For about a decade the trending sneaker was a chunky one. The dad shoe, the platform runner, the sole you could rest a coffee on. Then somewhere around 2023 the mood flipped, and the shoes people actually wanted got flatter, slimmer and a little old fashioned: terrace trainers with gum soles, suede in odd colours, things that looked borrowed from a school PE cupboard. I like this turn more than most trend cycles, because a slim sneaker goes with the clothes most of us already own. Wide trousers, a midi skirt, straight jeans rolled once. It does not need an outfit built around it.

The catch is that slim also means less forgiving. A narrow last that looks lovely on a shelf can pinch by lunchtime, and a thin sole tells you about every cobblestone. So this edit is less a ranking than a sorting exercise. I have grouped the pairs by what they are for: the easy ones you will wear four days a week, the quieter low profiles that sit under tailoring, a few odd ones out, and finally the shapes that are genuinely everywhere right now. Read it as a way of narrowing down, not a shopping list.

Ignore the colourway for a minute. What decides whether a sneaker earns a place in your week is the last shape, the width across the toe and how much the sole gives. Everything else is taste. My test is boring but it works: try the pair on in the afternoon, when your feet are at their biggest, and stand on a hard floor for five minutes. If you are already thinking about your little toe, put them back.

The pairs in the next group are the quiet workhorses. Low, flat, mostly leather or suede, the kind of sneaker that disappears under a trouser hem and reads as deliberate with a skirt. A few are slip ons, which I used to dismiss and now reach for constantly on travel days. Sizing varies a lot between brands in this category, so read the fit notes before you order your usual size, and if a half size exists, use it. What I would skip: anything with a stiff, shiny upper that creases hard across the toe in the first week. It only gets worse from there.

The rule I keep coming back to is simple. If the outfit is doing something, keep the sneaker quiet, and if the outfit is plain, let the sneaker be the interesting part. A cream leather pair with a long black coat looks polished. A suede trainer in a strange colour with grey trousers and a white shirt looks like you thought about it. Where it goes wrong is when everything competes for attention.

Socks matter more than people admit. A thin sock that shows a sliver above the shoe looks intentional; a thick athletic sock bunching over a slim sneaker does not. With dresses I like a pair with a bit of shape, a narrow toe or a ballet style strap, so the whole look stays light. The small group below is the handful I could not file anywhere else, a bright creeper and a couple of simple low tops, and they are here because they solve specific outfits rather than every outfit. What I would skip: matching the sneaker to your bag. It almost always looks like a set.

This last group is the honest bit of the title. These are the shapes you see on every feed and every pavement right now: trail runners worn in the city, low terrace styles with gum soles, the ballet sneaker hybrids that seemed to arrive overnight, retro runners with silver panels. Some of them will look dated in two years. Some, I suspect, will quietly become classics, the way a plain white canvas shoe did.

The way to tell them apart is wear, not hype. A trail runner earns its keep if you actually walk a lot, because the grip and cushioning are real. A slim terrace shoe earns it if it goes with your trousers. A trend shoe that only works with one outfit is a costume. I wear a new pair around the house for an hour before committing, and if I am still noticing them at the end of it, they go back.

This is the shape that has defined the last couple of years: low, narrow and a little retro. Some of these have a split or strapped toe that borrows from ballet flats, some are the classic terrace trainer with a gum sole and stripes, some come from motorsport, with a low profile that hugs the foot, and a few are simple canvas or leather court shoes that never really went away. What they share is that they sit close to the ground and close to the foot, so they look good with a skirt in a way a chunky runner never will.

The adidas Samba is the one most people picture. Adi Dassler designed it in 1949 so footballers could train on icy, hard ground, which is where the gum sole comes from, and it has barely changed since. The Samba Jane in the grid below adds a mary jane strap across the top, which makes it the easiest of the lot to wear with a skirt.

I would buy one of these in a colour rather than white. A deep green, a maroon or a soft coffee brown does more for a plain outfit than another white pair, and it hides city dirt better too.

A test I like: wear them with the trousers you wear most and look at the hem. Slim sneakers want a cropped or rolled hem; a long wide leg can swallow them.

What I would skip: a slim sneaker for a day of serious walking. The thin sole is the point, and it is also the problem.

The other big story is that real running and trail shoes left the gym and went everywhere. Metallic retro runners with mesh and silver overlays, tall cushioned road shoes, trail runners with toggle laces and grippy soles. A few years ago these were the shoes you changed out of. Now they are what people wear with a long coat and wide trousers, and the cushioning makes a long day on your feet genuinely easier.

The trick to wearing them in the city is contrast. A technical shoe looks deliberate with tailoring or a slip skirt, and slightly accidental with full athletic wear. I like them in quiet colourways, cream, grey, putty, with one accent, so they read as a choice rather than a gym bag that got opened on the way to dinner.

A test I like: press your thumb into the heel. A good cushioned shoe gives and springs back. If it feels hollow or the foam creases straight away, it will flatten within a season.

What I would skip: the very tallest stack heights if you only want a little lift. Some cushion is comfort, and a lot can tip into platform.

The difference between the top and the bottom of this edit is real, but it is smaller than the gap in what they cost. At the top end you are paying for materials and finishing, and occasionally you are paying for nothing at all. So buy for your week, not for the feed. If you walk everywhere, start with the cushioned pairs. If you sit at a desk and want something that looks good under tailoring, go slim and leather. One considered pair you wear constantly beats three that wait by the door. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Cheetah Sneakers, Honestly Assessed and Trending Designer Sneakers.