The Definitive List: Best Performance Sneakers of 2025
We’re almost at the finish line of 2025, and our annual tradition of crowning the year's top sneakers has expanded with the best in performance, baby!
Our end-of-year wrap-up is now a two-part series, with one article dedicated to lifestyle-geared footwear – like collaborations and new releases – and the other to performance shoes. It's the best way to ensure all the elite drops of 2025 are repped, because cramming 10 releases into an amorphous list just ain't gonna cut it.
Our definitive list of 2025's best performance sneakers is separated into four sport-based chapters: running, basketball, skate, and the wider sports universe like golf and football. It also should be noted that within each of these categories, the shoes are unranked.
Whether you’re pounding the pavement or hitting the hardwood, keep on scrollin’ to see whether your favourite made the grade.
Best of Basketball
Basketball footwear was in full playoff mode in 2025. Every brand came in swinging – signature debuts, ruthless tech upgrades, slick storytelling, and a level of innovation that reminded everyone why hoops remains one of the loudest, most competitive corners in the sneaker world. From rising stars to veteran killers, this year’s lineup showed that performance isn’t just about cushioning stacks and carbon plates – it’s about identity, momentum, and the athletes pushing these silhouettes to their absolute limits.
Converse caught fire with the SHAI 001, a debut signature that successfully blended Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s smooth, slashing playstyle with a genuinely fresh design language. It felt like the moment Converse Hoops really planted their flag in the paint, and finally delivered a modern performance model that didn’t borrow heavily from the brand’s retro DNA. Of course, Shai securing his first NBA Championship, league MVP and Finals MVP didn’t hurt the cause, either. For many of us at SF HQ, the SHAI 001 was a real contender for Sneaker of the Year.
PUMA kept the box score ticking like a metronome, expanding their roster with Salehe Bembury’s Hali 1 and LaMelo’s MB.04. The former marked the long-awaited arrival of Tyrese Haliburton’s first signature shoe – a sharp, low-riding guard model built for pace, vision and quick reads off the bounce. Meanwhile, the MB.04 doubled down on the franchise’s intergalactic alien-energy aesthetic – a sculpted, lightweight package that once again cemented the Melo line as PUMA’s modern performance heartbeat.
Nike, as always, flooded the court with heavy artillery. The Ja 3 showed that despite the noise around Morant, the line’s design DNA is only getting sharper. The upper’s claw-mark motif gave the shoe instant aggression, but the real magic was the oversized ‘JA’ side panels. Nike treated them like a creative canvas all season – blasting them with wild gradients, colour pops, textures, and graphic-driven storytelling. It turned the Ja 3 into a shape-shifting silhouette tailor-made for PEs, themed drops, and some of the most playful builds we've seen from the line.
Meanwhile, the KD 18 continued Kevin Durant’s long-running love affair with elite cushioning stacks, landing with a ridiculous blend of forefoot pop and heel stability. And if performance wasn’t enough, the Spooky Season ‘Slim Reaper’ colourway sent a shiver down the spine of sneakerheads – a spectral banger that had real claim to the best colourway across the entire basketball category this year.
On the women’s side, Nike kept their momentum rolling with the Sabrina 3 – a clean, hyper-functional evolution of Ionescu’s line. Prioritising stability, precise foot control and a smooth transition profile, the S3 proved itself as one of the most reliable all-position performers of 2025. It was the model that cemented Sabrina as a true signature powerhouse, not just a headline name.
And then came the windmill slam: the Nike A’One – A’ja Wilson’s first signature shoe, and a debut so polished it feels like it’s been running a franchise for years. Designed around her elite footwork and battering-ram stops, the A’One locks down the midfoot, smooths out transitions and packs enough stability to keep a 25-and-15 night feeling routine. With women’s hoops hitting global warp-speed in 2025, the A’One arrived as a genuine power move from both Wilson and Nike.
Over at Team Trefoil, the brand’s basketball division continued to ride the momentum of posterboy Anthony Edwards’ signature line. The AE 2 proved that his sophomore effort wasn’t a fluke – it was a franchise. Light, sculpted, and packed with propulsion, the AE 2 matched his ascendant superstardom. The Harden Vol. 9 also yanked necks, pushing the plant-and-pivot style Harden thrives on while refining the wild, organic lines introduced in earlier models. Dame Lillard kept things moving with the Dame X, a model built for durability and rhythm – perfect for players who lean on footwork before fireworks.
A big year, a stacked field, and no shortage of heat. If 2025 proved anything, it’s that we’re entering another golden era for basketball sneakers.
- Converse SHAI 001
- PUMA Hali 1
- PUMA MB.04
- Nike Ja 3
- Nike KD 18
- Nike Sabrina 3
- Nike A’One
- adidas AE 2
- adidas Harden Vol. 9
- adidas Dame X
Best of Running
Best of Running was one of the hardest categories in this wrap-up to curate, simply because of the sheer number of bangers out there right now. The 'why' is no secret: as running has become an even more popular hobby, brands have responded with an avalanche of product. Within our selections, one of the biggest factors we took into account was shoes that have proven themselves in the thick of competition by winning major marathons, such as the Pro Evo 2. Other determinants included innovation, reliability and good community feedback. We also put a heavy focus on distance shoes, as they're a more common athletic choice to shorter distance or sprinting footwear.
The crew at adidas Running had an epic year, especially when it came to winning marathons. The German brand won more majors than any other label, an achievement you can credit to their array of superb supershoes. Sabastian Sawe laced up the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 2 – the Three Stripes' flagship raceday silhouette – for his victories in London and Berlin. Arriving in April this year, the wallet-busting model managed a 10 per cent increase in its forefoot stack height compared to the Pro Evo 1. The redesign also delivered five per cent more energy return, alongside a new midsole – kitted with LIGHTSTRIKE Pro Evo foam – and a reimagined outsole with an upgraded traction pattern.
Over the past few years PUMA have put plenty of steam behind their running catalogue, and are currently sitting on a stacked lineup that includes the Fast-R Nitro Elite 3 – the minute-shaving follow-up to the lauded Fast-R NITRO Elite 2. Kitted with a PWRPLATE, PUMAGRIP outsole and ULTRAWEAVE fabric upper, the Fast-R NITRO Elite 3 debuted at the Boston Marathon.
Nike’s fresh three-tiered, three-family approach has already produced a number of hits, and the Vomero Premium was indisputably one of them. This pair is the ultra-stacked, top-tier model in Team Swoosh’s maximum cushioning range, with a build designed around the Beaverton brand’s thorough anti-gravity treadmill research. Kitted with ZoomX foam in the midsole, the Air Zoom units are the same as those in the Maxfly 2 and Victory 2 track spikes. Another shoe showing up in the 'podium-worthy marathon performance' lane was the Nike Vaporfly 4. Touching down in March, it's the lightest version ever created in the franchise, weighing 10 grams less than its direct predecessor and 20 grams lighter than the original Vaporfly. The build introduced a new Flyplate curvature and eliminated some ZoomX foam from the midsole, strictly using only as much as needed to keep it feather-light.
ASICS haven stolen the lifestyle show plenty of times over the past 12 months, but their moves in the running department have made even greater waves. This year we received some brand new additions to the BLAST series, namely the SONICBLAST and MEGABLAST, and while both are pristine daily trainers it was the latter which stole our heart. This mid-distance runner is kitted with a full-length midsole juiced up with the brand-new foam dubbed FF TURBO SQUARED, along with a lightweight mesh upper. As a whole they deliver a mix of cushion and bounce, making them a perfect daily trainer. There's another ASICS in our Best of Running bucket – the METASPEED SKY TOKYO. This race-day speedster is engineered for stride-style runners – those who maximise speed by employing a longer stride – and features a full-length carbon plate combined with the new FF LEAP and FF TURBO PLUS foams.
It wasn’t just the big dogs dropping innovative new creations in 2025. Swiss sportswear lab On also experienced a booming year, chiefly owing to their remarkable spray-on running shoe dubbed the Cloudboom Strike. Created with an impressive new technique called ‘LightSpray’, the Strike did make its (monumental) debut last year, but it wasn't until mid-2025 that the public release arrived – and sold out with the quickness! Last but not least comes French-born brand HOKA, delivering the goods in August with the Mach X Caged. While this runner is PEBAX-plated and comes dripping in all the latest tech, you can’t deny its street-ready appeal.
Best of Skate
When we first hunkered down to plan the Best of Performance list, we didn’t intend on having a skate category... but after looking back at all the skate and skate-adjacent releases which heelfipped into view this year, it became clear this was a much-needed section. Like our running list, skate was also a gruelling category to judge – both because of volume of product, and because 'best' is such a subjective superlative! Nevertheless, we did it – and Nike SB and New Balance Numeric dominated the field.
There was no wobbling at the 12-stair for New Balance this year. The brand's Numeric skate arm served ample product, but the two models that caught our eye were Andrew Reynolds’ 933 and the 770 resurrection. The former was created in collaboration with one of the most influential skateboarders to ever do it, sticking its landing in April – three years after New Balance signed Reynolds on. This was a mammoth release, and very closely guarded in the lead-up to the launch – when it came to wear-test time, Reynolds and a team would head to a private, walled-off skate park with strictly no phones allowed.
While the 933 is takes the cake because of its lore and influence, the 770 deserves its spot here because it's a certified classic. Its forebear is the New Balance CXT770, a prime participant in the cross-trainer boom of the 1980s and 90s. In 2025, NB decided to resurrect the original build – but this time, made for skate. Alongside bringing back the OG construction, the Boston brand kitted ‘em out in all the latest tech.
While ASICS hit skateboarding pretty hard this year, they made their big move at the tail-end of April, linking with Long Island legend Gino Iannucci to launch the Leggerezza FB. The Japanese brand’s entry into skate has been slow but steady, and the Leggerezza FB presented the perfect blend of their heritage with a mix of skate and indoor football shoe.
Meanwhile, amongst adidas' plethora of 2025 heaters, the Always x adidas Pro Model ADV brought the patent gloss and neon hits to slot right into the zeitgeist. Vans also had a killer year both on and off the board, but their standout in the skate category was undoubtedly their collaboration with GOAT skate photographer Atiba Jefferson, with whom they launched an Authentic just ahead of the icon's full ‘United Through Skateboarding’ drop. Adorning the upper were images shot by Atiba, of legendary skateboarder John Cardiel and Turnstile bassist Franz Lyons.
No surprise that Nike SB had a pretty epic year, dropping a bevy of inline releases and linkups that included two Nike SB Air Max 95s and another Nike SB Air Jordan 4. All three are part of SB’s long legacy of reinterpreting models for skateboarding, and received their fair share of hype. Of the colossal pile of banger SB Dunks that landed this year, we managed to squeeze 'em all down and select just two to make this list: the collaboration with Arts-Rec, and the homage to Black cowboys, the ‘Rodeo’.
- New Balance Numeric 933
- New Balance Numeric 770
- ASICS Skateboarding Leggerezza FB
- Always x adidas Pro Model ADV
- Atiba Jefferson x Vans Authentic
- Nike SB x Air Jordan 4 ‘Navy’
- Nike SB Air Max 95 ‘Cactus Flower’
- Arts-Rec x Nike SB Dunk Low
- Nike SB Dunk Low ‘Rodeo’
Best of Sport
Performance didn’t stop at the hardwood or the open road in 2025 – the wider sporting universe was just as stacked. Across football, tennis, golf and hybrid performance spaces, brands delivered some of their sharpest, most technically ambitious gear in years. This category is always the wild card of our year-end wrap, but that’s exactly why we love it: it’s where signature swagger meets pure function, and where some of the most unexpected heaters tend to land.
The Eastside Golf x Nike ‘Take Flight’ drop hit the mark with a wild crossover move: a reworking of the cult-favourite TN Air Max Plus model for the golf course, complete with a spikeless traction unit and a mid-foot cage that spelled out ‘Eastside Golf’. What felt particularly sharp: the tension between the TN’s street cred and the elevated, upper-class terrain of golf. That kind of juxtaposition – urban underground meets fairway – is exactly why this colab qualifies as one of the standout sport-sneaker moments of 2025.
Jordan Brand also made noise on the fairway with the Air Rev – a big-dog flex that signalled the Jumpman’s golf division isn’t playing social rounds anymore. Loaded with new Flight Lock tech, the Rev locked you down through every torque-heavy swing, pairing stability and traction with a sleek, low-profile build that still carried that unmistakable Jordan attitude. It’s a performance-first fairway weapon that proved MJ’s empire can muscle up on the green just as hard as it does everywhere else.
On the pitch, Nike kept the gloves off with the and the Nike Phantom 6 – two boots engineered for ruthless attackers and high-octane play. The Phantom 6 sharpened its whole identity this year, rolling out more aggressive touch zones and improved lockdown that made it a favourite for midfield generals who live in tight pockets. Meanwhile, the Mercurial Superfly 10 Elite ‘Neon’ went full spectacle: a blinding, hyper-charged colourway built for pure straight-line velocity. And then there was Sam Kerr’s Superfly edition – a jet-fuelled statement pair that instantly transcended the boot market, powered by her global superstardom and her status as one of football’s most electric athletes.
Over at adidas, it was a multi-front attack. The David Beckham x adidas Predator Elite brought the legend’s legacy roaring back with a premium, modernised build that honoured the silhouette. The brand’s football division kept the pressure up with the F50 SPARKFUSION, a featherweight rocket designed especially for women's feet, tuned for straight-line speed and tournament-level explosiveness. And on the tennis court, the adidas Y-3 Tennis Collection proved Yohji still knows how to weaponise minimalism – blurring runway and performance with ease.
ASICS brought heat of their own, dropping the GEL-RESOLUTION X, a slick, stability-driven tennis model that rolled out with a revamped upper, reinforced support zones and the kind of baseline lockdown that made it a favourite among aggressive movers. And in the hybrid performance lane, Satisfy delivered something truly unexpected with TheROCKER – a long-distance, trail-tilted silhouette that fused ultralight construction with heavy GORP energy. A niche pick, sure, but one that sparked real conversation among endurance junkies and style-forward runners alike.
Have you read our wrap-up of the year's best street heat? Head here to see our definitive list of 2025's best lifestyle sneakers.