Winter is Coming: Sneaker Brands are Suddenly Obsessed with Zippers

Sometimes trends arrive slowly, starting with one subculture, jumping to another, and then catching on globally through a TikTok dance or something Bad Bunny does. Other times, a new trend seems to pop up out of nowhere and envelop the entire culture at the same time. These days, it feels like everything in the sneaker industry is getting zipped up.

Across brands and sneaker styles, shoe companies are covering entire uppers in zip-up panels and erasing the look of laces for a streamlined, sleek look. The zipper front trend is a blend of Y2K retro fascination and the future-forward new millennium aesthetic, gorpcore’s technical qualities, combined with a logical advancement in basketball shoe construction that has embraced an inner bootie support style, leading to ever-thinner lace panels.

On the 2000s retro end, we saw the first pictures of the new Air Max 95 Z retro dropping this winter, a remake of a 2001 design to shroud the 95 in a designer-influenced leather jacket. After returning last year, the zippered-up Nike Air Max Sunder has seen even more releases this year, and 2001’s zipper-front Air Max Craze also got the retro treatment this year.

The basketball court is where the zipper trend has really come to life in 2025. Taking its own early 21st century inspiration from models like Gary Payton’s Nike Zoom Flight The Glove and Dennis Rodman’s The Worm Ndestrukt. Last year, adidas reimagined the no-lace spaceboot Kobe line as the zipper front Crazy IIInfinity, and the industry was off to the races.

This year, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Converse Shai 001, Donovan Mitchell’s adidas Don 7, and the recently announced adidas Fear of God Athletics Basketball II.5 all feature a zipper closure running down the middle of the shoe. It makes sense, keep the foot as snug as possible while making it easy to release pressure and slip in and out, but of course, the technical always has to come in tandem with design, and right now, zippers are in.

In an interview with GQ from February, Gilgeous-Alexander said that the zipper closure was designed to create two distinct looks out of one shoe, with a zipped-up look on-court, and a zipper-open, looser look after the buzzer.

“I think the zipper. Like, with the zipper being able to go from a tighter to a looser fit, maybe giving you a different silhouette when you're walking off the court,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

The same can be said of the Air Max 95 Z and the Sunder, which can be styled to look completely different when zipped up or down. Maybe the zipper trend is all about a desire for versatility in every facet of life, right down to our shoes. What do you think, are you ready to trade your laces for a zipper?

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