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AllChinaBuy Spreadsheet Lace Bench

Trainers on the Lace Bench, from chalk white to signal orange

The trainer shelf holds twenty-three cards, each priced as the catalogue showed it on 20 October 2026. Most covers show several colourways at once, which is why the measured swatches under each card often run to five or six colours.

Low, mid and high cuts in a trainer listing

A trainer listing rarely states its cut in words you can search for. The title, often half English and half Chinese, tends to give a model nickname; the cut is something you read off the photo. Low-tops finish below the ankle bone, mids cover it, and high-tops climb past it with a padded collar, like the nine pairs on the cover to the right.

Chinese titles sometimes help: 低帮 means low-cut, 中帮 mid-cut, 高帮 high-cut. When a listing mixes several cuts in one photo grid, the option list on the product page usually separates them, and that option is the line to copy into your order note.

High-tops are the cut most often bought for looks and returned for fit. The collar presses on the ankle in a way a low-top never does, and a size that works in a runner can feel tight around the top. If you are between sizes and buying a high-top, the larger one is usually the safer guess.

Nine high-top trainers in yellow, white, stone, mint, orange and black
High-tops with a padded ankle in nine colours: the cut is obvious from the cover, the exact colour less so.Select the image to open the original size.

One listing, a whole wall of colourways

Seventeen of the twenty-three trainer covers on this shelf are grids showing four or more colour versions in one photo, and two of them squeeze in thirty. Sellers do this to save space, and it is useful for browsing, but it hides one practical problem. The photo is not the item you will receive; it is a menu.

On the product page each colourway is an option with its own name, sometimes descriptive (white grey, 白灰), sometimes a code, sometimes a number that matches the position in the grid. Before you order, find the option whose name matches the pair you want and check whether the option has its own photo. If it does, that photo is a better guide than the grid.

This is also why the swatch sorter can rank a grid card near several different chips. The script measures every colour it finds on the cover, so a grid of sixteen knit runners carries grey, oat, brown and orange swatches at once. The card is a near match for all of them, and the option list decides which one you actually get.

Grid of sixteen knit running shoes, mostly grey and brown, with one orange stripe
Sixteen knit runners on one cover. The orange-striped pair is one option among sixteen, not the default.Select the image to open the original size.

Soles and toe boxes the cover photo skips

A cover is almost always a side view. That shows the colour and the silhouette, but not the two things that most decide comfort: the shape of the toe box seen from above, and the sole seen from below. Listings usually have more photos than the cover; scroll the gallery on the product page for a top-down shot and an outsole shot.

Chunky soles like the lug-edged winter trainers here look heavy in the photo and usually are. A heavy sole changes how a pair travels as well as how it walks: shoes are often the heaviest single item in a parcel, and agents charge shipping by weight or by box size.

For a toe box, look for a photo taken from the front at shoe height. A narrow, pointed front in that photo is a fair warning for wide feet, whatever the listing says.

Six quilted winter trainers in green, black, sand, cream and pale blue on chunky soles
Quilted winter trainers on deep lug soles. The side view sells the look; the gallery shows the tread.Select the image to open the original size.

Trainer sizes and the note you send with them

Most trainer listings sell by European-style numbers, 36 to 45 or so, and many add a foot-length chart as one of the gallery photos. That chart is the useful part. Stand barefoot on plain paper, pencil a mark at your heel and at your longest toe, measure between the marks, find the length on the seller's chart, and order the size it points to rather than converting from a size on a shoe at home.

Write the size and the colour option into the order note in plain words, exactly as they appear on the listing. Agents buy what the order says; a note that reads "size 42, white grey option, as per photo 3" is much harder to get wrong than a bare number.

The cover to the right shows a pair standing on its carton, with a label on the box end. Warehouse photos often include that label, and it is the quickest way to confirm the size that actually arrived before anything is posted.

A white leather trainer with a distressed finish standing on a cardboard box with a label
A pair photographed on its carton. A box label in the warehouse photos settles the size question quickly.Select the image to open the original size.

Trainer cards measured for colour

Every card links to its catalogue listing. Prices are as read on 20 October 2026; the swatches are the colours measured on the cover, largest share first.