Diadora Figured Out What Other Running Shoes Get Wrong

I have a problem: I have started judging running shoes by whether I would wear them with jeans.This feels like a strange thing to admit in a running publication, where we’re supposed to care about foam compounds and heel-to-toe drops and whether a shoe can survive 500 miles without disintegrating. I care about those things too, as do all of our editors. But somewhere along the way, I noticed that most performance shoes look so aggressively like running shoes that I can’t picture wearing them unless I'm actively running (sometimes I’ll meet friends out in the city after my workout sessions, and I’m conscious of my appearance if I show up in chunky, technical running shoes). Diadora keeps making shoes that make me think, wait, I would actually wear that.The Italian brand, which was founded in 1948, has been pushing harder into serious running the last few years. It signed University of Oregon star Simeon Birnbaum to an NIL deal earlier this year (a notable move given how synonymous Oregon is with Nike) and Villanova’s Marco Langon followed. Diadora's current lineup of styles include everything from everyday trainers to the carbon-plated Gara Carbon 3. So, it’s safe to say this is not a brand making shoes for people who only want to jog around the block and bask in Italian aesthetics while doing it (though, you certainly can).But it’s also not abandoning the thing it has always done well: make sport look like life. Founded in Caerano di San Marco, Italy, Diadora started out hand-making hiking and work boots before moving into sports footwear in the 1960s. Its Heritage line has spent years turning that athletic archive (a vintage track shoe called the Equipe, a 1984 basketball model called the MI Basket) into shoes people wear for no athletic reason at all. For example, Runner's World’s senior news editor, Theo Kahler, introduced his girlfriend to the brand, and she now wears the Tokyo leather sneaker in pink for leisure. Diadora has been creating in the space between sport and style long before the rest of us started calling it a trend.The Atomo Star is where that history and the new performance push actually meet. Runner's World editor Cat Bowen tested it as a daily trainer and found it comfortable, stable, and energetic, thanks to Diadora's Anima N2 supercritical EVA foam, which showcases a 6-millimeter drop, a broad base, a smooth ride with no carbon plate. It’s also a genuinely good-looking shoe. It has the sculpted shape of a modern performance sneaker without looking like its sole objective was to appear as fast as possible. The branding is restrained, and you can wear it after your run without looking like you forgot to change.The Corsa makes the same case with less fuss: a proper energetic daily trainer whose shape reads a little more like a lifestyle sneaker next to some of the maximalist trainers currently taking over the sport. And the Cellula 2 is where Diadora decided running shoes are allowed to have a little fun; Earth Red and Daffodil, Lapis and Harbor Blue, colorways you don't always expect to find in the running section. Underneath the fun, it’s still a serious neutral trainer built for quick miles and long runs: 5-millimeter drop, 38-millimeter stack, wide platform, the same Anima N2 foam.Most performance running shoes have two settings along the lines of Run Me and Do Not Wear Me Anywhere Else. Diadora’s shoes feel designed by someone who understands you have a life after the Garmin gets paused, which tracks, since the brand has never been only a running company. Its history spans soccer, tennis, cycling, basketball, track, and more.Because runners, apparently, cannot just have nice things for running anymore. We wear them to the coffee shop, the grocery store, the train, dinner if the restaurant isn’t too nice. And if I’m wearing the same pair of shoes for all of that, I’d rather not look like I’m perpetually eight minutes from a tempo run.Which brings me back to my problem: I care—more than I probably should—whether my running shoes look good when I’m not running. Your feet don’t care if the colorway works with your jeans at mile 14, but when a shoe gives you the cushioning and stability you actually need and still looks good enough that you don’t want to take it off the second your run is over, I call that a win-win situation.All of this to say, I’d wear the Atomo Star with jeans.Josiah is the Digital Content Producer for the commerce team at Popular Mechanics, Best Products, Runner’s World, and Bicycling Magazine. He also writes for “BIO Buys”—a column on Biography.com—giving readers the lowdown on what products their favorite celebs are using. In another life, Josiah was an editor at ThePioneerWoman.com, where he sharpened his expertise on all things lifestyle, food-news, and entertainment. Outside work related matters, he’s a fan of Studio Ghibli films, unimportant reality TV drama, and melancholy Lorde songs.