[dmix]

Supreme wasn't a sneaker brand though was it? Was this their first big collab with Nike which brought the full brunt of the sneakerhead culture into Supreme's streetwear one? Even though there is a lot of crossover between the two it may not be as 1-to-1 as it seems, and brought in a lot of new buyers to their niche.

[sahara]

There have been numerous Supreme x Nike collaborations, starting (I believe) with this Nike SB Dunk in 2002: https://www.flightclub.com/nike-dunk-low-pro-sb-black-black-... which at the time were arguably the most sought after sneakers in the world, and still command over a thousand dollars a pair.

And while Supreme never produced any shoes themselves, for many years neither did A Bathing Ape (and the BAPEsta's and their collabs with Adidas were hardly a core part of their business). Nevertheless BAPE is also a brand that utilized the same hype+scarcity model and has always been associated with sneakerhead culture.

The fact remains that anyone who self-identifies as a sneakerhead has known about and most likely worn Supreme for a decade or two. This is not a new development. The new buyers (and the fact that you tend to see more and more Supreme out in the world and on social media) aren't a result of the subculture finding a new obsession. Rather, what was once a niche has gone way mainstream, and tons of people who were never associated with sneaker culture have become interested in the trend.

To wit, by the time the Supreme Foamposites mentioned in the article were released in 2014, many dedicated sneakerheads would have argued that Supreme was completely played out, usurped by herbs, normals and—shudder—teenagers. (Then in 2015 they all went out and bought the camo Jordan 5 collab anyway.)

[at-fates-hands]

> There have been numerous Supreme x Nike collaborations, starting (I believe) with this Nike SB Dunk in 2002

I've been a skater most of my life. I was completely perplexed when a bunch of the guys I skate with regularly suddenly became sneakerheads almost overnight.

This explains a LOT.

[sahara]

This is actually a really interesting footnote in the history of Nike's evolution and expansion into different markets. They (as well as Adidas and the other big brands) had been trying like hell to entice skaters to wear Nikes with little success. Much of what they released was really techy looking (like: http://skately.com/library/shoes/nike-sb-zoom-tre or: http://skately.com/library/shoes/nike-sb-url ) and you would have been mocked for wearing them.

But there was a history of some of skateboarding's most iconic figures wearing Nikes, particularly Jordan 1s but also Blazers and Dunks, in the 80s and early 90s. And it turned out that if you took a Dunk Low, overstuffed the tongue, and added some Nike cushioning tech (bonus points for stitching a Chocolate logo on the heel: https://www.kicksonfire.com/nike-sb-skateboarding-releases/n... ), it fit in just fine with the Osirises of the world that were popular at that time, or classics like the eS Koston, and performed at least as well, if not better (while, critically, not appearing to be built for performance at all).

To your point, Nike quickly leveraged that "vintage cool" aspect that only they could offer, plus collaborations with artists like Geoff McFetridge who had credibility among skaters (and maybe more importantly, among photographers and videographers who shot them), to finally convince skaters that they could wear Nikes without turning into a jock or a dork.

[at-fates-hands]

>> And it turned out that if you took a Dunk Low, overstuffed the tongue, and added some Nike cushioning tech

This is so funny. I remember loving those shoes, but every manufacturer thought super cushy tongues were the way to go in that era. Every time we got a new pair, my buddies and I would take a few hours and razorblade them open, pull out all nearly all the stuffing and then sew them back up.

Apparently they finally caught on and stopped making those horrendously huge tongues.

[sahara]

I always wondered about whether that was meant to have any practical function. (Protective cushioning at the expense of board feel? Shoes stay on better while untied?)

Now the pendulum has swung all the back in the other direction. All these years later, Koston is signed to Nike, and his pro-model basically just looks like a running shoe: http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/sb-koston-max-mens-skatebo...

[dmix]

Ah makes sense. You seem to know what your talking about. Thanks for your reply.