FLOAT 100 · Sneakers · No. 50
Nike Dunk High 'Wu-Tang'
Nike made it as a promotional favor, never sold a pair, and could not even find one in its own archive when it finally brought the shoe back 25 years later.
- Year
- 1999
- Maker
- Nike
- By price in sneakers
- 18 of 100
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Create a free account- Official name
- Nike Dunk High 'Wu-Tang', also called the Wu-Tang Killa Bees Dunk High
- Year
- 1999
- Style code
- 630335-073, as listed on one pair offered for sale
- Colorway
- Black and goldenrod, the University of Iowa colors from Nike's 1985 college Dunk program
- Signature detail
- The Wu-Tang Clan 'W' on the lateral heel and on the tongue label
- How many
- Commonly reported as 36 pairs; the Nike product director who made it has said 100 pairs
- Distribution
- Given away free to the group, its circle and Nike friends and family; never sold at retail
- Successor
- A public retro released November 9, 2024, for $150, with a darker yellow and a re-angled heel logo
- Notable prices
- $50,000 asking for a size 9 pair (2022); about $100,000 asking on a listing shown to RZA (2023)
A shoe made to sell a different shoe
The Nike Dunk was born in the 1985-86 college basketball season, when Nike put matching warmups and shoes in the colors of top college programs. Nike's own archive says the shoe was designed, developed and shipped in six weeks. The University of Iowa was one of the original schools, and its pair came in black and yellow.
When Nike brought the Dunk High back in its original college colors in the late 1990s, the Iowa pair was part of the run. Drew Greer, then a Nike footwear product director for limited-edition styles, later said he saw that one large retailer had booked around 50,000 pairs of the retro and felt the market could not absorb that many. '[The retailer] overbought the product. It was oversaturated,' he told Complex in 2017. 'I knew it was a challenging colorway, but we were trying to find a way to build energy around the product in a creative way.'
His answer came from Come Chantrel, who worked at Loud Records, the Wu-Tang Clan's label. At the label's New York offices Chantrel suggested putting the Wu-Tang mark on a pair of Dunks. Iowa's black and yellow already matched the group's 'killa bee' colors. Chantrel worked with Loud founder Steve Rifkind to clear the logo, and the New York sneaker retailer Udi Avshalom was also involved.
The Clan, the label and a rule-bending product director
The Wu-Tang Clan formed in Staten Island in 1992, signed with Loud Records and released Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in November 1993. Its second album, Wu-Tang Forever, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in June 1997. In 1998 the compilation Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Swarm, showcasing affiliated artists, went gold. By 1999 the 'W' was one of the most recognized logos in music.
RZA, the group's leader, producer and the holder of the logo trademark, was not close to the project. 'I had no creative involvement,' he said in 2024. 'I just let it roll.' He remembered approving the shoe but never signing anything, and described it as 'a cultural thing and a marketing thing' rather than a business deal.
Greer never spoke to anyone in the group while making it. He said Nike's entertainment marketing department kept designers away from artists and did not want other musicians asking for their own shoes. 'I stepped outside of my bounds and got a warning, but I was trying to build my business,' he said.
Thirty-six pairs, or a hundred
The number most often printed is 36, the same number as the group's debut album title. GQ, several sneaker outlets and a New York auction house's sale description all use it, the last with the hedge 'it is said.'
The man who made the shoe gives a different count. 'It wasn't a retail deal,' Greer told Complex. 'It was something where we did 100 pair. I kept 50, they kept 50.' Complex's 2024 history uses 'around 100 pairs.' Nike does not publish production numbers, and no source settles the question. What both versions agree on is that the shoes were never sold: they were seeded free to the group, its friends and family, and Nike insiders.
The scarcity is real enough that when Nike recreated the shoe in 2024, it had no pair in its own archive. It borrowed one from the collector Mark 'Mayor' Farese.
The retro that RZA kept saying no to
As sneaker resale grew in the 2000s, the Wu Dunk became the kind of shoe most collectors knew only from pictures. Method Man publicly asked Nike to bring it back in 2018. Inside Nike, a 25th-anniversary retro for the debut album was planned: a former employee told Complex the plan was 360 new pairs in the original colors and 36 in reversed colors, made in full-grain leather. Sample tags read 'Spring '16' and used the codename 'Ancient Monk.' Nike could not get clearance. 'I vetoed,' RZA said. 'I wasn't ready to do it.'
Some of those shelved samples left Nike's campus in Beaverton, Oregon. Complex reported that a former Nike employee sold a personal pair for $25,000 in cash in 2022, and that a resale shop listed a pair for $50,000 in 2023 that eventually sold for $20,000 once news of a retro spread. Counterfeits followed; one collector estimated that more than a hundred fake 'samples' were circulating. Those figures describe the 2016-era samples, not the 1999 originals.
Original 1999 pairs kept surfacing at high asking prices. In September 2022 a consignment shop offered a gently worn US size 9 pair for $50,000. A size 7.5 pair was offered for $35,000 through a New York auction house's buy-now shop, and in October 2026 a size 7.5 pair, new in its original box, was listed for $28,800.
The turn came in Tokyo near the end of 2023. RZA, traveling with his son, walked into a resale company's drop-off location and asked whether it could get him the shoe. Staff could order a pair listed online, for around $100,000. 'If the value of it is up to there,' RZA concluded, 'that means the public may deserve some of that.' In early 2024 he told Nike it was time.
From grail to retail
Complex called the 1999 shoe a prototype for the collaboration model as a whole: proof that Nike could hand an old design to an outside name and make it new again. It cited the Staple 'Pigeon' and De La Soul SB Dunks as shoes made possible by that precedent.
The retro arrived after a small surprise drop in late September 2024, then released widely on November 9, 2024, the anniversary of 36 Chambers, through Nike's app and select stores at $150. It is not a copy: the yellow is darker and the heel logo sits at a different angle. RZA said he wanted the other members of the group to share in the money from the release. 'Let's share this,' he said, 'but it's still limited.'
For collectors the two shoes are different objects. The 2024 pair is a retail release; the 1999 pair is the promotional original, identified by its black and goldenrod leather, the 'W' on the heel and tongue, and the 630335-073 style code shown on at least one pair offered for sale.
The numbers
- Release
- 1999, promotional only
- Retail price
- None; pairs were given away, not sold
- Production
- Reported as 36 pairs; the Nike product director behind it said 100 pairs
- Style code
- 630335-073 (as listed for one pair)
- Colorway
- Black and goldenrod
- 2024 retro
- Released November 9, 2024, at $150
Timeline
Nike introduces the Dunk in college colors; the University of Iowa pair comes in black and yellow.
Wu-Tang Clan releases Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) on Loud Records.
Wu-Tang Forever debuts at number one on the Billboard 200.
Nike reissues the Dunk High in its original college colors; the Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Swarm compilation is released.
Nike makes the Wu-Tang Dunk High as a promotional giveaway, never sold at retail.
Samples of a planned retro, codenamed 'Ancient Monk,' carry 'Spring '16' tags.
Method Man publicly asks Nike to bring the shoe back; a 25th-anniversary retro is shelved after RZA declines.
A former Nike employee sells a personal pair of the shelved samples for $25,000 in cash, Complex reports.
An original 1999 pair in US size 9 is offered at $50,000 by a consignment shop.
A resale shop lists a sample pair at $50,000; it later sells for $20,000.
Near year's end, RZA is shown a pair offered for around $100,000 while in Tokyo and decides to allow a retro.
RZA brings the project to Nike early in the year; Nike borrows an original pair from collector Mark 'Mayor' Farese.
A small surprise drop of the retro precedes the wide release.
The retro releases worldwide for $150 on the anniversary of 36 Chambers.
A size 7.5 original pair, new in box, is listed for $28,800.
The world in 1999
The euro is established and the European Central Bank assumes full powers.
President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the U.S. Senate in his impeachment trial.
Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic join NATO.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 10,000 for the first time.
The Columbine High School shooting kills 13 students and a teacher in Colorado.
Napster, the music file-sharing service, is created.
Boris Yeltsin resigns as president of Russia, leaving Vladimir Putin as acting president.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 5, 2022 | $50,000 | Asking price, not a saleOriginal 1999 pair, US size 9, gently worn, offered by a consignment shop. |
| 2023 | $100,000 | Asking price, not a salePair listed online that RZA was shown in Tokyo near the end of 2023; reported as 'around $100,000.' |
| Oct 1, 2026 | $28,800 | Asking price, not a saleMen's US size 7.5, new with original box, listed price. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Nike Dunk High 'Wu-Tang' is number 18 of 100 in the sneakers entries of the FLOAT 100. 22 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (50 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- RZA said he never signed a paper authorizing the original shoe; he simply approved it.
- The Nike employee who made it said he got a warning for going around Nike's entertainment marketing department.
- Nike had no pair of the 1999 shoe in its archive and borrowed one from a collector to make the 2024 retro.
- A shelved retro carried the codename 'Ancient Monk' on its sample tags.
- RZA decided to release the shoe after being shown a pair offered for around $100,000 in Tokyo.
- The 2024 retro dropped on November 9, the anniversary of the group's debut album.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026