Concepts delivered its debut “Lobster” Nike Dunk SB Low collaboration 14 years ago, and the love for the theme has not waned in the years since. While the stories behind the sneakers have been told in great detail, there are several facts that are either little-known or never been discussed by the retailer before.
Here, Concepts creative director Deon Point reveals seven facts about the Concepts x Nike Dunk SB “Lobster” collaborations.
WHY HE WASN’T INITIALLY A FAN OF “LOBSTER”
“Jeff [Staple] did ‘Pigeon’ [with Nike], so to me, I felt like ‘Lobster’ was our version of ‘Pigeon,’ in a sense. He had so much energy surrounding his release — it was the first [sneaker collab] in the [New York Post] and New York was going wild for it. To me, ‘Lobster’ initially seemed like a lazy idea, and I was nervous of being compared to ‘Pigeon.’ But what we did with the shoe, especially looking back, you can tell they’re two dynamically different things.”
THE IDEA THAT “LOBSTER” BEAT OUT
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“We had a short window to pitch to Nike and had submitted two shoes to make the deadline. One was basketball jersey material, with a pair based on the Brooklyn Banks in New York, a popular skate spot, and a pair for an area in Boston. The idea came because a lot of kids skated with basketball jerseys on. The other was the lobster idea. It was like an internal contest and we went with lobster.”
THE TIME WITH THE DISASTER SAMPLES
“When we got the first ‘Green Lobster’ samples, it was completely wrong. They looked lime green and one was a hideous, putrid green, like split pea and ham soup. We were fearful of sending them o and the shoes coming back wrong. We had to make adjustments sight unseen. There’s something scary about signing something off blindly and not knowing what you’re going to get back. I was biting my nails off waiting for the shoes to come in and when I finally saw them I was like, ‘Thank God.’ It was a pivotal moment for us with the resurgence of Dunks, and we were ready to eat them if we didn’t like how they came out. If we put [the incorrect shoe] out, there was a risk that it could completely tank and do irreconcilable damage to us.”
WHY “YELLOW LOBSTER” IS SO RARE
“We had 36 pairs total. And I know where they all went — who’s worn them, who’s beat him up, who’s given them away. There can’t be more than eight deadstock pairs in the entire world.”
THE RAREST “YELLOW LOBSTER”
“I know I have the only [size] 9 that’s deadstock in the world. I’m 100% positive of that.”
DEVELOPING THE COLOR SCHEMES
“When we were doing research, I was told lobsters can be any color depending on the depth of the water, but being that we can only dive so deep, there’s things in the ocean that nobody’s seen. We talked about mixing colors, it was like kindergarten 101. We did purple based on red and blue being the first two, and green based on yellow mixed with blue.”
ABOUT THE GIANT FOAM CLAWS
“Pepsi did blue Styrofoam lobster claws for [the release of the ‘Blue Lobster’]. They called us at the 25th hour and were like, ‘We want to do something for you guys. What if we do foam lobster claws with Pepsi on it?’ It had nothing to do with the project, no contract was exchanged, but I was like, ‘Come drop off Pepsi for kids on line and you’ve got a deal.’ I still want one, I never got one.”
