From the Vault: Nike SB Dunk Low “Homer”
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By Stadium Goods |From the Vault: Nike SB Dunk Low “Homer”
*Homer Simpson Voice* Mmmm, rare Dunks.
Matt DeSciora
The Nike SB Dunk’s greatest accomplishment isn’t its list of collaborations with skate shops, fashion designers, and entertainers that runs a mile long. It isn’t its ability to remain relevant over a two decade timespan or its capability as a performance skate shoe, either. No, the Dunk’s crowning achievement is its ability to evade copyright infringement, even when its inspirations are so plainly obvious. The best example we can think of is the Nike SB Dunk Low Pro “Homer” from 2004.
The fact that Nike SB wasn’t slapped with a cease and desist after releasing the “Homer” is just as astonishing today as it was eighteen years ago. The shoe bears the same white, blue, and yellow color block as Homer Simpons’s never-changing outfit from The Simpsons, and was released a year after Nike halted production of its “Heineken” Dunk after running into legal trouble with the Dutch beer company. It’s unclear why the “Heineken” was axed and the “Homer” wasn’t, but it could have something to do with the former’s red star branding. You know, the one that looks exactly like the logo on every Heineken beer bottle? Oops.
Unperturbed, the Nike SB crew went back to the drawing board and continued to release Dunks in colorways inspired by popular culture themes in the 2000s. Styles like the “Newcastle” from 2008 came with a color scheme inspired by the popular beer manufacturer’s label, but no overt branding like the “Heineken.” In retrospect, it seems like Nike SB was able to sidestep copyright issues by not placing any logos or branding that would otherwise reference or “confuse” anyone in any way.
Getting back to the “Homer,” the colorway was actually the first of many Simpsons Dunks. The “Marge” colorway succeeded the “Homer” in showing love to the long-running television show in 2008. More recently, Nike SB came out with a “Bart Simpson” colorway in the red-and-yellow color coordination as the cartoon character’s favorite outfit. At this point, it seems like only a matter of time before Duffman gets his own colorway. Or Mr. Burns? Maybe Hans Moleman?