Someone Finally Made a White Leather Sneaker Worthy of the Hype

The perfect white sneaker doesn’t exis—

Published January 23, 2025

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In 2020, a YouTuber named Weston Kay, who goes by the handle Rose Anvil, cut apart over a dozen shoes in an effort to crown the “world’s best white sneaker.”

While the Capri from upstart Koio performed admirably among iconic shoes like the Adidas Stan Smith and Common Projects Achilles Low, there was still plenty of room for improvement, Kay deduced, including the use of chrome-tanned leather.

Years later, the YouTuber, who now counts over a million subscribers to his channel, took it upon himself to address his concerns directly.

The Koio x Rose Anvil Triple White Capri is a new collaboration between Kay and Koio that doesn’t just represent the best shoe in the brand’s quickly expanding catalog but one ready to go toe to toe with the best white sneakers money can buy.

A pair of white leather sneakers — Rose Anvil’s Weston Kay helped design a superior version of the Koio Capri.

A sneaker should be a “sneaker”

Kay connected with Koio cofounder and CEO Johannes Quodt about creating a shoe together. After testing a few ideas and building a few prototypes, the two settled on building the best “true” leather sneaker possible.

By their definition, Kay and Quodt determined that a “true” sneaker should use actual sneaker-making techniques. In contrast, many high-end leather sneakers — including those that have historically earned high marks from Kay — borrow insole and welt techniques from boot and dress shoe construction.

back view of a pair of white sneakers — The rubber cup outsole has a side stitch to allow resoling.

The two shoemakers determined that their vision depended on superior materials, including making a key sneaker component out of leather — something virtually unheard of before the arrival of the Triple White Capri.

The perfect blend of materials

As Kay tells it, his collaborator at Koio exhausted all of the company’s contacts in the Italian leather manufacturing industry to find the perfect material for each part of the sneaker.

For the upper, they landed on a full-grain calfskin with a really tight grain structure. This tight grain structure creates a uniform surface for the top layer of white pigment, preventing the bubbling that occurs on lower grade leather sneakers.

Where similar sneakers use a cheaper leather on the inside, a slightly heavier full-grain calfskin was chosen for the lining. According to Kay, the lining leather actually cost more to source than the upper leather, contributing to the hundred-dollar price hike compared to the standard Capri. This method creates an interior structure that will age more like a boot.

inside heel of a sneaker — The only indication of the collaboration is on the foam and leather insole.

The entire heel panel is flipped to the roughout side, acting like a heel counter without adding an extra layer of material and covering more surface area than a typical counter panel.

Just like the standard Capri, the outsole is a simple rubber cup sole with an added sidewall stitch. Much like the welt on a boot or dress shoe, this sidewall stitch allows the sneaker to be resoled. While plenty of leather sneakers share this method, the high-grade interior leather mentioned above creates a structure that can actually handle the resoling process.

A heart of leather

The most creative and impactful innovation of the Rose Anvil Capri is tucked away deep inside where no one will ever see it.

Most sneakers use a thin fabric called Stobel board to hold the upper and sole together. It is part of what makes a sneaker more lightweight and flexible than leather shoes.

sneaker components laid out on a table — The specially designed leather Strobel board can be seen in the lower-left corner.

Strobel board works fine for most sneakers but tends to wear out much faster than leather. High-end leather sneaker brands fix this using bulkier midsole techniques borrowed from boot construction. But Kay decided to use a leather Strobel board, even though he wasn’t aware of anyone ever doing that before.

Quodt found a shoemaker in Italy that could produce leather Strobel board and the final piece of this innovative collaboration came into place. Having all that leather on the interior while staying “true” to traditional sneaker design, as Kay puts it, is what makes the Rose Anvil Capri the best white sneaker on the market.