Best White Sneaker for Menswear Nerds: Moonstar Deck Shoe
These may look like a regular pair of sneakers, but you can’t judge a book by its cover (as cool as it looks). These collaborative kicks are the work of Moonstar in cahoots with Buck Mason. Moonstar has been in the business of footwear for generations upon generations—since 1873 to be exact. They got their footing by making traditional Tabi shoes and evolved to master the vulcanized rubber process. Each shoe uses a unique method which requires the clay-like rubber to be applied by hand before the shoes are literally baked in a kiln. The result is a higher-quality sneaker with more character and soul (heh) than the competition.
Ortiz (yes, again—the guy went through a 5-year-long white sneaker phase) loves his Moonstars because of how comfortable they are—and how beautifully they break in, like a rare pair of vintage sneakers. “These are the kind of sneakers that vintage fiends drop serious cash for at highly curated so-called ‘thrift’ stores,” he says. “The difference is that you don’t have to worry about these crumbling to pieces.” Are they worth twice the price of other alternatives? If you dig slow-made, well-crafted garments with a great story, absolutely.
More White Sneakers We Love
What to Look for in a Great Pair of White Sneakers
If you’re new around these parts, allow us to formally welcome you to the most exuberant, expressive, anything-goes era of menswear yet. (It’s as fun as it sounds.) But if “exuberant”, “expressive”, and “anything-goes”, aren’t the first three terms you think of when you picture white sneakers, well, we’re with you. The platonic white sneaker should still be cool, but it should also be resolutely classic. Timeless. Time-tested. And that matrix is exactly what guided our selection process here, which nods to the buzziest white kicks of the moment, but remains firmly grounded in the silhouettes that have endured, decade after decade, no matter which way the trends tailwinds blow.
Our seven winning picks speak to that tension more ably than we could’ve anticipated. Each of them is as classic as they come, but taken in aggregate, they offer a telling snapshot of the fashion zeitgeist at this very moment. The discourse-dominating Adidas Samba is duly represented, ditto the very online Salomon XT-6, but so is the Converse Chuck Taylor—and Moonstar’s brand new, retro-inspired riff on a charmingly old-school deck shoe.
When it comes to homing in on the white sneakers that feel right for you, lean on the same matrix, and prize longevity above all else. The names in the mix above earned their status (and their spot on this list) through sheer consistency; they might be inadvertently trendy now, but their pedigree means they’ll still look cool, classic, and whatever other adjective you’re chasing a decade down the line.
How We Test and Review Products
Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.
Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.
How We Make These Picks
We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.
