FLOAT 100 · Sneakers · No. 54
Nike SB Dunk Low 'StrangeLove'
A skateboard artist who grew up envying other kids' Nikes asked for crushed velvet, a see-through pink sole packed with tiny hearts and a homemade-style Valentine's box, and his own brand's web drop was overrun by bots before most fans could click.
- Year
- 2020
- Maker
- Nike SB x StrangeLove
- By price in sneakers
- 54 of 100
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Create a free account- Official name
- StrangeLove x Nike SB Dunk Low
- Style code
- CT2552-800
- Official colorway
- Bright Melon/Gym Red/Soft Pink (release reports list it as Bright Melon/Gym Red-Med Soft Pink)
- Collaborator
- StrangeLove Skateboards, the brand started by skateboard artist Sean Cliver and collector Nick Halkias
- Design credit
- Sean Cliver; release reports also credit artist Todd Bratrud
- Released
- February 7, 2020, at select skate shops; February 8, 2020, through Nike's own launch app
- Retail price
- $100
- Signature details
- Pink crushed velvet and suede, red velvet Swoosh, embroidered StrangeLove crest on the heel, translucent pink outsole filled with red and blue hearts
- Special packaging
- A custom StrangeLove Valentine's box with Valentine's cards, stickers and a screen print
- Production
- Not published by Nike
A Valentine for a strange love
The idea arrived as a slot on Nike SB's calendar. When the proposal for a February 2020 collaboration reached StrangeLove Skateboards, Sean Cliver said later, it was hard to ignore Valentine's Day, given the brand's name. He also meant it: skateboarding was his first real love, he wrote, and a strange one, given how completely it takes over a life.
His pitch to Nike SB's design team was short. He wanted velvet, the more crushed the better, all in pink and red, with durable suede where a skate shoe takes the most wear. He wanted it to be fun, comparing the process to building a stuffed animal, but still made for skating.
According to Cliver, the SB team nailed it on the first sample. He had hoped to set red heart-like shapes into the translucent pink rubber of the sole, and the SB designers came back with a construction he did not know was possible. The only change he asked for was in the sole: bigger hearts, plus blue ones alongside the red, so the shoe carried StrangeLove's red-and-blue logo colors.
The artist with Nike envy
Sean Cliver was born in 1969 in Wisconsin and started skating in the summer of 1986 in Stevens Point. Comic books were his first vice. At 19 he answered an 'Artist Wanted' contest in Thrasher magazine run by Powell-Peralta, flew to California in January 1989 to interview with George Powell, and three weeks later was hired as an in-house artist.
His Ray Barbee 'Ragdoll' graphic for Powell-Peralta made his name. After being laid off in November 1991 he moved to World Industries, and over the following years drew graphics for World Industries, Blind, 101, Birdhouse and Hook-Ups. He was a founding senior editor of Big Brother magazine, whose video series later became the television show Jackass, and he wrote 'Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art,' a book of more than 1,000 deck graphics.
Growing up, he wrote, he had 'Nike envy.' The brand was out of reach for his family's budget, and every new school year meant another pair of price-point New Balance. That changed through Nick Halkias, a fellow skateboard collector he met around 2000. Once Halkias became a Nike SB rep, he sent Cliver promo Dunks, and Cliver skated them hard, including the 'Buck,' 'Pushead' and 'Gibson Guitar Case' pairs.
In 2011 Halkias offered him a Dunk High of his own, which became Nike SB's Krampus-themed holiday shoe of December 2012. A Dunk Low quickstrike followed in 2014 for the 10th anniversary of 'Disposable,' and in 2016 the pair worked on a Dunk High called 'Gasparilla' for the Skate Park of Tampa. The idea for StrangeLove took root at the book's re-release event in San Francisco.
A foster home for artists
Cliver describes StrangeLove as a foster home for artist friends: a place where they could push what can, and maybe should not, go on the bottom of a skateboard, and be treated better than the industry had often treated its artists. The brand set out to keep hand screen printing alive in deck graphics, a craft most big companies dropped, he says, when they moved manufacturing to China and switched to heat-transfer graphics.
It is not based anywhere in particular. Cliver works from California, Halkias from Florida, and Rob Sissi, who helped assemble the riders, from Minnesota. The small team leaned Midwestern, including Ben Narloch, Timmy Johnson and Max Murphy, and for the Dunk's launch the brand flew the riders to San Francisco for five days of filming, released as 'Nike SB x StrangeLove: San Francisco.'
The second name in the release reports, Todd Bratrud, was born in 1975 in Crookston, Minnesota, and runs Send Help skateboards. He had designed Nike SB Dunks since the 2006 'Send Help' pair, including the 'Skunk' Dunk of April 20, 2010, and the 'Cheech and Chong' Dunk of April 20, 2011. Nike SB's own archive page for the StrangeLove Dunk credits Cliver alone, and Cliver's own account of the design does not mention Bratrud.
Beaten by bots
Leaked images and on-feet photos circulated in January 2020, and Nike posted official images at the end of the month. On January 31 the plan was set: StrangeLove would sell a limited number of pairs on its own website on February 1, select skate shops would follow on February 7, and Nike's launch app would release the shoe on February 8, at $100.
The first step failed. StrangeLove's planned exclusive web release that weekend was canceled because of bots, and the shop and Nike releases went ahead as scheduled. Comments under Cliver's announcement post record the result from the buyer's side: fans who slept through the drop, and one who wrote that she could not buy at retail because people bought only to resell.
A separate version came in StrangeLove's own packaging. Inspired by the old shoe boxes children decorated for classroom Valentine's Day parties, the custom box held Valentine's cards, stickers and a screen print that Cliver said was unique to the release and a few key partners. One resale listing describes the special-box pair as including two sets of laces, white and multicolored, a print by Cliver, Valentine's cards and stickers.
How to identify it
The upper pairs pink crushed velvet on the panels and toe with pink suede overlays. The Swoosh is red velvet, and red carries onto the lining and laces. StrangeLove branding sits on the tongue, a StrangeLove crest is embroidered on the heel, and the insole is printed with the brand's graphics, described in one release report as vintage tattoo art.
The giveaway is underneath. The translucent pink outsole is filled with small red and blue hearts. Nike SB's archive files the shoe under its 'Limited Box' era and gives the release month as February 2020. The style code is CT2552-800, and one resale listing names white laces and multicolored laces as included accessories.
Nike has not published how many pairs were made. On October 1, 2026, the lowest listing on one resale platform was $917, for a men's size 9.5, with other sizes listed from $950 to $1,741.
The numbers
- Release date
- February 7, 2020 (skate shops); February 8, 2020 (Nike)
- Planned web release
- February 1, 2020, at StrangeLove's site; canceled because of bots
- Retail price
- $100
- Style code
- CT2552-800
- Production
- Not published
Timeline
Sean Cliver is born in Wisconsin.
Cliver starts skateboarding in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
After entering Thrasher's 'Artist Wanted' contest, Cliver flies to California to interview at Powell-Peralta and is hired three weeks later.
Laid off from Powell-Peralta, Cliver moves to World Industries.
Around this year Cliver meets collector Nick Halkias, later a Nike SB rep and his StrangeLove partner.
Nike introduces its SB skateboarding line and the SB Dunk Low.
Nike SB releases Todd Bratrud's first Dunk, the 'Send Help.'
Halkias asks Cliver to design a Nike SB Dunk High.
Cliver's Krampus-themed Dunk High is Nike SB's holiday shoe.
A Cliver Dunk Low quickstrike marks the 10th anniversary of 'Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art.'
Cliver and Halkias work on the 'Gasparilla' Dunk High for the Skate Park of Tampa.
Cliver tells the story of the shoe on StrangeLove's blog and announces a February 1 web release.
Official images and release plan: February 1 at StrangeLove's site, February 7 at skate shops, February 8 through Nike, at $100.
StrangeLove's exclusive web release is canceled because of bots.
The shoe releases at select skate shops.
Nike releases the shoe through its own launch app.
The lowest listing on one resale platform is $917, for a size 9.5.
The world in 2020
Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others are killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.
The World Health Organization declares the new coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
The United Kingdom formally withdraws from the European Union.
President Donald Trump is acquitted at the end of his first impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.
The World Health Organization names the disease COVID-19.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 1,190.95 points on fears about the spread of COVID-19, its largest one-day point drop to that time.
The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2026 | $917 | Asking price, not a saleLowest listing on one resale platform, men's size 9.5; other sizes listed from $950 to $1,741. |
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 'StrangeLove' is number 54 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 (54 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Cliver grew up unable to afford Nikes; shoe salesmen kept telling him his narrow feet meant New Balance.
- Before he designed Dunks, Cliver skated in promo pairs now prized by collectors, including the 'Pushead' and 'Gibson Guitar Case' Dunks.
- The hearts in the sole were originally meant to be red only; Cliver added blue ones so the sole would match StrangeLove's red-and-blue logo.
- The special box was modeled on the shoe boxes children decorated for classroom Valentine's Day parties.
- Cliver was a founding senior editor of Big Brother magazine, whose video series became the TV show Jackass.
- Cliver met his StrangeLove partner, Nick Halkias, through the small world of skateboard collectors; in Cliver's telling, Halkias tracked him down through online auction listings.
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