When advertising executives Emily Hodgson and Emilie Riis were fed up with the mainly pink and purple women's trainers on offer, they found themselves envying the men's aisle - the one with darker colourways and cooler styles. So, they decided to use their skills in creative sales to fix that.
Going by the name Purple Unicorn Planet (PUP), the duo created a website featuring a cherry-picked selection of trainers. At first glance, the shoes appear to be for sale. But when you click on your favourite pair it informs you they are men's trainers and are not made in women's sizes.
Their gutsy message, which asks for the coolest trainers to be made available in all women's sizes, was aimed at Nike with the Twitter hashtag #pleasejustdoit). But when the brand replied with a generic inconclusive letter, Reebok stepped in and invited the girls to collaborate on potential future designs.
Take the test:
Stylist got in touch with these tenacious campaigners and asked them to pick their top five women's and men's trainers to buy right now. We then jumbled the order and numbered each shoe.
Browse the gallery of trainers, making a note of the number of the shoe you love and check below to see if men really do get the best trainers.
(Men trainers: 1, 2, 5, 8, 9. Women's trainers: 3, 4, 6, 7, 10)
Words: Sejal Kapadia, Main image: purpleunicornplanet.com homepage
1. Nike Air Force 1 Downtown, Silver
nike.com, £86.03 ($135)
2. Nike Lunar Force 1 City QS
nike.com, £89.74 ($140)
3. New Balance 574 Suede
size.co.uk, £60
4. Nike Air Max 1 Hyperfuse QS
size.co.uk, £115
5. Highs and Lows X Reebok 30th Anniversary CL Leather
highsandlows.net.au (available online soon)
6. Vans Authentic Shoes in Leopard
vans.co.uk, £52
7. Adidas Originals Tech Super 2
size.co.uk, £95
8. Nike Air Force 1 Downtown, 30th Anniversary edition
size.co.uk, £125
9. Nike Lunar Force 1 'Super Hero'
size.co.uk, £105
10. Nike Air Max leather sneakers
net-a-porter.com, £120
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