Nike SB Dunk Low Run The Jewels

Wear one: baggy skate denim over the tongue, a graphic tee and a work jacket, letting the thick padded tongue sit proud the way SB Dunks are meant to. Wear two: black cargos with a plain hooded sweat, treating the collaboration graphics as the only pattern in the outfit. If you actually skate in them, buy two pairs and accept the wear, because the ollie patch area goes first. Sizing follows the Dunk last, which is slim through the midfoot, so wide feet should go half up. Clean with a soft brush and mild solution, and never machine wash a collaboration pair, since printed and specialty panels lift at the edges.

Nike SB's relationship with music subculture has been genuinely fraught, which makes a rap collaboration on this platform more than a graphic exercise. In 2005 the line appropriated Minor Threat's album art for a tour flyer, drawing a public rebuke from Ian MacKaye, an apology from Nike on 27 June 2005 and an out of court settlement. The lesson the company took from that, and from the Beatles lawsuit that pulled its Revolution advertising in March 1988, was that you work with musicians rather than around them. A named collaboration with a rap duo is the correct version of a mistake Nike has made twice, and it is why SB collaborations now read as partnerships.

The SB version of the Dunk is a genuinely different shoe from the lifestyle version. The tongue is thick and padded because a skater's laces take repeated impact from the board, the collar carries extra foam around the ankle, and the insole is built to absorb the shock of landings rather than the load of standing. The outsole pattern is designed for board feel, which means grip and flexibility over cushioning depth. Nike's founding engineering idea, the waffle sole Bowerman made in his wife's waffle iron, was about traction, and skate outsoles are the closest descendant of that thinking still in the line. The upper materials on collaboration pairs vary, so check the panel finish before wearing.