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Last summer, in the midst of the inescapable street style takeover of three-stripe Adidas Sambas, an unexpected sneaker started to emerge as a counterweight. Among dozens of pairs of the classic black-and-white Sambas and a handful of iterations from the Wales Bonner and Gucci collaborations, was a more technical take on the trainer: a soccer cleat.
When I first saw someone wearing them, the footwear choice seemed satirical. Surely the wearer had just come from practice or was wearing them ironically. She was standing outside of the popular Lower East Side restaurant, Kikis, sporting spikes on pavement. The outfit was far cry from a soccer uniform, and aside from the shoes themselves, an unathletic ensemble. It wouldn’t be the first time a cleat was placed in a fashion setting (Virgil Abloh and Nike collaborated on a cleat in 2018, and Comme des Garçons created a heeled cleat with Nike in 2021), but it was the first time I had seen them in the wild. I was inspired and bought a pair of my own the next day.
It may seem silly to wear spike-bottomed shoes that click and clack on pavement, but bear with me. The aforementioned pair I saw downtown last summer had less-exaggerated studs, which are easier to walk in, and the traditional leather with stitching makes for a comfortable sneaker. One can go all out with a pair of seriously spiked cleats, like the Adidas Copa Mundial, or opt for an indoor cleat, designed with shorter spikes. It’s not the size of the spike that counts; rather, the trend is about adopting a more technical shoe into everyday style.
Before diving into the nascent arrival of cleats in fashion, it’s worth revisiting the rise of the Samba, which was also originally designed for serious sports. They may be most commonly seen on influencers and celebrities today, but they’re a spiritual and sartorial sister to the cleat. The humble black-and-white, low-profile sneaker was first released in 1950. It became the technical shoe for football players before it was adopted by streetwear culture for the first time in the 1990s. Now, the shoe that was once associated only with the world of football is a symbol of sport and street style alike. For the past two summers, trendsetters like Bella Hadid, Sienna Miller, and Kaia Gerber were seen wearing the classic styles—and collaborations with Alessandro Michelle’s Gucci and Wales Bonner further amplified the three-stripe craze. Soon after, the Samba hit its high. Last year more people were searching the shoe on Google than ever, and Stock X reported search volumes were up by 736%. Although the Samba is an original sneaker that will arguably never go out of style, once a trend hits mainstream fashion, we look for what’s next—something unique, unexpected, and niche. Enter: cleats.
On a warm spring day outside of the Chlöe Sevigny closet sale (the “sale of the century,” where fans waited in line as early as 6 a.m.), I counted at least 10 pairs of cleats and cleat-like styles, featuring the classic fold-over tongue and studs on the soles of the shoe. Ranging from indoor iterations like the Adidas Mundial to velcro-tongue versions like the Puma King Top (these are the ones I bought) to a full-spike performance shoe, cleats were worn unironically with miniskirts, high socks, and gym shorts. Imagine lining up to buy Sevigny’s Tom Ford–era Gucci while tapping your cleat spike, for hours on end, on New York City’s paved sidewalks.
Isabella Ackerman, a Brooklyn-based creative producer, was one of the aforementioned cleat-wearers outside of the Chlöe Sevigny sale. She was wearing a pair of red Adidas Copas, an indoor soccer cleat, with a short black skirt, knee-high, cutout socks and a jersey. “I found them on Depop a year and a half ago and bid on them immediately,” she tells me. “I m interested in form and function—playing with pieces designed for a specific use and putting them in a different, or more casual environment.” Taking a literal approach to styling, Ackerman will even wear them with shin guards and proper soccer socks. Although the Samba checked boxes for being sporty, neutral, and versatile, she was looking for something more personal. “It’s a nod to my high school benchwarmer days,” she says. “The best pieces are the ones 11-year-old me would’ve liked.”
Another cleats wearer, spotted at Copenhagen Fashion Week, opted for a designer take. YeEun Kim, a Hong Kong–based fashion editor, wore a pair of pink Balenciaga Drive sneakers she found at a sample sale. She hasn’t seen anyone else wearing this specific style quite yet. “While they’re similar to the Samba in shape, I like the details on the upper part that give the shoe its layered and technical feel,” Kim says. “I guess I thought they’d make a great statement shoe.” The editor wore her pink trainers with an all-black look: fitted pants, a sheer skirt, and a hooded anorak. “Although I wouldn’t say these Balenciaga sneakers are the most unique, they’re definitely a conversation starter.”
Jenny Sharaf, a Bay Area–based artist who found her cleats at the Salvation Army, was similarly drawn to a bright pink cleat. “It is Barbie summer,” she says. “Hot tip to the sneaker girlies, always check the kids section.”
Back in New York City, at the Maryam Nassir Zadeh store in Lower Manhattan, stylist Aidan Caldwell shares that, for him, wearing black and red Adidas Adi-Kees is somewhat of a research project. “I was looking for something different,” he says. “I would use the search terms, Adidas, insert sport, shoe. It could be fencing, wrestling, cheerleading—anything. I was trying to find something that was totally not meant for walking around, and to do exactly that in them.” Originally designed for martial arts, this spikeless model resembles an indoor soccer cleat; it’s a three-stripe style designed with a leather lace cover and exterior stitching. Caldwell says he wears his cleats casually and in more dressed-up settings, either pairing them with Patagonia baggies or pleated trousers. For him, wearing a shoe with a specific purpose feels more special than wearing a basic trainer. Referring to his Adi-Kees, he says, “Maybe someday that will be the case for these too.”
Designers were ahead of the cleat trend: Miu Miu included several kitten-heeled cleats in their spring 2021 collection, and Prada released a series of performance cleats with Adidas earlier this year. Who knows, perhaps one day wearing a technical sport shoe, such as a soccer cleat, will be as ubiquitous as the Sambas—spikes and all.