17 Best High-Top Sneakers 2023: Raise Your Shoe Game All the Way Up

Before diving into any list of the very best guys’s high-top tennis shoes, a high-top history lesson remains in order. Back in the early 1900s, the nascent sport of basketball had gamers adding and down the court in all-leather basketball shoes. Picture your great-great-grandpa was out there dropping pennies in derbies, generally. In 1917, Converse appeared with the very first set of made-for-the-court kicks, matching a vulcanized rubber sole with light-but-strong canvas upper that covered the ankle to keep the shoe secured location. (Now envision your great-great-grandpa crossing up some person in short-shorts and a much shorter fade.) It was the start of our high-top tennis shoe fascination, and the starter handgun shot that saw high tops end up being a shoes frontier pressing the borders of both shoe tech and design.

Any list of the best men’s sneakers today— hell, the best men’s shoes, period— is still loaded with a couple of high-top O.G.’s from the similarity Converse, Nike, and Adidas. They’re signed up with, naturally, by fresh handles the high-top tennis shoe: if you’re in the marketplace, you can lace up a set of high-tops with whatever from skate cred to trail-crushing tech to designer DNA.

The Best High-Top Sneakers for Men Shopping Guide

What should I use with high-top tennis shoes?

We didn’t particularly reference high-tops in our new do’s and don’ts for dressing right now, though a few of our standards can use. When they’ve got a little wear, we like tennis shoes a bit much better. We like them less, recently, with a fit. As ever, there’s no such thing as a guideline in menswear– there are just vibes and viewpoints. Here are a few of ours when it pertains to styling the very best high leading tennis shoes in your fits:

1. Not to purposefully coin a farmers’ almanac-style mnemonic, however fall and spring tend to be when high tops sing. In the majority of areas, winter season requires boots, and summer season is shorts season. Mentioning …
2. The shorts-and-high-tops combination is an innovative maneuver, however possible. We ‘d lace up a set of high tops with some better mesh basketball-style shorts or (no lie) some retro jorts and see where that takes you.
3. Visible socks, constantly. (Sorry, no-shows.) Even the very best guys’s high-top tennis shoes require a partner. If you’re looking, we’ve got
4. .

When in doubt: Converse Chucks. They deal with anything, anytime. * (* Some limitations use; your mileage might differ; do not appear at a funeral service or task interview and point at us.)

Chuck 70 High Top Sneaker

If a High Top Hall of Fame Museum existed, there ‘d be a 40-foot Converse Chuck Taylor tennis shoe out front, noticeable from the highway. Discussing why the hoops-born high leading icon works resembles discussing how a color looks– however great, we’ll attempt. The shape is perfect, the slim canvas upper guarantees the ankle synchronizes up perfectly with any kind of trousers, the cost is right, and the simpleness permits boundless variations. (You ‘d require an aircraft garage to stow away every Converse colorway.) Not to discuss the Chucks are associated with a few of culture’s most elegant cabinets. We tend to choose the Chuck 70 high top over the Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star high top for its thicker sole, much better insole cushioning, beefier 12-oz. canvas, and a little less-scrunched toe box– though style-wise, you can’t fail with either variation.

Air Jordan 1 Retro High 85

The 100-plus-year timeline of high leading tennis shoes can be finest broken down in 2 parts: Before Jordans and Post-Jordans. The Nike Air Jordan I is, naturally, Year Zero. Some 48 years considering that it went on sale to the general public, the oldest AJ high top isn’t the very best on-court Jordan. (That honor most likely goes to the Jordan XIV.) It does not have the most renowned functions. (Our leading competitors: the III’s elephant print, the IV’s cage, or the XI’s shiny leather.) The Nike Air Jordan I is DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man for high tops– the percentages (that Swoosh size!), the paneling, the flat tongue, the quickly recognizable shape conspire to develop what we now consider the platonic high top. And for almost 5 years, it’s looked as great off the court as it did on MJ’s feet.

The Skate-Ready High-Tops

Not too lots of skater-approved tennis shoes can be found in high leading designs, however that just contributes to the Vans Sk8 Hi’s famous status– and potentially discusses why it’s ended up being so precious even by those people who can’t strike a kickflip. The tennis shoe’s contrast stitching is as recognizable as Vans famous Sidestripe logo design, though it’s the combination of simpleness, shape, and boundless colorways that assists them railslide into any shoes rotation with ease. (Maybe this is our OCD talking, however even the dreadful bird’s- eye view looks terrific when you lace up Sk8 Hi’s.)

The Rebooted High-TopsAimé Leon Dore rebooted In 2020, NYC-based streetwear brand name

the forgotten New Balance 550 low-top as a brand-exclusive design, which saw it reselling for multiples of the price tag. NB relaunched the design to everybody, and it’s taken pleasure in a high increase to street-style universality amongst people who drink lattes while going shopping for $200 double-knee trousers. Excellent if that’s all mumbo jumbo to you. All you require to understand is that the 550’s wild flight on the buzz rollercoaster resulted in the renewal of the New Balance 650 high top, which may simply be a much better shoe anyways. Exact same brick-like aerodynamics, thick leather overlays, and Seinfeldian design– however where the 550 cuts off, the 650 presses onwards (and sticks out) with a cushioned collar, additional eyelets, and a much less complex backstory.

Terrex Swift R3 Mid Gor-Tex Hiking ShoesSalomons What, you believed the very best high leading tennis shoes all needed to be sports motivated? In an age where trail-ready

have actually achieved tennis shoe nirvana and gorpcore design has actually totally penetrated menswear, do not sleep on the SUV of tennis shoes, the Adidas Terrex Swift R3. Like an AMG G-Wagen, they compromise absolutely nothing: you get light-weight tennis shoe DNA (breathable mesh upper, speed lacing, EVA midsole) paired with all-conditions brawn (rock-solid collar, GORE-Tex membrane, Continental ™ Rubber outsole). Point being, the Terrex Swift R3 will hold its own on a path, however looks similarly cool on concrete.

The High-Fashion High-Topsthe dark lord of fashion One take a look at the Rick Owens Geobaskets, from

, and you either get it or you do not. To those of you who do, welcome. These huge steppers, released 14 years earlier, are probably the conclusive high-fashion high-top. It’s all in the goblin percentages: a rubber outsole prepped for the armageddon, a tongue that can practically shut out the sun. No high leading controls a field of vision like these. We might likewise rave how, unlike a great deal of designer tennis shoes, the Geobaskets use in wonderfully thanks to buttery calfskin and suede (in the lining, too). You’ll find the remaining power– and take pleasure in plenty of in-the-know envious stares– quickly enough.