The all-white sneaker is a men’s style staple — a core component of any good wardrobe. Well, this was true until 2022. Last year, the compact, Common Projects-copying, round-toe white sneaker became less, ahem, commonplace. As pants got wider, footwear followed suit, introducing chunkier silhouettes designed to match menswear’s outward momentum.
Rising interest in outdoor gear, along with a general decline in sneaker sales overall, compounded the white sneaker slump — especially since most silhouettes that jump into the lifestyle sector from the climbing or hiking categories come stock with lug soles. They’re bigger and often more stable — testaments to their original use cases. But it isn’t just hikers or climbers copping these.
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Hoka Project Clifton
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As shoppers slowly tire of the sneaker industry’s manufactured scarcity model, more and more are cozying up with brands like Hoka, Merrill or Salomon, which have outdoor or running roots as well as crossover appeal. Hoka’s new Project Clifton, for example, marries the outsole of its original Clifton, the Clifton 8, with the edge of the Clifton L, a limited-edition iteration with an enhanced insole.
As a hybrid of the two, the Project Clifton proves capable of keeping your feet comfortable over the course of the day, but also dry, too — courtesy of its unique lacing system. Well, technically, the Project Clifton doesn’t lace at all. Instead, it zips shut — but there’s a new, proprietary Quicklace system beneath the zippered Aquaguard, which tighten and lock in place using a rubber-tipped pull tab.
When the Aquaguard — the top cover that zippers shut — is closed, the shoe takes on a sleeker look; more like Rose In Good Faith’s slip-on sneakers made from recycled dildos or Salehe Bembury’s closed-back Crocs. It looks entirely different from the running-focused Clifton 8, especially since both the upper and insole are different, even if it, at its core, is simply an evolution of the original shoe.
