A new sneaker trend is making its way out of the skate park and into street style. After years of Adidas Sambas dominance, Vans are the celebrity-favorite sneaker brand of the moment.
It makes sense: Vans are both extremely comfortable and undeniably cool. I've owned a few pairs over the years, but it's been a while since I've reached for them. Now, A-listers like Gigi Hadid, Jennifer Lawrence, and Emily Ratajkowski have convinced me they deserve a spot on my shoe rack this fall.
The celebrity endorsements have been slowly trickling in over the last few months. Lawrence, a longtime mesh flats devotee, was an early adopter of the brand, swapping one flat shoe for the other in April when she was spotted wearing a butter-yellow pair of Vans. In the weeks since, she has also worn a black pair from the line on her casual strolls around downtown New York City.
By late July, the Vans sneaker trend had made its way to Hadid and Ratajkowski. With her Kelly green trucker hat, white tube socks, and a sliver of a black bralette peeking out from underneath the silk slip, Hadid tapped into the shoe's inherent punkiness. Ratajkowski, on the other hand, opted for baggy khaki trousers and a strappy white tank top when she wore her checkered favorites.
But don't let their pop-punk popularity stop you from test-driving them this season (and next). Options from Vans—either the Old Skool or the Classic Slip-On Sneakers, in particular—follow a similar formula to the other trendy sneakers we’ve seen crop up over the last few months. They’re generally slender in silhouette with a virtually logo-less appearance and come in shades of either black or white, with a few brighter colors sprinkled in. And unlike Dua Lipa's preferred Puma Palermo sneakers, they're often made from sturdy, easy-to-clean canvas or leather.
The brand has also earned a recent designer sneaker stamp of approval similar to that of Adidas’s collaboration with British brand Wales Bonner and Nike’s Kaia Gerber-approved Nike x Bode kicks. This comes courtesy of an early summer partnership with another in-crowd favorite, the New York-based brand Proenza Schouler. The collection, comprised of black and white pairs with a puffy quilted exterior, was quickly adopted by the fashion set as a sporty-chic alternative to warm-weather sandals.
No matter which Vans you pick, you're guaranteed to add a dose of model-approved style to your daily rotation. Keep scrolling to shop a few of the coolest Vans sneakers on the market, including the exact ones that Hadid and Lawrence have been snapped wearing recently.
