Why of course Nike has Grateful Dead sneakers
Nike and the Grateful Dead are jamming together.
And the result are these cool new sneakers — the Nike SB Dunk Low Grateful Dead shoes.
Soon to be the preferred footwear of Deadheads from coast to coast, these Grateful Dead Nikes will be available in three colors — yellow, orange and, the best-looking of the bunch, green — and borrow from some of the band’s most iconic imagery. They are part of Nike’s skateboarding SB imprint, which was founded by the the late sportswear giant Sandy Bodecker.
Of course, these new Grateful Dead shoes feature the group’s famed dancing bears, which have adorned car bumpers, backpacks and bootleg concert T-shirts for decades.
You’ll find a dancing bear grooving away on the front of each of the shoes’ tongues. But the bear-ish detailing doesn’t stop there. What’s even more awesome is the faux bear “fur” to be found all around the shoe and how the Nike Swoosh is frayed to properly mimic the bear’s collar.
The dancing bears have a long history with the band, having made their debut on the back cover of 1973’s “History of the Grateful Dead, Volume 1 (Bear’s Choice).” These joyful critters reference Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the Dead’s former patron, sound system pioneer and, yes, the “Bear” in “Bear’s Choice.”
“As the band’s benefactor, Bear was an incredibly huge part of the Grateful Dead’s ability to become who they were,” says David Lemieux, the band’s archivist. “They were talented musicians, but they would not have had the financial freedom to forgo jobs, move to Los Angeles and practice for 14 hours a day. The band wouldn’t become what it is today without Bear’s innovations and contributions. The same fiercely independent spirit from Bodecker helped create that authenticity within the skate community.”
Also, not surprisingly, these shoes also riff on the band’s most iconic logo — the “Steal Your Face” skull — which you can see by looking on the underside of the tongue.
And speaking of the tongue … that’s where you’ll find a little zipper stash pocket, which I’m thinking will be a very convenient place to store your house key while you skate about town in your new shoes.
The orange sneakers were released last week through San Francisco skateboard clothing/lifestyle company FTC (ftcsf.com), which — appropriately enough — got its star in Haight-Ashbury. The yellow offerings will be released on Friday through nike.com and at select skateboard shops. The green ones come out the same day as the yellow, but only at select shops.
The shoes run $110 and I’m expecting that they’ll just fly off the shelves.
LEE GREENWOOD GETS HIS NO. 1 >> What’s the hottest song on the digital charts?
Well, believe it or not, it’s a country tune that’s been around now for 36 years.
It’s Lee Greenwood’s patriotic number, “God Bless the U.S.A.,” which was released in 1984 but just finally hit No. 1 on Billboard Magazine’s Digital Song Sales chart.
It sits atop the chart — right above the Black Lives Matter-themed hit song “Rockstar” by DaBaby featuring Roddy Rich — in the July 18-dated chart.
It zoomed all the way to the top from No. 50 in one week. It seems that the patriotic favorite got a big push from the Fourth of July holiday, as its sales surged 366% to 15,000 units sold during the week ending July 9.
“I’m always humbled to see how ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’ resonates with the American spirit of pride and love of country,” Greenwood says in a news release. “Thank you proud Americans for using ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’ as you celebrated our wonderful country — It is still the best place on earth!”
The irony is that “God Bless the U.S.A.” has long been affiliated — often controversially so — with GOP presidential campaigns including, most recently, that of Donald J. Trump. But at a time when Trump’s popularity is at a low ebb, the tune has never been more popular.
Indeed, this marks the first time that the platinum-plus-selling single has hit No. 1 on any chart.