But, unlike Timothée Chalamet, the shoe industry believes that in 2026 ballet is more important than ever. Just this month alone, we’ve had about a dozen different sneaker and shoe brands dropping new ballet-inspired silhouettes. Birkenstock collaborated with heritage ballet flat shoe brand Repetto, Crocs released a ballerina-style hiking shoe as well as a ballet iteration of its classic clog, New Balance dropped sneaker/ballet hybrid 204V, Onitsuka Tiger dropped its new sneakerina version of the Mexico 66 – the “Gymnarina”. From Puma to Nike, almost every single sneaker brand has released some type of ballet-inspired hybrid. Never have we seen such a saturated shoe market of ballet-inspired sneakers.

In the year 2026, girly shoes are mainstream. We’re spoiled with choice. Brands are churning out new releases for the girls almost every week: the Puma Speedcat Ballet, the adidas Stan Smith Lo Ballet, the Nike Air Rift Ballet, the adidas Taekwondo Mei, the Puma H-Street Ballet, the Salomon RX Marie-Jeanne, and many, many more. “As demand for sneakers as everyday-wear has grown, rather than a sports necessity, brands realised they had been losing out on a whole other subculture,” footwear sourcer Alice McCarthy (aka @boot.alicious) told us earlier this year on the rise of girly sneakers. Brands have clocked that there’s a huge demand for these styles of ballet flat/sneaker hybrids, and are putting focus on more and more releases.

It’s also worth noting that ballet and dance aesthetics have been incredibly prevalent in the zeitgeist. Stemming from the different TikTok microtrends like blokecore, cottagecore and the mob wife aesthetic, balletcore slowly entered the scene in 2021. Since then we’ve seen the rise of ballerina flats – by the likes of Repetto, Alaïa, Margiela Tabi pumps, and more – as well as wrap cardigans, flowy skirts and sleek-back hair styles. So, of course, the sneaker industry took notes and started playing with balletcore. Alongside ballet styles came the popularity of the blokette aesthetic – a fusion of blokecore football-inspired aesthetics (all thanks to designer Wales Bonner) and more feminine dresses and skirts. Brands finally took on womenswear trends and mixed them together in hybrid silhouettes.

Women have been generally underrepresented in the world of sneaker design. “For a long time, sneaker culture had been based around male desire,” McCarthy said, “which led female sneakerheads to conform to buying these masculine styles – if their sizes were even available. Male-dominated worlds led the way [...] focusing on basketball, skateboarding and street culture.” But, in the 2020s, there’s been a shift. The ballet sneaker’s rise to prominence began in 2021, with designer Simone Rocha’s Tracker ballet platforms, soon enough Asics collaborations with designers Kiko Kostadinov and Cecilie Bahnsen and Sandy Liang x Salomon burst into the scene, opening the gates for the rest of the sportswear labels as well as other designers to bring out their own iterations of the now-dubbed sneakerinas. It’s the shoe of the moment. And the girls are finally getting fun, feminine and interesting sneaker options.