Jeff Staple Draws Criticism With Suspected Fake Pigeon Dunk Giveaway

On Tuesday night, Jeff Staple set off what should have been harmless fun mixed in with a publicity stunt by tossing a pair of his historic Nike SB Dunk Low “Pigeon” onto a traffic light outside of his store in Lower Manhattan. But not long after a fan Jerry-rigged a tool to get the sneakers down, social media was ablaze with accusations that the designer had given away a pair of fakes, as well as criticism deriding him as a one-trick pony.

The sneaker at the center of the controversy is universally considered a landmark in sneaker history. When the “Pigeon” Dunk released in 2005, the crowd that gathered descended into a riot that landed on the front page of the New York Post. For sneakerheads, it was a high point in hype. And for the ingenuous wider public, it was one of the first sig