All the cool girls are wearing dad shoes like it’s 2014 again

For the Spring / Summer 2026 show of Cecilie Bahnsen in Copenhagen Fashion Week, the creator sent a burst of models in dresses of whipped and whipped cream – Papa shoes – especially, in particular white and silver sneakers, from the industrial site on the Redonte site in the 90s.

It is logical that the models wear ASICs – the designer has regularly collaborated with the Japanese sportswear brand. But it was not the only time I saw Blocky Dad sneakers in a fashion setting lately. Alongside all the Slimline Puma Speedcats and Prada collapses, there seems to have had an unexpected resurgence of canky and technical sneakers, the genre that shouts “American daddy turns the lawn”. Whether it’s New Balance, Asics or Nike V5 RNR, the Sneaker Dad becomes cool (and I’m not just talking about Asics Gel-Kinetic Flor here, but basic coaches in gray and white custles, the genre that Larry David could wear to run).

The whole thing seems in the early 2010s, which is probably part of its appeal. Those who remember 2014 will remember the advent of the term “normcore”, invented for the first time by the K-Trouse trendy forecasters, and quickly adopted as a radical sentence to describe a sort of intentional anti-stud basis. “During last summer, I realized that, from behind, I could no longer say if my soho comrades were artistic children or average American tourists,” wrote Fiona Duncan for The cut at the time. “Dressed in stone jeans, fleece and comfortable sneakers, the two types seemed to have been able to leave a r-train after shopping in Times Square.”

But has enough time spent for this kind of style to come back? I mean, yes, probably – the romantic children the iPhone 4S and Instagram filters of the same time. Even thus, I do not necessarily think that we meet a resurgence in normcore styleExactly, but it goes without saying that we could be as gravitating towards anti-tenant styles (what could be cooler than a nasty shoe of Dries Van Notten?) As my colleague Daniel Rodgers wrote in January during fashion week, after having wore a pair of Balenciaga triple S sneakers from 2017.

Of course, the resurgence of dad’s sneaker could be due to the rise of the ASICs, at least in part. According to the report on the mid-year trend in Stock X, Asics continues to be the growing shoe brand, up 71% this year, with the gel-1130 its best-selling silhouette. And when a silhouette becomes hypey, similar iterations tend to follow (which we have seen with samba). “This season, we note a distinct change to the silhouettes infused with technology, characterized by elegant and dynamic stems and innovative alone structures,” said Anissa Jaffrey, RP and collaborations in Asics Sportyle Europe, in British Vogue Earlier this year.