They were once worn by athletes to win Olympic track races in the 1970s. Now, slim, low-profile sneakers are more often seen on the style set than in the context of 5,000-meter sprints.
Harry Styles has several pairs of the oft-sold out Dries Van Noten’s panelled leather and suede sneakers ($495), while Hailey Bieber, Kaia Gerber and Addison Rae are regularly seen out and about in their vividly-colored Onitsuka Tiger styles (ranging from $155 to $215). Dua Lipa, a global brand ambassador for Puma, has the more wallet-friendly compact Speed Cat silhouette in red, black, pink and even a silver ballerina version ($100).
In June, Prada put forward its own offering with the new Montecarlo sneaker ($1,100) — a re-edition of a design from Spring-Summer 2005. Bottega Veneta describes its Orbit Flash shoe ($990) as “a low-top lace-up ballet sneaker” with “supple suede with lightweight nylon”, while Miu Miu boasts that its Plume ($950) style is “sleek and extremely light” — though they do offer a version where this aerodynamic design is weighed down with shoelace charms and miniature keyrings.
“It’s more simple, it’s less flashy,” said David Fischer, founder and CEO of youth culture platform Highsnobiety, in a phone interview, observing the current footwear aesthetic. Global retail analytics company Edited’s analyst and footwear expert Katharine Carter agreed, telling CNN that slimline running-inspired trainers have emerged as 2025’s biggest sneaker trend.
Even mass-market brands such as H&M and Zara are now getting in on the action: Carter noted an uptick of 367% more slim-soled styles flooding the shelves for the Spring-Summer 2025 season compared to 2024. By contrast, Edited estimates new designs of chunky and platform sneakers have decreased 37% year-on-year.
The current preference for slim-fit, low-profile footwear marks a shift away from the chunky “ugly” shoe trend that has dominated the runways — and individual closets — for almost a decade.
The Balenciaga Triple S, created by the mononymic designer Demna during his tenure at the brand, disrupted the sneaker landscape in the mid-to-late 2010s. Its vertiginous, stacked sole was instantly recognizable, and a new era of chunky sneakers with mainstream appeal, such as Zara’s Multi-Piece sneaker, the New Balance 09060 and the Adidas Yeezy 500 “Blush”, soon followed. However, around 2023, their popularity began to wane (that year, the Triple S was booted off the top spot of GQ’s annual Best Sneakers list and replaced by the re-issued Adidas Samba from 1972 — a football training shoe, with its earliest iteration dating back to 1949).
“I always like to say that fashion is like physics; for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction,” said Emma McClendon, assistant professor of fashion studies at St John’s University in New York, in a phone call. Noting the pendulum swing of trends, she explained: “Fashion is predicated on a desire for newness.”
But there has been a collective shrinking of silhouettes and styles of clothes more generally, too. From the controversial return of skinny jeans to the uptick in hotpants and boob tubes, “stuff is getting slimmer,” said McClendon. “Fashion doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” she added. “It’s possibly one of the most visceral ways that we bodily engage with culture.”
Many have been quick to draw a connective throughline between the revival of trends like skinny jeans and bandage dress with the increasing accessibility of Ozempic and other GLP-1 injectables. “We have to address the fact that what we’re seeing is a return to the thin ideal in a really scary way,” said McClendon. “In general, it’s that you want to be smaller, you want to be demure, you want to be all of these things associated with being ladylike,” McClendon added.
Could that shift be making its way to our footwear choices? In addition to the rise of slimline shoes, there has also been growing interest in “Sneakerinas,” a hybrid shoe that combines a traditional sneaker with the more girlish ballet flat. Often, they are little more than wispy slips of satin or suede. Sometimes they have ribbons in lieu of laces — much like the version sold by Chinese footwear brand Vivaia, which has become a veritable off-duty model staple thanks to endorsements from Bella Hadid and Amelia Gray. EDITED reported a 112% increase in the number of sneakers described as “ballerina” or “Mary Jane” in the past year.
Today, shoes are not only getting slimmer, some are barely there at all. The mesh Alaia ballet flats — fashion search engine Lyst’s hottest product at the end of 2024 — are almost see-through, much to some fashionistas’ delight and others’ chagrin. Even Balenciaga is taking note: its most head-turning sneaker release since the Triple S is the Zero shoe. Available in beige and black, the barely-there footwear is molded from a footprint, with the wearer’s feet secured only at the toe and heel. If we are in the era of the naked dress, maybe next is the naked shoe.
“I think in many ways, the shoe world is very much marching in one direction here,” said Fischer.