Nike SB Dunk High 'FLOM / For Love or Money'

A question printed in cash

Nike SB's own archive files the FLOM under its 'Silver Box' era and dates it to March 2004. It is a Dunk High Pro SB in a colorway Nike calls White/White-El Dorado, and its base is a tiled pattern built from images of printed money in different denominations.

The letters stand for 'For Love Or Money,' a phrase often misquoted as 'For Love of Money.' Futura meant it as a question. One history of the line says he wanted to ask whether people were involved in the culture because they cared about it, or whether this was the start of people profiting in secondary markets. He later called it 'an indirect message/question to the global streetwear community at large.'

Nike SB's archive frames it in the same spirit: 'Proving culture is the only real currency,' the artist 'subverted a saying into an admiration of aesthetics.'

Futura

Leonard Hilton McGurr was born in New York City on November 17, 1955, and raised in Manhattan. As a teenager in the early 1970s he began painting the city's subway cars under the name Futura, later Futura 2000; one auction catalog says the name was a nod to his favorite film, '2001: A Space Odyssey.' From 1974 to 1978 he served in the U.S. Navy and traveled the world.

In the early 1980s he was among the first graffiti writers to show in contemporary art galleries. He exhibited at the Fun Gallery alongside Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hambleton and Kenny Scharf. He designed the sleeve for The Clash's single 'This Is Radio Clash,' toured with the band, and spray-painted backdrops live on stage while they played. His work is in the collections of the Museum of the City of New York, among others.

His career has not been a straight climb. In the mid-1980s, finding it hard to make a living as a gallery artist, he worked as a bike messenger and at a Queens post office to support his son. From the 1990s on, his work moved into clothing, toys and sneakers, and he launched his own label, Futura Laboratories, with a store in Fukuoka, Japan.

Made for friends

The FLOM was made to celebrate the opening of the Futura Laboratories store in Fukuoka. Nike SB says it was produced 'in a friends and family run of 24,' and it was never sold at retail. Two auction catalogs also say 24 pairs, and that most went to friends and family.

Accounts of exactly who got pairs differ. One history says they went to friends and family and to people who came to the store opening. A 2020 news report said three of the 24 pairs were raffled to the public and the other 21 were gifted. A 2025 report said Futura picked fans to 'join the family' in 2004. One sneaker magazine puts the run at 26 pairs, not 24.

It arrived just as SB Dunk hype was starting to build. One sneaker writer noted that the shoe's theme of currency versus culture landed when reselling 'still felt taboo,' and joked that before Nike learned limited sneakers were a way to print money, 'Futura did the obvious and had Nike literally print the money.'

How to read the shoe

The FLOM is a high top. Its base panels are covered in the tiled banknote print, and auction listings describe the upper as brown leather; the official colorway name ends in El Dorado. A pink sockliner is one of the details Futura repeated on a 2025 tribute shoe. Futura's signature script appears on the tongue, and one history notes he also made a matching skate deck.

The style code is 305050-112. Because so few pairs exist, every confirmed sale matters, and size is part of the record. The 2020 record pair was a U.S. size 8. A U.S. size 6.5 was listed for $80,000 in 2026.

Two other SB Dunks of the period are easily confused with this one. Futura's own 2003 Dunk Low was a tonal mix of suede, leather and mesh with none of his character work. The 2004 'Unkle' Dunk High carries his Pointman characters and atomic circles, though one sneaker writer notes it was technically a project between Nike and the band Unkle rather than an official Futura collaboration. The FLOM is the one covered in money.

For money, as it turned out

In September 2020, a size 8 FLOM was Lot 1 of an online sale in New York called 'Cult Canvas,' eight lots of rare artist-made sneakers offered as if they were fine art. The auction ran from September 22 to 30, 2020. Estimated at $50,000 to $60,000, the pair sold for $63,000, which news reports called a record for a Nike Dunk at the time. The whole sale brought in $129,150, and nearly half the lots that sold went to bidders between 20 and 30 years old.

The next year, a New Jersey SB collector told a sneaker magazine that he had 'just sold a pair of FLOM Dunks for $90,000.' He grouped the FLOM with the 'Pigeon,' the 'Paris' and the Freddy prototypes as the SB pieces 'respected in the art world.'

The shoe has kept its hold on Futura himself. For his 70th birthday in November 2025, Nike made a 70-pair, friends-and-family Air Force 1 'FLOM LXX' that copied the original's banknote base and pink liner. Echoing 2004, Futura gave away two pairs to fans by raffle, at $70 each.

The numbers

Release date

March 2004, per Nike SB's archive

Retail price

None; never sold at retail

Style code

305050-112

Colorway

White/White-El Dorado

Production

24 pairs per Nike SB; one magazine reports 26

Distribution

Friends and family, tied to the Futura Laboratories opening in Fukuoka

Timeline

1. Nov 17, 1955

   Leonard Hilton McGurr, later Futura, is born in New York City.

2. 1974

   McGurr begins four years in the U.S. Navy.

3. 2003

   Futura's first Nike SB Dunk Low, a tonal three-material design, releases.

4. Mar 2004

   Nike SB's archive date for the FLOM Dunk High, made in a friends-and-family run of 24 for the opening of Futura Laboratories in Fukuoka, Japan.

5. Sep 22, 2020

   The 'Cult Canvas' online auction in New York opens, with a size 8 FLOM as Lot 1.

6. Sep 30, 2020

   The FLOM sells for $63,000 against a $50,000-60,000 estimate, reported as a record for a Dunk.

7. Nov 1, 2021

   A New Jersey collector tells a sneaker magazine he recently sold a pair for $90,000.

8. Nov 5, 2025

   Futura previews a 70-pair Air Force 1 inspired by the FLOM for his 70th birthday.

9. Dec 20, 2025

   A raffle opens for two pairs of the FLOM Air Force 1 at $70 each.

10. Oct 1, 2026

    A U.S. size 6.5 FLOM is listed for $80,000.

The world in 2004

• Jan 25, 2004

  NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars.

• Mar 11, 2004

  Train bombings in Madrid killed at least 192 people.

• Apr 1, 2004

  Google launched Gmail.

• May 1, 2004

  The European Union expanded by ten member states.

• Jun 21, 2004

  SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded spaceplane to reach space.

• Aug 13, 2004

  The Summer Olympics opened in Athens.

• Aug 19, 2004

  Google held its initial public offering.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Nike SB Dunk High 'FLOM / For Love or Money' is number 16 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 (45 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• FLOM stands for 'For Love Or Money,' not 'For Love of Money,' a common mix-up.
• Futura started painting subway cars as a teenager and later painted live on stage while The Clash played.
• In the mid-1980s Futura worked as a bike messenger and at a post office to support his son.
• Its $63,000 sale in 2020 was the first lot of an auction that treated eight sneakers as fine art.
• Nearly half the lots that sold in that 2020 auction went to bidders aged 20 to 30.
• For his 70th birthday, Futura released a 70-pair FLOM Air Force 1 and raffled two pairs for $70 each.