It still has its flat-soled look accompanied by the ballet-coded straps. The Tokyo MJ has just grown scales for its newest drop. Literally, the newest pairs come dressed in snakeskin textures, creating the most luxurious yet cold-blooded Mary Jane sneaker.

The scaly Tokyo Mary Janes were available on adidas Brazil's website, but they've unfortunately sold out. With hope and prayer, maybe the shoes will get a wider release soon.

In the meantime, there's plenty of other Tokyo MJs to enjoy, including the newer all-leather iterations and even lacy pairs. Of course, nothing beats the classic crisp textile versions.

Really, adidas is booming with several Mary Jane hybrids at the moment, having since introduced the Anfu Mary Jane and those leather Samba Janes. Let's not forget the Adistar Control 5 MJ sneaker, which took the dad shoe to ballet-worthy levels.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

This year was the 150-year-old Swiss watchmaker’s debut at the fair, as it stopped showing at the previous iteration, SIHH, in 2019. But AP has only been under CEO Ilaria Resta’s (relatively) new stewardship since 2024 and Resta brought Audemars Piguet back to Watches and Wonders to reveal the company’s grand new project.

Amongst all the independent young bucks unveiling sci-fi timepieces, century-old watch couturiers relaunching, and literal “super freaky” wristwear, Audemars Piguet was launching the Atelier des Établisseurs. 

This is to be AP’s incubator of wildly ornate timepieces, harking back to an 18th-century tradition that stayed alive till the early 1900s, where farmers spent the winters creating specific watch components in small home workshops. This birthed a seasonal network of master craftspeople who together produced feats of watchmaking. 

Audemars Piguet wants to recreate that system. Atelier des Établisseurs promises to revive this traditional way of working by bringing together various artisans with specific skills to construct extravagant watches in very limited quantities. Each watch will come with a list of the many hands it passed through.

The aforementioned white-gold “Établisseurs Peacock” secret watch, which opens up to unveil both its timekeeping properties and its peacock's shimmering feathers, is just one of three timepieces presented to demonstrate the capabilities of Atelier des Établisseurs. It is also, objectively, the wildest of the bunch.

Not that there’s anything understated about Établisseurs Galets, a small 31mm watch where a medley of turquoise or tiger’s eye stones creates a shiny strap or the Établisseurs Nomade, a skeletonized pocket watch designed to open up into a miniature desk clock. 

Different variations of all three watches will be available only to AP’s top clients, with the Peacock expected to arrive next year. Audemars Piguet was sure to underline, though, that this is only the beginning of the program, which makes you wonder what other rare birds AP has in store.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

The 991 sneaker arrives in this blue "Limoges" colorway alongside hints of what New Balance calls "Pageant Blue." Altogether, this creates a very satisfying dad shoe with the good kind of blues.

It features good materials, too, like high-end suede and mesh layers as well as the brand's comfort-focused tech. As the name implies, the "Limoges" 991s were designed and produced in the brand's England factory, which explains the high-quality construction.

Funny enough, the name itself, "Limoges," is actually a French city also known as the porcelain capital. So, in a way, it's a French sneaker by way of England.

And it didn't come alone. The "Limoges" sneaker is actually part of a "Vibrant Chroma" pack, which also includes a second "Grenadine" colorway. The "Grenadine" 991v2 sneakers are also England-made but follow a rich orange color scheme. It's similar to those "Potter's Clay" pairs but with a bit more fiery sweetness.

The "Grenadine" 991s represent fire, while the blue versions symbolize water. Both pairs are now available on New Balance's website for $270.

New Balance's 991 has always been good. But this year's batch, which has included croc skin pairs and "French" dad shoes, is looking extra stylish and luxurious.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

So, you’d expect XLIM, a Korean brand with an affinity for technical fabrics, to lean into this high-tech construction for its debut HOKA collaboration. Instead, the Korean menswear label went the other way and the Mafate Speed 2 is all the better for it.

XLIM gave the classic HOKA runner a considerable makeover, switching its breathable sporty materials for old-school hairy suede and leather as if it was a running shoe from the ‘90s.

But considering it’s been years since this model has been touted as a proper running shoe, why not add some organic materials? The shoe’s performance might regress, but there’s more textural intrigue.

The fuzzy new upper comes in two variations, with a deep indigo blue version releasing exclusively on XLIM’s website and a dark purple/black variation going wider from April 18.

The Korean label isn’t the first to update this HOKA OG. Moncler came first in 2021, delivering a sleek white variation in the early days of HOKA’s infiltration of fashion, and later the streetwear retailer END. gave the shoe a stylish neutral-hued remix. 

Still, XLIM’s updates feel the most substantial and perhaps the coolest.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

The newest "Obsidian" Air Max sneaker lands with textured leather layers and a single mesh strip, all in red, white, and navy blue. The Nikes also feature gold Swooshes and, interestingly, several "Nike F.C." stamps.

Nike F.C. isn't an actual team (for now at least). Instead, it's just the brand's own clever spin on football clubs. Real or not, Nike F.C. has great-looking Air Maxes to represent the team.

Nonetheless, the sportswear giant does have a pretty stacked roster, sponsoring several famous football clubs, including Barca and Paris Saint-Germain (many sneaker collaborations have come from Nike's friendship with PSG, by the way).

But back to the "Nike F.C." Air Max 95 sneakers. It turns out, they're another Big Bubble treat, featuring larger Air sole units as a nod to the more classic AM95 design. They've also been realized in red and white, to match the classic color scheme.

As we speak, the Air Max 95 "Obsidian" sneakers are up for grabs on Nike Indonesia's website for roughly $125. And here's the thing: it's only available in kids' sizes at the moment.

Yes, the mini sneakerheads have yet another heater on their hands (and feet).

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

CELINE Summer 2026 provides a perfect entry point, encapsulating everything that makes Rider's work good in a succinct selection of stylish summer stuff. If you can make hot-weather dressing look good, you know you're onto something.

The new collection is lensed at and around the beach, which is itself typical of warm-weather luxury shoots but not like this.

CELINE's proposition isn't just fancy stuff that happens to be worn to the beach but actual clothes so good that you'll want to wear them to the beach.

When we visited the CELINE FW26 showroom earlier this year, we were struck by the experience of being surrounded by not just clothes but outfits, complete looks that demonstrate the purposefulness of Rider's vision.

Beyond being merely "nice" stuff, CELINE is proposing nice stuff that can and should be worn in real life. Classic shirts, easy sweaters, the perfect washed jeans, killer leather shoes worth wearing everywhere.

Even CELINE's suits, which are as smart as you'd expect, are defined by an ease not inherent to double-breasted peak-lapel tailoring. The shoulders are a bit dropped even as the waist is gently nipped, giving a shape that's as dialed in as it is relaxed.

Is it so crazy to imagine slipping into CELINE's baby-blue sweater, crisp collared shirts, and khaki trousers for a day at the beach? This is how sharp-dressed students might've sat oceanside back in the day, and it looks so darn good that it really just makes everyone else look underdressed.

Rider's CELINE is demarcated by this sort of stuff at every turn, subtly smart twists on no-brainer staples. The shirts, the sweaters, the slacks, the slides, even the dyed pullovers are all familiar. Just better. Much better. So much better, you'll wanna wear 'em to the beach.

Yep, Nike has put its retro football sneaker in a soccer uniform. The newest Astrograbber features stitched-up glossy leather uppers and a soccer-style badge on the heel, all playing on the traditional soccer cleat look (dare we say, we even detect some OG Nike Mercurial R9 vibes).

Of course, it's still an Astrograbber at the end of the day, so it maintains the model's standard slimmed-out look and the Waffle lugs on the bottoms.

The Astrograbber's journey continues to be an interesting one. First, it was a football sneaker. Then, fashion label Bode helped revive the sneaker altogether, making it an instant fashion "it" piece. Since the collaboration, the Astrograbber continues to enjoy stylish makeovers, having even received a cutesy Miu Miu-coded makeover alongside the Air Force 1 Low.

Its fashion era has been great, to say the least. But judging by the newest soccer-minded release, the Astrograbber misses the game a little. And it's now scratching the itch with an entirely new sport.

Either way, it looks pretty good in its soccer gear. And it's now available on Nike Japan's website for around $120.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

It'll easily be the freshest stepper to grace any upcoming ceremony. It comes dressed in a classy black leather outfit, nodding not only to the traditional graduate look but also to the event's overall formal dress code.

What's more, the Jordan sneaker also features metallic silver accents and reflective details, which likely play on the shiny stoles or even the gleaming charms found on tassels.

Nike's latest Air Jordan 6 essentially keeps up a family tradition of "Cap and Gown" designs. It all started with the Jordan 11. The 2018 graduate was the first to don the classic blacked-out look, even featuring shoelaces inspired by graduation cords. Think of them as the Gamma 11s if they were named Valedictorian even.

Fast forward to 2019, the Jordan 13 was next in line to walk across the stage. And it did so while wearing all-black patent leather for its "Cap and Gown" moment.

The time has now arrived for the Jordan 6 "Cap and Gown," which will be repping for the class of 2026. Priced at $125, the clean black sneaker is scheduled to launch on Nike's website and at select retailers on April 30, arriving just in time for college and high school graduations.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

Hold up: what’s an Oyster, and are we adding hot sauce to it? Not this time. Rolex brought the heat back in 1926 with a timepiece widely regarded as one of the most important watches ever made. Why? Because it was the first truly waterproof and dustproof wristwatch.

Today, it might look like one of the simplest models in Rolex’s lineup in terms of function — it's what watch nerds call “time-only,” meaning no moonphase, no chronograph, no extra mechanical theatrics — but don’t let that fool you. The Oyster is a kingpin in the Rolex dynasty as we know it.

It’s better known in watch lingo as the “OP” today, picking up the “P” for Perpetual in 1931 when Rolex made it self-winding — no hand-winding required, just let it do the work for you as you wear it. That kind of hard work is exactly what’s being celebrated at the Oyster's big 1-0-0, and Rolex is being anything but quiet about it.

The birthday celebrations come to full fruition in the Oyster Perpetual 36, with a dial that takes logomania to the max. It's built around a graphic, multicolored motif of ten contrasting hues. Like a rainbow crossword where the answer is always Rolex, the famous five letters are repeated to form a graphic known as the Jubilee motif, here repeated across a grid of lacquered squares.

Originally introduced in the 1970s, the motif is now being revived for the centenary as the Swiss watchmaker reworks it in a punchier palette, each shade applied one after the other. And it’s a maximalist’s dream (I can confirm), a candy-hued mosaic of letters that proves even the most established name in watchmaking isn’t afraid to get extra when the occasion calls for it. 

Honorable anniversary mentions go out to the two-tone OP 41, a more moderate tribute to the birthday bash with a crown that reads "100," while "100 years" sits in place of the usual "Swiss Made" verbiage in the 6 o’clock position on a slate-grey dial. This is as subtle as the centenary gets and why not? After all, heavy is the head that wears the crown and Rolex have been hustling to earn this legacy since 1905. 

A bébé 28mm gold OP with an apple-colored dial is also getting in on the action, as does a new Day-Date in mighty 40mm — for those that need a clear label to remind them it’s Monday — crafted in a new gold alloy, with a bright green aventurine dial and baguette-cut diamonds to indicate the hours.

There’s personalities aplenty at this horological party, but the ensemble isn’t really the point: Rolex is. If 100 years of the Oyster have proved anything, it’s that the Crown doesn’t RSVP to the latest affair or trend. It sets the agenda entirely, remaining the guest list everyone wants to get onto. 

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

Ghani, fresh from shooting Arpenteur’s Fall/Winter 2026 campaign, unveiled here exclusively by Highsnobiety, smiles back slightly nervously when Asseily says this during our video call. But the designer assures the photographer that he met this difficult brief. “What we really like about Khalil’s work is that there is a softness,” says Asseily. “We thought that it was nice to have his point of view on our clothes — which can look a bit tough or utilitarian — to show more of a soft beauty.”

“Hopefully the photos can give a little bit of a feeling of what it's like to touch the clothes,” adds Ghani. The American photographer zoomed in on the delicate nuances of Arpenteur’s designs, highlighting how Asseily, together with his cousin and co-founder, Laurent Bourven, is taking a gentler tact as Arpenteur turns 15. 

The cousins, who had no previous fashion experience, started Arpenteur in 2011 as a line of refined everyday clothing informed by classic workwear. “We had the same passion for movies, music, and clothes, and at some point we wanted to do something together,” says Asseily. “But making movies was difficult and costly, and we are not musicians, so we couldn't do music. Clothes, at the time, seemed more accessible. We didn't know it was going to be this hard.” “It was kind of naive of us,” adds a chuckling Bourven.

To be fair, the inexperienced duo didn’t take the easy route. They decided early to exclusively use small manufacturers from their hometown, Lyon — “most of the factories aren’t used to making a product like ours, so we have to work with them to adapt,” says Asseily — and to cut-and-sew every sample in-house to their specifications. 

“When you travel somewhere and buy a souvenir, you want it to be made in that place. You want it to be a real local product, right?” says Asseily. “Our idea was to make products here, so it carries a kind of authenticity.” That mindset hasn’t changed, with Arpenteur’s Lyon base growing to encompass an in-house workshop where its small specialized team creates and develops and tests every product. The collections, also, have remained rooted in utilitarian menswear distilled into a plainly wearable wardrobe. That’s not to say its patient fashion hasn’t slowly evolved, though. 

“With experience, our clothes have become more sophisticated when they used to be more utilitarian,” says Asseily. This season is marked by an expansion into leather outerwear where the suppleness of lambskin, typically used for high-end handbags, gently drapes and folds, creating layering pieces that’re, according to Asseily, “intended to be worn like sportswear: easy, flexible.”

But while Arpenteur’s leather is surprisingly soft, its newly developed linen is uncharacteristically rigid. Tightly twisted linen yarns make a lightweight yet dense fabric that’s utilized on loose pants, shorts that hit just below the knee, and a big-pocketed boxy shirt-jacket. Asseily says he’s most excited to wear this full set, while Bourven has his eyes on the T-shirts knitted on old looms to achieve the soft handfeel of vintage French Navy uniform shirts, then hand-soaked in a woad-dye bath derived from a cabbage plant to attain a rich blue hue. “This dye reflects light in a very peculiar way, which cannot be reproduced with a chemical dye,” says Bourven. 

As Arpenteur expands its mainline offering for FW26, its longstanding collaboration with French shoemaker Paraboot, whose factory is conveniently only an hour away from Arpenteur’s, is also growing. Originally a line of custom colorways, Arpenteur’s Paraboot line now consists of exclusive models where Arpenteur strips Paraboot classics down to the essentials, getting to what Asseily calls “the essence of the shoe.” This season subtly simplifies the construction of Paraboots Apprieu derby, adding a slightly more defined toe and dressing it in grained leather. 

That’s the kind of minutia Arpenteur’s founders obsess over, which creates a perceptible character in Arpenteur’s difficult-to-photograph clothing. But even after 15 years, this consistent approach continues creating new fans. “I don't know so much about clothes, but I remember the dyes stood out as being different from what's on a regular shirt,” says Khalil Ghani. “When I saw the colors in person, I was like, ‘Whoa, this is interesting.’”

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

Over the past fifteen years, Neighbour has come to epitomize and even define the menswear concept store through its vision-driven, anti-trend curation, combining a consistent sense of personal taste with fearlessly adventurous picks. In the process, it has played a trailblazing role in turning good clothes into an exciting world all its own. 

In late March, Neighbour opened the doors to a new 3,000-square-foot space on Vancouver’s high street. It’s set in a two-story Edwardian masonry building dating back to 1906 that’s right next to Neighbour/Women, run by Dilawri’s wife, Karyne Schultz. “The space is beautiful and being here feels like a pipe dream that became a reality much sooner than I could have imagined,” he says. 

Raised in Ottawa, Dilawri started Neighbour upon his return from New York City, where he studied fashion merchandising at Parsons School of Design before joining Unis, Eunice Lee’s undersung hero of early 2010s menswear known for clean cuts and quality fabrics that quietly shuttered in 2022. “My parents have that immigrant mentality,” Dilawri says. “They’ve always pushed me to do more. When I was working in New York, they were like, ‘You can’t just stay in one place — you have to grow.’” 

And so he did. After visiting a couple of fashion trade shows across the U.S., Dilawri realized many of the brands he was into at the time weren’t available in Vancouver, or even in Canada. “I figured: I’m 26 right now. I can sign a five-year lease, and then at the end of that time, if it doesn’t work out, I’m not too old to move on and try something else,” he recalls. That first period was tough. Dilawri was on his own, with his sister helping out once a week, still figuring out what it meant to run a store beyond selling clothes. “Even in 2014 or 2015, I thought I’d stop at year five. But then, for some reason,” Dilawri continues, “we started picking up traction, both in Vancouver and internationally.” 

It had much to do with a change in Dilawri’s approach to buying, shifting from stocking what the market said would work to what worked for him personally. “Neighbour’s focus has always been on minimal-looking, fabric-first brands. We’ve stocked Lemaire ever since 2013. But it was only around that time we really started to find our own voice,” he says. Paradoxically, the thing that made Neighbour the most vital store in menswear was thinking less like a store. 

“Some buyers are able to put what they’re into to the side and prioritize what’s popular among their customers,” Dilawri explains. “It didn’t feel right for me anymore. I decided that if I’m going to carry a brand, I need to be able to get behind it fully.” Dilawri may not have been the first to think this way. Yet, his singular dedication to it captures what sets today’s best taste-making stores apart, from established names like Maidens in Japan to newcomers such as Oakland’s Understory and San Francisco’s Rising Star Laundry. For him, this process can be boiled down to a few closely related things. “Beyond my own taste, it’s about the personal relationship with the designer, their mentality and long-term vision, the possibility of growing with them, and the product being so good it can really age.”

Dilawri gives the example of MAN-TLE, the Australian label founded in 2016 by Larz Harry and Aida Kim, who met while working for COMME des GARÇONS. “We’ve become close friends over the years,” Dilawri says. “They’re extremely particular and passionate about what they do, which is contagious. At the same time, they always wear their own clothes and aren’t precious about them at all. Just seeing that makes me connect with their brand even more than I would by just seeing it on a rack in a Paris showroom.”

Though he calls it random, Dilawri’s way of working is emblematic of a broader shift in menswear in recent years — one he has helped make tangible. Consider the buzz new drops at Neighbour creates in menswear Discord groups. Or the excitement emerging designers feel when they know Dilawri might visit their Paris showroom. Or the growing number of small, slow-working labels that find a natural home at Neighbour and other like-minded stores that popped up in its wake. “What we’re doing is incredibly niche,” Dilawri says, “yet I do feel more and more people want to understand a designer’s choices — whether it’s the fabric, construction or finishing — and get behind their clothes without overtly showing them off.” That’s about as close as you can get to defining where menswear is right now: it’s not about buying clothes for how they look, but about getting to know and genuinely caring about what they are. 

Despite the store’s growing success, it wasn’t until early 2020 that Dilawri felt Neighbour was truly in full swing. Then COVID hit. With the world in lockdown, and labels and stores struggling, Neighbour flourished. Its website proved a lifesaver — not just because it looked good, but because it translated the store’s vision for its physical space into an online presence where you could almost feel the fit and fabric of the garments through the screen. “From the start, I knew e-commerce was necessary for running an independent store in a smaller market. And having always been into photography, I wanted it to be editorial — focused on conveying a mood rather than just selling a product,” he says. 

New York-born, Tokyo-based photographer Ian Lanterman played a key role in shaping Neighbour’s visual identity through editorials and product imagery, highlighting texture, drape and detail in soft, natural light. “I found Ian randomly on Tumblr when we had just opened, and we’ve been very lucky to work with him ever since,” Dilawri says, noting that he’s brought on new talent since Lanterman moved to Tokyo last year. 

The importance of long-term personal relationships extends to Neighbour’s latest venture. Its new Vancouver space was redesigned by Olivia Bull and Daniel Garrod, who together run ODDO. Garrod has worked with Dilawri for over a decade on several projects, including his high-end workwear label James Coward, which is stocked at Neighbour. “It’s easy for us to collaborate,” Garrod says, “because I feel there’s a lot of mutual trust and a natural flow of ideas.” 

Though typically taciturn, Dilawri immediately voiced his dislike for the space at 81 West Cordova Street prior to the redesign. “I said, ‘No way!’ It was a dated labyrinth, and I couldn’t envision it being a store at all.” Now that the renovations are behind him, and having spent some time in the space, Dilawri feels very pleased. The floor plan, with many discrete and interconnected rooms stacked vertically, is still a bit unusual. Yet, with the layers peeled back, partition walls removed and natural materials added, it’s now a space where, in Dilawri’s words, “the clothes can breathe.” 

“March in Vancouver is usually super rainy,” he adds, “but since the first day here it’s been really sunny.” 

Nike has always been brilliant at spectacle, but the headlines that followed were just as much about the products themselves, like the US Olympic team’s inflatable jackets and custom $1,000 compression boots. The whole activation was less a flashy relaunch and more a statement of intent: Nike isn’t just revisiting ACG, it’s redefining what it stands for in the outdoors.

ACG’s origins go back to 1978, when two climbers scaled K2 in Nike Long Distance Vectors. Seeing them ditch their clunky hiking boots for a lightweight, more agile runner to tackle the world’s second-highest mountain planted a seed in the Swoosh’s mind. By the late ‘80s, one-off outdoor projects had evolved into a legitimate design philosophy, and All Conditions Gear was born.

Since then, ACG has morphed into different forms. Depending on when you grew up, ACG will likely mean something different to you. A hiking brand to some, a streetwear label to others, or, for a brief period in the late 2010s, an experimental predecessor of Gorp as NikeLab ACG under the guidance of ACRONYM’s Errolson Hugh. (More on that here.)

The new era of ACG draws on decades of expertise, giving it a foundation few can match. But the real challenge it faces is making headway in a busy, arguably saturated, field. As participation in outdoor activities soared post-pandemic, so too has the number of brands and gear. Legacy outdoor brands have doubled down, securing their positions in the markets. Meanwhile, fashion-forward brands like ROA and And Wander have picked up pace, serving a new fanbase looking for something different in how they dress for outdoor activities.

Does it bother ACG? “We have an athlete mindset here, so we love competition. It's fun to compete,” shares Bret Schoolmeester, VP ACG Footwear, when I speak to him at the ACG summit at the Nike campus in Portland. “The answer is always: be better[...] That helps create a point of distinction and improvement versus anyone else in the outdoor space who isn't in nearly as many facets of serving athletes.”

How do they plan to be better? According to Margaret Mussman, Senior Director, ACG apparel and accessories design, “The difference is the power of Nike. The difference is the power of a science brand. Being able to shine a light on the outdoor athlete, so we can power up even more – jump higher, run faster, and be outside longer. It's been a while since AGC got to shine that light.”

Nike’s HQ in Portland is home to the LeBron Innovation Center, the core of its science-driven approach to sport. Inside the towering building is 84,000 square feet of remarkable tech. The highlight is a Cathedral-esque sports hall with the world's largest motion-capture installation, running tracks with underlying force-measurement plates, and environmental chambers that mimic global atmospheric conditions. There’s also a host of various sports machinery with wires and screens hooked up. Walking through it reminds you of the knowledge and access the Swoosh has, and the power that comes with it.

We continue to discuss the evolution of the outdoors in recent years: “[The outdoors] is no longer a crunchy, slow-paced thing. It's high aerobic, high performance,” explains Mussman. “It's serendipitous that ACG gave us the opportunity to fully be Nike and be itself proudly, when maybe it didn't have that opportunity before or that confidence.”

Despite veering into lifestyle territory over the years, the “new” ACG is focused fully on performance. Ultra running, in particular. Their roster of athletes, aka The ACG Racing Dept. counts 30 of the best trail runners, including Caleb Olson and Yao Miao. They’re also sponsoring serious trail events such as Chongli 168 Ultra Trail and the Oregon-based Gorge Waterfalls trail race, for which they built a dedicated campsite experience to bring in media partners to watch the race.

“The extremity of these ultra races, with that level of extreme climate conditions, challenging terrain, and such long distances, feels like a perfect example of athletes pushing both themselves and their gear so far. It created a really high bar for us,” shares Schoolmeester. “The other thing is we are also a great running brand with a strong history of solving runner problems. So it felt like a natural adjacency, yet a new extreme for us to push into.”

In its former years, under designers like Tinker Hatfield and Peter Fogg, ACG did exactly that. It gave Nike designers the space to experiment with wild designs. The Air Mowabb and Deschutz Sandal, both released in the early ‘90s, were unlike anything out there at the time. In this new era, ACG’s track record of innovating continues with pieces like the Radical AirFlow running shirt, the Vista Vert shades, and the Gaiadome.

Beyond products, the new ACG is also bringing back its beloved tongue-in-cheek tone. Back in the day, ACG sought to differentiate itself from other brands in the industry and even from other lines within Nike through its messaging. Tanner Gimbel, owner of Portland retailer The Culture PDX, told Highsnobiety that ACG’s ad work helped build the sub-brand’s cult following. “The creativity, edgy slogans, and somewhat rebellious attitude of it all is really what we connected with.”

Take this early ACG ad presenting the "Top Ten Reasons to Start Outdoor Cross-Training." The reasons offered include “Less likely to bump into people you owe MONEY to,” and “No BAUHAUS architecture in nature.” It was risky, memorable, and full of personality.

For its relaunch, the team has brought back that rebellious voice, Mussmann says. “This is a unique moment that you're kind of resurrecting a spirit that already has sort of a flavor, personality, a personification.”

The best example is the launch campaign, produced with Jeff Tremaine, the co-creator of Jackass. The first film opens with an Attenborough-style narrator speaking over a grainy image of Earth slowly rotating. “If you’re looking at the world from the horizontal comforts of your couch, bag of chips in one hand, doomscroll machine in the other, of course, the Earth is just dirt and sticks and moss and bugs and stuff,” the narrator says.

This was followed by the ACG Racing Dept. clip, which undeniably references Jackass: The Movie’s opening sequence, only this time it's runners. It’s grainy, dirty, and chaotic–a true reflection of what it’s actually like to run 100 kilometers through rain, mud, and pain.

This subversive spirit is deeply entrenched within ACG, Schoolmeester explains, right down to the athletes it's working with. “When you meet these people (the Racing Dept.), they're not typical, like, straight up the fairway, straight-laced athletes. That vibe should also show up in the product, because it should reflect them and who they are. Oftentimes, that is very fun and truly irreverent.”

In just a matter of months, ACG has excelled at worldbuilding. Ultimately, though, the true question of ACG’s success will lie with its product. The imprint has kicked Nike’s gear up a notch, but only time will tell. “The way I've sort of communicated with my team is: If you think of time as a train moving down a track, our job is to jump it, break the timeline. Sometimes that's material. Sometimes that's digging something out of the dirt. It's distinguishable. It's clear. That's the high, if you will, we're chasing constantly.”

This shift feels not just like reinvention, but as a confident return to the brand’s former cutting-edge form. “It feels like it (ACG) can take risks," confirms Mussmann. "This feels like the old Nike, but actually, this is new Nike. This is just how we get to be proudly ourselves again. I still fully believe in Nike. I wanted to be an athlete because of Nike. Nike taught me that confidence, and now I want to give that to other people as it relates to the outdoors, especially.”

The latest collaboration between New York-based designer Willy Chavarria and adidas Originals takes one of sportswear's most iconic silhouettes and adds a single, considered detail that changes the entire conversation. 

A three-dimensional rose, rendered in relief on the toe cap, turns the shell toe into something altogether more poetic. It's a small move with a lot behind it.

It sounds simple. It isn't. The rose has carried weight across cultures and centuries, love, loss, resistance, beauty. On a black and cream Superstar with a hit of gold metallic, it reads less like decoration and more like a statement. Quiet, but loaded. 

The kind of thing you clock immediately but can't quite explain why it works as well as it does.

That's very much Chavarria's thing, and one he’s achieving in an abundance of recent collaborations. His work consistently finds the tension between toughness and tenderness, between the streets and the runway, and this collab sits right in that sweet spot. 

The Superstar was already a shoe with history. Now it's got something to say. And it's saying it beautifully.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping and subscribe to Shopper for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

For most, tailoring has long carried the weight of something reserved only for big occasions; rigid silhouettes for rigid events. But more recently, the narrative has shifted, the fits have loosened up, and fabrics appear and feel as though they can breathe at last — as can their wearer. In other words, tailoring has finally learned to relax.

No longer dormant between black tie-optionals, what we’re after now are pieces that live with you. A blazer you can hang over any random t-shirt, pants that belong at at a wedding as much as they do a regular Tuesday, a vest you can stuff into a bag without worrying about it crinkling because it actually gets better with wear. Some materials, like linen, thrive on these imperfections, with a few wrinkles only adding to their charm.

All this to say, it's no longer about locking into fully formal sets. In fact, it’s better to not. A buttoned sports coat with denim? Tailored trousers with a tee? These slight mismatches are exactly what make it feel current.

Relaxed Tailoring Is A Man's 2026 Uniform

Lightweight

The assignment? Tailoring minus the stuffiness. Think airy cottons, shapes that move and crease. These are the blazers you throw on without thinking, the ones that don’t require an entire ensemble built around them. Easy but never careless.

Leg Room

This is where the shift really shows, in pants that are wider, draped, with just enough volume to alter a silhouette towards something more elegant, yet no less appropriate for mere casual day-to-days. These hold their own with a fitting top portion, but read just as right with something simpler. A quiet centerpiece, hard at work.

"Suitility"

Somewhere between tailoring and workwear. More texture, more function, less fragility, these are clothes you wear, re-wear, and don’t overprotect. They're structured enough to feel sharp, and utiliatrian enough to lean on for... everything.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

This time, it comes in the form of the Vans Loafer Mid, exclusive to Japanese retailer Billy’s, which puts a new, even weirder spin on Vans’ leather loafer.

As if the moc-toed, tassel-accented Vans loafer wasn’t enough of a deviation from usual programming for the California skate brand, the minds behind some of the world’s most understated kicks have lengthened the ankle.

Now available in two mid constructions, the Vans Loafer somehow succeeds in feeling even more alien than it did before.

Built atop Vans’ signature vulcanized rubber sole unit, the silhouette is delivered with hard-wearing matter leather uppers in black and brown.

Classic loafer features like leather tassel detailing to the vamp and a pinched moc toe contrast with a familiar Vans silhouette which is made even more analogous with a now ankle-height collar.

The Vans Loafer Mid comes not just as a head-turning new silhouette for the brand, but also as a statement of intent. In a saturated sneaker market, Vans is willing to one-up itself and its competitors, and we have to say, as weird as it is, the outcome is surprisingly wearable. 

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping and subscribe to Shopper for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.

Vans' Authentic Ease ditches traditional sneaker hallmarks like a structured eyestay and pronounced collar in favor of 2-eye laces and a raw-edged opening.

So to say the Authentic Ease is pared back would be quite the understatement. Instead of the typical thick cotton laces that are all but synonymous with skate shoes, the Authentic Ease wears thin, flat laces that bolster the sneaker's unassuming disposition. 

The leather upper’s crepey wrinkles add a layer of delicateness to the already delicate design.

In fact, the only real structure comes at the outsole, where Vans' signature rubber platform affirms the shoe's position as a true skate sneaker. 

Despite its lightweight presentation, the Authentic Ease sneaker, available on the Vans website for $80, should still be able to hold its own at any skate park. It’s just that the Authentic Ease's upper is so simple, it transcends time. It looks like it should exist in a age before skate sneakers, more like the concept of a sneaker than an actual functional shoe. 

Maybe it's what you'd get if you asked someone to draw a sneaker from memory with no reference material. There are no frills to speak of, and in an era where overdoing it is the norm, the simplest Vans sneaker still stands out.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.