Nike Dunk Low RETRO Panda

First recipe: mid wash straight leg jeans with a white tee and a black bomber, the outfit this shoe is most often photographed in for the simple reason that it works with no effort. Second recipe: grey tailored trousers with a black knit and a camel overcoat, where a black and white shoe stops a smart outfit from feeling stiff. Because the palette is neutral, the risk is looking generic, so let the rest of the outfit carry the interest. Dunks fit true with a slightly narrow toe box. Clean the white panels the same day with mild soap and a soft cloth, keep the midsole crisp with a brush, and use a protector spray from new.

From the 1980s onward Nike became a status symbol in urban and hip hop fashion, with Air Jordans, Air Force 1s and Air Max models running through mainstream American youth dress before returning in 1990s and 2000s casual and athleisure looks. The Dunk arrived in that conversation late, carried in by skateboarding, where Nike SB's relationship with subculture was sometimes clumsy, including the 2005 appropriation of Minor Threat's album art that drew a public rebuke from Ian MacKaye and an apology. The white and black Retro is what happened when the shape finally went fully mainstream. It is the least exclusive Dunk in existence and, for most people, the only one that matters.

The Dunk Low Retro is a low cut leather panel upper on a cupsole, with the toe, quarter panel, Swoosh, collar and heel each blocked separately. In a two tone build there is nowhere for a manufacturing flaw to hide, since the eye reads the panel edges immediately, which is part of why this configuration became the benchmark people judge other Dunks against. The outsole descends from the oldest idea in Nike engineering, the waffle tread Bill Bowerman created by pouring rubber into his wife's waffle iron, which established that a cut and patterned rubber surface grips in several directions. Expect a firm, flat ride, a leather upper that creases early at the toe, and a shoe that feels sturdier than it looks.