The Best Trainers Right Now in the UK and Europe

Work out what the shoe is for before you look at what it looks like. If it is going to carry you around a city for eight hours, cushioning and width matter more than silhouette, and the flat terrace shoes in this list will punish you. If it is a weekend shoe, buy on shape. Then check three things: the material (real leather and suede age well, mesh does not), the outsole (gum rubber looks right and slips on wet pavement), and the last (almost everything fashionable right now is cut narrow). Finally, ask how many other people on your street already own it. Saturation is a legitimate consideration when four of these shoes have been ubiquitous for three years.

It is still the most useful trainer in Europe, and there is no point pretending otherwise. The adidas Samba OG is genuine leather with real suede overlays on a gum cup sole, it weighs around 335 g, it fits true to size, and abrasion testing rates it as one of the most durable leather sneakers you can buy. It goes with jeans, with tailoring and with gym kit. Two warnings. The toebox measures narrow, and broad feet notice immediately. And the gum outsole — designed for indoor wooden courts — rates low for traction and is genuinely slippery on wet pavement. Buy it knowing both, or buy the adidas Handball Spezial instead for a suede upper and a slightly more forgiving feel at roughly 344 g.

If the Samba has become too common, these are the two obvious escapes. The Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 is the slimmest silhouette in this list — a 1966 running shape with crossed side stripes, a thin flat sole and a low-volume last that makes it the best partner here for tailored trousers. Onitsuka Tiger's sales rose 43 per cent in the financial year to the end of 2025 with Europe named as a key driver, so it is no longer a secret, but it still reads sharper than a Samba. The PUMA Palermo comes at the same idea from a different heritage: leather and suede over a gum sole, at roughly 371 g, with a slightly chunkier profile and a fit that runs marginally large. Both are minimal underfoot, so neither is a walking shoe.

This is where to look if you want the retro look and actual comfort. The ASICS GEL-Kayano 14 is a 2008 road stability trainer reissued for the street, with a 32.7 mm heel, a 22.6 mm forefoot, a 10.1 mm drop and real GEL damping that measures above the sneaker average for shock absorption. It rates as a top pick for mild overpronation and flat feet, which almost no fashion sneaker can claim. It weighs about 352 g and its mesh upper and heel padding wear faster than the price suggests. The Nike Zoom Vomero 5 is the lighter alternative at roughly 316 g with a 31.4 mm heel, a flexible ride and a mesh-and-suede build — the most comfortable shoe here for long days, and the one most likely to be in stock.

Salomon finally named a successor to the XT-6, and the Salomon XT-Evo went on sale on 2 September 2026 after a pair of Kith-exclusive colourways teased it. It keeps the two things that make an XT feel like an XT — the Agile Chassis System and a Contagrip outsole with genuine wet-weather bite — and changes the upper completely, wrapping a moulded TPU shell around the entire forefoot. Three colourways launched, including a black-and-red version referencing the 2013 original. It is the loudest shoe in this list by some distance and the only one with real technical credentials in bad weather. Salomon has not published weight or stack figures, and the XT last is narrow and pointed, so try before you buy.

The Veja Condor Royale is the brand's first running model reworked as a lifestyle shoe, and it lands squarely in the retro-runner trend without shouting about it. The upper is Alveomesh — 100 per cent recycled polyester — with suede and TPU panels; the midsole is bio-sourced EVA at 76 per cent, nearly half of that sugarcane, blended with Amazonian rubber bought directly from seringueiro cooperatives; the outsole is roughly a third Amazonian rubber. It is made in Brazil and Veja publishes every one of those percentages on the product page, which almost no other brand does. Two catches: Veja says explicitly that it is not for sport, and the shoe runs small, so order a size up.

Skip anything sold purely on hype colourways of a silhouette you already own — the second Samba in a different suede is not a new shoe. Skip the flat terrace styles entirely if you walk more than a few kilometres a day; they have low shock absorption and no arch support, and an insole only partly fixes that. Skip online purchases of the Veja and the Salomon, both of which have unusual sizing. If you can wait, Onitsuka Tiger and Salomon both push new variants into European retail through autumn, and the tech-runner category is where the newest ideas are landing — the flat terrace shoe has been in its final form since roughly 1954.