Nike SB

Nike SB Sneakers

The Dunk, designed by Peter Moore, was originally released in the same year as the Air Jordan 1, 1985. In the beginning the sneaker appeared on the basketball court for universities in the United States, appearing in colorways inspired by the different competing teams. But by the early 1990s, the model had fallen out of favour, meaning that the Dunk could be bought for cheap.

Combined with subtle updates Nike made to the model to make the sneaker more comfortable, lightweight, and durable, and the fact that it came in many different colorways and was easily styled, meant that the Nike Dunk was adopted by skateboarders. The popularity of the sneaker in skate culture led to the creation of the Nike SB brand in 2002, and the Nike SB Dunk.

To make the Dunk really fit Nike SB, some changes had to be made. Nike’s inaugural skate team, consisting of professional skateboarders Danny Supa, Gina Iannucci, Reese Forbes and Richard Mulder, played a big part in the process of creating the Nike SB Dunk. They added padding, elastic straps, a fat tongue, and improved the sole with Zoom Air and extra grip. The first Nike SB Dunks were dropped in the team’s signature colorways.

Legendary collabs soon followed, including with streetwear brand Supreme, which saw the first appearance of the iconic Air Jordan 3 elephant print on another model. The release of the Jeff Staple ‘Pigeon’ Nike SB Dunk in 2005 was so hotly anticipated that the police were called to manage the crowd outside of Staple’s NYC store, escorting the people that had managed to snag the limited-edition sneaker for protection.

In recent years, Nike SB Dunk has received many colourways. In the year 2021, the 'Parra Abstract Art' was wildly popular; it was released on the occasion of the Tokyo Olympics. The colourway streak didn't stop here. Many more cool colourways followed, including the 'Mummy' and the 'Familia First Avenue'. 2022 was also a top year, as the Fruity four-pack, which included the 'Blue Raspberry', 'Green Apple', 'Cherry' and 'Pineapple' dunks proved very popular. The year ended nicely with the new colourway of the Concepts x Nike Dunk SB Low, called 'Orange Lobster'.