Nike SB Dunk Low 'Freddy Krueger'

A Halloween pack

In 2007 Nike SB planned a three-shoe 'Horror Pack' for Halloween: a Dunk Low nodding to Freddy Krueger of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street,' a Dunk High for Jason Voorhees of 'Friday the 13th,' and an Air Trainer 1 keyed to George Romero's 1978 'Dawn of the Dead.' None was an official licensed collaboration. As one sneaker writer put it, the references came with no franchise logos on the tongue and no studio credits on the box.

That was how Nike SB worked in those years. One collector recalled that a handful of people ran the division and kept designs secret until they reached shops, which often meant a pop-culture reference was already sold before anyone could object. A sneaker publication's ranking of the best SB Dunks calls the Freddy 'the epitome of the SB Dunk as a genre' for exactly that reason: it alluded to a pop-culture moment without officially being connected to it.

The Jason and the Air Trainer reached shelves; the Jason Dunk High arrived in October 2007 at $75. The Freddy did not.

The designer and the villain

Nike SB gave the project to Todd Bratrud, an artist who did several SB collaborations and has called the Freddy his personal favorite. He has described it as 'a big ask' and said there was no denying what it was meant to resemble. By one account, Bratrud does not own a pair himself, only two left-shoe samples.

The source material was Wes Craven's 1984 film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street,' produced and distributed by New Line Cinema. It was one of the first films New Line produced itself. Made in Los Angeles for an estimated $1.1 million, it opened on November 9, 1984, grossed $57.1 million worldwide and helped turn the company into a successful mini-major studio. Its villain, Freddy Krueger, is known for his striped sweater and bladed glove.

Bratrud put all of that on the shoe. Red and green striped textile recreates the sweater. Tan leather overlays carry blood splatter. The Swoosh is a silver reflective material standing in for the razor glove, and the insole shows Krueger's burned flesh.

The cease and desist

Before the shoe reached stores, word of it got out, and New Line Cinema, which owned the rights to 'A Nightmare on Elm Street,' issued a cease and desist. Nike pulled the release. Collector Chris Robinson, owner of the shop Branded in New Jersey, blamed a leak: 'whoever leaked it' had alerted the studio while the shoes were still on their way to retail.

What happened to the stock is where fact turns into legend. Robinson said the only pairs that ever sold were 26 boxed pairs through one store in Mexico, and that everywhere else, the U.S. included, honored the order. Another history says a small shipment reached the United States but never officially went on sale. The story most often told is that workers were ordered to destroy the shoes, and that a stack of them was rescued from a fire. Robinson's own theory is that someone poured oil on the shoes before they were to be burned, and that employees then carried them out in garbage bags. That, he says, is why every non-sample pair he knows of carries oil stains.

None of this has been confirmed by Nike, and the numbers do not line up. Robinson also said 26 sample pairs were made, with only four or five known for years, and that more surfaced as former Nike employees sold theirs. A fashion magazine wrote in 2021 that about 30 pairs are thought to exist. Release databases list a date of January 1, 2007, and a $110 retail price, but the shoe never had a retail day.

Samples, stains and prototypes

The shoe's style code is 313170-202, colorway Taupe/Chrome. Versions differ, and collectors care which one they are looking at. Robinson described three: a clean sample without oil stains, a stained pair, and an early prototype made in Vietnam, of which he said only 10 were produced. The prototype uses suede instead of leather and black splatter instead of red blood.

Robinson owned only the left shoe of a prototype, which he said he bought from a fired California sales rep for $6,000. A left-shoe prototype in U.S. size 9, described the same way, was offered at an online auction in March 2024 with an estimate of 8,000 to 10,000 euros. The result was not published.

Nike later found a legal way back to the idea. In 2020 it released an Air Max 95 'Freddy Krueger' in brown and burgundy stripes, a silhouette whose layered side panels suited the sweater without copying the Dunk.

From $110 to celebrity grail

Robinson said that when Freddy samples were trading around $10,000, he listed a pair at $27,500 on an online resale platform as a joke. Someone bought them. When he delivered the shoes, he said, staff told him the buyer was Kylie Jenner, who gave them to her sister Kendall Jenner for Christmas 2020. Right after Kendall posted them online, Robinson said, a buyer bid $30,000 for a size 9, and he sold another pair. An entertainment site put the Christmas gift at around $27,000.

Travis Scott has worn his pair often, including on Halloween 2018. At a 'Nightmare on Elm Street'-themed party Kylie Jenner hosted to launch a cosmetics collection, he and Kendall Jenner both wore Freddy Dunks, Scott pairing his with a Jason Voorhees costume.

Prices for pairs listed for sale today are far apart, from five figures into six, and none of them is a completed sale. A 2026 report on the shoe noted that so few authentic pairs circulate that sellers can attach almost any number to them. One sneaker publication said the Freddy might be 'too special' to rank among the very best SB Dunks because so few people ever got to wear one.

The numbers

Release date

Never released; databases list January 1, 2007

Retail price

$110 listed; never sold at retail

Style code

313170-202

Colorway

Taupe/Chrome

Production

Not published by Nike; a collector reports 26 boxed pairs sold in Mexico, 26 samples and 10 prototypes

Timeline

1. Nov 9, 1984

   Wes Craven's 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' opens, produced and distributed by New Line Cinema.

2. 2007

   Nike SB plans a Halloween 'Horror Pack' of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and 'Dawn of the Dead' sneakers; Todd Bratrud designs the Freddy Dunk Low.

3. 2007

   New Line Cinema issues a cease and desist before release; Nike pulls the Freddy, and a collector says only 26 boxed pairs sell, through one shop in Mexico.

4. Oct 2007

   The Jason Voorhees Dunk High from the same pack releases at $75.

5. Oct 31, 2018

   Travis Scott wears his Freddy Dunks on Halloween.

6. 2020

   Nike releases an Air Max 95 'Freddy Krueger.'

7. Dec 2020

   Kylie Jenner gives Kendall Jenner a sample pair for Christmas, bought for $27,500, according to the seller.

8. Nov 1, 2021

   A sneaker magazine publishes collector Chris Robinson's account of the samples, the Mexico pairs and the oil-stained stock.

9. Mar 2024

   A left-shoe suede prototype, U.S. size 9, is offered at an online auction with an 8,000-10,000 euro estimate.

10. Aug 16, 2026

    A men's magazine reports listed prices from five figures into six, all asks rather than sales.

The world in 2007

• Jan 9, 2007

  Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco.

• Jun 27, 2007

  Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

• Jun 29, 2007

  The iPhone went on sale in the United States.

• Aug 9, 2007

  BNP Paribas blocked withdrawals from three hedge funds heavy in subprime loans, an early signal of the financial crisis.

• Aug 15, 2007

  A magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Peru, killing at least 519 people.

• Dec 13, 2007

  European Union member states signed the Treaty of Lisbon.

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 Low 'Freddy Krueger' is number 29 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 (46 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The insole of the Freddy Dunk shows Freddy Krueger's burned skin.
• The silver Swoosh is meant to suggest Freddy's bladed glove.
• Its designer, Todd Bratrud, reportedly owns no pair, only two left-shoe samples.
• Collectors say the regular pairs carry oil stains from an attempt to destroy them.
• The earliest prototypes use black splatter instead of red blood, and suede instead of leather.
• The collector who sold Kylie Jenner her pair says he listed it at $27,500 as a joke.