Our Favorite Skate Shoes for Summer 2026

In California, skateboarding is a constant. The snow-free West Coast birthed the art and the industry, but as skating turned global, the wrath of the seasons turned the summer months into a mirage of endless skating opportunities for rippers on the East Coast, Midwest, and far-flung corners of the world where sun is sparse. Never mind the heat waves and tourist crowds at city plazas; at least there’s no snow, ice, or road salt on the streets.

No matter how much you’ve been at the park or in the streets, summer is when we go through skate shoes the fastest, so it's important to make every purchase count. And considering how many shoes are on the wall at skate shops these days, it can be hard to sort through the madness to find the shoes actually worth copping.

Luckily, we’ve got no brand allegiance and have put in plenty of hours on the board to find the pairs that look and skate the best, in no particular order. We picked five shoes from five different brands to spread the love, but beyond the top five, we threw in a few extra honorable mentions for good measure. Check out the list below and hit us up on Twitter and IG @soleretriever to let us know what you’ve been skating this summer.

Nike SB Air Force 1

A skate shoe hasn’t hit the sneaker industry like the Nike SB Air Force 1 since the Nike SB Dunk, and we all know how that turned out. Beyond its sneakerhead appeal, the SB Air Force 1 is also a new standard for Nike SB cupsoles.

Featuring an even better fit than the Nike SB Dunk Low with its sunken footbed and cradling padding, the shoe keeps the same beloved flick from the SB Dunk. The reengineered classic is worth the creases, and the suede colorways are some of the best Air Force 1 colorways we’ve seen in a year full of Forces.

Asics Leggerezza

In a summer full of soccer shoe crossovers from every corner of the sneaker industry, the best soccer-influenced skate shoe hit the pitch a little earlier. Debuted last summer with the help of skate legend Gino Iannucci, the Leggerezza follows in the footsteps of the Nike SB Gato, the adidas Busenitz, and the all-new New Balance Numeric 442, taking a legacy soccer cleat from another corner of the brand and reworking it for skaters.

While most of the shoes on this list feature catalogs full of suede toes, the Leggerezza stays in the soccer realm with leather uppers that hold up surprisingly well over plenty of sessions, no matter how much you flip your board. The stitched toe and elongated toebox are great for extra grip, the elongated tongue stays straight no matter how much you move (unlike the Busenitz), and the thin cupsole is comfier than expected.

adidas Puig

While basketball, tennis, and most of skateboarding’s signature sneaker lines are all about an annual silhouette refresh, there are a couple of models that are so good and so well respected that they remain in the catalog for years. Not retros or callbacks, but staples. The Vans Half-Cab is the clearest example, and at adidas, the Busenitz has been holding strong for almost two decades. The adidas Puig has quickly gained a similar status. Like the Busenitz, the Puig is a perfect skate shoe that also looks great off the board.

Debuted in 2020 in collaboration with his board sponsor, Palace, Lucas Puig’s self-titled signature shoe isn’t the French pro skater’s first signature silhouette with The Three Stripes, but it's the one that stuck. The wavy tennis-inspired cupsole has a sleek one-piece toecap construction that skates well and looks good in leather and suede, with Palace-branding details on the inline pairs and plenty of colorways (including some that end up on the sale rack). The Puig has been at the top of our favorite skate shoe list since the start of the decade, and it’s not going anywhere soon.

Vans Safe Low

Vans has been having a moment with its luxury-inspired Authentics and Old Skools, jewelry store collections, and streetwear collabs, but that doesn’t mean they forgot about skating. The originators of the skate shoe are still evolving and expanding on new ideas, including the half of a Half-Cab-style cupsole, the Safe Low.

The silhouette arrived in 2023 as a Palace Skateboards collab, but eventually made its way back into the Vans Skate catalog in 2024 with collabs from Palace riders Danny Brady and Rory Milanes, and then eventually into the brand’s inline releases. Looking like a classic Half-Cab from the ground up, the Safe Low cuts the silhouette down to a low-top and adds an inner bootie to lock the foot in, creating a two-piece look to the model that feels like a basketball shoe reimagined for skating.

Nike SB Blazer Mid

If skateboarding has a modern classic when it comes to footwear, it's the Nike SB Blazer Mid. One of the OG reimagined models from Nike’s archive catalog to get an SB remix following the success of the SB Dunk, the SB Blazer debuted in 2005 and has been a staple in Nike Skateboarding’s lineup ever since.

The mid-top vulcanized sole has been given every suede and leather colorway under the sun, but it’s the black suede upper, white Swoosh, gum sole Blazer that remains the go-to shoe for so many skaters around the country. It’s not limited, it’s not exclusive, it’s not very expensive, but it is consistent. And when you want to worry about skating and not how your feet feel, consistency is key.

Honorable Mentions

New Balance Numeric 660

Tom Knox’s signature shoe on New Balance Numeric is essentially NB’s version of the SB Dunk, but if you ask us, this one skates better.

Nike SB Air Max Ishod

Ishod Wair’s second signature model brings Air Max architecture to SB in a way that’s actually skateable (sorry, SB Air Max 95).

Converse CONS Louie Lopez Pro 2

Louie Lopez’s second signature shoe with Converse brings understated stitching to the toecap for soccer vibes, a thin but cushioned cupsole, and plenty of great color combos. If Converse does leave Nike, we fully expect Louie to get the SGA treatment and relocate to Nike SB.

Zach Harris

Zach Harris is a writer based in Philadelphia. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vice, Complex, High Times, and more. He is obsessed with skateboarding and bowling. He is still looking for his first 300. For tips, reviews, and anything in size 10.5 - zach.h@soleretriever.com