Nike SB Dunk High Sweet Tooth Candy Corn

Recipe one: black baggy jeans stacked over the collar, a plain white tee and a black hoodie, letting the bands appear in flashes rather than dominating. Recipe two: washed grey cargo trousers cuffed above the collar with a cream crewneck, showing the whole shoe and letting the palette be the point. Nothing else in the outfit should carry colour. Highs need the hem clear of the ankle to read properly. Pale bands stain fast, so treat before first wear, brush dry and spot clean with mild soap. If you skate in them, the toe panel goes first, so decide whether this is a wear pair or a shelf pair.

Nike's footprint in board and youth culture was assembled through both acquisition and patience. It bought Converse in 2003 for 309 million dollars, and Converse remains its main subsidiary after Cole Haan, Bauer, Starter and Umbro were all sold on. Nike SB, meanwhile, had to earn its standing shoe by shoe through independent skate shops rather than through scale. A candy themed Dunk High is what that earned licence buys: a silhouette secure enough in the culture to make a joke without being laughed out of the room, sold to an audience that will accept absurdity as long as it is not condescending.

The Dunk High adds an ankle wrapping padded collar, an extended eyestay and a stiffer overall structure than the low, so a banded colourway gets to run vertically as well as horizontally across the panels. SB specification adds the details skaters need: a thicker tongue, a plusher collar and an impact absorbing insole, sitting over a foam midsole with no visible air unit and a rubber outsole with a pivot circle for boardfeel. Bright oranges and yellows sit differently across materials, so expect the panels to change finish rather than just colour. The palest bands will discolour first, particularly along the midsole edge where the shoe meets the ground.