Back to the DeLorean Dunks

In 1985, a science-fiction comedy came out about a time-travelling high school student who goes back in time, meets his parents (as teenagers), and sets things "right". Most people know this as the original Back to the Future film. The main characters, Marty and Doc, travel through time with the help of a car that had it's production run from 1981 to 1982 - the DeLorean DMC-12. The DMC-12 was a car that was designed to be better than what was created. Due to being manufactured in an area that did not really care about the car, by a slick CEO who borrowed a big pile of money from the UK government, the car was a let-down in many aspects - it was slow and poorly made. Due to that one film (and its sequels), it has become iconic.

This leads onto the shoe I am about the describe. Nike have paid a homage to the DMC-12, with the release of the Nike Dunk SE DeLorean. The shoe provides many visual references to the vehicle which shares its name:

• The brushed stainless steel of the car is copied as the exterior of the shoe
• The lines on the shoe are similar to that of the car
• There is a reference to Belfast on the tongue, which is where the car was manufactured
• The gull-wing doors of the car are referenced by the eye stays of the shoe
• The rear tail lights of the car are the inspiration for the sole of the shoe
• There is a DMC logo on the heel of the shoe (but this is made out of what looks like a pseudo-reflective 3M material - it does not actually reflect that much light)
  

Nike ensured exclusivity of this shoe by limiting its release to around 1000. Unfortunately, they saved the best products for the media, and what I managed to get was the general public release edition. The difference was in the packaging. The packaging for the media was a box with references to the DMC-12, and its gull-wing doors.

Still, the hype it generated for the public was huge. The shoe was released for around $90 from retailers in the USA only, but was available overnight on ebay.com for around $900. It appears prices have settled to $150 to $300 range currently.

Upon wearing this shoe, I have noted a few things:

• They are definitely more suited to casual wearing or skateboarding, as opposed to basketball as the name of the shoe may suggest
• They are not that comfortable - it took 3 days of constant wearing all day to break in, and in that time, I developed big blisters on the top of my big toes - where the shoe was rubbing the most
• The will not make you go back in time, regardless of how fast you run (ok, this was in reference to the Back to the Future film)
• After breaking them in, the shoes develop creases, mainly in the toe-box. These creases are not easy to undo / remove
• This shoe has some appeal to shoe collecters (ie. "sneakerheads"), 80s film fans, but not so much to the general public
• After a week of continual wearing, they have gotten to a state of comfort, but you should protect them with a "scotch guard-like spray", as they are not easy to keep clean once they develop stains
  

My thanks for these shoes goes to the team at DeadStockSociety.com. If you are after this shoe for yourself, either try their website, or look on ebay. Stocks of this shoe are forever dwindling, and at this point in time, I have not heard that Nike will be releasing any more of them.