From June 16 to 19, 2026, and for the second year running, Pro-Keds took part in Pitti Immagine Uomo 110, the Florence menswear fair that has stood for decades as a benchmark for international men’s fashion. For the brand founded in Boston in 1949, the presence at Pitti was not just another date on the calendar, but a symbolic moment: the preview of the Spring/Summer 2027 collection and the story of a brand that, three quarters of a century on, is making itself heard again.
Pro-Keds at Pitti Immagine Uomo 110
At Pitti Uomo, Pro-Keds previewed the SS27 collection, built around the brand’s historic silhouettes. American performance sneakers, reworked today with refined materials and details designed for a contemporary aesthetic, able to speak both to those who know the brand’s heritage and to a new audience.
Tying the models together is the “everyday pro” manifesto, celebrating those who face their daily challenges with passion, determination and authenticity — “like a Pro.” Conceived for a broad and far-reaching community, the SS27 collection is its concrete expression, developed around three positioning pillars.
The Pro-Keds SS27 collection at Pitti Uomo
Made in Italy: the Royal Plus capsule
Made in Italy is the starting point, with the Royal Plus model at its core: an exclusive capsule crafted in collaboration with Italian manufacturer Besneakers, Besneakers, which signs its hand-finished soles and treads, paired with an ultra-soft leather upper with precision stitching and, in the women’s styles, glitter detailing.
Core & Urban: the iconic silhouettes and the new models
The second pillar, Core & Urban, brings back to center stage the silhouettes that wrote the brand’s history. Royal Classic, born on American basketball courts, remains the essential staple of the Pro-Keds wardrobe, with a suede or leather upper and its iconic red and blue side inserts. Racer 77, inspired by the spirit of the original 1977 T/Racer, returns today with breathable nylon and suede overlays, in new materials and colors such as satin and mesh, designed for those after a more dynamic shoe with bolder colors. Sky, a 1980s basketball shoe, is reinterpreted as a lifestyle sneaker, keeping the original details that defined its identity: a padded collar and the unmistakable double side stripe.
Rounding out the pillar, two new models reflect the brand’s more urban and contemporary spirit: Uptown, which reimagines the Royal aesthetic with a street twist, drawing on 1980s and 1990s New York and its world of sport, music and urban culture; and Skate, heir to the Skate Park Plus created in the 1970s in collaboration with James O’Mahoney, founder of the U.S. Skateboard Association and the World Skateboard Association.
Essentials: the sporting heritage of Pro-Keds
Completing the lineup is the Essentials line, which reinterprets the brand’s many sporting legacies. Field King, inspired by the original model launched for the New York Jets, brings the spirit of American football and team sport into the collection. Court Ace is a reinterpretation of one of the brand’s first tennis shoes, dating back to 1978 and innovative at the time for its comfort and sponge inner construction. Intrepid, finally, is the ultimate expression of Pro-Keds’ vulcanized construction, which gives it grip, flexibility and structure.
Pro-Keds at Pitti Immagine Uomo: the previous editions
The SS27 collection is part of a path the brand has been building for some time. Pro-Keds had already made its official debut at the fair with the Octagonal Hall in the Monumental Area of Fortezza da Basso for the SS26 collection, presenting an immersive experience that blended sneakers, art and technology into a new lifestyle narrative. The June 2026 appearance was therefore the natural continuation of that dialogue with the fair, confirming Pitti as a central stage in the brand’s international relaunch strategy.
The restart from Italy: the Rome flagship store
At Pitti Immagine Uomo, Pro-Keds brings a renewed vision, able to reconnect its American sporting heritage with a contemporary lifestyle perspective and an increasingly broad international presence.
Italy plays a central role in this journey. After opening the Milan showroom in September 2025, Pro-Keds opened its first single-brand store in April 2026, at Via del Babuino 192 in Rome, in the heart of the capital’s luxury shopping district. A space conceived as a living laboratory: a place to build community, host events and gather direct feedback from the market, which the brand sees as the starting point of its European relaunch.
Pro-Keds going international
Pitti Uomo thus fits into a wider design that sees the brand strengthening on an international level: today Pro-Keds is present in more than 250 points of sale worldwide, stocked in Italy by boutiques such as Biffi, Gente Roma, Dell’Oglio and FlowRun, and in Europe and the Middle East through retailers such as Smets, The Corner, Beymen, Level Shoes and Ounass. In Asia the brand’s entry is recent but already supported by strategic partners such as B1OCK, Lane Crawford and Tmall in China and Hong Kong, while it is also taking its first steps in the Korean market; in the United States, the brand’s home country, Pro-Keds is meanwhile rebuilding its presence.
The Pro-Keds campaign with Jamel Shabazz
Strengthening the bond between the brand’s past and present is also the new campaign by Jamel Shabazz, the photographer who has documented New York street culture since the 1980s. After an earlier collaboration with the brand, Shabazz returns to work with Pro-Keds on a project shot in New York’s Lower East Side, built around the return of some of the models featured in the brand’s historic campaigns.
Community: the beating heart of the brand
There is a common thread running through every stage of this journey, and it is the community that has built up around the iconic brand over the years. Pro-Keds is never just a sneaker brand: it is part of a cultural landscape that, from the playing fields to the streets of New York, has run through generations of creative communities who have made it part of their everyday lives.
The Milan showroom was born as a space for direct dialogue with its people, designed for events and cultural activations and not only for product presentation. The choice to collaborate again with Jamel Shabazz moves in the same direction: telling the brand’s story through the people, places and stories that made it authentic, before the product itself.
Pitti Immagine Uomo confirmed the presence of this element: a meeting place not only for producers and buyers, but also for enthusiasts, who during the days of the event took an active part in the activities organized at the Fortezza da Basso stand. In the Pro-Keds spaces there was an air of genuine community, made up of those who work on the brand every day and those who, quite simply, identify with it; the same energy that has always traveled with Pro-Keds, from Florence to Rome, from Milan to New York.
