The sneaker that died and came back to life too many times.
Since its inception in 1964, Nike has produced numerous timeless designs in sportwear, one specific design, however, has seen its rise and fall through the times, but these days this specific sneaker can be seen everywhere, as its comeback has been long overdue.
In this edition of CrepTalk I present to you the history of the Nike Dunk.
Designed by Peter Moore in 1985, who is also the main designer of the iconic Jordan 1, hence its similar design. The Nike dunk was a combination of both the Jordan 1 and the Nike air terminator.
The Nike dunk was originally designed as team basketball shoe to represent the passion that comes with team sports, namely college basketball, as in the late 1980s team spirit for college basketball was all about representing your side to the fullest with pride.
Nike sought to capture this team pride by changing the Nike dunks colour panel personally for each big College team colour scheme, for example Michigan State would have a primarily green panel, and Kentucky would have a primarily blue panel.
These colour schemes gave Nike a foothold in the college basketball market as most shoes back then lacked that team spirit initiative that many basketball fans wanted, as many shoes back then were primarily white with minimal to no colour added. This advantage spearheaded the Nike dunk campaign- Be true to your school.
Whilst the Nike dunk was great for team basketball passion, it didn’t see too much reception for the longest, as in 1985 another Nike basketball shoe was the best thing on the block as 1985 served as the first year the Air Jordan 1 debuted, with the Air Jordan 1 getting much attention thanks to Michael Jordan’s electrifying playstyle and the controversial ‘bred’ colourway the Jordan 1 was a fan favourite was bought by everyone.
This eventually led to the Nike dunk being overshadowed by the Jordan 1, and eventually disappearing in Jordan’s shadow.
With the dunk being passed up by everyone, it wouldn’t take too long for dunks to be seen at sneaker outlets for sale. As the dunk just didn’t seem to standout as a basketball sneaker thanks to the ongoing rise of Air Jordan and other sneakers like the Reebok pump.
However, another mans trash is another mans treasure as it seemed that the dunk had picked up popularity amongst another culture outside of basketball, a Sub-culture of skaters adopted the dunk.
The dunk proved to be a skater’s dream shoe as it was ideal with its lightweight durable leather upper and its flat rubber sole, furthermore, the cheap price point proved to be that go to skater shoe.
With Nike noticing the growth of the skating sub-culture and its increase in sales of the Nike dunk, they sought to develop they’re own skateboard division, calling NIKE SB, created in 2002, Nike created its skateboard division, which was met with mixed reactions.
With Nike's brand image being recognised by organised sports worldwide, moving to subcultures like skateboarding proved to be more complicated, as skaters saw it as just a Nike cash grab campaign.
Tune in next time as we go into detail how the Nike Dunk solidified its place as one of the most classical silhouettes in sneaker history.
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