Right here at SELF, we all know good footwear could make or break your day—however with all of the choices available on the market, discovering the right pair isn’t all the time straightforward. You desire a fashion that feels nice; helps you run, cycle, stroll, elevate, and simply flat out transfer higher; and boosts your confidence (and your look) the minute you slip it on.
If all that sounds interesting to you: Welcome to our 2024 Sneaker Awards, our annual compilation of the perfect vetted and examined kicks on the market.
For this yr’s Sneaker Awards, 50 manufacturers submitted 167 types—probably the most ever—of sneakers launched between August 2023 and August 2024, and editors really useful 14 pairs of their very own faves for consideration too. Then SELF editors narrowed the pool down, contemplating every thing from perform to price to design. This left us with 157 fashions to check throughout a bunch of classes: working and racing sneakers; mountaineering sneakers; athleisure types; strolling sneakers; sneakers glorious for people who’re on their toes all day; biking sneakers; HIIT and cross-training types; sneakers for weightlifting; and—new for 2024—kicks for pickleball and tennis.
Subsequent, our testers. Our testing pool of 47 folks was made up of SELF editors (together with people who’ve run marathons and raced different distances, hiked in canyons and on trails, deadlifted large PRs, and logged tens of 1000’s of steps per day) and associates of the model, together with out of doors influencers, med college students, manufacturing staff, lecturers, and new dad and mom who did all those self same actions and extra.
That pool actually put the sneakers to work throughout our monthlong testing interval. When evaluating every shoe, we requested our testers to maintain just a few issues in thoughts: We requested them to check the shoe no less than 3 times for its supposed use—so, for example, mountaineering sneakers or path sneakers had been worn on path terrain reasonably than pavement; racing sneakers throughout intense working efforts; strolling sneakers throughout days you’d be in your toes for a ton, and so on. Then we had our testers think about the next questions:
Match
- All sneakers ought to have about half an inch of area between your toe and the highest of the shoe. Do you are feeling any stress factors?
- Does the dimensions of the shoe match as anticipated?
- For working or strolling sneakers: Do your toes have loads of area to wiggle? Is your heel safe, or does your heel slip out while you run?
- For biking sneakers: Do your sneakers match snugly, however with sufficient toe area?
Form
- What’s your foot form? How nicely did the shoe map to the form of your foot?
- Does the shoe have a slender or broad toe field?
Really feel
- Is the shoe cushioned or extra agency?
- Does the arch of the shoe really feel supportive or obtrusive?
- Do you are feeling such as you’re preventing the shoe to discover a comfy rhythm, or does it really feel like an extension of your foot? Does it really feel too heavy, or does it really feel mild?
- Do you are feeling in contact with the bottom while you carry out weight-lifting or different cross-training train strikes?
- Did you develop any blisters, scorching spots, or bruised toes throughout or after put on? Did you expertise some other pains, like shin splints or knee ache?
- In the end, is the shoe comfy?
