The Best Sneaker Collaborations of 2020 (So Far)

11.

I've been writing about sneakers and collaborations for close to a decade. Over those years I've seen these shoes go from niche projects with European and Asian stores that you'd never have a chance to own, to major footwear brands collaborating with the biggest companies and entertainers. It's gone from shoes that only a handful of people knew about to sneakers that your mom is trying to buy. 2020 is the craziest year my generation has ever seen, and shoes feel unimportant at the moment, but it's still been a year full of noteworthy sneaker collaborations.

We've seen Virgil Abloh reinvent more Air Jordans, Nike collaborate with an ice cream company, upstarts like Joe Freshgoods take over All-Star Weekend with New Balance, and Travis Scott become the biggest name in sneakers.

There's also a Dior x Air Jordan 1 that's coming out soon, but since it hasn't actually released yet, it isn't included in this list. So that's that.

With that said, here are the best sneaker collaborations of 2020 so far.

10.Supreme x Nike Air Force 1 Low

We won’t mince words. When the newest Supreme Air Force 1 Low leaked, it was met with a nearly unanimous thumbs down on social media. The design, which featured all-black and all-white colorways stamped with red box logos near the heel, got flack for being unimaginative. After the brand’s previous work on the AF1, such as its water-resistant NYCO fabric Lows from 2012 or its numerous three-way collabs with Comme des Garçons, some of the criticisms were valid. But, like many sneaker releases, when it came time for the actual drop, people were singing a different tune.

While some might see a lazy design, Supreme’s Spring/Summer 2020 AF1 Low was a rare show of restraint for a brand that once threw a league’s worth of NBA logos on the Air Force 1 Mid. Beyond that, what made the sneaker really unique was its rollout. From the jump, you could tell something was different with this collaboration. It was featured in Supreme’s pre-season preview (collabs of this nature are usually revealed at a later date) and the brand confirmed the sneaker would be regularly restocked “throughout seasons,” seemingly with a focus on keeping it available rather than driving the resale market. The shoes have re-released a few times online, but the novel coronavirus has kept the plan from materializing the way it could have. Nevertheless, it’s one of the year’s best, and we wouldn’t mind seeing Supreme revisit this strategy when doors are reopened. —Riley Jones

9.Melody Ehsani x Jordan OG

Team Jordans aren’t typically the sneakers that come to mind when one thinks “collaboration,” but Los Angeles-based designer Melody Ehsani defied expectations and came up with one of year’s best in the process. The women’s Air Jordan OG originally released in 1998 (just one year removed from the WNBA’s inaugural season) as the first shoe made by Jordan Brand specifically for women. Ehsani avoided the obvious color blocking schemes that the shoe lends itself to in favor of a tonal black upper, highlighting the texture and design language the model shares with the Air Jordan XIII. The literal cherry on top was the bright red dubrae, a symbol Ehsani also used in a collection of her own jewelry that launched alongside this collaboration. —Zac Dubasik

8.StrangeLove x Nike SB Dunk Low

It's easy to forget that the beating heart of Nike SB is actual skateboarding. The sub-label earned a lot of its cachet in the mid 2000s by releasing sneakers inspired by everything from alcoholic beverages to underground rappers, but before all that, it signed skaters to rep its product. Nike SB's collaborations over the years have not ignored this, striking a balance between cross-cultural partners and ones entrenched in the world of skate. For every shoe like the Staple "Pigeon" Dunk, released via a store and designer with little connection to the sport, there needs to be a Diamond "Tiffany" Dunk, conceptualized by an actual skate hardware company.

Although the people who weaponized an army of bots to try and cheat the release may not realize it, the StrangeLove Dunk comes from an actual skate company. This is an important note in 2020, when Nike SB has caught some criticism for its partnerships with entities that have little to do with SB on a surface level. StrangeLove is the board brand of Sean Cliver, the artist behind some of the best skate graphics of all time. He's worked on Dunks before—the "Krampus," "Disposable," and "Gasparilla"—but none of those resonated quite like this. The shoe arrived around Valentine's Day as a love letter to skateboarding, with holiday-appropriate colors, logo hit on the heel, and a durable suede made to take a beating. There was even a special packaging version fashioned after grade school Valentine's Day boxes. Why did this sneaker mean so much where Cliver's others fell quiet? His connection was closer, meaning the final product was more intimate. Call it a labor of love. — Brendan Dunne

7.WTPS x New Balance 992

Most people would guess that a WTAPS and New Balance collaboration had already happened, but this Japanese streetwear brand worked with the footwear company for the first time this year. And it’s one of the most organic projects out there. New Balance owes a lot of its cult popularity to Japan, where its grey running shoes are obsessed over. Japan also has an obsession with Americana and WTAPS's designs often have a strong military aesthetic. The collab took olive drab and orange shades and placed them on the 992, and the execution was perfect. New Balance made the shoe limited and only sold it at retailers that also sold WTAPS clothing. No one saw the hype on this shoe coming, but it instantly sold out and resale prices shot up over $1,000. It was the perfect if-you-know-you-know sneaker that just happened to fit into the current trend cycle. For New Balance connoisseurs, this is the best collaboration the brand has done this year so far. —Matt Welty

6.Travis Scott x Nike Air Max 270 React

I liked this sneaker more than most when we first caught a glimpse of it earlier this year. It was a clear tactic on Nike’s part to use its hottest collaborator to send a jolt of energy into an important mass market silhouette for the brand. It will take some time to tell if that plan works, but Travis Scott’s name will always help Nike move product. But then, just before the sneaker’s official release, Cactus Jack got Cactus Jack to model his new Cactus Jacks, and this sneaker’s fate was sealed. As a lifelong wrestling fan and a Welty-appointed “rager,” this collab gets two Mick Foley-sized thumbs up from me. —Ben Felderstein

5.Joe Freshgoods x New Balance 992

This past January, Joe Freshgoods announced his partnership with New Balance via Instagram with a diamond-encrusted pinky ring. One month later, he had hundreds lined up down a snow-covered North Damen Street in below-freezing temperatures during NBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago, shifting eyes away from the spectacle of Yeezy Quantum-bearing sherp vehicles and an Off-White x Air Jordan project. The crowd was waiting to get into his New Balance pop-up, self-described by the designer as “Cupid’s Man Cave,” and headlined by his take on the New Balance 992. Riffing on the anatomy of the human heart, the 2000s runner was dressed in red, pink, and plum-colored suede. Horween leather hits on the tongue and heel tab added to the premium presentation and an extra set of baby blue laces were swapped in by many owners, which gave the collab an even more unique look.

This wasn’t your usual grey New Balance. The project was limited to the Windy City (and a very small batch online) and currently resells for upwards of $800. While the success of the project may be a surprise to New Balance purists and a more mainstream audience, Freshgoods has been a face of Chicago’s streetwear scene for years. Not only did his project put his city onto New Balance, but it also kicked off what has so far been a celebrated return for the 992. General release pairs and other collabs have followed that also sold out with relative ease, but the “No Emotions Are Emotions” edition has yet to be topped this calendar year. —Mike DeStefano

4.Stussy x Nike Air Zoom Spiridon Cage 2

This is the most unlikely sneaker on the list—not because a Stussy collaboration doesn’t draw interest, but because of the model it’s on. If you were to ask anyone if the Zoom Spiridon Cage 2 would be one of the biggest sneakers of 2020, their answer would be a resounding “no.” But here we are, another Steven Smith-designed sneaker is getting its time in the sun. What makes the Stussy collaboration isn’t necessarily the release itself, but what people have done to it. DIY sneaker customization has been around for a long while, but shoes such as the Stussy Spiridon, with its canvas upper, make it easy to add personal touches. People were dyeing the shoes and many of them looked great. Whether it was Nike’s intention or not, who knows. But it created a winning formula that dominated Instagram, especially with everyone home during quarantine with spare time on their hands. —Matt Welty

3.Travis Scott x Nike SB Dunk Low

Travis Scott, more than anyone else, has catapulted Nike SB Dunks back into the hype spectrum of the sneaker world. As polarizing as that comment may be, it’s true. So, even though his Air Jordans and Air Force 1s were all welcomed editions to the Houston rapper’s growing catalog of collabs, Travis getting to deliver his own take on the SB Dunk Low just made too much sense to not happen eventually. First teased in promo for Cactus Jack Records’ Jack Boys project, albeit only for a split second, it didn’t take long for more detailed looks at the pair to surface. As has become commonplace, the official rollout was intricate, accompanied by boatloads of limited merch and a skate video that helped dial the hype up to 11 for ragers and resellers alike. La Flame’s SB Dunk, set apart with braided rope laces and tearaway blue paisley paneling for diehard fans to rip through in the pit of his next live show, sold out immediately on its late February launch date. Unlike most big Nike drops these days, the pair also stayed true to SB’s heyday by releasing exclusively at limited skate shops and boutiques, and not via the SNKRS app—a nice detail that even the biggest SB purist can appreciate. —Mike DeStefano

2.Ben & Jerry's x Nike SB Dunk Low

No sneaker has been as simultaneously ubiquitous and invisible this year as the "Chunky Dunk" SB Dunk Low. The Ben & Jerry's collaboration was everywhere—all over your social media, all over the resell market—and nowhere—as in, virtually unattainable when it actually released. Its dichotomies do not end there. The shoe is also loved and hated, depending on the customer. Some see it as a playful extension of Nike SB's history of relevant colorways on the Dunk. Others view it as an episode of brand malfeasance, a pure attention play from Nike involving a brand partner that makes no sense.

Make no mistake, though, this is the logical conclusion for the SB Dunk in 2020. Yes, Nike SB Dunks began as an in-the-know item that only you and your friends on NikeTalk knew about, but those years are long gone. Everything is bigger now, from the number of people who obsess over sneakers to the revenue targets Nike is looking to hit every quarter. Nike SB is a part of that. This allows for its aims to be more mainstream, hence partnering with an ice cream company. The partnership allowed Nike SB to create one of its boldest shoes ever, which is not an easy feat considering its catalog. The "Chunky Dunk," with its melting Swoosh and saccharine colorway, takes its theme as far as possible and stops just short of being unwearable. In doing so it pushed boundaries of what's acceptable on sneakers even further. If that's not in the spirit of Nike, we don't know what is. — Brendan Dunne

1.Off-White x Air Jordan V

Coming into 2020, one could make the argument that Virgil Abloh’s Off-White x Nike collaborations were losing some of their initial luster. Repeated colorways of “The Ten” models and experimental takes on vintage running and trail sneakers left some wondering if the collab—which debuted in 2017—had jumped the shark. But at this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend, Abloh, Nike, and Jordan Brand proved that the partnership is not only still going strong, but that the best may be yet to come.

Abloh’s rendition of the 1990 Air Jordan V maintained many of the hallmarks seen on his previous designs; the shoe featured a deconstructed, translucent synthetic upper and his signature Off-White zip-tie. Beyond that, there was a deeper storyline at play. The shoe helped mark the Air Jordan V’s 30th anniversary, and was the first version of the sneaker to release this year, which is a benchmark in itself. The Off-White designer’s touch extended to circular cutouts (which Abloh would physically slice away on his personal pairs) throughout the shoe, even making their way to the Jordan V’s reflective tongue. The colorway, which was inspired by the original Black/Metallic make up, also featured a pre-yellowed sole to further play up its vintage-inspired design.

Unsurprisingly, the sneaker was nearly impossible to come by at retail, making it one of the more expensive pairs to drop in 2020. But Abloh didn’t stop here. The same weekend that this Jordan V released, the designer broke out a brand new, previously unseen “Plot Twist” version of the collab in white, red, and sail. Currently rumored for a holiday launch, it remains to be seen if and when the alternate colorway will release, but for now, the black Off White x Air Jordan V is the best collaboration of the year. —Riley Jones