How to wear chinos with sneakers

Paulina Kulczycki

If you already have a pair of chinos in your wardrobe, you certainly know that chinos are a fashionable all-rounder. Especially when you’re in a dilemma about whether an event calls for a formal or informal dress code, you can’t go wrong with chinos – after all they can be elegant and casual at the same time. But what if you want to wear chinos in a deliberately casual way? What’s the best way to combine chinos if you want them to look relaxed? The answer is: sneakers, of course. At SANVT, we wanted to give you casual styling tips on how to wear chinos with sneakers!

While it seems quite easy to combine chinos in a smart and elegant way, it seems to be a genuine challenge to make them look casual and relaxed. When you think of outfits with chinos, you probably imagine slightly preppy ones that pair them with polo shirts and oxford shoes rather than with hoodies and Vans, right? Yet even those garments can be perfectly combined with chinos, giving the pants a completely different character – a far more urban, modern and edgy style. Which is exactly what we love about chinos: depending on the cut, colour and combination, these versatile pants can always be reinvented.

And since the right cut is so important for chinos, we have developed our Smart Chino by SANVT with our special fit concept, so that you can choose your chino according to both width and length. This means you can decide for yourself whether you want your chino to be fitted like a tailor-made chino, slim fit, classic or oversized. Depending on the cut you have chosen, the choice of the right shoes plays another very important role in the style of your chino.

For casual looks, we recommend to wear chinos with sneakers – but different sneakers can of course bring out the best in the chino in very different ways. Here, we suggest three of our favourite casual styles that elegantly combine chinos with sneakers:

Sneakers are the best way to style chinos casually.

Chinos with sneakers: Vans

Probably one of the most casual way to style a chino is to combine a pair of wide-cut chinos with white tube socks, Vans and an oversized hoodie. If you’d ask us how to name this style, we would probably go for “90s look with skater vibes”. For this outfit, the fit of the chinos is especially crucial. While we would normally always advise a slim fit chino, a loose, almost oversized chino can work also work well for this look!

Of course, the colour combination is completely up to you. Our tip, however, is to keep this style (almost) all black and monochrome, in other words black Vans, black chinos and a black hoodie – with the accent of white or colourful tube socks. The Hooded Sweatshirt from SANVT is the ideal piece to complement this outfit.

Chinos with sneakers: White Supergas

A combination that looks a little less like a “skater kid”, but still very casual, is to wear a pair of rolled-up slim fit chinos with white tennis sneakers and finish it off with a simple long-sleeved t-shirt. Our favourite white sneakers are Supergas or the classic Stan Smiths from Adidas. Alternatively, we recommend white sneakers from Allbirds or Clae, for a more sustainable choice.

To loosen up the outfit a little, you can add accessories like a cap or a bucket hat. On cooler days, you can also wear this look with a beanie and a casual, open blouson. The heavy and robust Longsleeve T-Shirt by SANVT is the perfect companion for this casual styling – whether in black or white, tucked in or oversized. This casual chino look with white sneakers is perfect for anyone who loves a minimalist look!

Chinos with sneakers: Converse

Let’s move on to a very urban look that looks just as cool on men as it does on women, and that’s an oversized chino with a tucked-in sweatshirt, combined with Converse sneakers. We recommend choosing a wide chino made of a matte material in ochre tones, earthy colours or plain black, wearing a shoelace as a belt, possibly rolling the chinos up and combining them with high-top Converse sneakers (for women, the high-top sneakers also work great with platforms).

You can either wear a tucked-in statement vintage jumper or a simple sweatshirt like The Perfect Sweatshirt by SANVT, also tucked in. Again here, you can play with accessories, such as a fisherman’s beanie cap or a cropped knitted hat. This style definitely breaks the conventional look of chinos and looks extremely stylish and casual no matter the occasion.

The Bottom Line

No matter which of these three looks you go with, you can be sure that you’ve mastered the art of pairing chinos with sneakers. After all, chinos can be combined with so much more than just polo shirts and oxford shoes.

Read here, if you want to know exactly when to wear our chinos (and when not to) and discover The Smart Chino from SANVT in black, dark blue or beige. SANVT’s chinos are handmade in Portugal from a durable mix of Italian yarns and our chinos are sustainable, climate-neutral and fairly produced. In other words: they’re the ideal essential for your chino styles!

Photography by @Chrisfraas