Nike SB Dunk Low Parra

Let the shoe be the loudest object. First recipe: monochrome fit, black or navy from top to hem, straight leg and slightly cropped so the full panel composition is visible, no other colour anywhere. Second: cream and beige workwear, a boxy jacket and wide trousers, treating the palette on the shoe as the only print in play. These run like a padded SB, slightly roomier than a standard Dunk, so size down half if you are narrow footed. Keep them away from rain and mud, because multi panel uppers are difficult to clean evenly. Use a soft brush, work panel by panel rather than across the whole upper, and store them out of direct light.

Nike learned early that the voice matters more than the logo. Just Do It, written by Dan Wieden in 1988 and first aired with the 80 year old runner Walt Stack, worked because it did not sound like a shoe company; it ended up named one of the twentieth century's top five slogans by Advertising Age and held in the Smithsonian. The SB collaboration model applies the same instinct to product. When an artist's palette carries a Dunk, the shoe stops being a Nike release and becomes a piece of that artist's work that happens to be wearable, which is why these pairs move in circles that have nothing to do with skateboarding.

An artist Dunk is a panel exercise. The SB Dunk Low is assembled from separate overlay pieces at toe, eyestay, heel and collar, and a collaborator works by assigning each piece a colour or a material, which is why these releases read as compositions rather than colourways. Underneath, the SB platform is the padded skate version of the silhouette: fuller tongue, more cushioning underfoot, built to take repeated impact rather than to sit in a display case. That gives you a shoe that is genuinely comfortable out of the box, with the caveat that every panel edge is a place where dirt collects and where wear becomes visible. Multi panel shoes look worse dirty than single colour ones do.