Nike SB Dunk Low Tiffany: The history of Diamond Supply Co. and the 2005 grail

Few sneakers represent the Nike SB golden era as much as the Nike SB Dunk Low Diamond Supply Co., known to everyone simply as the “Tiffany Dunk.”

Released in 2005, the collaboration between Nike SB and Diamond Supply Co. combines an instantly recognizable light blue palette, black crocodile-effect leather, and a metallic silver Swoosh.

That combination quickly turned the Dunk into one of the iconic models of the early 2000s and helped solidify the role of the Nike SB Dunk as a cultural object capable of transcending the simple world of skateboarding.

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Diamond Supply Co. and the vision of Nicky Diamonds

Diamond Supply Co. was founded in 1998 as a skateboarding-related brand under the guidance of Nicholas Tershay, known as Nicky Diamonds.

The project started in the world of skate hardware, but in the following years, it gradually expanded toward apparel, lifestyle, and street culture.

The brand's strength lies above all in its ability to combine skate identity with an aesthetic much more refined than what was typically associated with the sector at that time.

It is precisely this combination of street culture and a language closer to luxury that became fundamental when Nike SB involved Diamond Supply Co. in the creation of a Dunk.

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2005: the birth of the Nike SB Dunk Low Diamond Supply Co.

In 2005, Nike SB entrusted Nicky Diamonds with the reinterpretation of the Dunk Low.

The sneaker uses a light blue base paired with black crocodile-effect textured panels and a silver Swoosh. The contrast between materials and colors created a shoe very different from the classic skate releases of the era.

The colorway was quickly nicknamed “Tiffany” by the community due to the visual association between that shade of light blue and the Tiffany & Co. jewelry universe.

However, it is important to distinguish the nickname from the actual collaboration: Tiffany & Co. is not a partner in the project. The sneaker was born from the collaboration between Nike SB and Diamond Supply Co.

Indeed, when Nike itself officially tells the story of the model, it uses the name Diamond Dunk and refers to the characteristic “Diamond Blue.”

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Why did the 2005 Tiffany Dunk become so important?

The sneaker arrived during a phase in which Nike SB was transforming the Dunk into much more than a technical skate shoe.

Collaborations, skate shops, artists, and independent brands began to use the silhouette as a canvas upon which to tell very different identities.

The Diamond Dunk works particularly well because the design is instantly recognizable even without excessive branding.

The light blue color, the crocodile-effect leather, and the silver Swoosh became a combination impossible to confuse with other releases of the time.

Lines outside skate shops and immense interest on the secondary market further contributed to transforming the model into one of the symbols of the cultural explosion of the SB Dunks in the early 2000s. Sneaker Freaker still considers it one of the collaborations that helped usher in a new phase of sneaker hype, alongside the famous Pigeon Dunk.

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The Tiffany Dunk was part of the Team Manager Series

The collaboration with Diamond Supply Co. is part of the Nike SB Team Manager Series, a project that involved figures tied to important brands and entities in the skate scene.

The idea was to allow these individuals to interpret the Dunk through their own language and identity.

It is the same cultural context in which other releases, now considered fundamental to the history of SBs, were born.

The Diamond Dunk is probably one of the most successful examples because the brand's aesthetic was transferred onto the shoe in an immediate and recognizable way.

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2014: the Diamond Dunk returns in a High version

In 2014, nine years after the original release, Nike SB and Diamond Supply Co. brought the concept back to the market through a Dunk High.

The new version kept the color combination that made the Low famous practically intact: light blue, black crocodile-effect, and silver Swoosh.

The main difference is naturally the higher silhouette, which transferred the language of the original Tiffany onto a Dunk High.

The February 2014 release proved how strong the interest in the project still was nearly a decade after the debut of the Low. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

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2018: White, Black, and Canary Diamond for the brand's 20th anniversary

In 2018, Diamond Supply Co. celebrated its 20th anniversary by returning once again to the Nike SB Dunk Low.

This time, Nicky Diamonds chose not to simply replicate the original colorway. Three new interpretations were created:

• White Diamond, built primarily around white;
• Black Diamond, dominated by black;
• Canary Diamond, characterized by a very bright yellow and extremely limited distribution.

The materials reprise elements from the original sneaker: leather, crocodile-effect texture, and a silver Swoosh.

The real innovation, however, is the removable Swoosh. By removing it, the characteristic Diamond Blue appears underneath, creating a hidden connection with the 2005 collaboration.

Nike also confirmed that the Canary version was distributed in extremely limited quantities during ComplexCon, the White through selected skate shops, and the Black also via SNKRS. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

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Diamond Blue and the “Tiffany” nickname

One of the reasons why the sneaker became so memorable is naturally the color.

In the community's language, the shade is almost always called Tiffany Blue, because it immediately brings to mind the visual identity of the American jewelry store.

Nike and Nicky Diamonds, however, officially speak of Diamond Blue, a much more accurate definition when telling the story of the collaboration from a historical perspective.

The distinction is especially important today, because in 2023, Nike also created an actual official collaboration with Tiffany & Co. on the Air Force 1. The 2005 Diamond Dunk, on the other hand, belongs to a completely different story.

The name “Tiffany Dunk” therefore remains very useful because it is how the sneaker became famous, but it should not suggest an official collaboration with Tiffany & Co.

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Why the Diamond Dunk became a grail

More than twenty years after the release, original 2005 examples have become much harder to find in good condition.

The sneaker’s age, the preservation of materials, size, presence of the box, and general condition can have a huge impact on the value of a single pair.

The model is now part of that generation of grail sneakers whose cultural value is born from the intersection of rarity, history, and impact on sneaker culture.

However, there is no single price valid for every pair. Secondary market transactions can vary greatly depending on the size and the state of the sneaker.

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From 2005 to 2018: the evolution of the Diamond Dunks

The history of the Diamond Dunks also shows how much a collaboration can evolve without losing its identity.

The 2005 Low introduced the original language. The 2014 High transferred it onto a different silhouette. The 2018 releases, meanwhile, used new colors and removable details to reinterpret the past without copying it.

Each chapter remains recognizable as Diamond Supply Co., but it does not simply appear as a re-release of the previous sneaker.

This is likely one of the reasons why the collaboration has maintained its cultural weight over time.

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Why the Tiffany Dunk remains one of the most important Nike SBs

The 2005 Nike SB Dunk Low Diamond Supply Co. represents one of the moments when skateboarding, streetwear, and sneaker collecting began to merge in a particularly evident way.

The design was strong enough to work on its own, but the limited distribution, the hype, and the historical period in which it arrived helped transform it rapidly into a symbol.

In the following years, the High and the three 2018 Diamond Dunks kept the project alive, demonstrating that the strength of the collaboration did not depend solely on nostalgia.

For this reason, even if everyone rightly continues to call it the “Tiffany Dunk,” its true story remains above all that of Nicky Diamonds, Diamond Supply Co., and Nike SB.