Best Summer Sandals UK 2026: The Styles Worth Buying Now
Picking the best summer sandals UK 2026 has to offer is less about chasing a single viral shoe and more about working out what you will actually wear past July. This is the year the high street got genuinely good at sandals – better leather, proper footbeds, less plastic – and the designer trickle-down is more obvious than it has been in several seasons. If you want one pair that earns its keep from a May bank holiday beer garden through to a September city weekend, the decisions you make now matter.
In This Article
- The Fisherman Sandal Is Still the Smartest Buy
- Flat Thong Sandals: The Back-in-Stock Story
- The Low-Heeled Mule Is the Grown-Up Choice
- Chunky Sport Sandals: Still Here, More Refined
- The Dressy Strappy Heel: Buy Once, Wear for Years
- The Best Summer Sandals UK 2026 Under £60: High Street Picks
- What I Would Buy Today
I have been pulling pairs into the office since February, wearing them around east London, and cross-checking what is actually selling. What follows is a practical edit, not a trend dump. Some styles are worth the money, some are better at £35 than £350, and a couple of the loudest shapes should probably stay on the runway. Here is how to shop the best summer sandals UK 2026 has lined up, and where to put your budget.
The Fisherman Sandal Is Still the Smartest Buy
The closed-toe fisherman is doing the heavy lifting again this year and honestly, it deserves it. The shape flatters wide and narrow feet, it hides a pedicure that has seen better weeks, and it pairs with almost anything – midi dresses, denim shorts, tailored linen, the lot. British Vogue has been calling the fisherman a “quiet workhorse” since last summer and the volume on the high street in 2026 suggests the message has landed.
Where to spend: a proper leather pair from Russell & Bromley, Dune or Sezane if you want them to last three summers. Where to save: M&S has a tan leather version under £55 that is genuinely good, and Cos has kept its chunkier black pair in the line-up. Skip anything in glossy faux leather – they crease badly after a few wears and start to look cheap fast.
Styling note: lean into the ugly-pretty tension. Fisherman sandals work hardest when the rest of the outfit is crisp – a tailored Bermuda short, a boxy cotton shirt, a loose trouser. Put them with a floaty dress and you get something more interesting than another pair of flat strappy sandals would give you.
Flat Thong Sandals: The Back-in-Stock Story
The minimalist flat thong has been creeping back into the conversation for two years and in 2026 it is fully here. Think The Row-ish proportions, a single thin leather strap, no hardware. Grazia ran a useful piece last month on why the shape is having a moment again, and the short version is: after three summers of chunky dad sandals, the eye wanted something quieter.
This is the category where the high street has caught up impressively. Arket, Reiss and even Zara have flat thongs that, honestly, look expensive. If you want the real thing, Ancient Greek Sandals and Ateliers have classic shapes that will outlive several trends. The one thing to avoid: anything with a stiff toe post. A blister on day one tells you it is not the pair. Leather will soften, rigid synthetic usually will not.
These sit naturally with a longer hemline or capri trouser – the narrow line of the shoe balances a calf-length cut without adding bulk. They are also the best bet if you are after something that genuinely travels: flat, packable, smart enough for dinner.
The Low-Heeled Mule Is the Grown-Up Choice
If you need a sandal that works at a summer wedding or a smarter lunch, the low kitten-heel or block-heel mule is the most useful shape on the market in 2026. A two-to-four-centimetre heel gives you enough lift to wear with a midi dress without committing to a proper heel you will regret on gravel. Colours that are working: bone, chocolate brown, oxblood. Black still fine, but the browns look more 2026.
For anyone working out what to wear to weddings this summer, the mule is a better buy than a traditional courtroom-style heel. I wrote more about this in our summer wedding guest dressing guide, but the logic is simple: you can wear a neutral low mule four times a month through August. A silver strappy heel gets worn once, maybe twice.
High street standouts: Mango’s leather kitten-heel mule, Whistles for something slightly more polished, Charles & Keith if you want the look at a lower price. Dune and Kurt Geiger have both done good versions but check the heel height – some have crept up to five centimetres and lose the point of the shape.
Chunky Sport Sandals: Still Here, More Refined
The ugly-on-purpose sporty sandal – Teva, Chaco, Adidas Adilette Ayoon, Nike ACG – has not gone anywhere, but 2026’s versions are cleaner. Less Velcro, slimmer straps, more tonal colour. If you tried the trend in 2024 and found it too aggressive, the current iteration is worth another look.
Where this shape earns its place: travel, city weekends, anything that involves more than 10,000 steps and a tube journey. According to The Guardian’s fashion desk, sales of technical sandals have outpaced traditional summer footwear for two years running on the UK market, which tracks with what I see on the street in east London every weekend. See: The Guardian’s fashion coverage for a wider view on the shift.
The mistake people make with this category is trying to dress them up. They work with shorts, cargo trousers, relaxed denim and slouchy dresses. They do not work with anything tailored. If you want something that straddles both worlds, look at the slimmer Teva Hurricane XLT or Arket’s own technical sandal, which is notably more restrained than most.
The Dressy Strappy Heel: Buy Once, Wear for Years
Every summer there is a wave of panic-bought going-out sandals in August. Don’t do it this year. A single well-made strappy heel in a neutral shade – bone, black, metallic bronze, never silver unless you genuinely wear it – is the buy that works through three or four summers without looking dated.
Where to invest: a proper pair from &Other Stories, Reiss, or if you have the budget, Gianvito Rossi. Block heels are more forgiving than stilettos if you are walking anywhere. Avoid anything with more than three straps – they start to look dated quickly and they are harder to wear with trousers or shorter hemlines.
The best way to buy these: in person, at lunchtime, when your feet are at their most swollen. If they are comfortable at 1pm in a shop, they will be comfortable at 10pm at a party. Also, buy half a size up if you are between sizes – summer feet get warmer and wider, and the difference between a shoe you wear and one that sits in the box is usually this.
The Best Summer Sandals UK 2026 Under £60: High Street Picks
For the best summer sandals UK 2026 has on offer under £60, M&S, Cos, Arket and Mango are all worth a proper look. The quality has genuinely shifted in the last two years. For leather fisherman sandals, flat thongs in bone or tan, and simple kitten-heel mules, the high street is now perfectly good and you will not notice the difference in a photograph or across a restaurant table.
Where the high street still struggles: genuinely dressy heels and anything with metallic hardware. The leather on a £30 strappy heel rarely holds up past one summer, and the buckles and rings go dull quickly. For those buys, save up and shop once, or scour Vestiaire and Vinted for a second-hand designer pair. I have personally had better results on Vinted this year than in any new shop for vintage 2010s Marni and Prada sandals.
One last practical thing: start walking in any new pair at home for a few days before you wear them out. Even good leather needs breaking in, and the difference between a shoe you love and one you abandon in June usually comes down to this single bit of patience.
What I Would Buy Today
If you asked me to pick three pairs that cover the summer of 2026 without overlap: a tan leather fisherman from M&S or Sezane for daily wear, a bone flat thong from Arket for smarter daytime and travel, and a low-heeled chocolate mule from Mango or Whistles for anything that needs a bit of lift. Under £250 for all three if you shop carefully, and genuinely more useful than any single £400 designer pair would be.
The loudest thing to come out of runway sandals this year is the sculptural heel – think twisted brass, oversized rosettes, geometric cut-outs – and while they photograph brilliantly, they are hard to wear more than twice. If you love them, buy one pair and treat them as an accessory, not a workhorse. Most of your summer will be better served by the quieter shapes above.
Over to you: which pair are you actually reaching for this summer – the fisherman, the flat thong, or something sportier – and which shoes have you t
Glad to see the fisherman sandal getting a proper case made for it – bought a pair from Dune about a fortnight ago and they have already replaced my trainers for the school run. Only issue is they scuff quite fast on pavement. The M&S thong sandals caught my eye here too. Are you planning a separate piece on waterproof options? That is the gap I keep running into in the UK.