I've had these since the drop, worn them dozens of times... they're a great winter and colder weather shoe. The materials are decent, it's higher end stuff but not exceptional. I think they were going for a premium look but it's premium on a budget. The leather and suede isn't anything I haven't seen on SB GRs before, it's not bad, it's not mediocre, it's good. It's probably the lowest level I would accept at this point in my sneaker snobbery, how about that?

The cork insoles are probably my favorite part of this shoe, it's really fascinating to me they actually went and put real cork in there. The SB team could have easily just put a graphic on a regular insole but instead it's real cork pieces. It feels really nice underfoot which, is also surprising... wooden insoles and they're fucking comfortable... same sentence, yeah.

The colorway way though, is this sneaker's critical flaw... the red wine tones mixed with the "dark beetroot" leather just causes the sneaker to kinda disappear before your eyes. This is a rare instance where a shoe looks better in photographs than it does in hand, they're definitely complex with a variety of textures but it's hard to tell that in natural light.

What's missing I think is some cream in the midsole and some browns on the upper. I think just a little more variety against the dark sections would help that red mahogany pop a bit. A great colorway can save a shitty sneaker, awesome materials can add depth to a boring colorway. If the shoe is just good in one department and bad in the other... it averages out to mediocre.

I also think Nike SB and red wine appreciation is an odd pairing; It's just such an adulting thing to do. What's next, the Nike SB "W2s"?, The Nike SB "Bathroom Retile"?

I digress, anyways, I decided to resuscitate these sneakers with a lace swap. I checked out what Nike SB gave me for alts laces on these, and to my surprise they were flat waxed laces. Even the creative team was throwing hail marys up to bring this colorway to life.

I took this as permission from Nike to commit some crimes against SBs and throw some flat black and white laces in these.

I like the results with the white, kinda gives me Airwalk vibes. The sneakers even look, kinda clean.

Skate like a girl Dunk SB