Scarosso
While perhaps better known for its luxurious driving shoes and elegant loafers, Italian brand Scarosso also offers an excellent line in smart sneakers.
Founded in 2009, each of Scarosso’s designs blends traditional techniques with a modern design sensibility, resulting in high quality trainers that feel as luxurious as they look.
North 89
A seamless marriage of beautiful design and utilitarian practicality is what North 89 delivers in its refined sneakers.
Crafted from fine Italian leather and suede, and handmade in Portugal, this four-year-old brand takes inspiration from Scandinavian weather conditions and designs its footwear for an active lifestyle using innovative materials to combat the elements.
Koio
This five-year-old brand promises to add ‘European sensibility and quality to American ambition and attitude’ with all its products. The result is a line of sneakers crafted in Italy with the express purpose of making the wearer feel comfortable and well put-together wherever they happen to be.
C.QP
Founded in Stockholm in 2014, C.QP is one of the most exciting mono-brands out there. With just eight designs in its collection, and five of these being sneakers, C.QP boasts laser focus and incredible attention to detail without sacrificing on choice.
Oliver Cabe
Founded in 2016 as a buzzy direct-to-consumer brand, Oliver Cabell is now part of the GJ Shop family. Focusing on simplicity, quality construction and timeless design, the brand only works with high-quality, enduring materials, from Margom outsoles to ethically sourced Italian leathers.
Uniform Standard
Founded in 2018 by a collaboration of designers with more than 15 years’ experience creating sneakers for high profile brands, Uniform Standard offers design expertise coupled with a strong ethical and sustainable approach.
Every pair is created using leather from tanneries with gold-level Leather Working Group certification while the outsoles, footbeds and insole boards are made using a minimum of 70 percent recycled materials.
Unseen Footwear
London-based Unseen Footwear does what it says on the tin—sneakers for those who recognise true style lies not in bold colours and brash logos but in understated luxury.
Unbranded except for a subtle tonal embossment on the tongue, the brand’s minimalist sneakers are designed with British sensibility and handcrafted in Italy.