What Is a Colorway?

“Colorways” are all the rage these days. A colorway is just a color scheme. The term comes from sneaker culture and can be found everywhere from tech products to software applications like Mozilla Firefox.

What Is a “Colorway”

A “colorway” is just another way of referring to a product’s color scheme. It’s often used when talking about the multiple colors that appear on an article of clothing or another product that has multiple colors.

For example, a smartphone case manufacturer might talk about all the colorways its new cases are available in. That’s a way of saying the cases come in color schemes with multiple colors rather than a single color.

Like the term “color scheme,” “colorway” is a noun. When pluralized, it becomes “colorways.” In fact, “colorway” is in multiple official dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries.

The Origin of “Colorways”

As you might expect from a term that refers to the colors of a product, “colorway” is used heavily in the fashion industry. Specifically, it’s most often used when talking about the color combinations of sneakers.

There is a massive variety of color combinations for modern high-performance sneakers, such as those from big brand names like Nike, Air Jordan, Adidas, and Converse. Shoe enthusiasts love discussing all the colorway options online—including those of yet-unreleased shoes.

With that said, the use of the term “colorway” does exist outside the fashion industry. It’s becoming increasingly common for manufacturers to talk about the many beautiful colorways their products are available in.

It’s even been appearing in software. For example, Mozilla once let you personalize your web browser with a type of theme called “Colorways.”