Nine best sneaker collaborations of 2026 so far, according to WWD

Riley Jones treats sneaker collabs like a market barometer, not a popularity contest. The nine picks in WWD’s midyear roundup sit at the intersection of the performance-running boom and the World Cup frenzy, where Nike and Adidas are turning product, marketing, and activations into one long runway for attention.

1. Kith x Messi x Adidas

This is the cleanest example of where sneaker culture is headed: football, celebrity, and streetwear retail all fused into one release story. Complex folded the pair into its World Cup release slate, and that matters because Messi gives the project true sport gravity while Kith gives it the kind of scarce, polished finish that still moves pairs.

2. Nike x Jacquemus Moon Shoe

Jacquemus has a feel for making athletic references look almost airborne, and Nike’s Moon Shoe lineage gives that collaboration a lot more texture than a simple logo swap. The silhouette reads as fashion-first but still tethered to running history, which is exactly why these luxury-sport pairings continue to matter when so many others feel overdesigned.

3. Awake NY x Air Jordan 6

WWD highlighted Awake NY’s Air Jordan 6 for its mixed materials inspired by luxury leather wallets, a detail that tells you everything about the project’s ambition. It is not just another retro Jordan dressed up for a quick sellout; it uses finish and tactility to make the shoe feel considered, almost like a small leather good scaled up to sneaker form.

4. Action Bronson x New Balance 2811

The Baklava-branded New Balance 2811 got an early release, and that early drop only sharpened the sense that this one is more than celebrity merch. Action Bronson has turned his New Balance work into a personal design language, and that gives the collab a kind of eccentric specificity that the market still rewards.

5. Joe Freshgoods x New Balance 992

Joe Freshgoods’ next New Balance sneaker was tied to the opening of his new Chicago store, Every Now and Then, after the West Loop location closed last year. The Green Line inspiration gives the project a local pulse, which is why his collaborations keep landing as more than product, they carry neighborhood memory and retail identity in the same package.

6. Union x Air Jordan 1 High

Union’s Air Jordan 1 High remains the model for how to update a classic without sanding down its history. The colorway nodding to the OG Black Toe formula makes the collaboration instantly legible, but Union’s value is in the disruption, the sort of familiar-unfamiliar tension that still gets sneaker people to pay attention.

7. Nike X2 Cryoshot

Complex placed Nike’s X2 Cryoshot in its 2026 FIFA World Cup sneaker roundup, which tells you where the energy is moving: performance-running silhouettes with a football-adjacent edge. The shoe belongs to the part of the market that looks useful first and hypey second, and that practical aura is becoming a bigger selling point than nostalgic branding alone.

8. Nike’s World Cup sneaker slate

WWD’s World Cup coverage makes clear that Nike is approaching the tournament as a full-scale product, marketing, and activations battle. Sneaker Freaker captured the mood by saying brands worldwide were “stocking their release calendars with a torrent of sneaker heat” ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and Nike is at the center of that pressure cooker, where the strongest releases are the ones that feel tied to actual sport, not just seasonal noise.

9. Adidas’s World Cup sneaker slate

Adidas is fighting the same battle, but with its own football language and cultural reach, which is exactly why the World Cup has become such a powerful collab engine. When brands treat the tournament as a design brief instead of a marketing backdrop, the result is sneaker product that feels immediate, current, and connected to how people actually dress around sport in 2026.

What WWD’s list really shows is that sneaker collaborations are splitting into two camps. The best ones deepen performance, football, or material storytelling; the rest lean too hard on nostalgia and celebrity gloss, and that is where hype fatigue starts to set in.