Nike Dunk x Off-White™

Dunk x Off-White™

Nike began its work with avant-garde designer Virgil Abloh in 2017, when the pair combined to create ten unique versions of classic Nike sneakers. To put his own creative spin on such well-known shoes, Abloh deconstructed the look of each one. The result was a series of eye-catching designs that were highly popular on release and which are still sought out by sneaker collectors today. In 2019, with the partnership growing, Nike worked on more shoes with Abloh’s luxury fashion label, Off-White™. This time, the focus was on a single silhouette considered to be one of the brand’s most iconic – the Nike Dunk Low. 

The initial Nike Dunk Off-White™ release was made up of three colourways, two of them paying homage to the Be True To Your School project, which was used to launch the Dunk in 1985. The Nike Dunk Low x Off-White™ University Red represents the colours of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) via its white midsole, red overlays and grey background. Meanwhile, the medial sidewall is decorated with a paragraph of black text in Abloh’s signature Helvetica font, and additional Flywire lacing threads through structural loops that are asymmetrically arranged down each side of the sneaker. Retro branding appears on the tongue, an orange tag emerges from the lateral swoosh and a plastic zip tie completes the Off-White™ additions. These features can also be found on the two other sneakers in this set – the University Gold, with its Midnight Navy overlays and golden yellow underlayer, and the Pine Green. While the latter harks back to a 2003 design that had a similar white and green outer, the former gives a nod to the Michigan colourway from the original 1985 collection.

A brand new Dunk with a rather different look was crafted by the two brands a year later, in 2020. Known as the Air Rubber Dunk, it blends the design of the low-top sneaker with running oriented silhouettes from Nike’s back catalogue, in particular the P-6000, which itself is a mash-up of prior Pegasus models. This brings a sporty appearance to the Rubber Dunk via a layered upper with strips of leather placed over a breathable mesh and exposed Air in the heel. The swoosh is a dual outline made of rubber rather than a solid piece of leather, and the heel overlay moves up in a triangular shape towards the collar without ever fully reaching it. Trademark Off-White™ modifications remain in the form of the zip tie threaded through the laces, the tag behind the lateral swoosh and the familiar lines of text on the medial flank. Like Abloh’s other Nike shoes, the Air Rubber Dunk has been released in vibrant colourways such as Green Strike in the United States, University Blue in Europe and University Gold in Asia.

In 2021, following the success of these initial Off-White™ Nike Dunks, Abloh began to drop hints of a new collection. Known as Dear Summer, it would comprise fifty separate Dunk Low sneakers, each one with its own unique details, but all united by several common features. The pack came to be called The 50, and was released in exclusive batches for both men and women via the Nike SNKRS app. Each shoe has an individual lot number from 1-50, giving the whole collection a feeling of rarity that brought added hype to its release. While lot 1 has a white upper with Metallic Silver swooshes and lot 50 a black one with the same shiny logos, those in between are all kitted out in white leather with grey overlays. These overlaid panels, which take their usual positions in the forefoot, heel and eyestay, as well as forming the sidewall swooshes and branded heel panel, come in either leather or suede. For example, lots 2-10 all have leather overlays, but the first suede pieces don’t arrive until lot number 11.

All fifty of these Nike Dunks by Off-White™ share common elements such as the Flywire laces, the exposed foam and laterally positioned patches on the tongue, the small tag below the lateral swoosh, the zip tie attached to the laces, the paragraph of Helvetica text on the medial flank, the additional lettering on the lateral heel and the badge on the lateral side of the midsole. Many of these features have been used to give each individual lot its own styling. The badge on the lateral midsole is different on each shoe, donning a combination of marbled tones as well as having the number of the particular lot, for example, 3 of 50, pressed into its surface. Some of the shoes have vivid tones on the midsole badge, including lot 35, with its white and orange makeup, and the vibrant green of lot 36, which has streaks of blue running through it. Others are shaded with deeper colours, such as number 37, which merges black and yellow, and lot 4, whose badge brings together dark purple and green tones.

As well as the variety of colours to be found on the midsole badge, there is also a wide range of hues on the Flywire laces. Lots 6, 13, 23, 33 and 40 all have varying shades of red on the lightweight lacing system, those on lots 9, 12 and 17 are all a kind of pink, and lots 15, 18, 21, 28, 30, 45, 47 and 48 display an assortment of purples. Sometimes, the colours used across the sneaker match, as on lot 7, which has a teal blue tag sticking out of the lateral swoosh in a very similar tone to that mixed in with the red on its midsole badge. Lot 29 has even more uniformity as yellow hues cover its lacing and tongue, while its swoosh tag and midsole badge are both orange. In contrast, lot 8 has lime green lacing, a yellowy orange tag and a black badge with streaks of red in it.

The swoosh tags offer another way to tell these Nike x Off-White™ Dunks apart, again coming in a wide array of colours, sometimes with only subtle differences like those between the tags of lots 5, 14, 19, 24, 29, 34, 38, 41 and 44, all of which are a shade of orange. The tags on this set are quite different to the lime green ones on lots 17, 21, 25, 39 and 40, and the teal blue ones attached to lots 16, 26, 36, 42 and 46. The final feature of these sneakers where the colours differ is the puffy tongue. For example, lot 20’s is pine green, 22’s light brown, 27’s dark navy, 32’s khaki green and 49’s grey. Although some have been built with tongues in similar tones, such as the bold orange of lots 31 and 43, no two are the same in this department, making it the ideal way to give each lot its own individual look while also allowing the entire collection to maintain the distinctive aesthetic of the classic Dunk Low.

On its release, The 50 attracted plenty of interest, and the neutral base tones of grey and white on the majority of the collection allowed creatives to experiment with their own custom designs. Abloh, whose creations espoused the notion of taking someone else’s work and altering it to match your own vision, shared some of these on his social media pages, bringing even more attention to his personal variations on the Nike Dunk Low. But that wasn’t the end for Off-White™ Dunks as, in 2022, another partner was brought into the mix to add even more dynamic design elements to Abloh’s Lows. Legendary graffiti artist Futura was the new collaborator, though his work with Nike went back almost two decades to the early days of Nike SB, when he had produced a Dunk Low of his own. The coming together of such incredible artistic talent led to two bold Nike Dunk Low x Off-White™ x Futura models – the Syracuse and the UNC, each one representing a university in the college basketball league. While the former comes in rich orange and navy blue tones, the latter is a lighter mix of white and blue. Both contain spray paint graphics through the underlayer in the toe, midfoot and collar, along with the words “Nike Dunk Low” in graffiti-style font on the medial flank. While these details show Futura’s influence, Abloh’s impact is also clear as many of the signature details found on his previous Dunk Lows are present on this sneaker.

In just a few short years, Nike and Off-White™ have worked together on dozens of Dunk sneakers, further expanding on their budding partnership. As with the brands’ other models, the Off-White™ Dunk Lows have been very successful, largely due to the unique styling of Virgil Abloh. None of this would have been possible, though, without the original Nike Dunk Low – a timeless shoe that acted as the perfect canvas for Abloh’s creative genius.