Enter Division Street, a brand that launched in the post-NIL collegiate landscape and counts Phil Knight as one of its cofounders. The company serves to elevate UO student athletes and help them maximize their branding and secure opportunities to earn some dough while playing for the school. From Division Street sprung Ducks of a Feather, a streetwear and athleisure hub creating modern collegiate gear for the University of Oregon and using its revenue to support the school’s athletes. While cozy hoodies and trendy tees are mainstays of the brand, they released their first Nike shoe in 2022—an Oregon-greened-out Air Max 1 designed by Hatfield. Last year, the program launched the first-ever Hatfield-designed Dunk colorway in a simple gray and chlorophyll-green rendition. This month, they’re back for more with one of the more hotly-anticipated Nike drops of the year.
The Nike x DOAF ‘What the Duck’ Dunk doubles down on a sure thing, consisting of two pairs of Nike Dunk Lows in colorways that are anything but understated, placing itself in the lineage of kooky “What the…” colorways across the Nike canon (which incorporate clashing patterns and color swatches from iconic colorways across a silhouette’s history). Each shoe is covered in a patchwork of designs, colors, and prints tied to the school’s iconography, one pair working from a white leather base and the other a black one. The result is an Oregon fan’s dream, a classic silhouette covered in Duck Green, yellow, sole speckles, feather prints, and more. The tongues and heel tabs feature the Ducks Of A Feather acronym and the shoes come with an ornamental duck tag decked out in multicolored stripes.
If you’re looking to cop a pair, good news: you don’t have to go to a basketball tryout to secure yours. However, the shoes are being released in highly limited quantities, with a rumored count of around 5,000 pairs. They’ll be getting a brick-and-mortar launch at Flight Club’s locations in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Tokyo on October 5th. If you’d rather try your luck online, the launch is exclusive to GOAT and goes live on October 11th. Each shoe retails for $275.