9 Years Since the Michael Lau x Nike SB Collaboration Released

2006 was during the peak of Nike SB’s popularity and one sneaker that helped add to the hype was the first collaboration between artist Michael Lau and Nike. The main focus of the collaboration was, of course, a very limited sneaker that was only released to the Asian market. The collaboration was designed to help the Swoosh launch their new flagship store in Hong Kong and also happened to coincide with the 7th anniversary of Lau’s company. For the project he used his signature Gardener figurine line in a collection appropriately named “Gardener meets Nike.” Taking his Gardener figure to its wood roots, the Dunk Low was given the wood treatment along with the other special accessories released at the same time.

NY FAT was the Gardener character Lau focused on the art of skateboarding. Walnut wood was the material of choice for the project. The entire upper of the sneaker and even the midsole received the wood treatment. The wood grain detailing added created the “wood” look perfectly, although much more comfrtably then some wood clogs. Details included four dots mimicking the mounting holes for your skateboard trucks on the heel, text in place of the heel logo and NY FAT on the insole. The sneaker was packaged into a special lasered walnut sneaker box with a mini skateboard tag and walnut 6-inch NY FAT Gardener figure (packaged in a matching box). Lasered on the inside of the box were silhouettes of the Gardener lineup while on the outside the same four mounting holes appear along with the phrase “Gardener meets Nike at Hong Kong Flagship 29.09.2006.″

Limited to 106 pairs and released at 1:06am local time, finding a complete Michael Lau x Nike SB Dunk Low Pro set now is a chore. And if you do, expect to spend upwards of $1,000 aka Yeezy money. As for the rest of us, enjoy the pictures and the memories of this limited edition collaboration.