Nike Dunk Low Pro B CO.JP 'Plum' 2001
Colorway: Daybreak/Barn/Plum · Style code: 624044-561 · Release date: January 2001 · Price: $1959 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Dunk Low Pro B 'Griptape' (624044-001) · Nike Dunk Low Pro (624044-002) · Nike Dunk Low Pro 'Kermit' (624044-003) · Nike Dunk Low Pro B CO.JP 'Ceramic' 2001 (624044-031) · Nike Dunk Low Pro (624044-033)
The Dunk was never designed to be interesting. Peter Moore drew it in 1985 as the College Color High, assembling it out of parts already used on the Legend, the Terminator and the Air Force 1, and its selling point was that Nike could produce it in whichever two colours a university basketball programme wore. That was the whole idea.
Skateboarders found it later, and Nike's first response was Pro B, a small 2001 run of Dunk Lows with modest changes, released in Japan through the CO.JP programme rather than globally. Three of them made up the Ugly Duckling pack, which is where this purple pair comes from. Suede replaced the leather overlays for durability, a section of mesh was added, and the laces were cut wide in the original pattern.
Nike SB followed in 2002 and did the job properly: a genuinely padded tongue and collar, Zoom Air in the insole, and a distribution model built around skate shops. Pro B is the step before that, and the reason these particular Dunks are treated as the line's prehistory rather than as ordinary retros.