This is actually a really interesting footnote in the history of Nike's evolution and expansion into different markets. They (as well as Adidas and the other big brands) had been trying like hell to entice skaters to wear Nikes with little success. Much of what they released was really techy looking (like: http://skately.com/library/shoes/nike-sb-zoom-tre or: http://skately.com/library/shoes/nike-sb-url ) and you would have been mocked for wearing them.

But there was a history of some of skateboarding's most iconic figures wearing Nikes, particularly Jordan 1s but also Blazers and Dunks, in the 80s and early 90s. And it turned out that if you took a Dunk Low, overstuffed the tongue, and added some Nike cushioning tech (bonus points for stitching a Chocolate logo on the heel: https://www.kicksonfire.com/nike-sb-skateboarding-releases/n... ), it fit in just fine with the Osirises of the world that were popular at that time, or classics like the eS Koston, and performed at least as well, if not better (while, critically, not appearing to be built for performance at all).

To your point, Nike quickly leveraged that "vintage cool" aspect that only they could offer, plus collaborations with artists like Geoff McFetridge who had credibility among skaters (and maybe more importantly, among photographers and videographers who shot them), to finally convince skaters that they could wear Nikes without turning into a jock or a dork.

>> And it turned out that if you took a Dunk Low, overstuffed the tongue, and added some Nike cushioning tech

This is so funny. I remember loving those shoes, but every manufacturer thought super cushy tongues were the way to go in that era. Every time we got a new pair, my buddies and I would take a few hours and razorblade them open, pull out all nearly all the stuffing and then sew them back up.

Apparently they finally caught on and stopped making those horrendously huge tongues.

I always wondered about whether that was meant to have any practical function. (Protective cushioning at the expense of board feel? Shoes stay on better while untied?)

Now the pendulum has swung all the back in the other direction. All these years later, Koston is signed to Nike, and his pro-model basically just looks like a running shoe: http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/sb-koston-max-mens-skatebo...