We normally don’t love Mr. Porter here at Clever, they are a tad unrealistic in their style. Any menswear editorial that also sells shoes like these $1,100 Balenciaga’s has lost some credibility in our minds.

But….

The idea of predicting the next big sneaker is always fun to debate. In this article, they believe the Adidas Samba is probably not going to be de-throned anytime soon. They also believe that Gorpcore and more technical shoes are still relevant (wow, brilliant). They also say that the sneaker hypefactory may be waning as the original snearhead generation is nearing their mid-thirtys and finally has to wear loafers.

The one thing we can predict here at Clever, is that if everyone is flocking for the one exact same shoe, then it may not be for the shoe itself, but rather for the appeal of owning the “it” show. And in that case, we’ll be taking our business elsewhere.

Mr. Porter - What is Menswear’s Next Big Sneaker?

Payntr golf made waves recently when Jason Day signed on as both their newest brand ambassador AND financial investor. But this team has been making incredibly beautiful golf shoes since 2020 from their hometown roots in Oregon.

We like Payntr’s take on golf shoes because they find a perfect mix of athletic shoe and golf. They’re not taking a running shoe and turning into a golf shoe like Brooks and Nike. They’re not taking a traditional golf show and giving it a modern sole like Footjoy. They sit somewhere in between and seem to look like what Under Armour could do if they were cool (honestly they look pretty similar to the new Curry 1 shoes). The only knock we’ve heard is they’re quite heavy but hey, at least you won’t slip.

Payntr Golf

Raise your hand if you knew LIV golf teams had General Managers? Raise your other hand if you think it’s weird that Dustin is making this announcement instead of Greg Norman or Yasir? Ok, now raise your 3rd hand if you knew the founder of DJ and AK’s Extracurricular also founded Travis Matthew? OK now put your hands down, nerd.

The LIV stuff is whatever, nobody really cares, but the idea of having a team GM does reinforce the idea that each team is an entertainment brand. If each team really does have autonomy to act different than the other teams, then sweet, now we’re getting into some reasons for fans to actually relate and care about one team vs another. But dear lord, can they hire at least a mid-weight graphic designer? All of LIV branding looks like someone asked ChatGPT to create the name and logo for all 13 teams.

Golf Monthly

We’ve started seeing a few R1S’s around town and must admit they look prettayy prettayyyy sweet. Rivian just announced a smaller version of the R1S, the R2, and you can hold your spot now for the hopeful delivery in 2026. While the R1S has 3 rows of seating and is nearly as big as a Tahoe, the new R2 is on the smaller size, sitting around the size of a Cherokee. We love how the interior looks more like a typical car unlike the ultra-minimal interior of a Tesla.

Rivian

The Chainsmokers flew a little too close to the sun a few years back and have rightfully fizzled back to earth (remember when they were guest pickers on College Gameday?). Now that we’re not hearing their songs on the radio every 5 seconds, it’s nice to hear them back with a new release. Best line of the song? “Drinking skinny margaritas but that a** still fat”. It’s poetry, really.

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