I realize the answer may be “both,” but are the components of sneaker shoes generally held together by sewing or adhesive?
If adhesive, what or which type?
Both.
Most sneakers tend to have a completely molded sole that is sewn on. Shoes and other footwear frequently have a base sewn on and the sole glued to that.
Urethane glues seem to be the glue of choice.
I require a 1" lift on all my left shoes, so I have to be conscious of soles that can be split to add the lift, the number of sneaker selections is much less than others because the ways the soles are done. I can have a generic sole glued onto anything, but a prefer the original sole be used, so they need to be removable via splitting.
As a former cobbler I’m going to quibble on this one - more and more, and the vast majority, of sneakers these days have their soles glued to the upper. The uppers have stitching, you can see that, but the soles are held on with glue. And often substandard glue. Back when I was doing shoe repair I glued a LOT of sneaker soles back on.
Just, for the love of heaven, whatever you do, NEVER use Gorilla Glue for that purpose.
The sorts of shoes that have soles that can be split to add a lift are also more likely to have stitched soles but as noted they are the minority.
Yeah. I’ve lost even high-end sneakers when the glue failed and the sole peeled right off. No stiching in sight. It seems the combination of a wet sneaker and freezing temps is disastrous for the modern product. I hate it, because that’s standard fare where I live, conditions-wise.
Why?
I suspect it’s similar to the reason why if your car’s lug nuts are coming loose you don’t decide to weld them on. Making the equipment work for today, but frustrating all future service attempts.
Those soles can be glued back on, although it can be a fiddly thing. Frankly some of the “high end” sneakers are pieces of shit. You’re paying for a name rather than a decent product.
It’s mostly the freezing temps that’s the problem, although moisture sure doesn’t help.
Soles need to be properly fitted and aligned with the upper for comfort and proper ergonomics. Gorilla glue expands as it dries, so no matter how careful you are to line things up the drying/expanding process is going to play merry hell with that alignment. It also tends to get lumpy. If you only have a partial separation the expansion will force adjacent sole apart next to the “repair” and just make the problem worse. If it’s a complete reglue there’s no way in hell the parts will stay in alignment.
There is a sort of rubber/contact cement used by the shoe industry, but there are alternatives. You can use superglue (I’ve used a formulation that’s a gel rather than liquid, and made for temperature extremes) but I’ve also seen people get decent results with a contact cement intended for floor tiles. The point being that none of the above expand while curing.
Well, yes, there’s that aspect too - back when I used to do shoe repair we’d inevitably get people bringing in shoes they tried to repair themselves with Gorilla glue and discovering that no, that doesn’t work. That shit is a bitch to remove. We’d charge them extra because we’d have to get rid of ALL of it, which took time and was no fun at all to do.
Re-glues were from $5-10 a pair, even all the way up to re-attaching a completely detached sole. Fixing an attempted re-glue where we had to deal with Gorilla glue was $20 and up. If that shit had oozed into the insoles or uppers attempts to fix the problem might well be futile. If the repaired" sole had any sort of honeycomb structure or voids and you use Gorilla glue it’s hopeless unless it’s a shoe that can be completely resoled - that process started at $45 even for shoes not screwed up by Gorilla glue.
Use Gorilla glue to repair, say, a window frame. Not your shoes.
Broomstick is a cordwainer, nyah nyah!
(Yes, I know there’s a difference, but how often do you get to use the word “cordwainer”?)
When I get my crap together I hope to pull out some old leather patterns of mine and make some moccasins… which point I will be both a cobbler AND a cordwainer! 
I do kind of miss shoe repair, I enjoyed fixing things. Problem is, everyone in the industry seems whack. I think it’s the glue fumes. Cashiering isn’t as much fun, but I get paid regularly and none of my co-workers have tried to attack me so taken as a whole it’s a better gig.
Mmmmmm…cobbler!
Very Informative! Thanks…
Heh:)
You have the cemented construction, and you also have the Strobel stitch. the latter is “Used for most athletic shoes, Strobel requires the upper material to be sewn to a fabric bottom creating a “sock”. The upper and bottom are joined by a strobel stitch, using a strobel machine. With the upper sock tightly lasted, the upper is cemented to the outsole completing the shoe.”