Tabi shoes are everywhere in 2026 — and the socks came first

The split toe used to be the thing you had to explain. A Margiela in-joke. A shoe people either understood instantly or found genuinely baffling. For about thirty-five years it lived in that narrow space between fashion insider and total confusion invoking a lot of, Why Tabi?

Not any more. In 2026 the split toe is on trainers, on the high street, on red carpets, and all over your instagram and tiktok feed. It went mainstream, and it happened fast.

Here’s why it happened and the part that is being left out, which is that the sock came first, by about five hundred years.

The year the split toe went mainstream

The red carpet moment

In February, Margot Robbie stepped out during the Wuthering Heights press tour in white Maison Margiela split-toe boots with a clear block heel. Photographed in Paris, covered everywhere, and immediately the subject of the internet’s favourite argument about whether tabi is brilliant or bizarre.

Source: W Magazine

That coverage did something useful. It put the word “tabi” in front of millions of people who had never heard it, and it did so attached to a look that even the sceptics admitted was striking.

The trainers changed everything

The red carpet gets the headlines. The trainers are what actually moved the needle.

Nike revived the Air Rift — a 1996 split-toe running shoe — in collaboration with SKIMS. When the world’s biggest sportswear brand puts the split toe into a mass-market collab, that’s not a niche fashion story any more. That’s a shoe your friend’s sister owns or even better, yourself now!

Then came the rest of it. Kiko Kostadinov’s ASICS collaborations — the ILARGI FF and the Lyasa FF — took direct inspiration from the 1950s tabi marathon shoes that Japanese runners actually competed in. Japanese denim label FDMTL put a tabi toe on the Vans Authentic in indigo boro with sashiko stitching. Margiela and Reebok reworked the Classic Leather and the Club C. Suicoke made a leather tabi surf sneaker.

Five or six serious releases in a single year, from brands with nothing in common except that they all decided the split toe belonged on a trainer.

And then it hit the UK high street

This is the part that matters most for anyone in the UK.

Schuh — actual schuh, on actual British high streets — started stocking a Danish split-toe brand this year, across ballerinas, mules and trainers. That’s the clearest signal there is. A style stops being a subculture the moment you can walk into a shopping centre and buy it.

The split toe is no longer something you order from a fashion boutique and explain to your colleagues. It’s available on your lunch break.

Why it stuck this time

Trends come and go. This one has a few things going for it that most don’t.

It isn’t new, and that’s the point

Tabi has existed in Japan for over a thousand years. Margiela put it on a runway in 1989. The ASICS marathon shoes are from the 1950s. Nike’s Air Rift is from 1996.

Nothing about 2026 invented the split toe. What 2026 did was finally give it enough simultaneous visibility that it crossed over. A design with that much history behind it doesn’t vanish when the algorithm moves on — it settles.

We’ve written before about why tabi isn’t a trend. This year is the evidence.

Divisive is a feature

The tabi gets called fashion’s most divisive shoe, and people online have had a lot of fun with the cloven hoof comparisons.

Good. Divisive means people have an opinion. A shoe nobody argues about is a shoe nobody notices, and the tabi has now spent thirty-five years being argued about while quietly gaining ground every single year. That’s not a shoe struggling to win people over. That’s a shoe with staying power.

And the discourse itself is doing the marketing. Every debate about whether tabi looks strange introduces it to someone who then can’t stop seeing it.

It actually works

Underneath the fashion story there’s a functional one. Separating the big toe from the other four lets the foot splay the way it naturally wants to. It gives you more grip and more feel through the foot. It’s why Japanese construction workers have worn jika-tabi for over a century, and why those 1950s marathon runners were racing in them.

The design was solving a problem long before it was making a statement.

The bit nobody’s saying: the socks came first

Here’s what gets lost in every trend piece about tabi shoes.

The sock is the original. Tabi socks predate tabi shoes by around five hundred years. They were made to work with thonged sandals — zōri and geta — where a conventional sock simply doesn’t function. The split toe was a solution to a real problem, and the footwear followed.

So when people describe tabi shoes as a fashion invention, they’ve got the order backwards. Margiela didn’t invent the split toe. He borrowed it from a sock.

Which leads to the genuinely useful point for anyone reading this in 2026: you do not need tabi shoes to wear tabi socks.

What this means if you’re buying

If you already own split-toe shoes

Wear tabi socks with them. Not because you have to, but because they work better. Here's how to wear tabi socks with tabi shoes.

A tabi sock follows the internal shape of a split-toe shoe rather than fighting it, so the fit sits properly instead of bunching at the division. It takes the edge off the break-in period on a stiff leather pair. And it keeps sweat off the lining, which matters a lot on light-coloured leather.

We’ve covered this properly in our guide to wearing tabi socks with tabi shoes if you want the full detail.

If you don’t own split-toe shoes

You’re not missing out on anything. Tabi socks work with everything.

Sandals and thong sandals, obviously — that’s what they were made for. Birkenstocks and clogs, where the sock is on full display. Trainers, loafers, boots, Mary Janes. Barefoot and wide-toe-box shoes, which are a natural match because they’re built around exactly the same idea of letting toes spread.

Bare feet at home, too. Once you’ve felt your toes move independently, ordinary socks feel oddly restrictive.

The shoes are the loud version of the split toe. The socks are the version you can wear every single day, with everything you already own, for the price of a sandwich and a coffee.

The cheapest way into the trend

A pair of Margiela tabi boots is an investment. A pair of tabi socks is not (except perhaps well made ones which you can find here at Tabi Co.).

If the split toe has caught your eye this year and you want to see whether it’s for you, start at the sock. It’s the original form of the design, it’s the most wearable, and it costs a fraction of the entry price.

Where we sit in all this

We’re a UK shop that sells tabi socks and nothing else. That’s the whole business!

It means we are always paying close attention to the split toe, and it means every pair we stock has been chosen specifically for the design rather than added as a novelty line alongside everything else.

Some of our range is curated directly from Japan, where tabi has been knitted for over a thousand years. The rest is made with excellent, long-established manufacturing partners we’ve chosen for their skill with this specific construction. Every product page lists exact composition and construction, so you always know what you’re getting.

2026 has been a very good year to be the UK’s tabi sock specialist. We intend to be here long after the trend pieces stop being written.

Frequently asked questions

Are tabi shoes still in style in 2026? More than ever. This year brought Margiela split-toe boots on the Wuthering Heights press tour, tabi trainers from Nike and SKIMS, ASICS, Vans and Reebok, and split-toe footwear arriving on the UK high street at schuh. It’s the biggest year the design has had since Margiela introduced it in 1989.

What are tabi shoes? Footwear with a split toe that separates the big toe from the other four. The design comes from Japanese tabi socks, which date back over a thousand years, and was brought into Western fashion by Maison Margiela.

Do you need tabi socks to wear tabi shoes? You don’t need them, but they work better. A tabi sock matches the internal shape of a split-toe shoe so it sits properly instead of bunching, softens the break-in on stiff leather, and protects the lining from sweat.

Can you wear tabi socks with normal shoes? Absolutely, and most of our customers do. Tabi socks work with trainers, loafers, boots, sandals, clogs and barefoot shoes. The split toe is a comfort feature first — the shoes are optional.

Why are tabi shoes so divisive? The split toe reads as unfamiliar at first glance, and unfamiliar things get strong reactions. Thirty-five years on, the design has kept growing regardless — which suggests the people arguing about it are outnumbered by the people quietly buying it.

Where can I buy tabi socks in the UK? Here! We’re a UK-based specialist selling tabi socks exclusively, with UK delivery and full composition details on every product.

The split toe isn’t going anywhere

A thousand years in Japan. Thirty-five years on Western runways. And in the last year or so, finally, on the high street.

The shoes are having their moment, and it’s well deserved. But the sock is the original, the most versatile, and the easiest place to start.

Browse the range, and see what all the fuss is about. Not sure where to start? Here's how to choose your tabi socks.