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 Dunks were the same shape and fit as the
Nike
Dunks, but with several performance changes.First of all, Nike knew that
with the wear and tear of the foot, a good cushioning system was needed. Since
skateboarding shoes need to have a low center of gravity, the
Nike Dunks SBs
had Zoom Air insoles. Next, the
Nike Dunk SB had extra padding added to
the area around the ankle and to the tongue. The extra padding to the tongue did
provide some extra cushioning between the top of the foot and the board, but it
was more for cosmetic appearance than anything. Lastly, Nike beefed up the
quality of the materials on the Nike Skateboarding Dunks. With double and triple
stitching being the standard in the skateboarding shoe industry, Nike made the
Dunks SBs much stronger than tradional dunks.
Nike SB captured alot of attention by releasing a pair of
"Charity Dunks" which were sold on eBay. These Nike Dunk SBs were 1 of only
2 pairs in the world . The shoes were made in the eBay colors and the Nike Dunk
SBs ended up selling for over $30,000! The money all went to charity, but a wise
move by Nike brough millions of dollars worth of advirtising by releasing these
exclusive limited Nike Dunk SBs.
There have been many legendary
Nike
Dunk SBs. In fact, there are only a handful of Nike skateboarding shoes
that sell for more than $150 that are NOT Dunk SBs. On the flip side, unless
there are a ton of supply, it is rare to find a nice looking pair of Nike Dunk
SBs selling for less than $150. Some of the most famous Dunk SBs are the first
Supremes, Heinekens, Supas, Forbes, Mulder, Tiffanys, and Calis to just name a
very few.
