Dunks are such a divisive silhouette, given what they came to represent, and the dead horse design Nike eventually beat them into. But when they first came out in the 80s, alongside their cousin design the Big Nike, partly because of their heavy presence on the pages of Street & Smith’s and in college ball in general, I loved them. Big. Fast forward about 15 years, and in the early stages of the retro renaissance, you couldn’t front on their versatility as the perfect blank canvas for a lot of talented collabs, and in many ways the originator of the Limited Edition concept, and thus the birth of what #sneakers, for better or worse, are today.

The apex, in my opinion, of the early-aught Dunk era, and second only to the OG ‘85 orange-on-white Syracuse BTTYS (peace to Derrick Coleman) version in terms of all time greatest, the Curry Dunk (dropped in ‘02) was a retro that was actually decades ahead of its time. Premium leather, simple, clean colorway during an era of increasingly loud, concept-driven packs, these shits were and remain grownfolks; a sneaker so flavor that it’s actually named after one. Tasty. They are one of the original, and Top 5 GOAT, Limited Editions.

Normally I buy to rock, and I do indeed wear these. But they’re so butter and so unlikely to re-release (I hope) that I do so very sparingly. Barely a crease on them after more than a decade of ownership (I copped the original release in early ‘03, and sold them when I moved to NY in January of ‘08; luckily I was able to re-up on a deadstock NIB pair via eBay for less than $150 around Christmastime that year, after a severe case of seller’s remorse). Like anyone gives a shit.

Anyway, for some reason this shoe doesn’t get as much love as it should in terms of its place in the pantheon. Many are meh about them. But those who love them are open AF off them. Count me among the latter. Pass the rice.