The Nike Dunk is known for being a lot of things. Nostalgic streetwear staple? Yes. Travis Scott and Virgil Abloh co-signed hype machine? Yes and yes. When Dunks returned in full
force last year, the silhouette’s grand return was mostly defined by attention-grabbing colorways and hype-heavy collaborations. Now, the Dunk’s latest iteration has taken a different route. The Chicago menswear shop Notre has teamed up with Nike to give the shoe an elevated, workwear-inspired twist.
For years, Notre has carved out its niche in the space where high-fashion menswear meets high-design streetwear. It makes sense that the shop’s first-ever footwear collaboration with Nike is a grown-up take on one of the Swoosh’s hottest styles. The duo has teamed up on two versions of the Dunk High, mixing shaggy suede, heavy canvas, and earthy leather in a manner that complements the clean color palettes at play. There are plenty of other design-driven details, too. The kicks feature beautiful triple stitching across the shoe, an embroidered patch on the tongue, and a handshake-illustration Swoosh that nods to Notre’s signature motif. (It’s no small feat to get Nike to tweak their iconic Swoosh logo.) The accompanying lookbook pairs the collaborative kicks with workwear staples like Carhartt chore jackets and duck pants in familiar shades of brown and grey—and the sneaker looks right at home.
It’s fun to see the Dunk remixed with hard-wearing materials and workwear-inspired tones. Both colorways of the Nike x Notre Dunk will be released exclusively via Notre on January 21. A second release of the blue colorway will follow on January 23 via Nike. The two have managed to take a usually loud style and bring it back down to earth—and in doing so, have managed to create a sneaker that everyone is going to want to wear.