The first Nike SB x Diamond Supply Co. collaboration – later known as the Tiffany Dunk – hit select skate shops in the summer of 2005. Back then, you couldn’t just take your mom to any mall outlet and make her treat you to some special edition SBs; you had to actually find one of the few authenticated retailers that were deemed worthy enough by Nike Skateboarding to be selling their limited footwork. If you didn’t have one of those premium shops in your area, well, you were pretty much fucked. Online shops were a thing, of course, but taking that route was often out of the picture for special releases. On the plus side, Instagram didn’t exist yet, so you were spared the insufferable boasting of those asshats who got their hands on your favorite release. In these innocent times, when collecting sneakers was only marginally cooler than painting Warhammer 40k figurines or playing Magic – The Gathering cards, the Tiffany triggered even those blissful individuals who had not yet stepped into the sneaker game. The Tiffany’s appeal substantially helped attract the attention of non-sneaker heads, aka regular dudes, and made the possession of rare sneakers “a thing.” It changed the game forever, and one could even argue that bullshit like Yeezy wouldn’t even exist today if it weren’t to the Tiffany’s (and its peers’) gravitational pull.
That said, it sure was hard for Diamond Supply Co. and Nike SB to live up to a decade-old hype. They tried it with slapping the Tiffany color scheme onto a Dunk High; sadly, it failed to really knock anyone’s socks off. Folks who owned the original Tiffany didn’t care, and those who weren’t able to cop it back in the day weren’t going to emphasize their lack of OG Tiffanies by buying what essentially amounted to an imitation of the real deal. It still manages to sell for about twice its retail price, but the Tiffany Dunk High is no match for the original’s still insanely high resale value.
Now, Diamond Supply Co. and Nike SB teamed up again for a new limited release; this time, however, they refrained from simply copying the original Tiffany’s design. The release consists of two Dunk Lows, one black and one white – the white one being a skate shop exclusive. They both reticently cite the original Tiffany: the faux-snakeskin upper and silver Swoosh are taken directly from its predecessor. Other than that, they’re very much their own thing. The biggest change concerns what’s under the Swoosh: this time around, Nike’s famous logo is a detachable Velcro strip, revealing, if peeled off, the Tiffany’s signature turquoise underneath. It’s the first time that Nike SB pulled this off, and it’s certainly one of the shoe’s unique selling points. All in all, Nike SB’s and Diamond’s newest exploits in shoe design feel decidedly fresh. We can image that this one’s gonna be gone quickly, so plan accordingly. Is the new release fit to hold a candle to the original? We let you decide. You can buy the new Nike SB x Diamond Supply Co. White and Black Dunks both from November 9th at our store in Frankfurt from 12pm CET and at our web shop at 6pm CET.