How Viral Moments Boosted the Hottest Shoes of the Season: From Jonathan Bailey’s The Row Flip-flops to Harry Styles’ Prada Sneakers

Six out of 10 of the hottest products on the Q2 2025 Lyst Index are footwear, and some of them landed on the list after viral moments online and celebrity endorsements.

The list features The Row‘s Dune sandals on top, followed by other shoes like Miu Miu’s Faded Suede Loafers in fourth place, Vibram’s V-Soul Flats in fifth, Ancient Greek Sandals’ Iro Ballet Flats in sixth, Isabel Marant’s Bekett sneakers in eighth and Prada’s Collapse Re-Nylon Sneakers in 10th.

While in London in June, Harry Styles paired sporty red shorts with the Prada Collapse Re-Nylon and Suede Elasticized sneakers in a bright yellow and black colorway, promptly making the style go viral among fashion enthusiasts online.

First introduced on the Prada spring 2025 runway, the lightweight sneakers are made of mixed materials, including suede and nylon. The shoes are Prada’s response to the footwear trend of slim, low-profile sneakers like the Puma Speedcat and the Adidas Taekwondo.

The Vibram’s V-Soul Flats followed in the same footsteps, but the controversial shoe went viral thanks to people posting themselves trying on the shoe in thousands of TikTok videos.

The shoes saw a 110 percent increase in traffic on Lyst this quarter, with the V-Soul taking fifth spot in the hottest product list. This shoe also follows the hybridization of performance and fashion footwear, like Puma’s Speedcat Ballet that was popular in the first quarter of the year.

Another hybrid shoe staple made it to the top 10, with Isabel Marant’s Bekett wedge sneakers. The sneaker was first released in 2011 and became a staple for the brand. It quickly gained popularity, becoming a sought-after shoe and a defining style of the early 2010s.

The shoe is the latest style to capitalize on a Y2K-inspired TikTok revival, with demand rising 630 percent year-on-year. Tyla was spotted wearing the sneakers during an appearance on “The Jennifer Hudson Show” in February.

The Row achieved its highest Index ranking to date, inspired by the performance of the brand’s Dune flip-flop, and has become this quarter’s most popular product. Searches for the $690 flip-flop rose by 162 percent this quarter, mostly driven by Jonathan Bailey.

The actor stepped out in a pair of thong sandals during a June press appearance for “Jurassic World Rebirth” alongside costars Mahershala Ali, Scarlett Johansson, and Rupert Friend at The Corinthia Hotel in London.

While some people, like Dwyane Wade, are still detractors of the trend, many celebrities are joining in on the trend, like Lori Harvey who recently wore the Dune flip-flop while out and about in Los Angeles and The Row founder Mary-Kate Olsen.

The boat shoe, which reached peak popularity in the early 2010s, made an appearance at Miu Miu’s spring 2024 runway show. While it appeared in other designer collections from JW Anderson, The Row, Burberry, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Jacquemus and Loewe, it was the suede, logo-embossed Miu Miu boat shoe got the conversation started.

TikTok users began making videos anticipating that the boat shoe would be the shoe of summer 2025, in particular, the Miu Miu faded unlined suede loafers. The shoes went viral on the social media platform, inspiring thousands of reviews and unboxing videos, and people speculating if whether or not the boat shoe would be the style of the season.

In May, sales figures from retail research firm Circana determined that boat shoe sales were seeing an increase. “For the first time in about 10 years, the boat shoe category grew in the first quarter of 2025, with sales up 24 percent versus this time last year,” Beth Goldstein, footwear and accessories advisor at Circana, told FN. “Volume-wise, [boat shoe sales] are still very small – its share has less than 1 percent of the overall fashion category.”

The now-sold-out Iro jelly shoe by Ancient Greek Sandals was a style everyone was talking about this summer. The ballerina shape was created with rubber in a mesh pattern. The jelly shoe featured seashell-inspired and pearl-style beads, giving it a whimsical feel. The jelly shoe trend had been bubbling for some time, in part thanks to The Row releasing their viral $890 Mara Jelly Flats in 2024 and TikTok. Other companies got in on the nostalgic trend, with brands like Skims releasing their own iteration of the beloved shoe.