Nike SB

Nike’s first push into skateboarding in the late 1990s went nowhere with skaters. The second attempt, led by Sandy Bodecker, launched as Nike SB in 2002 and at first sold only through independent skate shops rather than mall chains.

The launch shoe was a reworked 1985 basketball Dunk with a padded tongue and a Zoom Air insole, released in colorways picked by team riders Reese Forbes, Gino Iannucci, Richard Mulder and Danny Supa. Limited runs such as Jeff Staple’s 2005 Pigeon Dunk, which drew a crowd police had to break up in New York, turned SB Dunks into collector pieces.

Nike SB went on to build long-running signature lines for Paul Rodriguez and Stefan Janoski and now backs one of the biggest teams in skateboarding.