Man About Town checks in on the rise of bouldering-style sneakers.
Climbing is ballsy, dangerous, and looks good. And so does the sloping stealthy footwear you use to do it. So much so, it’s leaving its mark on sneaker design.
Among the poppy leather blazers and swishy trousers, LOEWE’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez cooked-up a road-ready take on climbing sneakers in their debut Spring/Summer 2026 collection: streamlined, skinny, and with an asymmetrical lacing system. Japanese menswear label White Mountaineering nodded to 1970s escapism in its SS26 offering, with models wearing old-school outdoor gear, including climbing-adjacent footwear. Independent skate brand Village PM looks to bouldering shoes in its designs, specifically with a grippy rubber band that covers the base of the upper. And Our Legacy’s Klove sneaker uses a lacing system spanning to the toe, bringing the full shoe adjustability of bouldering footwear into its stealth punk orbit. But why are sneakers looking to climbing shoes for inspiration?
Function has historically been a core principle of men’s clothing and accessories design. “Climbing footwear has influenced sneaker design because it carries a very pure, utility-first honesty. In menswear that’s always where new ideas start. The same way military gear became bomber jackets, or cargo shorts and aviation equipment became sunglasses, climbing shoes offer a niche functional language that trickles into everyday design,” says Phipps Founder and climber Spencer Phipps. “They’re also surprisingly high-end objects. Most people don’t realise climbing shoes are produced in the same Italian factories that make some of the world’s best footwear. Brands like La Sportiva and Scarpa use premium materials because the sport destroys shoes fast. You need durability, precision, and craftsmanship at a level most sneakers don’t come close to.”
Via @whitemountaineering_official
Climbing shoes are designed to handle high-pressure environments. They’re made for complex foot holds, hence the sometimes sloping and slimmed-down shape and abrasive surfaces. And it requires some work to make that into something that guys want to wear when they’re not climbing. “Climbing shoes are super interesting. You cannot walk in them, so adaptation [needs] to be done,” says Village PM co-founder Basile Lapray, who has worked in footwear design at Salomon and All Triangles footwear development studio, crafting high-quality bespoke shoes for mountaineers. For him, the most respectable design is justified by purpose.
Via @spencerphipps
Take Village PM’s ‘1 PM’ sneaker which pulls on climbing footwear’s tech and shape, incorporating it into a vulcanised trainer, sold in skate stores and high-end boutiques like The Broken Arm in Paris and London’s newly opened Kith outpost. “Sneakers have already explored the running space and the basketball space. Climbing offers otherness,” says Phipps. “The downturned toes, the tensioned lines, the rubber-wrapped constructions; all of it creates shapes and detailing that feel new in the lifestyle sneaker world.”
Function is one factor, but there’s more to the fashion appeal of mountaineering-inspired footwear. Unlike military and workwear design features, climbing shoes are used for escapism and recreation. For founder of Instagram design page and studio Archived Dreams Héctor P. Quintanilla III, it might indicate “that there’s an underlying subconscious yearning to feel more connected to nature, especially coming from those living in big cities.”
There’s the subcultural side to climbing to factor in as well. The sport rose in popularity in the 1970s, closely associated with hippie culture and the idea of ditching societal norms to be more in-tune to nature. This was reflected through a care-free attitude and approach to dressing, which included long hair and baggy clothing. And footwear and equipment needed to carry out this activity, can show your commitment to the sport like a badge of honour – a counter-cultural membership card communicated through fashion.
Via @village_pm
“It’s a gear-heavy subculture. Fashion people love objects, accessories and other shiny items, and climbing has all of that baked in. The shoes, the chalk bags, the carabiners – all of it scratches that ‘functional accessory’ itch,” says Phipps. “But it’s also a social thing. In urban environments, climbing gyms are community hubs. In the same way ski or surf culture does a mix of style, sport, and romance. It’s a way to meet people, it’s a healthy habit, and it offers a whole visual world to tap into. And like any good subculture, climbing has a very defined personality. It’s quirky, a little crunchy, and full of interesting people. It’s a sport with its own style ecosystem, and that’s always going to draw attention.”
The subcultural appeal makes for fertile territory when it comes to footwear design. A 2004 collaboration between Stone Island and Sportiva regularly appears on menswear mood board pages as a beacon of ahead-of-its-time cool. It launched before climbing’s surge in popularity. Now, with a bigger interest in the sport, thanks to a post-Covid boom, social media-fuelled appeal, and outdoor sneakers being as a longstanding hangover of the gorp core trend (where technical outdoor clothing seeped into the menswear psyche of 2017-2022), the appetite for the sneakers is strong.
As for what it all says about where we’re at in footwear in 2025, “[the rise in climbing-inspired sneakers] shows how people are always looking for uniqueness and are open to hybrids in footwear design. There’s always a crossover between performance footwear into lifestyle footwear and it’s those translations that people often find interesting,” says Myles O’Meally, founder of Areté, a product and spatial creation studio based in Amsterdam.
So why are alpine-esque sneakers on the way up? Because climbing has the solid, functional properties that menswear has traditionally leant into, but with something extra; they’re tied to escape and subcultural belonging, and that brings its own unique visual world. “All of it feels slightly outsider, almost rebellious,” says Phipps. “There’s a playful goofiness to the aesthetic that makes it stand out.”
