Nike SB Dunk Low 'Paris'

A white shoe goes on tour

Nike's skateboarding division, Nike SB, made its formal debut in 2002, when the company took the Dunk, a basketball shoe first designed in the 1980s, and rebuilt it with upgrades for skateboarders. The executive behind the effort, Sandy Bodecker, is credited with turning Nike SB into one of the brand's most beloved divisions of the early 2000s.

Around the same time Nike staged 'White Dunk: Evolution of an Icon,' a traveling exhibition in which artists were invited to use the plain white Dunk as a canvas. For the cities the show visited, Nike SB made several extremely limited Dunks. Nike SB's own archive frames them as a way to honor the mark certain cities have left on skate culture. The Paris pair belongs to a loose 'city' group with London, Tokyo and the New York 'Pigeon' that collectors still treat as some of the most coveted SB Dunks.

Sources do not agree on exactly when the Paris pair appeared. Nike SB's archive and several sneaker publications give August 2003; the most widely quoted auction description dates the exhibition to 2003; other reports and one major resale shop place the exhibition and the release in 2002. FLOAT lists it under 2002, the year most collectors associate with the start of the SB Dunk.

The painter on the canvas

Bernard Buffet was born in Paris on July 10, 1928, studied at the National School of Fine Arts, and by his early twenties was one of the most famous painters in France. He won the Prix de la Critique in 1948, helped found the anti-abstraction group L'Homme-Temoin, which argued that art should bear witness to postwar life, and was often compared to Picasso. His style was spare and figurative, built on thick black lines and elongated forms. In 1958, at 30, a retrospective of his work drew more than 100,000 visitors, and he painted Charles de Gaulle for the cover of Time's Man of the Year issue.

By the end of the 1950s the art world had turned on him. Critics dismissed his enormous output as repetitive and commercial, and a 1956 magazine photograph of him being helped into his car by his chauffeur became a turning point in how the public saw him. He remained prolific, producing more than 8,000 paintings, was named an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1973 and entered the Academie des Beaux-Arts in 1974. Andy Warhol called him his favorite artist.

Buffet died at his home in Tourtour, in southern France, on October 4, 1999, after Parkinson's disease had left him unable to work. The Paris Dunk therefore used his paintings after his death; one design publication describes it as a posthumous collaboration. Since then his reputation has been reassessed, with major retrospectives in Frankfurt in 2008 and at the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris in 2016.

The release that was called off

According to Nike SB's own account, the Paris pair was meant to be released only at the White Dunk exhibition in Paris. Demand was so intense that the release there was delayed and then canceled, and the pairs went out instead through a few select Nike SB accounts. Sneaker publications say the Paris concept stores Colette and Opium were among the shops that sold them later.

The number made has never been confirmed by Nike. Collector references and auction catalogs most often say about 200, or 202, pairs; several news reports give a rumored 150 to 200. One release database lists the retail price at $69.

Sneaker writers count the Paris among the very top of the SB line. One ranking of the 50 most influential Dunks of all time placed it second, and a 2025 survey of the most expensive SB Dunks noted pairs selling for upwards of $70,000.

How to read the shoe

The Paris is a Dunk Low Pro SB in the colorway Nike calls Rope/Special Cardinal. The base is tan suede. The overlays are canvas, printed with Buffet's paintings. The style code is 308270 111.

Because Nike cut the printed canvas differently for each pair, the panels on one shoe show different fragments of the paintings from any other pair. Collectors treat that as the defining feature: every pair is, in effect, unique.

There are rarer versions still. A promotional sample of the Paris, described as far scarcer than the regular release, was offered in a 2022 sale marking 20 years of Nike SB.

From skate shop to auction room

In November 2021 a London sneaker resale shop said it had sold a pair of Paris Dunks for 'around £100k,' roughly $133,000, as part of a larger order totaling £112,300 (about $150,000). The owner told a sneaker publication that he and the buyer were far apart on price and settled the difference with a game of rock, paper, scissors, which the shop won. He called it the most expensive private shoe sale ever, excluding game-worn or signed shoes.

In March 2024 a pair in U.S. size 10 was offered at an online auction with an estimate of 50,000 to 60,000 euros. A few months later, at a live auction in Toronto held May 31 and June 1, 2024, a size 11 pair with its box sold for $66,000.

On October 1, 2026, a major sneaker resale shop listed a new pair at $80,059.

The numbers

Style code

308270 111

Colorway

Rope/Special Cardinal

Release

August 2003 per Nike SB's archive; some sources say 2002

Retail price

$69, per one release database

Release type

Planned exhibition release canceled; select Nike SB accounts

Production

Not published by Nike; reported as about 200 or 202 pairs, sometimes 150 to 200

Timeline

1. Jul 10, 1928

   Bernard Buffet is born in Paris.

2. 1948

   Buffet wins the Prix de la Critique.

3. 1958

   Buffet's first retrospective, at 30, draws more than 100,000 visitors.

4. 1974

   Buffet is elected to the Academie des Beaux-Arts.

5. Oct 4, 1999

   Buffet dies at his home in Tourtour, France.

6. 2002

   Nike SB makes its formal debut with a skate-ready version of the Dunk.

7. Aug 2003

   Nike SB's archive date for the Paris Dunk, made for the White Dunk exhibition in Paris; the planned release at the show is canceled and pairs go to select accounts.

8. 2016

   The Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris holds a large Buffet retrospective, the first in France since his death.

9. Nov 2021

   A London resale shop reports selling a pair for about £100,000 (roughly $133,000).

10. Mar 26, 2024

    A U.S. size 10 pair closes at an online auction carrying a 50,000-60,000 euro estimate.

11. Jun 2024

    A size 11 pair with box sells for $66,000 at auction in Toronto.

12. Oct 1, 2026

    A new pair is listed for $80,059.

The world in 1999

• Oct 4, 1999

  Bernard Buffet died, a few years before his paintings appeared on the shoe.

• Mar 10, 2003

  French President Jacques Chirac promised to veto any UN resolution authorizing war in Iraq.

• May 30, 2003

  Air France flew its last Concorde service between Paris and New York.

• Jun 1, 2003

  The G8 summit opened in Evian-les-Bains under tight security, with tens of thousands of protesters.

• Jul 7, 2003

  Corsican voters narrowly rejected a referendum on greater autonomy from France.

• Oct 24, 2003

  The Concorde made its last commercial flight.

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 'Paris' is number 15 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 (41 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Paris Dunk never went on sale at the Paris exhibition it was made for; the crowd was too big.
• Because the printed canvas was cut differently for each pair, no two Paris Dunks are exactly alike.
• Bernard Buffet had died in 1999, so his art reached sneakers only after his death.
• Andy Warhol called Buffet his favorite artist and 'the last big artist in Paris.'
• A 2021 private sale of a pair was reportedly settled with a game of rock, paper, scissors.
• Buffet designed a French postage stamp in 1978 at the request of the French postal administration.