Nike SB Dunk Low 'Ben & Jerry's / Chunky Dunky'

An ice cream company and a skate shoe

The idea came from Nike. According to Jay Curley, who managed the project at Ben & Jerry's, Nike first approached the Vermont ice cream maker with its pitch almost two years before the shoe launched in May 2020. Nike's designers handled the look, which stayed largely the same through development.

The partnership had a personal thread. Curley's friend of 20 years, Stephen Pelletier, was a senior product line manager at Nike SB; the two had met at Saint Michael's College in Vermont. Curley described working with Nike as an easy process.

Both companies leaned on a shared self-image. As one 2020 profile put it, both use progressive politics as part of their identity, both grew out of a 1970s entrepreneurial streak with roots in small college towns, and both are headquartered in places known as hippie havens: Nike in Portland, Oregon, and Ben & Jerry's in Burlington, Vermont. 'The SB line is really rooted in creativity and fun, and we like to think that is a big part of Ben & Jerry's as well,' Curley said.

A pint of Chunky Monkey you can wear

The shoe's nickname and design come from Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey flavor, and its colors borrow the familiar pint carton: a cloudy blue sky, green meadows and a cow. The upper uses a cloudy blue sky underlay with faux-fur cow-print overlays on the forefoot, heel and tongue, a nod to milk, the main ingredient of ice cream.

The yellow Swoosh is cut to look like melting ice cream, with leather pushed past the normal pattern in a drip. The lining is tie-dye, the insole and heel carry bold text graphics, a co-branded tongue tag reads 'Chunky Dunky,' and yellow Nike embroidery sits on the heel in Ben & Jerry's style. A white midsole and green rubber outsole finish it. The official colorway is White/Lagoon Pulse-Black-University Gold, style code CU3244-100.

A rarer version exists. Some extra-exclusive friends and family pairs shipped in a giant container shaped like an ice cream pint. One such pair, offered later at auction, came with added yellow and green laces and a box measuring about 9 1/4 by 9 1/4 by 14 inches.

A launch in lockdown

The Chunky Dunky released first at select skate shops worldwide on Saturday, May 23, 2020, for $100, and then by drawing on Nike's SNKRS app at 10 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday, May 26. It sold out on the app in a short time. The day before, Ben & Jerry's announced it would drop 'from the freezer to the streets.'

The timing was strange. The COVID-19 pandemic had shut down normal retail, and stores could not hold the lines that usually greet a hyped release. In Burlington, a local skate shop a block from the Ben & Jerry's scoop shop on Church Street ran an email raffle, refused to ship, and required winners to pick up in person. 'It's crazy times right now, too, because in-store release is out of the question,' its co-founder said. 'You can't have a line out the door.'

Supply was thin. Some stores received in the area of 25 pairs. Even Ben & Jerry's employees had little access; the company was still working out an internal sweepstakes for its allotment, and Curley said he had fielded requests from friends and complete strangers who found his social media accounts.

The ugliest shoe of all time, or a return to form

Not everyone was charmed. Eric Whiteback, a collector known for his social media stunts, called it 'one of the ugliest sneakers of all time' and argued that classic SB collaborations such as the StrangeLove, Futura, Stussy Cherry and What The Dunk were 'way more justified in their price points.' 'The Chunky Dunky is just a collab with an ice cream brand of no cultural importance in this industry,' he said. Other critics saw it as a departure from the skate-first SB line, built more for hype than for the core skate audience.

Defenders called it classic Nike SB. Deon Point, creative director of a Boston footwear boutique long associated with SB Dunk projects, said 'SB has always been about taking risks,' comparing it to the De La Soul Highs and the Three Bears. The shoe was also endorsed by figures including Nicky Diamonds and Virgil Abloh.

One owner made a point of not taking it seriously. Hikmet Sugoer, founder of the Sonra sneaker brand, posted a video on May 24, 2020, eating ice cream straight out of his pair. After a backlash, he said he would still wear them: 'These are only shoes.'

From $100 to four figures

Before release, Curley said, pairs were already fetching between $1,000 and $2,000 on the resale market. A day after the SNKRS drop, one magazine reported an average resale of $1,609 a pair, with friends and family pairs in the pint packaging going for $3,828; another reported standalone pairs selling as high as $1,900 and friends and family pairs for upwards of $3,800.

Commentators tied the frenzy to timing. Nike had spent 2020 building up the Dunk, and the Chunky Dunky followed the Travis Scott SB Dunk Low, the line's previous runaway hit. 'It's just supply and demand,' one resale-platform co-founder said. 'This shoe is really limited.' The same report noted that the last consumer-brand collaboration to do this well had been a Heineken-themed Dunk nearly two decades earlier.

Six years on, asking prices for deadstock pairs still run well above retail. On October 1, 2026, the lowest asking price at one resale retailer was $1,583 for a men's size 10, with other sizes listed up to $4,048; on another resale marketplace the lowest ask across all sizes was $1,119 before fees.

The numbers

Skate shop release

May 23, 2020

SNKRS release

May 26, 2020, 10 a.m. Eastern, by drawing

Retail price

$100

Style code

CU3244-100

Colorway

White/Lagoon Pulse-Black-University Gold

Production

Total not published; some stores received around 25 pairs

Timeline

1. 2002

   Nike launches Nike SB to break into the skateboarding market.

2. 2006

   Nike SB releases the 'Three Bears' Dunk pack, a shoe later compared to the Chunky Dunky for its unapologetic style.

3. May 19, 2020

   Ben & Jerry's and Nike SB reveal the pint-shaped promotional box.

4. May 22, 2020

   With pairs already reselling for $1,000 to $2,000 before release, the shoe is called the biggest SB Dunk of the year so far.

5. May 23, 2020

   The Chunky Dunky releases at select skate shops worldwide for $100.

6. May 24, 2020

   A sneaker-brand founder posts a video eating ice cream out of his pair, drawing a backlash.

7. May 25, 2020

   Ben & Jerry's announces the SNKRS drop: 'From the freezer to the streets.'

8. May 26, 2020

   The shoe drops by drawing on Nike's SNKRS app at 10 a.m. Eastern and sells out in a short time.

9. May 27, 2020

   Reports put friends and family pairs above $3,800 on the resale market.

10. Oct 1, 2026

    Lowest asking prices for deadstock pairs sit between about $1,100 and $1,600 depending on venue.

The world in 2020

• Jan 26, 2020

  Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others die in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.

• Mar 11, 2020

  The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic.

• Mar 12, 2020

  Global stock markets crash; the Dow has its worst loss since 1987.

• May 30, 2020

  SpaceX launches the first crewed Dragon flight, the first crewed launch from U.S. soil since 2011.

• 2020

  Protests over the murder of George Floyd spread across hundreds of U.S. cities and around the world.

• Aug 4, 2020

  An ammonium nitrate explosion devastates the port of Beirut, killing at least 218 people.

• Nov 18, 2020

  Pfizer and BioNTech complete trials of their COVID-19 vaccine, reporting 95 percent effectiveness.

Price record

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 SB Dunk Low 'Ben & Jerry's / Chunky Dunky' is number 45 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 (52 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Ben & Jerry's own employees struggled to get pairs; the company planned an internal sweepstakes to hand out its allotment.
• The cow-print overlays are faux fur, a nod to milk, the main ingredient in ice cream.
• Nike, not Ben & Jerry's, pitched the collaboration, almost two years before release.
• The Ben & Jerry's project manager and a Nike SB product line manager had been friends since college in Vermont.
• A Burlington skate shop a block from the Ben & Jerry's scoop shop would not ship its pairs; raffle winners had to pick them up in person.
• Friends and family pairs came in a giant pint-shaped container, and one owner ate ice cream out of his pair on camera.