Gucci colorways — black, red, and green — are nothing new, and when executed properly they’re a home run. That was the case when the RESN designed Nike SB Dunk High was first spotted.
The funny thing? They weren’t inspired by Gucci. This Dunk was seen way back in 2005 at the height of SB Dunk’s popularity. It was supposed to be part of the famed “Team Manager” series. The companies that were part of the special collaboration and whose sneakers actually released were Stussy, Diamond Supply Co., Alien Workshop, and Real Skateboards. However, there were these Dunks from Sam Smyth, the manager of Girl Skateboards.
Smyth was part of the project early on and brought Nick Diamond into the mix thanks in part to their ties to San Francisco. The two were together for the design of both sneakers. And as Nick revealed, Gucci was not on anyone’s mind when creating the Dunk High. In fact, San Francisco’s weed culture was a big influence. The green parts represented weed, red was for fire, and black for the leftover resin. And even early on the plan was to have RESN on the tongue tag, which was the graffiti name Sam Smyth used when he was tagging.
However, somewhere along the line the sneaker never got the green light for retail. Rumor was someone was upset especially since Lakai was under the same ownership umbrella as Girl. Or you can believe the Gucci-colors bothered someone.
Whatever you believe, the sneaker was not officially released and reportedly only 29 pairs were made for friends and family. They fetch a pretty penny on the secondary market. That was until 2009 when something changed.
Perhaps it time healing wounds, or the trajectory of Nike SB was spiraling downwards, but the RESN Dunk High’s got approved. The original samples and the sneaker that released had some differences; the main ones were the usage of less frayed denim and the RESN tongue tag being added.
Released as a Quickstrike in limited quantities in 2009 the sneaker was a hit. The combination of denim and leather along with the colors made it a must-buy for many.
Aaron Nojima
