Dive Brief:

• Athletic shoes that are meant more for the street than the gym are climbing up the fashion ladder, recent sales indicate. Sales of non-performance sneakers rose 5% in the first half of the year to $14.3 billion, up from the 3% increase year over year, according to NPD Group/Consumer Tracking Service.

• It may come as no surprise, considering the rise of “athleisure” clothing being carried by both sportswear companies and traditional fashion retailers. 

• The sneaker obsession in the hip-hop world also looks to be spilling over to a wider consumer base, which could get expensive as specialty dealers snap up new, limited-edition releases only to sell them at outrageous premiums — think Target’s Lilly Pulitzer release, only with Kanye West’s “Yeezy” sneakers for Adidas. 

Dive Insight:

This feels inevitable: The athleisure trend has hit denim jeans and bras, and now could be encroaching on the shoe market. It’s not just that more casual shoes have become more acceptable in a wider range of occasions, like work or church, but also that comfort is in higher demand.

That could mean that even more fashionable shoes — those high heels well outside the current sneaker trend — may have to get more comfortable as a result, experts told CNBC.

"I think we're getting spoiled," Jaime Barr, footwear and accessories editor at trend forecasting firm WGSN, told CNBC. "Now that people are used to having comfort features worked into their shoes it's going to be really hard to go back.”

That’s been clearly happening this fall, with several retailers, including Target, American Eagle Outfitters, and Uniqlo, among others, pushing new lines of jeans that they all say have more stretch. 

And while dressier shoes may have to be more comfortable, those casual shoes may have to become more snazzy. Consumers are wearing their shoes in places and with clothes that call for a certain level of style, and designers like Kanye West are delivering.

That’s a recipe for a heated retail segment.