Colorway slang explained: bred, panda, cement, royal and more

I should warn you up front: not every shop uses these names consistently. Sometimes "bred" just means "black and red" with no historical reference at all. The point of the slang is usually to communicate a color combination quickly, not to honor a specific original.

The shortlist

Bred

The most-used colorway slang in sneakers. Stands for a black and red combination. The original reference is one specific basketball model from the late 80s, released in team colors after the player wearing it was fined for breaking the league dress code. The story stuck. Now any shoe with that color combination gets the nickname.

You will see "bred" applied to dunks, runners, and casual sneakers that have no historical connection to basketball. Treat it as shorthand for the colors, not a claim about heritage.

Panda

Black and white. Specifically the version where black and white panels alternate cleanly, like the animal. One famous skate-cut release in this colorway became one of the best-selling sneakers of the 2020s, which is why "panda" is now its own category.

If a listing says "panda dunk" or "panda low," it almost always means the black-and-white version of a popular skate-cut model.

Cement

Grey speckled print, usually with red and black accents. The print is meant to evoke concrete. The original cement colorway came on a basketball model in the late 80s and got retroed many times. Variants include white cement, black cement, red cement, and military cement, all referring to the dominant base color around the print.

Royal

Dark royal blue paired with black. The original royal colorway was on a high-top from the 80s. Like bred, the term now travels with the colors more than with any specific model.

Chicago

Red, white, and black. Chicago is shorthand for the basketball team's home colors, which a famous late-80s sneaker model debuted in. Any shoe with that exact palette gets called Chicago, even if the proportions of red to white are different.

Triple black, triple white

Monochrome. Every panel of the upper is the same color. Triple black is the easier version to wear with anything. Triple white scuffs almost immediately if you wear them outside, but looks clean when fresh.

OG colorway

OG means "original" in this context. The OG colorway is the combination a model launched in. For collectors, OG colorways usually carry a premium because they connect back to the moment the silhouette first appeared. Brands re-release OG colorways regularly because demand stays high.

UNC

Light blue and white. Stands for the University of North Carolina. Common reference because a famous basketball player attended that school, and several of his signature sneakers came in college-tribute colorways.

Olive, wheat, sand

Earth tones from the boot world that crossed over into sneakers in the 2010s. Olive is a green-grey, wheat is tan, sand is paler. These tend to be seasonal, mostly fall and winter releases.

Why this matters

You can shop a streetwear site purely on colors and ignore all this slang. But if you read product titles, watch sneaker videos, or check resale prices, the terms come up constantly. Knowing them turns confusing copy into clear information.

On our site the search engine also recognizes most of these nicknames. If you type "panda" or "bred" into the search bar, you will get the corresponding products even if our catalog uses different naming.

Related guides

The streetwear glossary covers more than colorways. The silhouette guide explains shape names that often get paired with colorway slang in product titles, and the cost-of-a-sneaker article breaks down why specific colorways command higher resale prices.