Pope Leo XIV has become an unexpected social media star and has been hailed as a 'style icon' thanks to his very bold fashion choice. The head of the Catholic Church, 70, set social media alight on Friday after he was seen sporting Nike sneakers while dressed in his vestments.
He was caught stepping out in a pair of white trainers featuring the brand's unmistakable 'swoosh' in a documentary trailer about his life. The teaser for the film, titled Leone a Roma, was released by Vatican News earlier this week, and his choice of footwear immediately sparked an online reaction.
Many were surprised to see him wearing such casual shoes along with his vestments, and were quick to crack jokes about it. On X, formerly known as Twitter, memes were even created that showed Meryl Streep's Devil Wears Prada character Miranda Priestly looking stunned by the Pope's choice of shoes.
'The coolest Pope ever,' one user gushed on X. 'Pope Leo, style icon,' wrote another.
Underneath a viral Instagram post about it, one fan commented: 'God bless those kicks.' 'Can't take the Chicago out the man,' joked a different person. A third wrote: 'Just do it (follow the teachings of Christ),' while someone else added: 'Holy Drip.'
What made people even more impressed was that Pope Leo's shoes appeared to be vintage. JustFreshKicks reported that he wore the Nike Franchise Low, a sneaker that originally came out in the 1970s but was re-released in 2008.
Leone a Roma is an upcoming documentary that retraces the nearly two decades that Pope Leo XIV, real name Robert Francis Prevost, spent in Rome before his election to the See of Peter. It has been produced for the first anniversary of his pontificate, which takes place on Friday, May 8, and will be broadcast on Vatican media channels.
The film follows the steps of the first American-born Pope from his arrival in Rome from the United States in 1981 through his service as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine and later as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
'A journey through the streets of Rome and the places dear to the Augustinians, gathering stories, images and testimonies from those who knew the future Pope Leo XIV from his arrival from the United States in the 1980s, through his two terms as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine and his appointment as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops,' a synopsis read.
Last month, Chicago-born Pope Leo paid tribute to his predecessor Pope Francis on the anniversary of his death. Pope Francis's death at 88 on April 21, 2025, set the stage for the conclave that elected Leo a few weeks later. It was an outcome for which Francis had laid the groundwork by promoting the former missionary priest, Robert Prevost, whom he considered 'a saint.'
Also last month, tens of thousands of people attended a giant open-air mass by Pope Leo outside the Angolan capital, where he delivered a message of hope to the resource-rich country marked by poverty and inequality. Around 100,000 people attended the pontiff's first mass in Angola at Kilamba, around 19 miles from Luanda, the Vatican said, citing local authorities.
In his address, the pope encouraged the crowd 'to look to the future with hope' in a 'new beginning' for the nation still scarred by a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002. He added that it was possible 'to build a country where old divisions are overcome forever, where hatred and violence disappear, where the wound of corruption is healed by a new culture of justice and sharing.'
