Nike Wmns Dunk Low RETRO Sun Club

Recipe one: a mid length denim skirt or wide leg jeans, a white ribbed tank, a cream cardigan, letting the warm palette on the shoe set the temperature of the whole outfit. Recipe two: cream or sand linen trousers, a light knit, low socks, which is the summer reading and the one this colourway was built for. Best in daylight and warm weather, awkward in winter mud. Dunks run slightly narrow, so go true to size and let the leather give rather than sizing up. Wipe pale leather with a damp cloth after each wear before dirt sets, keep it out of rain, and store with a shoe tree to slow the toe crease.

Nike became a fixture of mainstream American youth dress from the 1980s onward through basketball and hip hop, with Air Jordans, Air Force 1s and Air Max models as the status objects, and then again through the 1990s and 2000s casual and athleisure turn that made sport footwear ordinary daily clothing. The Dunk's later life belongs to that second wave rather than the first. Nike's women's sport roster includes endorser Serena Williams and sponsored track athletes Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Allyson Felix, and the Just Do It line, written by Dan Wieden in 1988, was aimed at ordinary participants rather than professionals, which is the register a colourway like this speaks in.

A low cut leather upper in the Dunk's familiar panel blocking, on a flat rubber cupsole that keeps you close to the ground with very little compression underfoot. The women's last is cut narrower through the heel and midfoot than the standard build, which matters more on this shoe than on a cushioned trainer, because the Dunk has almost no give to compensate with. Warm toned leather panels of this kind will crease along the toe within the first few wears and hold it permanently. The lighter base panels are the surfaces that will show age first. Expect a firm ride, a snug initial fit, and leather that relaxes noticeably after about a week.