These Onitsuka Tiger Trainers Are The Ultimate Cool-Girl Sneaker For Summer

If you're looking for a new pair of trainers, good luck to you. Seriously, there's so much choice and so many 'trending' sneakers that it will probably take you until Christmas, or maybe just Halloween, to find the right pair and, by then, it will probably have gone off the boil and you'll be right back to square one. Happily, however, there's a runner that not only has cult status thanks to a film made in 2003, but is from the kind of everywhere-but-somehow-under-the-radar brand that people will know but they might not know. You know?

It could only be Onitsuka Tiger. The Japanese sneaker brand shot to fame in the early '00s when a specific trainer in a very specific shade appeared in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (although the label was founded in 1949). The Mexico 66 in bright yellow with black stripes has become as synonymous with 'the Bride', Uma Thurman's character, as her sword - and it's this version that you've probably been seeing everywhere, from underneath pub-garden benches to the Tube.

Michelle Li, the stylist and writer based in New York, paired hers with a white tee, baggy shorts and a translucent and pleasingly turquoise mac last summer, adding chunky socks to give the sleek trainer some bulk. Amaka Hamelijnck, influencer and podcaster, styled her sunflower trainers with a butter yellow co-ord, a baseball cap and a leather jacket, which pretty much seems like the perfect outfit formula right now (the leather might be overkill in this weather - and you know and we never get to say that!).

Of course, yellow is just the first and most recognisable frontier of the Mexico 66. You've also got silver, which is another one you'll start noticing in the wild once you've clocked it, as well as black, white and a host of other neutrals with subtly contrasting stripes (Hailey Bieber repped the black-and-white version on a recent holiday).

So if you like a trainer that feels light on the foot and teams with everything from baggy trousers to knee-length shorts, bubble-hemmed skirts, and minidresses (you heard me), what are you waiting for?

Shop: Our Favourite Onitsuka Tiger Trainers

Natalie Hammond is senior fashion news editor at Grazia. She loves winter, hates summer and can often be found writing about the weather (and what on earth to wear).