In 2024, Nike SB brought one of the most important names in its creative history back to the spotlight: Futura.
The Nike SB Dunk Low Futura Laboratories was born from the meeting between one of the most recognizable silhouettes in skateboarding and the visual language of Leonard McGurr, a New York artist who has been working across graffiti, painting, design, and urban culture for over fifty years.
However, the project is not limited to the version that hit stores. Alongside the retail release, a very rare Friends & Family Sunblush version was also created, which was never distributed to the general public and quickly became one of the most sought-after models tied to the collaboration.
Who is Futura and why is his history tied to sneaker culture?
Futura, the stage name of Leonard McGurr, is one of the leading figures of the graffiti scene that developed in New York starting in the seventies.
His approach soon stood out from that of many writers of his same generation. Instead of focusing exclusively on letters, Futura experimented with abstract shapes, lines, nebulae, colors, and almost spatial compositions.
This language progressively led him out of subway cars and into galleries, editorial projects, fashion, music, and design.
Over the decades, he has collaborated with numerous brands and creatives, but his relationship with Nike holds a particularly important place in his history.
The 2024 collaboration, therefore, did not stem from a casual encounter between a famous artist and a sneaker. It is the new chapter of a relationship with Nike SB that began many years prior and has already produced models that became central to sneaker culture.
The relationship between Futura and Nike SB before 2024
The bond between Futura and Nike SB dates back to the early 2000s, one of the most important periods in the history of the Nike SB Dunk.
Among his best-known projects is the celebrated FLOM – For Love or Money, created in 2004 for the opening of the Futura Laboratories flagship store in Fukuoka, Japan.
That sneaker was not intended for normal sale: Futura created it primarily as a gift for friends and people close to the project, with only a very few pairs allocated through a special in-store initiative.
Even then, the relationship between Futura and Nike SB displayed a characteristic that would return twenty years later: using the Dunk not simply as a product, but as a medium for an artistic idea.
The 2024 collaboration takes up that very tradition and updates it through a visual language much closer to the artist's abstract painting.
Nike SB Dunk Low Futura 2024: a canvas built on the artist's works
The retail version uses a bleached canvas base onto which multicolored overlays inspired directly by Futura’s works are applied.
Nike describes the project as a return to its tradition of collaborating with artists, transferring graphic applications from Futura’s paintings onto the Dunk silhouette.
The sneaker uses colors like light blue, green, pink, and darker shades that overlap to create an effect similar to a painted canvas.
The result does not seek perfect symmetry. The surfaces almost seem treated individually, and this very feeling contributes to making the sneaker consistent with the artist’s abstract language.
Colorforms: the 1991 work behind the Bleached Aqua
One of the most interesting references of the project was clarified directly by Futura Laboratories.
The retail sneaker takes inspiration from Colorforms, a work created by Futura in 1991, during a transitional period between traditional painting and the exploration of digital design.
More than thirty years later, elements of that work were transformed into the colors and graphics of the Nike SB Dunk Low Bleached Aqua.
This connection makes the collaboration very different from a simple "artistic" colorway. The colors were not chosen just to create an eye-catching sneaker; they derive from a work actually present in Futura’s archive.
The Dunk thus becomes almost a three-dimensional translation of the painting.
The details of the Nike SB Dunk Low Futura Laboratories
In addition to the multicolored overlays, the sneaker uses numerous elements designed specifically for the collaboration.
We find embossed prints, contrast stitching, custom tongue labels, and dedicated artwork on the insoles.
However, one of the most recognizable details is found on the underside of the shoe: the translucent sole allows the Futura signature to be seen, transforming it into an element visible through the rubber.
The design nonetheless maintains the typical construction of the Nike SB Dunk Low, so the collaboration does not erase the skate nature of the silhouette.
It is precisely this balance between work of art and functional sneaker that makes the project particularly consistent with the history of Nike SB.
When was the Nike SB Dunk Low Futura 2024 released?
The collaboration hit the market in May 2024.
Distribution began through Futura Laboratories and select skate shops, followed later by the launch on Nike SNKRS.
The retail version is what is known as Bleached Aqua and quickly became one of the most recognizable Nike SB Dunks of that year.
The Nike SB Dunk Low Futura Laboratories Bleached Aqua is available on ResellZone, while the complete family of the silhouette can be explored in the Nike SB Dunk selection.
The Friends & Family Sunblush: the rarest version
Alongside the public release, Nike and Futura also created a Friends & Family pair built around an entirely different palette.
The version is commonly identified as Sunblush and uses yellow, pink, coral, purple, and multicolored shades that are much warmer than the Bleached Aqua.
The design maintains Futura’s abstract language, but the atmosphere is completely changed. If the retail is dominated by light blue and green, the Friends & Family uses colors that recall a sunset more strongly.
The sneaker was not distributed through a standard public release and the pairs remained extremely limited.
Futura Laboratories links this version to an Untitled work from 1984, confirming once again that the design starts directly from Leonard McGurr’s artistic archive.
Sunblush or Sunburst? Why there are two names
Those searching for information about the Friends & Family version may encounter two different names.
Marketplaces, auction houses, and sneaker catalogs generally use Sunblush to identify the colorway. Sotheby’s, StockX, and GOAT all report this name.
Futura Laboratories, on the other hand, when speaking about the work that inspired the sneaker, also uses the term Sunburst.
Therefore, these are not necessarily two different models. To avoid confusion, the clearest way to refer to it in the sneaker context remains Futura Laboratories x Nike SB Dunk Low Friends & Family “Sunblush”.
How much is the Futura Friends & Family worth?
Here it is important to avoid a very common mistake in the sneaker world: confusing an asking price with the actual market value.
The Sunblush is extremely rare, and over time, listings and valuations in the five-figure range have appeared.
Sotheby’s, for example, presented a sample of the Friends & Family with an estimate between $10,000 and $20,000.
This does not mean, however, that every pair is automatically worth those figures. The market for such a rare sneaker is very illiquid, and the price can change drastically based on size, condition, provenance, and the type of specimen.
Even marketplace data show very wide differences between sales asks and actually recorded transactions.
For this reason, it is more accurate to say that the Sunblush is a Friends & Family pair capable of reaching five-figure prices, without turning a single listing or auction estimate into a universal value.
Bleached Aqua and Sunblush: two versions of the same artistic language
A comparison between the two sneakers shows how the same language can produce completely different results.
The Bleached Aqua uses a cool palette, dominated by light blue, green, and white, with abstract graphics distributed across the upper.
The Sunblush instead works with warmer tones, a coral-colored Swoosh, and yellow and pink gradients.
Both maintain Futura’s visual signature, but they almost seem like two works belonging to different moments of the same archive.
The most important difference remains the distribution: the Bleached Aqua was made for a public release, while the Sunblush was born as a Friends & Family release.
Why the Futura x Nike SB collaboration is different from many celebrity collabs
The cultural value of the project does not depend solely on the fame of the name involved.
Futura belonged to the history of urban culture long before the term "streetwear" became a global commercial category.
His relationship with graffiti, art, music, and design predates the current sneaker collaboration market by decades.
Nike SB, therefore, does not simply use the artist’s name to increase interest around the Dunk. The design takes elements directly from his archive and transfers them onto the shoe.
It is precisely this step that makes the collaboration credible: the work comes before the product.
A Nike SB Dunk that functions as a wearable work of art
The Nike SB Dunk Low Futura Laboratories 2024 demonstrates how strong a collaboration can be when the product keeps both involved identities recognizable.
The Dunk continues to be a Nike SB. Futura continues to be Futura.
Canvas, overlays, colors, signature, and graphics, however, transform the silhouette into something that seems to belong to the same universe as his canvases.
The Bleached Aqua allows that language to reach the community through a real release. The Sunblush, on the other hand, represents its rarest and most collectible side.
Two different sneakers, but built around the same idea: taking a work off the canvas without losing the language of the artist who created it.
