Nike Dunk

Nike Dunk,  Nike Dunks

Nike Skateboarding made its debut in March 2002, as they decided to dive into the [1.6 billion] skateboard shoe industry. To commemorate their new investment, they released 4 pairs of Nike Dunk SB’s. Designed by skaters Gino Iannucci, Richard Mulder, Reese Forbes, and Danny Supa, they became known as the Artist Series Dunks.Nike launched the Nike SB line in March of 2002 at the start of the rise of the Skateboarding trend. For years in California, the skate culture was very popular and skateboarding shoes and clothes were worn more as casual wear than by actual skateboarders. Nike saw the potential to tapping into this market and thus launched the Nike Skateboarding line. Nike launched their skateboarding lines on the back of the Nike Dunks SB. The Nike Skateboarding Nike launched their skateboarding lines on the back of the Nike Dunks SB. The Nike Skateboarding Dunks were the same shape and fit as the Nike Dunks, but with several performance changes.

In the 1980s, skateboard companies started to pop up around the globe, but skateboarding still had a relatively small community; not enough to attract serious interests from major shoe makers while they were battling out in the precious basketball territory. This gave smaller companies a chance to gain ground in the skateboarding market, Airwalk led the charge, they developed an oversized shoe that combined an inflated tongue, thick sole, suede exterior. Although Nike had never officially entered the skateboarding market in the 1980s, many of its shoes (especially the basketball-specific) gained a following in the skateboarding community due to the fact that skateboarding shoes and basketball shoes share many similarities. Strong grips, durable ankle support and relative comfort were some of the offerings that attracted skaters to them. They were never considered the most desirable skate shoes due to the 'underground' nature of skateboarding at that time. Many skateboarders rejected Nike because they believed the brand was too commercial.

Nike’s basketball shoe line was fairly popular in the skateboarding scene, and the Dunk soon became a popular shoe for riders due to the stability and lower profile sole which improved grounding performance. After some time, Nike created a Dunk specifically for skateboarders, known as the Nike SB Dunk. It features an extra-padded “puffy tongue” (common among skateboarding sneakers) and Nike’s patented Zoom Air insole. Since then, the SB Dunk has become a popular subcultural icon for so-called sneakerheads, or enthusiastic sneaker-collectors. Nike currently collaborates with many designers to create special edition and collectible dunks, from Diamond Hardware’s Nick Tershay to the popular graffiti artist known as Futura.