Like Birdman, Jeff Staple knows a lot about cash money. The streetwear vet has managed to build his brand strong enough to get the attention everyone from Nike to energy drink companies, and he's doing it by using one design: The Pigeon.
Yup, the official bird of the NYC streets, the one Staple made into a dunk has become one of the most recognizable colorways in the cool-guy world. Some say it's merely a copy and paste, but hey the kids are buying the shit out of the Staple x [Insert Brand Here] products. With the latest collabo, a 5-panel hat with Kangol, hitting the Internets late last week, we take a look back at all the collabos Staple's pet pigeon has shat on...
NIKE SB PIGEON DUNK LOW PRO
RELEASE: MARCH 2005
• The design that spawned everything else on this list. 150 pairs of the SB Dunk were released in NYC, causing riots among sneaker heads. Arrests were made, and the release made the front cover of the post.
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NIKE SB PIGEON SOCKS
RELEASE: JUNE, 2007
• Most blogs wrote "if you missed out on the pigeon dunks, these will make up for it." No, they won't. They're just socks worth nothing compared to a pair of $2000 sneakers people almost got shanked for.
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LOMO x STAPLE COLORSPLASH CAMERA
RELEASE: JUNE, 2008
• Oh, awesome! Now you could take pics of your pigeon sneakers with your pigeon camera.
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NEW ERA FITTED
RELEASE: AUGUST, 2008
• Not much of a shocker here, but it might have been a bit more on time if the hat dropped around the same time that dunks did.
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NEW BALANCE 575
RELEASE: AUGUST, 2008
• Before Converse hooked up with Staple and after Nike did, New Balance released this collabo with Staple on a 575. Insiders say the Converse make-up actually used scraps left over from this shoe. We keed.
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CONVERSE SEASTAR
RELEASE: FEBRUARY, 2009
• Converse got at Jeff Staple for its boat shoe make-up the "Sea Star Hi." Jeff complained on his twitter about the coordination of the global launch of the shoe, but we're thinking he forgot about how bad it went once the checks started to roll in.
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AMP ENERGY DRINK PIGEON FRIDGE
RELEASE: APRIL, 2009
• Not an official collabo, yet...AMP Energy Drink produced this pigeon camo-splatter fridge and sent it to the Staple office a couple months ago. Cranking out pigeon designs takes energy, sometimes you need a place to stock the Red Bull.
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KANGOL 5-PANEL SAFARI HAT
RELEASE: JULY, 2009
• Once you do the fitted, you have to do the 5-panel too right? Just last week, this Kangol x Staple 5-panel safari cap released.
