The best white sneakers you can buy

Get the Full StoryRegardless of your personal style, everyone needs a pair of white sneakers.

With so many options available, we rounded up the eight best pairs from classic leather lace-up sneakers to trendy canvas slide-ons.

If you have to choose only one pair of white sneakers, go with the Adidas Stan Smith. It's classic in style, made of full-grain leather, and affordably priced at 80.

With a seemingly endless number of styles, colors, collaborations, and designs available, sneakers are arguably the best way to express your personality and style through fashion. As someone who owns more than 100 pairs of shoes, I could conceivably wear a different pair to perfectly match every outfit I put together, but white sneakers remain my favorite.

Clean, simple, and easily paired with a majority of clothes found in any wardrobe simply put, they're a wardrobe staple.

Almost every sneaker in existence has been made in a white colorway, so trying to figure out which one is truly the best can be pretty difficult. And, frankly, what's "best" for you is going to depend on your own set of criteria, like style, comfort, and materials.

I've owned dozens of white sneakers over the years and yes, I'm wearing a pair now as I write this so I rounded up eight styles to appeal to a variety of needs.

Whether you're concerned with price, quality, comfort, or timelessness, these are the pairs you'll want to add to your wardrobe. And to help keep your white sneakers fresh, check out these 10 effective shoe cleaners and 7 weatherproofing sprays.

Here are our top picks for the best white sneakers:

Best white sneakers overall: Adidas Stan Smith, 80

Best classic white sneakers: Nike Air Force 1, 90-100

Best white sneakers for running: Adidas Ultra Boost, 180

Best white canvas sneakers: Converse Chuck Taylor, 50- 55

Best luxury white sneakers: Common Projects Achilles Low, 416

Best white leather sneakers: Greats Royale, 179

Best white sneakers for comfort: Allbirds Wool Runners, 95

Best slip-on white sneakers: Vans Slip-On, 49.95

Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.The best white sneakers overall

Adidas

The Adidas Stan Smith has been in style for more than 55 years, and you can bet it's going to stay in style.

The sneaker now known as the Stan Smith dates back to the early 1960s, when Adidas designed a shoe for French tennis player Robert Haillet. It wasn't until Haillet's retirement in 1971 that the sneaker took on the name and likeness of then-number one ranked tennis star Stan Smith.

In its more than 55 years of production 48 years officially as the Stan Smith , the sneaker has become one of Adidas' best-selling and its single longest lasting styles.

How to style them:

The Adidas Stan Smith can be worn with just about anything and still look great. Whether you'd describe your style as preppy, hipster, street, or anything else, the silhouette will pair well with your favorite jeans, chinos, or shorts. And if your sense of style is non-existent and you just need a versatile pair of sneakers, it'll work for you, too.

While the green-accented pair is our top pick because it's true to the original design, you can find red-accented, blue-accented, and all-white pairs, too.

How to clean them:

Most white sneakers need to stay clean to look good, but the Stan Smith is the exception to the rule. No matter if they're fresh out the box or a little bit tired and tattered, they'll always be a respectable choice.

For those who would like to keep them clean, it's super easy. Anything from the old-school towel and toothbrush method to an effective cleaner like Jason Markk or Crep Protect will work on the smooth leather upper and rubber sole.

Pros: Full grain leather upper, easy to care for, affordable price, available in all sizes ranging from infants' to men's.

Cons: Not great for performance.

The best classic white sneakers

Nike Amir Ismael

As a hardwood-legend-turned-street-style-icon, the Nike Air Force 1 has plenty of crossover between sports and fashion.

In 1982, Nike debuted the Air Force 1 as its premier basketball sneaker. The high-top silhouette featured everything players of the time could ask for a leather upper, Air units in the soles, breathability those toe box perforations were state-of-the-art at the time! , and plenty of support with the added ankle straps.

By 1983, Nike had discontinued the silhouette in preparation for a new sneaker before realizing it was a massive hit in cities like New York and Baltimore and customers were not happy about its disappearance from shelves. After many customer complaints, a group of store owners from the Baltimore area flew to Nike headquarters in Oregon to pitch directly to Nike CEO Phil Knight on the Air Force 1's return.

The following year, Nike started a "Color of the Month" series, where a new color would be released every month in select stores, which snowballed into the thousands of colors, themes, patterns, and artist collaborations that make up the Air Force 1 catalog today. Ironically, the all-white color is still the most popular version you can buy.

How to style them:

The best part about the Nike Air Force 1 is that it's available in three cuts: the original high top, low, and mid. While they're all distinctly sporty, the technology is outdated by today's performance standards. You can put them on and not look like you're dressed for a game of pickup basketball. I personally own each pair and have worn them with jeans, shorts, and joggers, but the low top is definitely the most casual. For some people, the mids and highs might be bulky for pulling off a laid back look. Choose which cut suits you best or buy them all it's entirely up to you.

How to clean them:

Compared all of the super exclusive, collectible, and expensive Air Force 1s that have released over the years, white-on-white Air Force 1 are a dime a dozen, so you better make sure they're clean in order to stand out. The sentiment of keeping them clean is felt so strongly by some, to the point where certain filthy rich folks such as producer, rapper, and businessman Dr. Dre will lace up a brand new pair every single time he wears the silhouette. Since you probably don't have a billion dollars to burn through, you can keep single pair fresh with a few steps.

First, you'll want to buy Force Fields. They're little foam inserts that go inside of your shoes to help prevent creases. Without them, you will quickly crease the toe-box of the Air Force 1.

Next, you'll want a cleaning solution like Jason Markk or Crep Protect. Since the shoes are made of a leather upper and rubber outsole, you can really go to town cleaning without worrying about messing up a delicate suede or knit material.

Pros: Available in low, mid, and high, will never go out of style, Air unit insole for comfort, plenty of variety if you want white with an accent color.

Cons: Looks best when kept perfectly clean.

Low for 120 Mid for 125 High for 135

The best white sneakers for running

Adidas

The Adidas Ultra Boost is revered for its multi-use functionality. It's built for running, but it's also great for walking and casual wear.

I hate to use the phrase "disrupt the space" when writing about products, but that's exactly what Adidas did when the Ultra Boost launched in 2015. The sneaker featured the company's revolutionary new material called Boost. Unlike any other cushioning system ever made, Boost was made up of a bunch of tiny foam pellets that were blown up and fused together. Designed for runners, the cloud-like material was intended to return energy to the wearer's feet. It proved to be a success for runners, but it quickly became a hit with general comfort seekers and streetwear enthusiasts.

Four years later, the Ultra Boost is still going strong with an updated model for 2019, as well as cageless, laceless, and all-terrain versions. The release of the Ultra Boost sent many sportswear companies into a frenzy to come up with new cushion technology and many of them are still playing catch-up. See all Ultra Boost variations at Adidas here.

How to style them:

The Ultra Boost is a running shoe at heart, so you can wear them with all of your favorite activewear. Shorts, joggers, and even those skin-tight compression pants are all fair game. When dressing casually, I find that skinny or slim jeans work best. Big pant legs will cover a majority of the shoes, which looks a bit awkward.

How to clean them:

The Primeknit upper and Boost midsole can be hard to clean, so rather than cleaning them, you'll want to prevent them from getting dirty in the first place. I recommending using Crep Protect's Rain and Stain spray or something similar. If you do have to clean your Ultra Boosts with a solution, be gentle. Since they are knit, hard scrubbing can tatter the material.

Pros: Lightweight and breathable upper, super comfortable, serves as a great casual sneaker.

Cons: Materials Primeknit and Boost can be hard to clean.

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