Sneakers for Teens

[Jenny in Florida]

Can anyone with kids in this age group give me some ideas of what sneakers would be considered cool or desirable for an 18-year-old boy? We're shopping for a family in a shelter, and the 18-year-old has sneakers on his wish list. 

Thanks!

[mommyoffive]

Mine don't care about a certain brand.  They wear Addias, Sketchers, New Balance, Puma or whatever shoe I find in their size for great deal.  We get most of ours from Costco

[teachermom2834]

All white seems to be coming back. I guess “Dad sneakers” are coming back like “Mom jeans”. 

[Arcadia]

Is the 18 year old a high school senior or in college/working? For the high school crowd, Nike is still very popular followed by Vans. The Nike outlet stores near me are doing brisk business. 
My DS17 however prefers any sneakers that has inobvious brands logos. He wears Ecco all black sneakers to community college. His classmates turn up in sneakers of all kinds of brands and styles. DS16 goes for comfort and his preference is for shoes that are black with a little bit of red (his favorite color) trimmings. His current shoes are Asics.

[QueenCat]

I think it's nice that you care about him fitting in and not just buying the cheapest thing you can find.

[plansrme]

I can speak to this: Nike Dunks are hot right now. Certain colors are in short supply, but not all are.

[kokotg]

Mine aren't particularly fashion conscious, but they all wear canvas Vans or converse. This might be because I just buy them whatever I wore in the 90s, though.

[vonfirmath]

My son is 15 and the only thing he cared about was wanting sneakers that were all black.

[catz]

Based on my teen and what I see other teens wearing I'd probably get Nike, Addidas, Vans, or Converse.  

[Farrar]

Mine also wear Vans and love them. And one of mine is fashion conscious, though definitely a bit to the beat of his own drummer.

But... my kids are kind of dorky. Like, one is a theater kid, the other is my dancer. I think among a lot of other groups, Nikes are more hip. 

[Spryte]

Mine likes Converse and Vans.

We are big fans of the special reserve shoes at DC Shoes, too. I think right now they have Marvel and Deadpool patterns, but this varies, and might have changed already. https://www.dcshoes.com/

Current favorite sneakers are the Warhol Mona Lisas from DC’s summer collection. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by Spryte

[Jenny in Florida]

45 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

Is the 18 year old a high school senior or in college/working? For the high school crowd, Nike is still very popular followed by Vans. The Nike outlet stores near me are doing brisk business. 
My DS17 however prefers any sneakers that has inobvious brands logos. He wears Ecco all black sneakers to community college. His classmates turn up in sneakers of all kinds of brands and styles. DS16 goes for comfort and his preference is for shoes that are black with a little bit of red (his favorite color) trimmings. His current shoes are Asics.

I know nothing about the recipient except that they are 18 years old, male and a fan of football and Xbox.

[prairiewindmomma]

Nike and Vans are popular here.

Nike Air Force 1 is always popular, Nike Air Max 90, Nike Air Huarache, Nike Blazer Mid ‘77 Vintage, and Nike Air Jordan’s are what I see the most of on sneaker heads right now.

Vans…mostly skate style, some slip ons. Usually the all black or black check ones….

Edited November 22, 2022 by prairiewindmomma

[Soror]

Depends on the crowd here converse and vans are more popular with the skater/alt crowd- that would be my son. My daughter is more preppy in her circles ON and  Nike would be the safe bet.

[Jenny in Florida]

Thanks so much, all! Both of mine are older and always marched to the beat of their own drummers, fashion-wise. So they are no help. 

[prairiewindmomma]

1 hour ago, plansrme said:

I can speak to this: Nike Dunks are hot right now. Certain colors are in short supply, but not all are.

Yes. Yes, they are hot. Yes, they tend to be in short supply.

[JennyD]

1 hour ago, plansrme said:

I can speak to this: Nike Dunks are hot right now. Certain colors are in short supply, but not all are.

Completely agree. 

 

[theelfqueen]

My kid prefers  Vans. But I don't know that he is fashionable lol 

[fairfarmhand]

I see lots of Adidas in our group of kids.

(ETA: This amuses me because I've worn Adidas for years due to fit issues that Adidas works well for. And now I have identical shoes as half of the teens that I teach.)

Edited November 22, 2022 by fairfarmhand

[easypeasy]

Agreeing with the recs for Nike Dunks, Nike AF1s (all-white lows or mids are really popular here), and Vans. 
 

[LucyStoner]

Vans and Nike seem to be the preferred options for the fashion conscious teens I know.  My nephew is a sneaker head type and he wears Vans. 

Sometimes when I am buying a gift for a giving program like this, I fold up the gift receipt and tape it in a non-conspicuous place that they will find before they use it but won't get separated from the gift easily.  It's easier to make sure they get the gift receipt if you are wrapping the gift before returning it but for the places that want the gifts unwrapped, I will find a spot to FIRMLY attach it- having run organizations that were collecting the lists and distributing the gifts, I found that things can get separated easily in the process of being transported from the giving tree return sites.    

Edited November 23, 2022 by LucyStoner

[LucyStoner]

3 hours ago, Soror said:

Depends on the crowd here converse and vans are more popular with the skater/alt crowd- that would be my son. My daughter is more preppy in her circles ON and  Nike would be the safe bet.

This is my exact observation as well.  My nieces and nephew mostly want Vans and the Vans outlet store gets a lot of my holiday shopping budget. 

[kbutton]

5 hours ago, vonfirmath said:

My son is 15 and the only thing he cared about was wanting sneakers that were all black.

My kids both said that black sneakers are popular here right now. 

[teachermom2834]

Well this is easy- all white or all black or colored for sure. Nikes, Van, Adidas, or Converse 🙂

OP I think the idea of the gift receipt tucked in is great and I actually think you will do just fine with any of these. Obviously you don’t know his style but if I had to pick I would say if he is a fan of football and XBox I might go more with the Nike/Adidas than the Vans/Converse. But my biggest football fan video game kid is not actually sporty himself. He usually wears Hey Dudes so what do I know?

I think any of these suggestions would show that you were trying hard to get something decent and anyone that just asked for “sneakers” without specifications is probably going to be happy with Nikes. 

I also asked my 14 yo dd, who wears black converse and has worn nothing but black converse as long as I can remember, what the other kids at her school wear. She said “how am I supposed to know what the other kids wear?” So yeah she isn’t reliable on current fashion. Lol. 

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by teachermom2834

[Shoeless]

Vans are popular here, with Converse coming second. 

[Soror]

11 hours ago, teachermom2834 said:

Well this is easy- all white or all black or colored for sure. Nikes, Van, Adidas, or Converse

 

Very true but not surprising, different areas of the country are going to have different trends and different subgroups dress differently.  The bigger the school the more the subgroups. Our hs'ing group is small so teens tend towards either alt or really conservative-- dress like your parents. Our local hs is around 1500 so there are lots of different subgroups. My dd is in one and my son the opposite so I can see that clearly what one would like the other would hate!

I think the Nikes are the safest bet for a jock and I love the idea of sneaking in the gift receipt just in case. 

@Jenny in Florida it is so sweet of you to try your best to get them something that they really would like instead of just randomly picking. 

[Arcadia]

If you want to, you could throw in a new pack of socks too. My DS16 loves new crew cut socks because they look nicer than worn out socks. My DS17 don’t care as long as the socks he is wearing doesn’t have holes. We usually get packs of Nike socks at Marshall’s because it is cheaper than at our local Nike outlets.