Nike Dunk – Born in the 80s

The Nike Dunk first appeared on the shelves in 1985. Designed as a college-oriented basketball shoe, it was placed behind the Jordan 1 for a long time. But despite its troublesome beginning, the shoe developed a life of its own, quickly moving away from its intended target audience and finding a new life in a variety of subcultures. Originally, the Dunk was the evolution of the Air Force 1 and carried the name "College Color High." He accidentally owed the name "Dunk" to the 40th anniversary of the first slam dunk.

In the mid to late 80s, the dunk was a favorite on the basketball court. However, with the explosion of basketball's popularity and technological innovation throughout the sneaker industry, the Dunk quickly became obsolete. On the streets, it still remained a reliable casual sneaker and was updated with some new features. Among them were a nylon tongue to reduce weight, a shorter upper, and an enlarged Swoosh. These changes made the shoe more appealing to a different audience - the skate community. Dunks were first spotted in skate videos as early as 1986. Many well-known figures in the skate community, from the Z-Boys to Mike Gonzales, skated in Dunks throughout the '90s. But, although Dunks conquered the skate parks in their early stages, it took more than a decade for Nike to successfully infiltrate the industry.

From the basketball court to the skate park - The Nike SB Dunk

With the inception of the SB brand in the early 2000s, Nike wanted to build a successful skateboarding division. The solution was simple: instead of creating an entirely new silhouette, Nike would make a few changes to a sneaker that skaters were already wearing. The Nike SB Dunk was born.

To make the SB Dunk skate-worthy, the insole was padded, a Zoom Air unit was added in the heel, and the sole material was swapped out for a thicker rubber. The most noticeable change, however, was the thicker tongue of the SB instead of the nylon tongue. With the introduction of the Nike SB Dunk, the hype was born. Small skate stores were selling limited edition models of the Dunk. During this time Nike started its first collabos with skate brands like Zoo York, Chocolate and last but not least Supreme. In 2002, the Supreme SB Dunk was one of the most sought-after models. The release is seen in retrospect as a defining moment in streetwear history..

THE collaboration king

In its already over 30 years old history, the Dunk has many unique models and collabs. One of the first hypes is probably the infamous "Wu-Tang" Dunk from 1999. Actually, this shoe was just a special edition of the "Iowa" Dunk with an embroidered "Wu W" on the heel. Manufactured by Nike, only 36 pairs were made (an ode to the Wu-Tang album "36 Chambers") and given away to members of the Wu-Tang Clan. A legend was born which is now one of the most coveted Dunks on the market. In some cases, they are sold for thousands of dollars.

In the years that followed, other models such as the »Brazil« ,the "Lemon Wash" and the "Chicago" caused a stir. Collabos ranged from brands like Atmos or Heineken to graffiti artists like Futura or music acts like Dinosaur Jr. and MF Doom. The list is so long that it's impossible to keep up.

For those of you who want to delve deeper into the topic, we can recommend Highsnobiety's article about »The 50 most influential Nike Dunks in history«.

The Nike Dunk today

The hype has remained. The Dunk still has a high reputation in the sneaker community and collabos with Travis Scott (Travis Scott x Nike SB Dunk Low) or Virgil Abloh's Off-White show that the Dunk is and remains a real sneaker icon. As rapidly as they are on the market, they are also sold out. The Dunk landed its latest strike in May 2020 in collaboration with Ben & Jerry's. Ben & Jerry‘s x Nike SB Dunk »Chunky Monkey« was one of the hottest drops of the year. No wonder with this model: inspired by Ben Jerry's "Chunkey Monkey" ice cream, the Nike SB Dunk Low Pro convinces with custom logos, cloud embroidery, batik pattern, cowhide imitation uppers and a Swoosh that reminds of melting ice cream.

How does the Nike Dunk fit?

The Dunk is true-to-size. You can't go wrong with your normal size.