Top 10 men's retro sneakers out now - Deffest sneaker buyer's guide (Updated 2024)

This is for anyone interested in some proper old school 1970s and 80s low profile lifestyle runners here is the latest Deffest retro sneaker buying guide. If you like retro basketball high tops we just posted the Top 10 Retro Basketball sneakers and Top 10 Luxury High Tops as well. Please note the sneakers below contain product affiliate links. You can read our affiliate policy in the footer of this blog post.


NIKE WAFFLE TRAINER 2
Nike has come out strong with some great 1970s and 80s throwbacks recently including the Challenger OG, Internationalist, Air Tailwind 79 and the Air Pegasus 83 (also at SSENSE.) Our pick for this list are the Nike Waffle Trainer 2 runners. The original waffle runners were introduced by Nike in the 1970s and this classic retro running silhouette has the old school Nike waffle iron sole.

Nike Waffle Trainer 2. Image credit to Nike.com.

ADIDAS RACING 1 RETRO RUNNING SHOES
We’re always a fan of seeing OG sneakers make a comeback and adidas takes us back to the old school with these low profile retro inspired running shoes. These throwback sneakers have an authentic '70s style and vibe.

VEJA RIO BRANCO
Veja was founded in 2004 in France and has been making noise over the past few years for eco-conscious footwear. We dig the old school stylings of the retro Rio Branco runners and these are available over at SSENSE.

Veja Rio Branco retro sneakers

NEW BALANCE 327 SNEAKERS
These retro sneakers are not a reissue but are a brand new model that were inspired by some of the older New Balance designs from the 1970s. I posted about the history of these sneakers and the models that they are based upon here. These sneakers are available in a bunch of different colors over at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

New Balance 327 vintage inspired sneakers

PUMA EASY RIDER
Harkening back to the 1970s this classic retro running silhouette has an old school vibe. If you want to check out an some history on the Puma Easy Rider runners we have posted some vintage Puma ads for them here and here. These sneakers have mostly sold out but you can still scoop up a pair of the Easy Rider II’s over at End. Another similar retro style option is the revived Puma Rocket at Puma.com.

Puma Easy Rider retro sneakers

SAUCONY SHADOW ORIGINAL
Way back in 1985 the Shadow was introduced as a performance running shoe. Today it’s kept the same retro-inspired low-top styling but with the added comfort to enable it to be a lifestyle trainer. These low profile sneakers are available over at saucony.com.

Saucony Shadow Original Retro Sneakers

WALSH VOYAGER
Norman Walsh was a Bolton-based cobbler who joined J.W Foster & Sons in 1945 and was notable for a lot of innovations that he made with the brand. J.W Foster & Sons later became Reebok and in 1961 Walsh left to begin his own brand. Norman Walsh’s namesake brand may not be well known in the United States but the brand has been putting out high quality runners made in the UK dating back to 1961. You can check out the Voyager and a bunch of other great retro sneakers over at Wolf & Badger.

Walsh Voyager retro sneakers

KARHU CHAMPIONAIR / MESTARI
Here’s another awesome retro sneaker set from Karhu. This model was part of Karhu’s lineup of models from 1977 through 1984 before bringing it back over the past few years. These are available over at TheDrop.com.

Karhu vintage inspired sneakers at TheDrop.com.

REEBOK AZ II
Here’s another great pair of retro runners that are throwbacks to the Reebok Aztec. These old school sneakers are mostly sold out but there are still a few pairs available over at amazon.com.

ONITSUKA TIGER MOAL 76
Here’s a great pair of throwback runners by always reliably retro Onitsuka Tiger. If you want to by these they’re are a few left available in black over at eBay and also in yellow and black.

Onitsuka Tiger MOAL 76 old school sneakers

Sneakerhead Theatre Of The Absurd: A Bootleg of a Bootleg Nike and The Return of the Upside Down Swoosh

Things are getting weird out there…

Raff’s vintage sneakers compared with Maden ‘Fake Series’ retro upside down swoosh sneakers.

Here at the Deffest blog we’re all about a groundbreaking post and we think this might be a new milestone in sneaker history - the first time we’ve ever seen a bootleg of a bootleg. This post was brought to you by the power of Google’s Lens tool. We recently picked up and reviewed the vintage sneaker book by Mikiji Nagai’s called ‘C-Class sneaker collection. The joy of collecting.’ While we were researching that book we used Google Lens to find more information on it we came across this link to a brand called ‘Maden Wear’ series of sneakers called the ‘Fake Series’ and donning another upside down Nike swoosh. See photos below:

As best as we can tell what happened here is that a factory purchased the Mikiji Nagai book then went rogue and began making knock offs of the sneakers in the book, shockingly including a copy of Raff’s brand 1970’s upside down swoosh Nike bootleg. There is no tongue or heel label on these shoes outside of the footbed which says Maden C-CLASS sneaker. Just to be clear we are not promoting these sneakers but merely reporting on it. The sneakers in the photos above are low quality construction and an overall poor design. We’d much rather have the OG Raff’s or some proper 1970’s old school Nike runners. One last note - we reached out to Mikiji Nagai for a comment but did not hear back.

Dunkers Deluxe: Top 10 men's luxury basketball high top sneakers out now - Deffest sneaker buyer's guide

A couple of weeks ago to celebrate the return of the NBA season we posted our first old school high top basketball sneaker buyer’s guide. Over the past few years we’ve notice a lot of the creative energy with retro 1980’s style high tops is coming out of the luxury space so we wanted to put up a post with our top 10 favorite high-end hoops sneakers as well. You can check out the sneaker buying guide list below. Please note the sneakers below contain product affiliate links. You can read our affiliate policy in the footer of this blog post. Thanks for your support.

OFF-WHITE BLUE HIGH OFF-COURT 3.0 SNEAKERS

Kicking this list off strong with the Off-White Men's 3.0 Off Court Supreme Lace Up Sneakers. You can check them out over at SSENSE or at Bloomingdales.

RHUDE RHECESS HI SNEAKERS

Made in Italy these distressed retro High Top sneakers are available over at SSENSE. These sneakers also come in a bunch of other colorways which you can check out here.

Rhude Rhecess Hi sneakers over a SSENSE.

AMIRI SKEL HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS
These Amiri Skel High-Top sneakers in the ‘Chicago’ colorway are over at Farfetch and Cettire.

CELINE CT-03 LEATHER HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS
Celine’s Bred retro high top is available over at Mr. Porter.

Celine CT-03 at Mr. Porter.

SAINT LAURENT COURT CLASSIC LEATHER HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS

Here’s a pair of legit old school high tops in the Bred colorway from Saint Laurent. These retro high tops are available at Farfetch and over at Saks Fifth Avenue as well.

GUCCI BASKET HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS

Gucci’s ‘Basket’ high tops are throwbacks to the late 80’s early 90’s basketball sneaker styles and come in a few different colors. These are available at both SSENSE and Farfetch.

PRADA NEW AVENUE HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS

The Prada ‘Avenue’ retro Prada high tops are available over at Neiman Marcus.

LANVIN CLAY HIGH TOP SNEAKERS

Here’s another great pair of retro high tops, this time from Lanvin. You can pickup these old school ‘Clay’ model high tops at Farfetch.

GOLDEN GOOSE WHITE SKY STAR SNEAKERS

The Golden Goose ‘Sky Star’ sneakers look like they could have come straight off of the Sotheby’s ‘Signed and Game Worn’ page. You can also check out the ‘Bred’ colorway at Neiman Marcus.

COACH BLACK CITYSOLE HIGH SNEAKERS

The Coach Citysole is a retro-inspired high-top equipped with a chunky street-ready sole.

OVERTIME: BONUS SNEAKS

Honorable mention to the following high tops.

SAINT LAURENT SL80 HIGH TOP SNEAKER

Valentino Garavani Men's High Top Sneakers at Bloomingdales.

Dunkers Delight: Top 10 men's retro basketball high top sneakers out now - Deffest sneaker buyer's guide

Up until now this blog has mostly been geared towards old school runner style sneakers but the NBA season is about to tip off and we wanted to note the occasion with our first Top 10 men's retro basketball high top sneakers list. Anyone interested in some proper old school 80s style high tops check out the sneaker buying guide list below. If you’re interested in retro runners we recently update our buyers guide. Please note the sneakers below contain product affiliate links. You can read our affiliate policy in the footer of this blog post. Thanks for your support.

NIKE AIR JORDAN 1 MID in Black / White/ Fire Red
Kicking this list off with the most classic basketball sneaker of all time - the iconic Nike Air Jordan 1. Originally released to the public way back on April 1, 1985 these sneakers have disrupted the industry nearly 40 years later. You can buy these over at Nike.com or Shiehk and Nike also has a high version of the AJ1 in the red and white colorway.

Nike Air Jordan 1 Mid. Image credit to Nike.com

ADIDAS TOP 10 RETRO BASKETBALL SHOES
adidas takes us back to the old school with these reissues of a 1970’s basketball classic. This sneaker model is a throwback to 1979 and was one of the first high tops to provide ankle support. If you want to learn more about their history you can see the original vintage ad here. These high tops are for sale over at adidas right now.

NEW BALANCE 480 'BLACK' BB480HD
New Balance is at it with another homage to old school b-ball sneakers. These retro high top sneakers inspired by heritage basketball shoes and can hold their own on any court. These sneakers are available over Kicks Crew.

New Balance 480 'Black' BB480HD retro sneakers. Image credit KICKS CREW.

DIADORA MI BASKET USED SNEAKERS
These retro sneakers a reissue of a model designed specially for Diadora’s sponsorship of the Italian Milano Basketball team in 1984. These throwback men’s sneakers are available over at Madewell. These are also available in green at Banana Republic.

Diadora MI Basket vintage inspired sneakers

NIKE DUNK HIGH RETRO
Nike is back with another iconic high top harkening back to the 1980s. The Dunk classic retro basketball silhouette has an old school vibe and is popping off in the Los Angeles Lakers purple and gold colorway. These sneakers are available over at Nike.com.

Nike Dunk Retro High LA Lakers Purple and Gold colorway sneakers

ADIDAS FORUM 84 HI SHOES
adidas is back with another classic old school basketball silhouette with the Forum 84 Hi Shoes. The sneakers are based on the Forum B-ball shoes from the adidas archive. These sneakers are available over at adidas.com.

adidas Forum 84 Hi-Top Sneakers Retro Basketball Shoes

SAUCONY JAZZ COURT HIGH PREMIUM
The Saucony Jazz sneaker gets re-imagined as a 1980’s style basketball high top. Saucony used higher quality materials in the crafting of these throwback high tops and you can pick up these sneakers over at Saucony.com.

CONVERSE ERX 260 ARCHIVAL LEATHER HI 165909C
Here’s another awesome retro b-ball sneaker from Converse. This model was part of Converse’s lineup from 1987 and was worn by both Karl Malone and Magic Johnson. These sneakers are available over at Kicks Crew.

Converse ERX 260 Archival Leather Hi 165909C vintage inspired sneakers at Kicks Crew.

PUMA PALACE GUARD RETRO HIGH TOP SNEAKERS
We love an old school chunky high top. Here’s another great pair of retro hoops shoes by Puma called the Palace Guard. Another retro pair of high tops sporting the LA Lakers purple and gold colorway. These old school sneakers are available over at eBay and amazon.

Puma Palace Guard retro basketball shoes

AVIA 830 OLD SCHOOL BASKETBALL SNEAKERS
Here’s a great pair of throwback basketball high tops by the now back-in-the-game brand Avia. If you want to by these they’re available over at Dr. Jays or amazon.

Avia 830 old school basketball sneakers

Also wanted to include an honorary mention to the Jaclar Intimidator retro high tops below. Shout out to team Jaclar and we recently posted about these sneakers here.

Last, but not least, shout out the the original ‘Dunkers Delight’ - Mr. Obi Toppin Sr. We’re going to close out this post with a video of all 102 of Obi Toppin Jr’s dunks from last season. Let’s Go Knicks. 👊

Four Stripe Legends: Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys faux adidas SL76

Yesterday we posted an old school adidas SL76 sneaker ad which reminded me that we had a reader of the blog reach out awhile ago looking for sneakers that were like the SL76… except with 4 stripes. They passed along this photo of Dennis Wilson from the Beach Boys and Karen Lamm from 1977 right before Wilson released Pacific Ocean Blue. If you want to check out other 4 stripe celebrity sneaker photos we have also posted about Neil Young and Dale Earnhardt Sr and if you want to see a goldmine of celebrity sneaks you should check out the @trainer.spotting instagram account.

Four Stripe Legends - Dennis Wilson faux adidas SL76
Four Stripe Legends faux adidas SL76. Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys 1977 photo with Karen Lamm
Adidas SL76 vintage sneaker ad @ The Deffest

Deffest Approved Throwbacks: Puma Easy Rider II Retro Sneakers

We’re always stoked to see old school 70’s and 80s’s runner models make a comeback and recently spotted these Puma Easy Rider II retro sneakers. Below we have included a back in the day 1981 vintage ad for the Easy Rider and shout out to Puma for bringing these back again. If you’re interested in buying a pair we have posted affiliate links to Puma.com and Nordstrom.com which have a couple of different colorways. You can also click on the sneaker images below to go to those product pages.

Below are the colorways available at Nordstrom.com.

Four Stripe Legends: Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Awhile back we put up a post on rocker Neil Young wearing 4 stripe sneakers. I saw recently on The Dale Earnhardt Archive twitter account that NASCAR racing legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. also wore some awesome 4 stripe Kinney NBA shoes between 1979 - 1981. Here’s a couple of photos and the ad for the Kinney NBA shoes below.

dale-merged-4-stripes-final.jpg
Kinney-1977-NBA-adidas-SL72-SL76-style-vintage-sneakers-The-Deffest.jpg

There’s another photo from Getty images in 1981 where Dale was wearing the opposite blue and yellow Kinney NBA runners.

Vintage sneaker repair and restoration - Sears The Winner retro runners

It’s been awhile since I posted a vintage sneaker repair here on the blog but today we’ve got a good one. This was a restoration project to see if I could revive these old 4 stripe yellow and black 1977 Sears The Winner retro running shoes. These sneakers were in maybe the worst condition of any vintage pair I have ever seen or owned. The soles were worn through the rubber and down to the foam, they had paint on them and were dirty as hell. It took a couple of hours of cleaning before I shipped them to our Instagram buddy and skilled cobbler craftsman @vintage_trainer_repairs68 over in the UK who fixed the worn, warped and brittle soles.

Before I post the photos of how gnarly these sneakers were here’s what they looked like after the midsole and repair. They came out great.

This is what they looked like prior to the repair. They were all jacked up with brittle, bent and warped soles. FUBAR…

The midsole had been worn all the way through the rubber. Damn.

Due to the level of grime on these shoes I went hard at them with detergent using an old toothbrush to clean the nylon and suede. I don’t usually recommend doing this with vintage sneakers but this case needed the next level of cleaning so I threw them in the washer machine. (Don’t try that at home if you care about your old school sneakers. Instead I recommend taking them to Jason Markk for cleaning.)

Here are some photos of the cleaning process. I removed the laces and let them soak in a mixture of water and detergent then I threw them into the washer machine with the sneakers. The washer machine removed a lot of the soot and brought out the color when they sun dried...

Here’s a before and after photo..

Before and after vintage sneaker repair @ The Deffest

If you have any pairs of vintage kicks that you want to get repaired I highly recommend checking in with @vintage_trainer_repairs68 over on Instagram. Tell him The Deffest sent you. 😎

New Balance MS327LAA retro runners

A couple of days ago we posted a 1982 ad for NB. Today I wanted to share a post that our buddy @trainer.spotting spotted out in the wild and passed along recently. Thanks man.

New Balance sneaker designer @charlottealee found design inspiration based on some of the NB models in the vintage 355 and SuperComp ads we've posted here on the blog to come up with a whole new hybrid model of New Balance runner called the MS327LAA. Check em out 👇

Sears the Winner retro sneakers by Warehouse Company (Japan)

A couple of weeks ago I posted the Adidas and Converse side by side of the Sears the Winner kicks and mentioned the original sneakers from the early 70s sell for between $1500 - $2800 now. It turns out that a company in Japan called "Warehouse Company" is still putting the 4 strips Converse version of these out and they sell for about $100. This images are from a Rakuten store called "CLEVER WEB SHOP" but unfortunately their inventory is currently sold out. Shout out to @secondhand_nate for this passing along the info on Warehouse Company.

Sears the Winner retro sneakers by Warehouse Company (Japan) @ The Deffest

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Sears the Winner 1974 vintage shoes by Converse AND Adidas

Another sneaker mystery... one of the readers of the blog emailed this over (thanks to Susan S for the photo) so I wanted to post it. The left image is from the 1974 Sears Fall catalog for Simpsons-Sears in Canada. What's odd is that these Sears the Winner shoes there were made by Adidas while the identical shoe model from the same year in the right side of the image was made by Converse for the US market. What’s odd is that the Adidas Canadian version have 3 stripes and the Converse have 4. Either way, I've seen these sneakers for sale online for between $1500 - $2800 so if anyone spots a pair at your local thrift shop you should probably scoop them up.

Sears the Winner 1974 vintage shoes by Converse & Adidas @ The Deffest

Here’s another catalog image from Sears in 1976 where the adidas Winner line is featured.

Last FREAKIN' call! Bata x Wilson John Wooden sneaker giveaway!

Hey errrybody just a quick reminder that 8PM PST tonight is the cut off for the Bata x Wilson John Wooden Instagram sneaker giveaway! If you'd like to be entered all you have to do is like the original sneaker giveaway post from Monday and follow @bataheritage and our account here on Instagram. I found a site that will randomly pick the winning name out of a hat which I will do tonight at 8PM PST. I will announce the winner tomorrow morning. Good luck!

Last Freakin' Call - Bata x Wilson sneaker giveaway @ The Freakin' Ekin

Bata x Wilson John Wooden sneaker giveaway contest!

We hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! We're back today with a contest to raffle off one pair of Bata x Wilson mens John Wooden sneakers courtesy of our friends over Bata Heritage. The sneakers are re-issues of the legendary UCLA coach John Wooden basketball shoes 🏀👟 that originally debuted in the 1970s – and were famously worn by Magic Johnson on and off the court. All you have to do to be entered is like this post and follow @bataheritage and our account here on Instagram. To make it fair I found a site that will randomly pick the winning name out of a hat which I will do at 8PM PST on Thursday 11/29. I will announce the winner on Friday. Good luck!