Upgrade Your Summer Shoe Game With the adidas Nizza Platform Sneaker

Christine Flammia
·3 min read

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We are calling it now: adidas’s Nizza platform sneaker is the vibe of the summer. This shoe embodies the understated cool vibe with all of the details of a retro sneaker, but with all of the updates to make it feel modern. While it may have been born out of 1970s basketball, it has left any and all constraints of time and place behind to become a timeless, go-to shoe for sneaker lovers everywhere.

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If we work from the bottom up, you’ll see first the thick platform sole, which is both a standout on the shoe and a huge trend for this summer. Platform sneakers are everywhere and they live up to the hype: they’re as comfy as you would want your sneakers to be, but the dramatic platform gives it style oomph (that bigger platform even brings with it extra underfoot cushioning.). It is a shoe for fashion, not for fitness. And that’s why we love it.

Traditionally, the Nizza — one of our all-time favorite adidas sneakers — has been made with a canvas upper, which you’ll still mostly see in the versions of it around now. However, adidas will sometimes play with the textures and switch up the all canvas to include some hints of leather or swaths of soft velvet. Yet for summertime dressing, we firmly believe you can’t go wrong with the original all-canvas upper.

The shoe itself is minimalist and easy to wear with its sport-adjacent makeup, inspired mostly from basketball, but with a vulcanized rubber outsole more reminiscent of a skate shoe. The simple silhouette makes it versatile, especially when paired with jeans and joggers for a casual vibe or dressed up with a dress or work pants. You can truly do anything with this shoe. More neutral colorways are historically easier to pull off in more put-together settings like, say, the office. If you’re shopping for that polished look, go for the styles in all white or the white and black combo. There are also some colors that might be new to your footwear wardrobe, but you can treat them just as neutrals, too, like light grays and cream canvas.

Nizzas tend to be pretty clean, except for a few specific drops — not unlike the festival-inspired one that’s exclusively available to purchase through AdiClub. These newcomers stick with a white platform base and three stripes, but the upper is a bright mix of pink, blue, purple, and orange striping. They are fun, they are bold, and they belong in and around every summer activity you’ll be doing outside the next few months.

Credit: Courtesy of Adidas
Credit: Courtesy of Adidas

Courtesy of Adidas


Buy:
adidas Nizza Platform
$75


The simplicity of the shoe makes it fun to style, too — even the bolder colorways and prints. Platform sneakers like these have a sporty look, which you’re welcome to lean into with leggings (a la Rebel Wilson), bike shorts, or the exercise dress you are now wearing every day of the week. Kate Hudson goes hard on the low-key look by pairing dramatic platform sneakers with loose sweatpants for a comfy outfit that is effortlessly cool. But, we also love them with dress pants and sundresses. They look cute and elevated with anything you wear. Plus, they let you feel like you just threw on a very good outfit without having to overthink it. Look to Hailey Bieber in platform adidas and Ivy Park dresses as an example; her off-duty style is always that kind of didn’t-try-too-hard-still-look-cool-as-hell feel. However you wear it, the Nizza is one timeless adidas shoe that you won’t regret adding your shoe closet. 

adidas Nizza Platform Sneakers

Credit: Courtesy of Adidas
Credit: Courtesy of Adidas

Courtesy of Adidas


Buy:
adidas Nizza Platform Sneakers
$75


adidas Nizza Platform Sneakers

Credit: Courtesy of Adidas
Credit: Courtesy of Adidas

Courtesy of Adidas


Buy:
adidas Nizza Platform Sneakers
$75


adidas Nizza Platform Sneakers

Credit: Courtesy of Adidas
Credit: Courtesy of Adidas

Courtesy of Adidas


Buy:
adidas Nizza Platform Sneakers
$70


adidas Nizza Platform Sneakers

Credit: Courtesy of Adidas
Credit: Courtesy of Adidas

Courtesy of Adidas


Buy:
adidas Nizza Platform Sneakers
$85


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