Summer is really all about products and paraohs and what to put on your feet. Sneakers are still major hooligans in summer style dilemmas. Sadly too hot for boots, there are just too many things on the sneaker menu these days, and not enough options to keep you from looking like everybody else. On our summer sneaker hunt, we shunned the saturated swoosh and went for something not yet seen on every foot in the street. With the overdone aesthetic of the ubersneaker perched upon those clear giant air bubbles growing thin, finding something new was no easy feat.

Then there was NOSE. We liked the weird name which had not been subjected to previously annoying advertising and test drove them in the Topanga Canyon. They held up well, looked good and gripped the mountainous terrain like pros. The only drawback being that the suede version is a bitch to clean - but other fabrications can be neatly tossed into the washer.

The worst sneaker out there was cool in theory, (front zip with padded velcro overlay) and seemingly sportivo enough - until actually on the foot - when the broken-ankle-in-cast-look took over. This style is available from a surprising number of brands, and we give it a big "no". If the sporty zip look is what you're after and you don't like the surfer-wader rubber soled numbers for street wear, (which, by the way are cool and knock-offs abound), Spiegel catalog surprisingly has a pair of cute, normal, basic, zip top sneaks for about 25 bucks and adds just the right sprinkle of geek-chic, to boot.

For simple folk without airs, K-Swiss just relaunched stateside, and offer about as minimal a sneaker statement that can be made. Available only in brand spanking white, they are the no-brainer - au courant. As with all trends in the making, if they catch on through fall, our stylish eyes will eventually adjust.