Beating a Dead Pigeon: Did Jeff Staple Throw a Fake Pair of Pigeon Dunks on a Lamp Pole for Clicks?
PublishedQuick Facts
- Last night, outside Staple’s Soho retail shop, Jeff Staple tied a pair of Pigeon Dunks together and tossed them onto a street light,
- Arandom dude brought out a ladder and constructed a McGyver extendo pole to grab the pair
- But when he posted photos of the shoes on Instagram, experts were quick to point out that the pair looked a little fishy
- The dead giveaway that the pair was not an OG Pigeon came from the tongue tag, which featured a Nike SB logo instead of a classic Nike hit
Here’s the attention you ordered. Can we get you anything else?
Like the woman in Central Park from Home Alone 2 and young Mike Tyson clapping flocks on Brooklyn roofs, Jeff Staple can’t seem to let the pigeons go. Staple, the founder of eponymous NYC-based streetwear brand STAPLE, set the sneaker world on fire in 2005 when the pigeon-themed SB Dunk he designed for Nike SB’s City Series caused a sneaker riot outside of his Reed Space retail store that made national headlines and established the shoe as a grail amongst grails, currently selling for $20,000+ on the secondary market.
Now, 20 years later and after more “Staple x Insert Sneaker Brand” pigeon-themed colorways, Jeff is still stuck on the bird, and the Pigeon Dunk, more specifically. Last night, outside Staple’s Soho retail shop, Jeff tied a pair of Pigeon Dunks together and tossed them onto a street light, inspiring a random dude to bring out a ladder and construct a McGyver extendo pole to grab the pair. But when he posted photos of the shoes on Instagram (along with a TikTok-ready piece of content breaking down the sneaker rescue, of course), experts were quick to point out that the pair looked a little fishy.
Image via sneakerdenn
The dead giveaway that the pair was not an OG Pigeon came from the tongue tag, which featured a Nike SB logo instead of a classic Nike hit, and the more recent Dunk Low Pro addition underneath, which was not yet added when the Pigeons were made. Instagram user @sneakerdenn also pointed out inconsistencies in the shape of the heel curve compared to the original release. The obvious assumption is that the pairs are fake, but after a few Pigeon variant SB Dunk releases over the years and Nike's push to bring back grails as retros, some are speculating that this is an early hint at the colorway’s upcoming return.
Following this, Jeff took to the comments on an Instagram post with a response.
Either way, we’re begging you, Jeff, just let the pigeon fly free and move on, man. It’s been 20 years.
Image via Sotheby's
Zach Harris is a writer based in Philadelphia. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vice, Complex, High Times, and more. He is obsessed with skateboarding and bowling. He is still looking for his first 300. For tips, reviews, and anything in size 10.5 - zach.h@soleretriever.com
