It's that time again.
Truth be told, this stuff takes a lot of energy. And, sometimes I get tired. I get tired of Nike, tired of IG, tired of writing, tired of trying to get the sneaker world to care about the things I think the sneaker world should care about. And I get kinda tired of this pattern I've carved for myself...this seemingly never-ending cycle of consumption and elation and disappointment and seeking and....yea. I know you feel me.
So I've kinda come to this point where I'm super excited in creating something for my own edification, but also like absolutely terrified about showing it to the (sneaker) world. And that's nothing new, for me, as I'm always loathe to put my heart and soul into something that is ultimately validated by a (fickle) market...
With that knowledge in mind, tho, it's that time again.
Time for me and Sonsofblackmaria to drop another card set on y'all. Or, more appropriately...I think it's time for me to let some more of that useless knowledge out into the world...With that I present you with: Dunky Dunks 2!
For the past few months, Sons of Black Maria have been going back and forth about what card set or what we should create next, and we kind of centered on an idea that we wanted to go out with a bang on a Jordans set, so we started working on it. Before we got too far, though, we realized what a gargantuan task that was going to be, so took a step back and asked ourselves...is there anything else we want to do before we hang it up on the MJ set? Little did I know...Sons was aching to do a Dunks set since he missed out on the first one. So we decided to drop another one. Thing about this process, though, was that things have changed since I dropped that first set in 2020. Suppliers have changed, prices have changed, workes and processes have changed. So it's been tough trying to navigate this new world of creation while trying to stay true to the original idea....all I can say about that - this set simply wouldn't have been created without Sons pushing me through to the finish line on it. And for that, I'm proud as hell with the working relationship we've built and the products we've created...
So. Dunky Dunks 2. Part 2. Series 2. 2024. Whatever the hell you want to call them. We went with a simple '2'. And...looking back...I think we should have called them 'Dunkier Dunks' or something a bit more clever. These are the things you overlook when you're in the heat of it.
Last time I did a DunkyDunks set, I wanted to catalog exactly what was released when - and IN ORDER. But. I realized, that kind of information isn't always the most fun. When Sons argued that we should just do a bunch of shoes we wanted to do...I kinda went wild with the checklist. Once the chains of practicality were removed, this gave me the freedom to let my imagination run wild...so that's what we did. Before long, we had a checklist that was FAR too long. For the base set...we decided...this time...we'd work around a budget instead of our budget working around the idea. Instead of just going until our brains wouldn't work any more, we asked the manufacturer, this time, what the perfect number of cards would be, and when they gave us that number we began removing items from our neverending checklist. So, for example, if we wanted to do 167 cards and the manufacturer told us they do sheets of 130, we'd cut out 37 cards for the sake of simplicity. This made things easier in a way, too, as the neverending excel iterations of odds and packs and boxes wouldn't need to be a neverending question mark. We had our numbers and went with them. So...we included a handful of cards from each 'box' era that we both liked...and instead of putting in the random colorways that we didn't give a damn about...or....shoes that we simply liked...we put in shoes that we deemed to be important, whether we liked them or not.
Base Set: If you remember the first Dunky Dunks set, you might remember how sterile the base set looked. Very rudimentary in illustration and idea. There were some deep moments, but overall I was trying to appeal to a wide audience that understood the concept from a very basic perspective. But now that we are 4-5 sets deep, we wanted to 'jazz it up' a bit and try to make things a bit more stylized. Obviously, we needed new illustrations for the shoes, and some shading, but the first order of business was the background of the card. Although we stuck with the concept of using the box they released in amongst a sea of the previous box to release (ie: if something was from the gold box era, we had it sitting on a gold box while everything else in the image showed the previous black box era). But this time...we added stickers. Or, the appearance of stickers. Because...well...stickers were a big deal back in the day. When I didn't need a new skateboard and I had a few dollars in my pocket ready to burn - I spent a GREAT deal of time looking in the stickers case. Because...well...stickers. As stupid as it sounds - stickers used to be an affordable form of expression before the neverending barrage of fast fashion and cheap clothing. If you wanted to rep your favorite skaters or skate brands, likely you couldn't afford to buy all their shoes or all their shirts and certainly not all their decks. You bought their stickers instead. Explaining it now in this context makes it sound stickers are from a bygone era...but, yeah. You could also think of stickers as showing where your loyalties were: Me - for example - I started out on a Roskopp that my dad had bought from some neighborhood kids for $6. When my dad realized that board was far too big for me, he bought me a freestyle board; so I started riding my Per Welinder freestyle but had to pay homage by slapping it with a Roskopp sticker. And then after that I went to a Think board a few years later and couldn't ride without a Per Welinder sticker. The cards, tho, Sons and I both talked and commiserated on the stickers that we remembered and slapped them on the shoeboxes. Look hard and you might find *your* favorite.
A relatively short checklist was created for this round (last time was 70 cards, this time we did 60) but tried to include a few important shoes from each box era. As long as we did a smaller amount of base cards, we could fit even more special inserts. Yes please!
SBSBs (Special Box SBs): I know, logically, that the box always matters to collectors. I know, logically, that shoes with a box always command a higher price than shoes without a box. And I know, logically, that shoes with a special box always command a higher price than shoes with a regular box. But I still think it's stupid: I don't WEAR the box, I WEAR the shoes. I hate boxes. Boxes are like the bane of my existence as a collector. That being said - there ARE certain boxes I will not get rid of; especially for the older pairs. But. That won't stop me from making fun of the idea of Box Nazi's...with this special insert - I wanted to highlight the ridiculousness of paying as much (or more) for the box than the shoe.
SB Eats: This was kind of a half-assed idea that I wasn't really all that sure about UNTIL Sons told me he loved the idea and he loved my execution. As we all know, there are PLENTY of food-themed SBs...we toyed with the idea of 'scratch and sniff' cards, but the idea that someone would be scratching a card to smell some shrimp or crawfish was just too cringe...so we opted for a restaurant menu-styled set instead. I found images online of random foods and found ways to remove the food while simultaneously adding the shoe. We went with a lenticular effect as the most basic way to say…you can substitute one for the other.
Streetfighter: Similar to the SB Eats cards, we went with a lenticular effect on these cards. The cool part about this – and the design that Sons went with – is that these cards actually *look* like a 90’s video game. Obviously, we took the player selection screen image from the original arcade game and when I’m sitting there looking at the card I half-expect to start playing. Amazing what memories can due to the imagination…
S Beats: TBH I really expected there to be a lot more music-related SB cards. Problem is, it was kinda hard to focus on the ones we found to be the most important. Obviously we’ve got a handful of F&F pairs (Iron Maiden, Deftones, etc.) and then we’ve got a handful of bands that got shoes that most people don’t even know are based on music (U.N.K.L.E.). We wanted to pull a few of the most important. Arguably, the MF Doom pair, De La, and Travis are the most important…the RTJ and Dino Jr. pairs are important TO ME. Plus, the branding on every musical act we chose is great, so…these cards came out *great*. Much more respect to the artists and the sneaker designers than the card makers (lol)
(Base)Balls: I mention this often – but when I first started getting into SBs around 2003 I remember saying to more than one person – this reminds me of searching out and collecting baseball cards. When I mentioned that to Sons, he said ‘oh that’s interesting, my favorite SBs are from the Unheardof Baseball pack’. I didn’t know much about that pack in particular, but when I started looking into I realized that Philip from Unheardof ALREADY did two baseball cards with his release...which were subsequently BANNED. I reached out to him and asked if he could share some images he had of the original cards and he obliged…to which we slapped illustrations over and rebranded. Another important artifact from my childhood – the 1989 Upper Deck Griffey Jr. Rookie card serves as the backdrop to the last card in this set.
(Other)Balls: This is probably the most questionable subset we’ve created. And when I showed these to my sneaker bestie, this dude that works at Nike, he told me he thought it was a bad, bad idea. But. Whatever. This is our art. And art isn’t always meant to be a good idea. I will say, tho, that this was fully Sons idea and concept – I think he wanted to highlight the fact that dudes beast over certain shoes WAY too much…like…to an unhealthy level. If you recognize the background (which I’m sure you do) you probably have some unhealthy parts of your life, too, so…keep the judgements to yourself!
DNA: A cleaner, more visually appealing continuation of the DNA set from the original Dunky Dunks that dropped back in 2021. The original set included the OG Hemp pack and Heinekens…this one expands on the ideas presented in that first set. Shroomz, smoke and beer are the highlights of this set.
Grateful Dead: These came out great, IMO, but could have been just a little better. My aunt is the primary ‘dead-head’ in my life and she’s also a painter. So I asked her - about 10 days before our due date – whether or not she wanted to paint a GD poster for the GD cards in our set. She obliged but something came up and she had to pass at the last minute. Being that we had a deadline, Sons and I put some sketches together and got something done. Cool thing about these cards – I gave my kids some GD coloring pages, which can be seen on the backs of these cards. These cards come printed on ‘cracked ice’ paper and are embossed. A very visually appealing set (if you can pull all 6!!!)
One-offs: The way that card production (at scale) works – you basically get a certain number of slots (for cards) and if you don’t use it, you lose it. These ‘one-offs’ were cards we tried to build a cohesive set around, but couldn’t. The ‘Skeledunks’ card is from a piece that Sons created a couple of years back…the ‘Adobe’ card is a look into the tool we use to build these cards (adobe Photoshop)…and the ‘flying formations’ card is a throwback to the ‘flying formations’ card we dropped in the 2023 Air Max Pax…
As of this moment - cards are now LIVE!
Please note: NOTHING will be shipped out before April 3rd.
Blaster boxes are $24.99 (shipped) and include 7 (or 6 - read below) packs of cards
Unfortunately, due to the relatively small size of this set, I have noticed plenty of packs with duplicate cards, so that should be expected. I opened 10 boxes as a test – 9 of the boxes had 10-11 duplicate cards, but I also opened one box that had 29 duplicates (*barf*)
Individual packs are $4.99 (shipped) and include 7 cards – 6 base + 1 special insert
Individual cards are also available as loosies – their prices represent their rarity.
SALE ALERT…I have a handful of past set releases available so I’m offering a package deal on everything – buy one box of #DunkyDunks2 and get any past set for half off (reg price $50-60).
AND
I’m gonna do a GIVEAWAY. I’m gonna run a poll on my IG to determine exactly *which* pair to give away, but…it’ll be dope, whichever one y’all decide.
Feel free to tag me in all your breaks! I’ll definitely repost them on Instagram…Happy Dunking!
(FYI - I am going to turn off new signups to this weekly publication starting March 31st. After that point, I will be charging for new signups. )