Were 2016 sneakers really that good? Recently I was back at the old Complex office, reminiscing while grabbing a latte from the underground Dunkin’ Donuts. I put up so many views at Time & Life, they almost gave me my own wing there.
2016, though—what a year in sneakers. Did it age as well as we remember it?
There’s a couple classic Jordans from that year: the Bred 1s, the True Blue 3s. I’m still wearing mine ten years later. There’s the Just Don x Air Jordan 2—we had Don C. on Sneaker Shopping. He was flexing for the camera.
What else was happening in 2016? The Uptempo—we talked about it last week—came back out. A Pharrell NMD also came out too. The Air Mag came back—do we even have to talk about them?
What about the Y-3 PureBOOST? I call them the Jerry Lorenzo 1s. He made them go triple platinum. They should’ve gave him stock in the company.
Let’s talk about the Yeezy 350 V2. Do you know what these did in 2016? They put the Roshe Run out to pasture, that’s what.
Ronnie Fieg brought back the Linen Air Force 1s, with the Futura special packaging. We had a dinner in Miami. The sushi was expensive that night.
What about the Hand-Dyed Indigo Flyknit Racer? One hundred made by Nike in 2016, in celebration of the Tokyo Olympics. No one got them*.
We had the very first ComplexCon Sneaker of the Year panel in 2016. It would go on to be the most talked-about hour in sneakers—check TMZ. I’m still wearing the same Gretzky jersey—the great one then, the great one now.
One shoe, though, took over that conversation: the Acronym x Nike Air Presto. The T-shirt sizing that Tobie Hatfield designed—Errolson Hugh took it, and started putting, like, cords and zippers on it. I was wearing them nonstop, and they held up. It even made John Mayer shelve the Visvim for a few months.
Listen, you see the memes: “Is 2026 the new 2016?” I hope it is. All I see online is complaining: “Oh, sneakers are cooked.” Don’t give up on sneakers. We’re still here.
ComplexCon, and the 10th Sneaker of the Year Panel, is coming. Get your tickets. October 3rd and 4th—I’ll see you in L.A.
Watch new episodes of ‘What Now with JLP’ every Thursday on Complex.
Shop ComplexCon Tickets and New Sneakers on Complex
*Well, I got them.
