In the year 2026, girly sneakers are a norm. We’re spoiled with brands churning out new releases almost every week – just these past few weeks we’ve had Onitsuka Tiger heels on the runway, new Shox Mary-Janes by Nike x Naked Copenhagen, Simone Rocha x adidas teased at London Fashion Week, Completed Works x Asics and, just this week, a new Jacquemus x Nike Moon campaign starring Solange. But there was a time when feminine sneakers weren't really a thing. There was a time where we didn’t really have good drops for us girls. Up until about 2020, the hyped sneaker collabs and releases were more men centric, often not even releasing in women’s sizing. The boys had everything; we just had Puma x Fenty. 

“For a long time, sneaker culture had been based around male desire,” says footwear sourcer Alice McCarthy (aka @boot.alicious), “which led female sneakerheads to conform to buying these masculine styles – if their sizes were even available. Male-dominated worlds led the way for brand collaborations, focusing on basketball, skateboarding and street culture. Even female designers, such as Jil Sander, who collaborated with Puma in the ‘90s, created masculine silhouettes.” 

“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,” McCarthy says. Brands have finally clocked in and are giving the girls the attention they deserve. Collabs are reflecting the current culture of hyper-feminine trends in womenswear with designers such as Simone Rocha, ShuShu/Tong (who recently collabed with Asics), Sandy Liang and Miu Miu, among others, building whimsically girly wardrobes with their collections. This is a women’s world now and Miuccia Prada is designing New Balances.  

To be fair, this feminine sneaker renaissance isn’t exactly brand new. Even though we weren’t spoiled with choice, there were instances in the early 2000s – a peak time for eccentric sportswear – where women held centre stage. In an era in which athleisure reigned supreme, brands tapped in and gave us the predecessors of the sneaker hybrids. McCarthy points to Puma’s 96 Hours luxury range – revolutionary designs “which drew on the desire for more comfortable yet formal footwear in the workplace”. These capsule athleisure ranges like Puma’s are what inspired the influx of girly trainers today, the foremothers if you will – inspiring designers such as Ancuta Sarca (who’s been upcycling old trainers into heels since 2019), Puma’s newer drops, and Onitsuka Tiger with its AW26 collection. Although these avant-garde designs faded away as we moved past the millennium and the girls were left with boy shoes once again, since the early 2020s brands have been re-entering the archives and pulling out the craziest silhouettes. 

The 2020s’ y2k nostalgia, along with a higher demand for women’s sneakers following the sneaker boom of the late 2010s and early 2020s fused with maximalist feminine designers is what got us here today. “Social media has definitely played a role,” McCarthy says. “The rise of influencers and viral exposure has changed how trends form. The ‘instagrammability’ of a trainer can go a long way; people are always drawn towards something they haven’t seen before.” Sneaker hybrids like the New Balance “snoafers”, Puma’s “sneakerinas”, trainer mules and heels have become increasingly popular because of their uniqueness and virality. Brands are consistently pushing boundaries and experimenting with performative pieces. McCarthy nods to the popularity of particular aesthetics like balletcore and blokette styles from 2022/2023, which really reflect the rise of the hyper-feminine sneaker. This was when Asics x Kiko Kostadinov x Hysteric Glamour, Sandy Liang x Salomon and the first Asics collab with Cecilie Bahnsen came out – the Mary-Jane silhouettes that really led the way for a flood of Mary-Jane and ballet flat styles being released by different brands. “[This is] a broader cultural shift, where femininity is being reclaimed rather than rejected,” she says. “Earlier generations of fashion often linked empowerment with more masculine styling, now designers are comfortable making femininity deliberately exaggerated.” 

Even though the minimalism/maximalism fashion pendulum has been pulling back into minimalism since 2024 – with Japanese fashion and the quiet luxury trend making way for brands like Saint Laurent, COS and The Row being in Lyst’s Hottest Brands Index for 2025’s Q4 – and a lot of brands and streetwear trends are keeping it lowkey, that doesn’t exactly stand with shoes. Personal style is king, McCarthy adds, people don’t want to be sheep, they want to be individualistic: we all want to be niche and unique in the way that we dress, and shoes are the easiest way to do that. We may be keeping it more minimal and nonchalant with our outfits, but our shoes tell a different story; we can have more fun with our shoes, it’s where our personalities can shine through. 

However, as fashion moves forward, so do sneaker drops: “Slowly but surely, we’re shifting away from the low-profile ballerina… everything, to the revival of the swag era high-top,” McCarthy predicts. The high-top is making its return to the market. Isabel Marant’s cult high-top Bekett wedge sneakers have been embraced by the fashion community hitting Lyst’s hottest products last year, all thanks to the TikTok fashion girlies tapping into Tumblr fashion. Puma’s high-top wedge Speedcat has entered the chat, and Maison Margiela has re-released its Future silhouette. “The wedge will reign supreme for the rest of the year,” but so will hybridised silhouettes like the upcoming Onitsuka Tigers, McCarthy adds. Basically, anything fun and new that we can play around with.