The hype around the Nike Dunk and SB Dunk will continue in 2021. Also this year there were and will be some cool and also crazy dunks in the release calendar. What makes this shoe so special, its hype and what Nike SB has to do with it, we will clarify with a look back into the history books of Nike Dunk High today.
How the story of Nike Dunk High began
It all starts with basketball. As so often in the sneaker scene, basketball is the foundation for successful sneakers. It was the same with Dunk High, which saw the light of day in 1985. It was at this time that college basketball had its peak and was the theme of the time along with the "We are the World" song by the other MJ (Michael Jackson). Nike managed to include different shoes like the Air Force 1, the Nike Terminator or the Jordan 1 High silhouette in the Dunk High design. The designer Peter Moore and his team finally created the first Colorways of Dunk High.
Since the rivalry in college basketball was very high at that time, Nike took advantage of this and designed 12 Colorways for the major colleges. The shoe was promoted with the slogan: 'Be true to your school'. All fans of their college team should identify themselves from top to bottom with the colours of their team and cheer them on during the game. Originally, the Dunk High was to be called College Color High!
The dunk becomes a sneaker culture
Dunk High made the leap from basketball shoe to the street. Similar to the adidas Superstar, music and movies made the breakthrough. 1987 Design of the album cover for 'The Mix Crew' with the Dunk High in the foreground. Dunk High also appeared in Spike Lee's film 'School Daze'. Dunk High really got going at the end of the 90s. The skateboard hype was huge and the Dunk was very popular. Besides the rabble and baseball players, Dunk High also made it to the skaters.
In 2002 Nike founded the SB division and put the dunk there in the spotlight. The first four Dunk SB Low Colorways were launched and in the same year the Supreme collaboration was launched. The first shoe of the 'Color By' series was from Richard Mulder and was quite clean in the white/blue Colorway. The probably craziest scenes took place in New York. When the Pigeon Dunk was released in 2005, riots broke out outside Reed Space in NYC and the police had to intervene. After that, many unforgotten collabos followed, which are worth a lot today and hardly available.
By the way, you find all the hyped Dunks in our Sneaker Archive. Here we show you the most popular models in resell with their prices and resellers.
An important name in the Nike SB history is Sandy Bodecker, he was responsible for establishing the SB brand. He has more than fulfilled this task, many sneakerheads are still looking forward to the latest releases. The releases around the SB Dunks are so hype, also because of the very creative colorways.
As the Air Max gained in popularity in 2010, things became a bit quieter around the dunk. As expected, however, the hype came back through cool collaboration and is unbroken this year. Great designers and collaborations like with Virgil Abloh will continue the hype. It seems that the year 2021 will be dominated by the Nike Dunk again.
What you can still expect in 2020
First up this year is the AMBUSH X Nike Dunk High 'Black'. It is scheduled to come out on December 11th. Check it out!
We also have some fire low models of the Silhouette! If you want to know more about the story behind it and how the low version came about, take a look at this blog post.
Furthermore, the Sean Cliver X Nike SB Dunk Low 'Christmas' will release later this year. On the 19th of december the time has come.
Finally I have the Frame Skate X Nike SB Dunk Low 'Habibi' for you. It already celebrated its releases, but if you're lucky you find some open Raffles.
I recommend you to have a look at our Sneaker News. There you won't miss another hyped release like some Air Jordan or the Dunk. Additionally we have some cool sale offers for you. It's worth a visit!