Sole Collector's 25 Best Sneaker Collaborations

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If you've been into sneakers for any amount of time, you probably know about Sole Collector. Since the early 2000s, Sole Collector's forums and magazine have played a huge role in bringing the sneaker community together, both in the digital world of the Internet and through their events. Over the years they've collaborated with a number of brands, creating what is arguably some of the most sought-after sneakers ever. Since Complex recently acquired Sole Collector, we decided there's never been a more appropriate time to check out the best of Sole Collector's sneaker collabs. However, rather than give our opinion, we decided to talk to SC's CEO Steve Mullholand (@solesteve) and Creative Director, Nick DePaula (@_NDP), and let them tell the stories behind Sole Collector's 25 Best Sneaker Collaborations.

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25. Sole Collector x Nike Huarache 2K5 "Boston Cowboy"

 

Year: 2005

Nick says: "One of the first SC shoes to release to the public, this Huarache 2K5 was styled up by former Creative Director Retrokid. If you can't figure out the inspiration for the shoe released at Niketown Boston, the yellow and orange was actually a play off of the fact that the entire city was seemingly ALWAYS filled with construction and repair signs of the same hues. Whenever we'd be visiting Boston, it seemed like there was always some kind of traffic delay or work to be done downtown. Plus, we were operating under the 'gaudy is good' mantra then, and these damn sure qualified."

24. Sole Collector x Pony "Special Blend"

 

Year: 2009

Nick says: "This industry is all about relationships, and one of our very favorite people at any sneaker brand is Colin Brickley. He's now at ASICS, and is simply an awesome, awesome dude. After starting at Pony in 2007, Colin would let us run a few one-off pairs of any of their models from time to time, and in 2008 we worked up this colorway of the Special Blend. The model itself went largely under the radar, but when given a chance to create something just to kick around, we were really excited to put together this grey and neon version of the Special Blend. As you can also easily tell, this shoe was apart of my huge grey and neon phase, which would also be later seen on our Penny 2 collab and the Reebok Question."

23. Sole Collector x Jhung Yuro x Tanner Goods "The Premium"

 

Year: 2009

Nick says: "We haven't worked on too many casual models in our collab history, and when a good friend from Jhung Yuro brought up the idea of a working on a shoe together, the first thing I thought about was bringing in more than just a shoe with co-branding. We initially discussed a shoe that would feature leather from Tanner Goods, located here in Portland, ran by a few of my close friends and renowned for their quality, handmade leather goods. The brainstorming was all over the place, at one point including a multi-compartment box, with a belt, wallet and shoe all inside. In the end, the trio of brands came together for "The Premium," housed in a custom co-branded box. Included inside was a pair of Jhung Yuro sneakers in two-tone leather with an insanely comfy pigskin liner, along with a handmade leather cardholder from Tanner Goods, their very first two-tone one. They're one of the more subtle shoes we've done through the years, but still great to break out all this time later."

22. Sole Collector x Jordan CMFT 11 "SC"

 

Year: 2010

Nick says: "The fact that this project actually began with a for-real Air Jordan XI collab model made things a little bittersweet for the SC Team, but still, working on any shoe with Jordan Brand is still an awesome experience and achievement. We wanted to really highlight the fact that the XI introduced carbon fiber to the Air Jordan series, and not only did our CMFT 11 SC feature an unmolded carbon rand along the upper, but at each of our Santa Monica, Chicago and New York launch events for the shoe on 10.23.10, a string of 23 custom carbon fiber boxes made by the Jordan Motorsports team were randomly scattered in Willy Wonka-style as a surprise."

21. Sole Collector x Nike Zoom Rookie LWP "Orlando"

 

Year: 2011

Nick says: "When we worked on this colorway, we knew it would be the very first time that someone would have a chance to purchase Penny's newest signature model, the Zoom Rookie LWP. While MJ was always known for his classic red and black sneakers, Penny certainly can lay claim to bright royal. This version played off of the classic blue pinstripe Magic uniforms, featuring a mostly Atlantic Blue upper and white Foamposite, with the silver pods inspired by the silver stars stitched into Orlando's road unis."

20. Sole Collector x Nike Air Max 180 "Miami"

 

Year: 2006

Nick says: "During our string of Niketown events in the mid 2000s, the launch shoe for each event drafted off of the host city, and with our graphic designer Kerstin Donzey calling Florida home, we let her take the lead on one of our only running silhouettes. The result was a gator-themed upper, accented by beige along the outsole to represent an alligator's stomach, and a pink toe tying back to a gator's tongue. Most of all — because a theme might not always make it through translation — it was a hot shoe."

19. Sole Collector x AND1 Onslaught "Sole Bar"

 

Year: 2007

Nick says: "While AND1 has certainly struggled a bit these days, the brand will forever be embedded in hoops culture, and enjoyed some of basketball's most memorable on-court moments during their glory years. Working on this Onslaught for the 2007 launch of our L.A.-based Sole Bar pop-up shop was a great experience, as it was the first official SC collab shoe I got to lead. With Laker-themed purple and yellow accents taking over one of my favorite AND1 performance models of all time, I also love that the shoe is perfectly representative of the all-over print era. Which we all can admit to running right into the ground. We only made 72 pairs of these, but another thing I really liked about them is that most of the people that got them proudly wore them. Crazy concept, I know."

18. Sole Collector x Nike Air Foamposite One "Penny Pack"

 

Year: 2011

Nick says: "To be completely honest, this was actually the third option that I did for our SC Foamposite. The first version featured a white Foamposite base, blue eyestay and black tongue and was WAY TOO HOT for just a 25-pair release. Part of the deal for the Penny Pack was that the Nike team promised me they wouldn't re-create any of the colorways we did, and they couldn't quite come up with a guarantee for my first option. After deciding to flip the iconic blue and black color placement on Penny's most beloved model as a Plan B, we tried to toy around with a sample that had an unmolded Foamposite overlay along both the eyestay and heel collar. It just didn't come out great, so we went with a more traditional nubuck along the eyestay and a matte black finish atop the Foam. As flashy as Foams have gotten in recent times, with not only new gloss executions, but even wild graphics, this pair is nicely subtle and can still turn just as many heads."

17. Sole Collector x Reebok Question

 

Year: 2009

Nick says: "This shoe is unlike all of the other shoes on this list, because it was actually fan designed. We teamed up with both Reebok and Honda to launch a design widget contest on our site (long before it became easy to do it), and the canvas up for styling was none other than the iconic Reebok Question. With nearly unlimited options, eventual winner Chris Pardo came up with this clean shades of grey upper atop an apple-green midsole and outsole. We'd never seen color on the Question quite like this, and the all suede look and near-neon hits gave the shoe some new life. Less than 20 pairs were made of these, with 10 pairs going to our judges panel, and the rest for the winner Chris and the Reebok team. We're still all waiting for when Reebok takes some inspiration and throws out some new and unique color onto AI's classic rookie signature model."

16. Sole Collector x Nike Zoom Rookie "Penny Pack"

 

Year: 2011

Nick says: "As great as we thought the 'Orlando' Zoom Rookie was that released in Las Vegas, the pack version was definitely the hero of the shoe's launch event, and for more reasons than one. Firstly, it's a hot colorway, and I've long thought that Nike Sportswear doesn't do enough versions with white Foamposite. Secondly, the shoe mimicked the colorblock of the LWP that Penny originally wore on court during his early years in the NBA. Add in the 'S' along the outsole and the shoe's subtle copper hints and we were damn pleased with how these turned out."

15. Sole Collector x Nike Air Penny II "Penny Pack"

 

Year: 2011

Nick says: "Working on this pack was great enough, but to be able to mess with the Penny II for a second time in just four years was truly amazing. Easily one of the greatest Nike designs of all time, we wanted to play up the Atlantic Blue that Pennys became known for and keep the shoe's classic block. The 3M piping on these REALLY shines, and the brushed copper 1 Cent logo jewel on the tongue was probably the best copper execution of the pack. Most importantly, Penny loved them and thought they came out 'crazy.' To have a co-sign from the man himself never hurts."

14. Sole Collector x Nike Air Max 95 "Seattle"

 

Year: 2006

Nick says: "After the huge success of the 'Cowboy' Dunk Low that we launched in New York, people weren't really sure if a SC shoe could ever get more gaudy and over the top. These were before my time, and Steve and Retrokid worked on them with the NIKEiD concept team and made sure to take them as far as they could. The initial idea for these was to have every panel also be a different color and material, but we eventually tamed things up a little more by using their cool new buffalo print material along the lateral side. Don't worry though. The medial side is still a wild rainbow of color and texture."

13. Sole Collector x Nike Zoom Flight Club

 

Year: 2009

Nick says: "Every once in awhile it's fun to be selfish on a project. This was that project. I'd grown up in Sacramento all my life — the Kings were obviously my squad — and the Jason Williams and Chris Webber tandem was easily the most exciting duo I'd ever watched. I took some pretty straightforward inspiration from JWill's classic Hyperflights with the glossy purple base, but the material here is actually an unmolded sheet of Foamposite, which hadn't been done up to that point. They're real loud and flashy in person, like the Hyperflight, and the story hit home even more for me, as I wore both Hyperflights and the Flight '89 on my high school basketball team, two of the shoes that blended together, along with the Zoom Glove, to make the Flight Club."

12. Sole Collector x Nike Hyperdunk 2010 "SC Forums"

 

Year: 2010

Nick says: "A few big things were happening around the time that the Hyperdunk 2010 was releasing. Firstly, we were gearing up for a dual milestone of sorts on the site. We were nearing the 200,000 member mark, which was just insane to consider, and it was also going to be the Forum's 10th Anniversary that October. Steve had a real cool idea to try and go beyond our normal collab run of 24 pairs and do pairs for literally everyone on the Forum staff. We ended up doing around 65 pairs and gifting every last one of them to the Admins and Mod team on the site, which everyone was really excited about. At the end of the day, the team of people we have on the site really help to make it a great community, and gifting out an exclusive sneaker with SC specific touches was really awesome. You'll see some '200K' hits on the shoe, along with a 2000/2010 nod to the anniversary. Along the sockliner, there was a special 'Thanks To Your Help' message for our Forum staff."

11. Sole Collector x Under Armour Bloodline "SC Path"

 

Year: 2011

Nick says: "This was an awesome project to work on because the process was unlike any of the other ones we'd done before. Usually we have a story or specific color in mind when we're working on a shoe. I got an email one day from a close friend of mine that was running the UA Basketball category, and the subject line said, 'What are some milestones and things from along the SC Path?' With the Bloodline, Under Armour really told the story of Brandon Jennings' life from stop-to-stop all the way from Compton to Milwaukee. Each color had a cool hook about his journey to the league. I sent back a list of people, quotes, facts and stories about our team, and about four months later, we were given a batch of pairs of what we've since called the "SC Path" Bloodlines. They did an awesome job of making a cool colorway out of a mock that I sent over, and they included some great personal details about our team that helped to tell the journey of Sole Collector."

10. Sole Collector x Nike Dunk Low "Competitor Friends and Family"

 

Year: 2006

Steve says: "One of the coolest things Nike has ever done with us. They actually created 50 pairs of 'Thank You' shoes for the competitors of our NikeTown event series at the Vegas Finals. They came in the mail with a letter from the Nike folks thanking each competitor and I just thought that was so cool. Nike gets it."

9. Sole Collector x Nike Air Max Trainer "Sole Knows"

 

Year: 2010

Steve says: "Everything came together with this one. A great colorway, wrapped around a great issue and working with the Nike Training group was just over-the-top amazing."

Nick says: "The first shoe that Zac Dubasik really, really wanted as a kid was the Fire Red Jordan IV. When he got to JC Penney's to buy a pair after they finally went on sale in 1989, they had literally just sold out of his size. As a consolation — and an eventual life-changing moment for him — he got a pair of Bo Jackson's SC Trainer II in Aquamarine and Citron instead. When we worked with Nike Training on this collab to celebrate the Bo Jackson cover on our 30th issue, the inspiration was an obvious choice to everyone. We just made sure to take those classic colors and make the shoe as loud as possible, of course."

8. Sole Collector x Nike Zoom Rookie "iPad Exclusive"

 

Year: 2012

Steve says: "This was our first iPad shoe and it allowed anyone in the U.S. to gain access to an SC collab without having to go to an event. Was a huge success and just a tight colorway."

Nick says: "The actual backend work to be able to even launch the shoe took infinitely more time than I ever expected, but to hear people from all over the country still hit us up on Twitter about how excited they were to get their hands on an SC collab for the first time made it all worth it."

7. Sole Collector x Nike Air Penny III "Penny Pack"

 

Year: 2011

Steve says: "This colorway turned me onto the Penny III. The Penny III was my least-favorite Penny model until this version was created."

Nick says: "Unlike Steve, I was already a HUGE fan of the Penny III, and loved the way the Foamposite wing and collar line all flowed together. My only complaint, until I got a crack at making this version, was that I had always been disappointed that the colorways of the III had been pretty tame. Livening things up with an all Atlantic Blue upper and contrasting white Foamposite wing seemed like the easiest call ever, and seemed to also give people a new appreciation for the model."

6. Sole Collector x Nike Air Presto "Hawaii"

 

Year: 2005

Steve says: "Our Hawaii event was one of the best events ever. The vibe, the people, the culture — all were amazing. The local newscast came down every single night and interviewed us and all of the kids that were waiting in line. Was such a great experience, and having Mark Smith and Chris Lundy at the event made it that much better. This was the most limited pair of shoes we ever sold — just 48 pairs — and it was the first hyperstrike ever sold to the public at its original retail price — it wasn't jacked up like nowadays."

Nick says: "The only thing I don't like about this shoe is that I don't have a size XL. The Presto has always been one of my favorite shoes ever created and this one CRUSHED it."

5. Sole Collector x Nike LeBron Soldier "Sole Bar"

 

Year: 2007

Steve says: "I can remember every detail of when I first saw this shoe. Nick and I were sitting at a conference table on the Nike Basketball floor, and the guy we were with said, 'Kenzo has a little surprise for you two.' Ken Link, the designer of the LeBron line at the time, walks in and unveils this pretty damn amazing colorway of the Soldier with the SC logo on the strap. We released 72 pairs of them at our Sole Bar event about three months after that meeting. This was the first time the SC logo was on the upper of a shoe."

4. Sole Collector x Nike Air Penny I "Penny Pack"

 

Year: 2011

Steve says: "Retrokid and I thought kids would love this pair but nobody else seemed to think they would be a hit. We lasered the shoes — first time a pair of shoes were numbered 1 out of X with a laser. I distinctly remember unveiling the shoes to the kids in line... hoping we exceeded the expectations of the biggest sneaker town in the world — and luckily we did. This was probably the reason we were able to push the envelope with all the other shoes we did in the future, because we were confident that if we believed in the colorway, that others would too."

Nick says: "When I started out designing the SC Penny pack, naturally I first started with the Penny 1. I've always thought it had one of the coolest and bold colorblocks of all time, and I just wanted to flip it and make it even more bold. I kept the wing and outsole white, then splashed some classic Atlantic Blue along the upper. Black accents throughout and a copper-molded toe detail and we were set. Sometimes it's the simple twists that can really make a shoe."

3. Sole Collector x Nike Dunk "Cowboy"

 

Year: 2006

Steve says: "When we first sat down with Chris from NIKEiD, aka the 'Cowboy,' to design our event shoes, we did four at once. The first two were the 2K5s and they were okay — we tried to push the envelope but they just weren't as iconic as we wanted. The second set of shoes was the Dunks for New York... and we were on a mission — every panel would use a different material and a different color. We also split the back quarter panel into two, something never done before."

2. Sole Collector x Nike Air Penny II "5th Anniversary"

 

Year: 2009

Steve says: "The Penny IIs have been one of my favorite shoes for a long time and to be able to create a colorway that some people said was the best colorway of that shoe ever was a big deal."

Nick says: "Turning five was no small feat, and when I was looking up the history of the mag for some color inspiration on this shoe, I stumbled upon an old snapshot of the site from its early days with grey and neon accents all over the place. The classic AM 95 colorway was always one of Steve's favorites, and was actually the shoe he wore on his very first trip to the Nike campus. With the Penny series never veering too far from classic Magic hues at that point, it seemed like a great chance to try and do an all-new colorblock and version of the II. Like Steve said, hearing people say it's one of their very favorite Pennys is still one of the coolest things ever."

1. Sole Collector x Nike Dunk High "Vegas Finals"

 

Year: 2006

Steve says: "Our Vegas event in 2006 was the epicenter of sneaker culture, all under one roof. Every single thing that happened during that event was positive, as we had insane samples and exclusives on display, and a great crowd from around the world. I'll never forget it. The lasered 3M on this Dunk High was a first and very unique, and the story told on the shoe (a sneakerhead on the hunt for his grail) was really nicely done. The dude giving the reseller the finger? Priceless."

Nick says: "I still remember every last thing about this event — especially the 21-hour drive from Portland with three of my closest friends. (Two of them didn't drive...) Not only was the all-day event the most impressive thing I've ever attended, but the shoe has stood the test of time. The reptile texture and lasered 3M worked great together, and the colors on this shoe really popped. Best of all, even all these years later, we still have people telling their own stories about that great night in Vegas."