SF Staff Picks: Our Dads' Favourite Sneakers
It's Father's Day! How are you celebrating with your dad? Here at Sneaker Freaker HQ we decided to tap in with ours and ask them what their favourite sneaker is and why. Dads are known to wear some pretty weird things for stereotypical activities like mowing the lawn and grilling. In reality though, dads are a little more complex.
Check out the favourite shoes below.
Minh's Dad – Nike SB Koston 1
In lieu of father-son milestones like learning to ride a bicycle or change a car tire, my dad’s way of bonding with me as a youth was taking me to the factory outlets every two weeks in search of bargains. After I started working and buying my own sneakers, I kept up the habit we’d fostered for years and continued digging through the outlet aisles by myself. One day, I found a sample pair of , and stashed them in the back of my collection with every intention of wearing them. Of course, that didn’t happen.
Dad was a refugee; owning brand-name shoes was the least of his concerns while escaping from Vietnam as a young man. However, I, his footwear-addicted son, wanted him to experience what it felt like wearing a good pair of sneakers. And it just so happened that we shared the same shoe size. On a trip back home, the Kostons were promptly retrieved from storage and I was finally able to return the favour from those hundreds of outlet trips years prior. Since then, he’s worn them everywhere except when it rains or if he’s gardening. And, of course, I relaced them before he wore them out!
Ross' Dad – adidas Superstar and UltraBOOST 20
I've always thought of my dad as someone who has impeccable taste. He had a great vintage wine collection – before we drank all of it over the years, that is, as he believes (correctly) that wine is meant to be enjoyed instead of hoarded forever. He knows the best spots to eat, no matter if you're favouring a giant hamburger or a delicate piece of fish. His collection of antiques is second to none, and his jokes are always on point, both in their perfect timing and their boundless vulgarity. You'd think that someone with his taste level would be very picky about how they dress, but in his own words he 'doesn't really give a sh*t.' As long as it looks good, fits well and is hard-wearing, he's down for it.
It's a principled, proletarian way of looking at clothing, but he does have one soft spot, and that's for sneakers.
'I was the first person in my high school to have adidas football cleats' he tells me proudly. 'They made me feel fast as f*ck, so I still have a sentimental attachment to them.' That attachment continues today, as his casual footwear of choice has long been a classic pair of white and black . From an exercising standpoint, my dad is an loyalist, and the is his favourite model so far. 'I didn't know about that knit upper at first, because I thought it looked like a stretchy sock,' he says. 'But man,' he continues as a faraway look enters his eyes. 'Those things are so f*cking comfy I can't even describe it.'
, , and Messi may be the Three Stripes' biggest brand ambassadors, but as far as I see it, there's no cooler adidas fan than my old man.
Lucas' Dad – Father Flex
While I may have a whole room dedicated to sneakers to the sum of 150 pairs and change, it may come to no surprise that my dad has over 10 metres worth of tightly packed jackets including vintage leather bikers and luxury names like , and Balmain to name a few. Like father, like son, the best part about both our obsessions is that we’re the same size in clothes and footwear! So while dad receives all my (strictly black) hand-me-downs, I have full access to any jacket at anytime. Having curated a decent portion of dad’s footwear offering over the past decade, I’ve managed to expose him to new brands, silhouettes and some of his favourite pairs. You’ll regularly spot him wearing futuristic jaunts by , x or a pair of Pinnacles, all in black of course, but his go-to silhouette is the , specifically the , , and colabs.
Anthony's Dad – Asian Tennis Dad
It’s pretty simple to visualise my dad. Picture a bald asian man wearing a Polo shirt, khaki shorts, a white sporty fedora, with a Sony digital camera strapped around his chest. What better sneaker to finish this tennis-dad aesthetic with than a pair of his favourite leather sneakers. Does he play tennis? No. Does he play any sport? No. I asked him why loves them so much and his response was 'good for bird watching'.
Seb’s Dad – Pumping Pumps Until They Exploded!
Some of the earliest memories I have of my dad is him telling me stories of when he was younger. Long tales about him and his friends getting into all sorts of mischief, his time in the Australian Army and what it was like growing up in the 80s. But, my favourite wasn’t when he had a firework blow up in his face, or shooting massive machine guns, it was about his grail shoe from his younger years – the OG !
Now, my dad has never owned a pair, when they released back in the 80s they commanded a high retail price and my grandparents couldn’t drop that kind of cash. He would say if you stepped onto the playground in a pair of Pumps you would be the centre of attention! ‘We used to try and pump up pairs to try and blow them up and I think there was one time we actually succeeded,’ Dad told me when he was over at my house for dinner recently. 'They were so sought after plenty of kids were robbed for their pairs.’ While not a 'sneakerhead' himself, dad always encouraged and showed great interest in my hobby. We would always have long conversations about the sneakers I was into at the time and when I was 12 we attended a Sneaker Freaker swap meet. Funnily enough when he was 37 he bought his first pair of Reebok Pumps and they were a gift for me!
Gabe’s Dad – Don in New Balance
’I’ve been buying the 624 for the last 30 years and luckily there has only been minor changes to the design as they are just so comfortable the way they are. Nice leather or suede, great for tennis or running around on weekends and still get lots of looks from the girls. Let’s hope they don’t try and change them too much as it’s just so easy to go to the local sports store and order a pair of NB 624s in size 9 and away you go for another few years. Slip them on, get on the court, and watch the opposition fade away. The 624 provides the ultimate grip and flexibility to go that extra step and get to that drop volley. And for the weekend shopping, you slip on the brown suede 624s and you’re in and out of Aldi in the wink of an eye.’