Almost everything about sneakers seemed uncertain in 2021. Of course, the world as a whole finds itself in an unpredictable situation due to the coronavirus, the effects of which have affected all facets of the economy, including sports shoes. Release dates were constantly changing, with brands suffering from factory closures in Asia. Other projects were pushed when high-profile collaborators were forced to move away from the hype they had been building for years. And some of the sneakers that came out seemed to have done so only nominally, with their launches corrupted by the dark forces of backdoor shopping and sneaker dealers.
All of these factors surrounding this year’s best shoes, in addition to their sheer aesthetic qualities, determine what ends up on this list and where. Otherwise, how do you get to the rankings? They are a balance between the personal tastes of Complex’s sneaker editorial group and our beliefs about the biggest and best shoes for our audience. It’s meant to be the average between these two groups, descriptive enough to consider what our readers really liked in 2021, but prescriptive enough to tell them when there are other sneakers they should have liked more. It considers when the sneakers came out, how they came out, and what they added to previous versions of the same shoe. In a time of terrible uncertainty, there is one thing you can be sure of: these are the best sneakers of 2021.