The Very Best Travel Sneakers, According to Vogue Editors

Reported by Vogue.

Getting dressed for the actual act of travel — the terminal sprints, the middle seats, the three-hour layovers — is a different exercise entirely from packing for a vacation. The sneaker you wear through security needs to work harder than any other shoe in your bag: comfortable enough for concrete miles, versatile enough to survive beyond the airport, and ideally slim enough not to eat your entire carry-on. According to Vogue, it's a genuinely good moment to solve this problem, with the market ranging from sleek retro runners to gorpcore-ready trail shoes giving travelers real options.

The editors making these choices daily are not a monolith. Vogue's shopping director Talia Abbas separates her running shoes from her travel shoes entirely — her logic being that performance sneakers only really work with workout clothes, making them useless for anything else on the trip. Her Dries Van Noten sneakers handle the walking; the Nike x Jacquemus Moon shoes handle the beater-pair duty. Fashion market director Maddy Fass barely packs sneakers at all, which means when she does, it's a worn-in pair of white Marnis doing the heavy lifting. Executive shopping director Libby Page goes a different direction — Jamie Haller's Sachetto, a nylon-suede hybrid that reads elegant rather than sporty, solving the problem of wanting comfort without committing to an athletic aesthetic.

The Case for a Sneaker That Does More Than One Thing

Several editors made the same quiet argument for retro runners as the ultimate airport shoe. Senior lifestyle editor Liam Hess has been buying Wales Bonner x Adidas SL72 collabs since the first drop in 2020 — now six or seven pairs deep — specifically because they're easy to slip off and stylish enough to feel intentional. Lifestyle shopping editor Elly Leavitt wears her bulkiest shoes to the airport to save suitcase space, rotating between bright red Adidas SL72s and a navy Converse high-top she pairs with poplin skirts. Shopping market editor Andrea Zendejas is eyeing Stan Smiths for summer travel — lightweight, seamlessly paired with dresses or denim, no second-guessing required.

For the comfort-first camp, Onitsuka Tiger's Mexico 66 earned two separate mentions. Beauty shopping editor Kiana Murden reaches for hers specifically on days requiring exceptional comfort, citing the fit as ideal for hours of walking. Beauty shopping writer Conçetta Ciarlo credits the arch support and the break-in factor — once worn in, they slip on without retying, which makes TSA lines considerably less miserable. Marketing and production manager Kasey Busiel went full gorpcore with Salomons, hike-free vacation plans and all, because neutral trail shoes add color without requiring an itinerary to justify them.

The through-line across all of it: the best travel sneaker isn't the most technical one — it's the one that keeps working after you land.

Read the original at Vogue.