The All-Time Greatest Tie-Dye Sneakers

Back in 2004, legendary San Francisco skateboarding mainstays HUF, were tapped by Nike SB for a Dunk High collaboration. Pulling inspo from their home city, they looked to the colours of San Fran’s Major League Baseball Team – The Giants – as well as the 60s hippie movement. Subsequently, the underlays featured a striking tie-dye pattern in black and orange.

Woodstock 50 was meant to occur between August 16-18 in 2019, commemorating 50 years of the famous Woodstock Music and Art Fair. It didn't go ahead, but we didn’t mind, because Nice Kicks and adidas came through with these tidy tie-dye-adorned UltraBOOSTs!

One of the most memorable psychedelic sneaker releases of recent memory, they followed up with an ultra-limited black pair that was housed in a special box. All up they were the perfect consolation prize for those who couldn't attend the event.

Nike’s recent ‘Acid Wash’ series has had us intrigued! It takes the fan-favourite Dunk High back to its roots, employing the OG shape, and adding 1985 to the name. The colourways used also pay homage to the ‘Be True to Your School’ era. So far this year, four ‘Acid Wash’ pairs have touched down, all with artificial ageing. The overlays are the most interesting component, almost looking like they’ve been faded with acid. While these don't strictly match the category, they definitely belong on this list.

From the full canvas upper to the icy blue outsole, the Nike Air Force 1 ‘Summer of Peace’ is a low-key tie-dye hit! A shoutout to the city of Chicago, Team Swoosh replaced the heel logos with the name of The Windy city. There’s also custom tongue and peace sign insole branding, but overall the highlight is the vibrant upper.

We named Nike’s Roshe Run one of the best sneaker silhouettes of the 2010-2019 decade, so there's no way that its groovy iteration wouldn't appear here. Hitting shelves in 2013, it was a simple yet effective take on the once-ultra-popular silhouette. While the midsole and Swoosh were kept in crispy white, the upper was covered in loud colourful tie-dye patterns.

The tie-dye Nike ACG Moc 3.0 was a sleeper hit from 2020! With its wild technicolour upper and unusual silhouette, we can see why it isn’t the shoe for everyone, but... that's just another reason why it made the list!

Jordan Brand’s women’s lineup continues to expand and feature out-there creations made for the ladies. And, one of the most memorable women’s Air Jordan 1 releases of 2020 was the ‘Tie Dye’! This bad boy saw Jordan Brand do away with the classic colour-blocking, and opt for ‘Aurora Green’ tie-dye-patterned overlays.

Legacy streetwear brand XLARGE has a massive following in Japan and so does the Reebok Instapump Fury. So, it made sense that when Reebok tapped XLARGE for a linkup, they reworked the legendary silhouette. The canvas for their psychedelic colab was the OG ‘Citron’ colourway. Completely reworking it, they swapped out the yellow top layer and drenched it in rainbow instead.

The newest addition to the ever-expanding catalogue of tie-dye sneakers is the Salomon XT-4! Dropping in 2021, it was a welcomed detour from the usual gradient-clad XT-4s and XT-6s of the past few years. If the XT-4 didn’t already turn heads with its aggressive trail-geared tooling, then this colourful version sure did! Indigo-coloured tones dominate, alongside red, yellow and blue splashes with black rounding it all out.

Almost a decade old, the Nike SB Dunk High ‘Tie-Dye Black’ originally released back in 2014 and was a little different to the other sneakers on this list. Instead of choosing an eye-catching brightly-coloured scheme, monochromatic tones have been plastered throughout.