story

"So we're going to welcome James Arizumi, a former SB design director who has worked on a plethora of sneaker and skateboarding shoes over the years. He is the man, the myth, the legend. James Arizumi what's going on my brother."

"What's good guys? Good to be on this show. Thank you for having me. You mind tell us a little bit about yourself and how long you've been at Nike and what you've been doing. Been at Nike a long time. I worked in Nike SB. I also worked in Nike Golf for a hot minute."

"Then came back as the creative director for Nike SB ACG, and now currently Senior Director of Jordans Special Projects."

"As we're celebrating 20 years of the Nike SB, what has been your most memorable moment so far working on SB? The most memorable moment was when we released our first skate film, Nothing But The Truth."

"We went global, and we debuted that film. It was kind of a coming out party for skateboarding, but also just who we are as a team, and Nike being involved in skateboarding."

"For the longest, skateboarding was counter culture, like subculture. And I feel like now it's being a little more accepted. Do you still feel like it's still in the sense counter culture to the sneaker culture that we have as a whole right now?"

"I think skateboarding will always be counter culture. Skateboarding has always been the...I would say the sharp point for youth, because it is rebellion. It's about taking what's not meant for you and making it yours."

"So we know that you worked on one of the most influential sneakers of all time, the 'What The Dunk', and if you could walk us through the process of how that came to life. I designed it on a whim."

"That's when the sneaker lines started showing up and a lot of the dunks were being bought by not skaters. The dunk was always this hype shoe and so the 'What The Dunk' was kind of an inside joke."

"The joke was if I put every shoe that everyone wanted on one shoe, the pigeons, then it would be the ring, one ring to rule them all, and they could just move on and I could make skate shoes."

"I pitched a shoe to Sandy Bodecker and the team and they were like, 'James, that's the ugliest shoe we've ever seen.' I was laughing. I was not offended at all and so they shelved it for two years."

"And then when that film came out that I just referenced, Nothing But The Truth, they're like, 'Yo, we need a hitter for this tour and for this film.' And they're like, 'Yo, James, where's that ugly shoe you did? Let's bring that thing out and make that a part of the thing.'."

"The way that shoe launched was in each city that the film premiered, we would launch at a key retailer; in New York, we launched it with Supreme and that's the only way you could get it."

"Sandy Bodecker, again was a pioneer that gave skaters a voice and built Nike SB into what it is today. What was it like working with him, and what was the impact that you would say he had on you?"

"I mean, you talked about skateboarding being counter culture. I mean, Sandy, although not a skateboarder, was counter culture by nature."

"This was the second time Nike got involved in skateboarding. And so he really wanted to do it right. So he found heads and skaters from the industry to come in to run the brand."

"He really empowered us as young wow creatives or members of the SB team to act as owners. If you wanted to try a crazy thing, he let you run. He was like a father figure for us."

"Sandy recently passed, and we wanted to do a tribute shoe for him. This idea was based on an old photo that I took in Sandy's office because he had the cut up pair in his office where I put it on and shot a photo on Instagram."

"So fast forward to now, I was like, 'Yo, if we could build this, you wearing the shoe cut up on your foot would be pretty ill.' The little known secret that he revealed way later, Sandy and his foundation would be the only one that had the complete 'eBay' Dunk."

"The 'What The Dunk' comprised of the 'eBay' Dunk. So if you were trying to collect all the shoes, the troll was you couldn't get it all because you would never own the 'eBay' Dunk."

"So the photo inside the sole of the shoe is a photo of Sandy and? So that is my son, Alika."

"I put that as a tribute to Sandy. It just shows like strength and compassion, which was all the things I felt like Sandy was. Thank you for giving us your knowledge. Thank you for giving us your story. Thank you for giving us the history. Appreciate you guys. Bye. Mahalo. Thank you."

SNKRS Live Highlights: Straight from the Source SB Dunk 'Sandy'

Straight from the Source

with James Arizumi