The first book on Nike's iconic DUNK SB, a mid-rise basketball court staple that has in the last two decades become a colorful (and often irreverent) icon of skate and streetwear.

Created in 2002, the Nike Dunk was adopted from the court by skateboarders and sneakerheads to become an icon of the streets. An early catalyst to evolving sneaker culture as we know it today, the Nike Dunk has enjoyed a storied legacy of reinvention through numerous iterations and creative collaborations proving to be an integral part of a culture obsessed with sneakers. To celebrate this legacy, Nike SB: The Dunk Book is the first book to present the historical archive of one of the most important shoes ever created. Worn by an ever-growing list of elite riders at competitions all over the world, Nike Dunks are prized as much for their funky, one-of-a-kind designs as well as their high performance.

Nike SB: The Dunk Book is filled with stunning images that tell the visual story of Nike SB's most iconic styles. Including Danny Supas, Staple Pigeon Dunks, De La Soul Highs, Paris Dunks, U.N.K.L.Es, and Supreme Dunk SBs, this volume flaunts the signature color-ways and craftsmanship that Nike SBs are known for.

Through enlightening anecdotes by the likes of Futura and Paul Rodriguez, readers get intimate accounts of how their favorite sneakers came to be. Also featured are archival images of Nike SB's most recognizable skaters rocking the iconic sneakers, including Eric Koston, Richard Mulder, Grant Taylor, Omar Salazar, Reese Forbes, Brian Anderson, Theotis Beasley, and Daniel Shimizu.

At Nike, the desire to be the best is a journey, not a destination – better is always temporary.

Phaidon commemorates the company's influence with Nike: Better is Temporary, a landmark publication that charts Nike's transformation from rebellious upstart to global phenomenon.

This immersive visual survey offers an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes exploration into Nike's ethos-driven design formula, placing industry-defining innovations and globally recognized products alongside previously unpublished designs, prototypes, insider stories, and more.

Beginning with "Breaking2," an introduction detailing Nike's 2017 attempt to facilitate a sub-two-hour marathon, the book lays out in five thematic chapters Nike's focus on performance, brand expression, collaboration, inclusive design, and sustainability.

The book's extraordinary design also nods to its contents. The striking cover features overlapping silkscreened layers of Nike's proprietary Volt yellow and Hyperpunch pink colors overlaying an image of world-champion marathoner Eliud Kipchoge printed in a half-tone dot pattern. The book's spine, visible through the clear jacket, showcases a series of colored tabs that extend from its interior pages and which are referenced in the book's bonus chapter, "Crafting Color."

Combining 500 color illustrations with stories, insights, knowledge, passion, and history shared by Nike's remarkable team, Nike: Better is Temporary will serve as a manual of innovation and inspiration for generations to come.

About the author:

Sam Grawe is a writer, editor, creative director, and brand consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was previously global brand director for Herman Miller, where he lead integrated brand marketing and communications across a variety of platforms and media. Prior to this, he served as editor-in-chief of Dwell magazine.

The Sneaker as (Hyper)Object. Nike and Virgil Abloh reinvigorate 10 icons of sneaker history

In 2016, sportswear manufacturer Nike and fashion designer Virgil Abloh joined forces to create a sneaker collection celebrating 10 of the Oregon-based company’s most iconic shoes. With their project The Ten — which reimagines icons like Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90, Air Force 1, and Air Presto, among others — they reinvigorated sneaker culture.

Virgil Abloh’s new designs offer deep insights into engineering ingenuity and burst with cultural cachet. Drawing on the genius of the original shoe using lettering, ironic labels, collage, and sculpting techniques, Abloh plays with language and sculptural elements to construct new meaning. Inspired by the wit of Dadaism, architectural theory, and avant-garde happenings, he analyzes what makes each shoe iconic and deconstructs it into an artistic assemblage, making each shoe into a piece of industrial design, a readymade sculpture, and a wearable all at once.

Icons traces Abloh’s investigative, creative process through documentation of the prototypes, original text messages from Abloh to Nike designers, and treasures from the Nike archives. We find Swooshes sliced away from Air Jordans and reapplied with tape or thread, Abloh’s typical text fragments in quotation marks on Air Force 1, and All Stars cut into pieces. We take a look behind the scenes and witness Abloh’s DIY approach, which gives each model in the Off-White^TM c/o Nike collection its own unique touch.

The book documents Abloh’s cooperative way of working and reaffirms the power of print. For its design Nike and Abloh partnered with the acclaimed London-based design studio Zak Group. Together they conceived a two-part compendium, equal parts catalog and conceptual toolbox. The first part of the book presents a visual culture of sneakers while a lexicon in the second part defines the key people, places, objects, ideas, materials, and scenes from which the project grew. Texts by Nike’s Nicholas Schonberger, writer Troy Patterson, curator and historian Glenn Adamson, and Virgil Abloh himself frame the collaborative work within fashion and design history. A foreword by Hiroshi Fujiwara places the project within the historical continuum of Nike collaborators.

The author:

Born in Rockford, Illinois, Virgil Abloh is a multi-hyphenate creative that often rejects classification on creativity. He operates in the realms of Art, Design, and Culture in conjunction with advocacy, mentoring, and philanthropy in the spaces he occupies. After earning a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he completed a master’s degree in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago. At IIT, while studying a Bauhaus design curriculum devised by Mies van der Rohe, Abloh began to craft the principles of his broader art practice. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presented a major traveling survey of Abloh’s work in summer 2019 — one of the highest attended exhibitions in the museum’s history. Currently, Abloh is the Chief Creative Director and founder of Off-White™️ and Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton, amongst other endeavors.