4% left off, adding a new, lighter Vaporweave upper, offset lacing, and tweaked ZoomX cushioning. It also has an even more aggressive and futuristic look than its predecessor. At the same time, the Next% has managed to move the needle on the resale market, currently averaging well over $600—a rarity for such a high-tech performance sneaker.  —Zac Dubasik

I want to make a Liger joke about this shoe, but that would be too easy. What's good about Virgil Abloh's take on the Off-White x Nike Zoom Terra Kiger 5 isn't that it's just the next Off-White x Nike sneaker, but that it's taking his collaboration in a new direction. The Kiger isn't a cool sneaker at all. It's a shoe that not many people even know. Abloh took it, made it for women, and put damn near track spikes on the bottom. Doesn't sound like a deconstructed pair of Air Jordan 1s or Air Force 1s to me, and that's why it's good. It also proves Abloh still has a few more tricks up his sleeve. —Matt Welty

I really, really like this sneaker. I haven't hidden that fact, either. It's my No. 1 sneaker this year. Let me count the ways. The Adidas ZX line is to Adidas what Air Max is to Nike (don't let the brand tell you it's Boost—it's not). The best sneakers in the line, in my opinion, are the ZX 1000 shoes, which go from ZX 1000 to ZX 9000 and came out in the late '80s. They never got to 10,000, and Adidas wanted to change that. So they brought back the shoe's original designer, Jacques Chassaing, to envision what that last, final shoe would look like—and they smashed it out of the park. The materials, shape, and colorway of the shoe bring it back to when it would have released in 1989 or 1990. It's like if Tinker Hatfield had gotten to redo the Jordan IX for a Michael Jordan who wasn't playing baseball at the time. Sometimes the story matters, and this story is great. Pass it on. —Matt Welty

DJ Clark Kent got mad at me for saying that the Nike Air Force 1 was back—a story I had written two years ago. I still think the premise is right. The shoe has been Nike's most popular sneaker, but true hype around the model has gone up and down over the years. We're in a moment when a true admiration for the sneaker has returned. It's evident with the brand choosing to bring back the "Ivory Snake" Air Force 1 for the first time since it released as an Asia-only exclusive in 1996. The shape of the shoe isn't the same, and neither are the materials, but it's good to see Nike dip into its archive and re-release shoes for true connoisseurs, like DJ Clark Kent himself. We didn't need the socks, though. —Matt Welty

Sure, Kanye West's Adidas Yeezy sub-brand has lost some of its hype over the last year or so, but that doesn't mean it can't churn out some must-cops. That was exactly the case this month, when Ye and the Three Stripes unleashed a black version of the 350 V2. Unofficially dubbed the "Pirate Black 2.0," these 350s came in both reflective and non-reflective versions, with the former garnering a resale price in the $1,500 range. Yeezys might have made their way into the mainstream, but this shoe proves that the line can still generate hype on occasion. —Ben Felderstein

The VaporMax isn't the most obvious choice when it comes to collaborations, but maybe that's why people love the version that Cactus Plant Flea Market worked on. It has what looks like pipe cleaners for a Swoosh and a smiley face on the heel. LeBron James wore them. There's even a friends-and-family pair that lights up and can be charged in an outlet. Even stranger, the person behind Cactus Plant Flea Market, Cynthia Lu, remains an enigma with no online footprint, although she used to work side by side with Pharrell. People seem to like this shoe, which says more about the collaboration than the model itself. That's what a lot of collaborations are about: Taking something that wouldn't interest the typical consumer and making it better. —Matt Welty

Whether the world actually wants or needs self-lacing performance sneakers on a broad scale is something that remains to be seen, but with the Adapt BB, Nike proved that such an ambitious footwear endeavor is possible. The company that prides itself on innovation delivered on the once only-a-fairytale premise of the Nike Mag, bringing the technology to the courts of the NBA in 2019. Priced at $350, they're still not quite accessible to everyone, but they're considerably cheaper than a pair of Off-White x Nikes on the resale market. —Zac Dubasik

Nike Air makes everything better. Whether you're an OG sneakerhead or a young hypebeast, that simple touch of original branding will take a retro Jordan release and put it over the top. Throw it on one of the most iconic sneakers in the Jumpan's illustrious history and it's no wonder why the Air Jordan IV "Bred" makes the list. Made iconic by its presence on His Airness' feet during "The Shot" in Game 5 of the 1989 playoffs, and releasing to commemorate its 30th anniversary, this retro edition was more that just another hot colorway coming back. —Ben Felderstein

I wasted my best Sacai x Nike jokes the last time I wrote about the shoe. Read them all here. So here it is straight: Sacai made '70s running sneakers cool again with two of everything on the shoe. The release was delayed, your favorite influencers wore them, and they were an unexpected hype shoe this year. It's good when that happens sometimes. —Matt Welty

Surprise, surprise. Travis Scott's flipped version of the original Air Jordan topped this year's best Jordans list and best collabs list, so it only makes sense for it to climb to the top spot here. Design of the sneaker aside, it's the first time we've seen a backwards Swoosh and a stash pocket on an Air Jordan 1, and the release itself turned the internet upside down. If you weren't able to come up when the sneakers surprise-dropped during Travis' performance at the Grammys, you were most likely one of the many who were upset with the SNKRS app crashing at checkout due to high demand. Coming up on a pair was damn near impossible, also making this one of the most valuable sneakers of the year so far, with an average resale price of near $1,000. —Gerald Flores