With Halloween upon us, you'll need a pair of creepy creps that'll keep you trick-or-treating into the witching hour. To inspire your All Hallows Eve shoe game, we take a look at some of the past decade's stand-out Halloween-themed sneakers.
Freddy vs Jason, Dunk Style!
When Jason Voorhees emerged from the water clutching Freddy Krueger’s severed and winking head at the end of 2003's Freddy vs Jason, we weren’t sure what to expect next from this love-hate relationship. Fortunately, Nike treated us to a Krueger–Voorhees rematch as part of their 2007 SB Dunk ‘Horror Pack’.
The Dunk SB ‘Freddy Krueger’ Low came dressed in the famous green and red stripes of Freddy’s sweater. Oh and it was covered in 'blood' splatters. After all, as Freddy says to Jason, ‘Welcome to my world, bitch. I should warn you, princess... the first time tends to get a little... messy.’ And Freddy's first signature shoe sure lived up to his warning.
Jason got the high-top Dunk SB treatment (perhaps so he could keep his feet a littler drier as he went about his business at Camp Crystal Lake?). The shoe sported what Nike called ‘dried blood uppers’, with white and black nodding to Voorhees' Detroit Red Wings hockey mask and blacked-out costume.,
Who won this round of the murderous match-up? Freddy may be currently winning the resale game, with the rare release selling for upwards of $4000. It's rumoured that only 30 pairs of this model were made, but the Friday the 13th star's Dunks are also near impossible to find. We don't want to insert ourselves into the middle of this slasher sneaker war, so we'll call it a draw.
The Dawn of the SB Air Trainer
This Nike SB Air Trainer ‘Dawn of the Dead’ released back in 2007 in the same Nike 'Horror Pack' that spawned Jason and Freddy's gory get-ups. The colourway was loosely inspired by the green, orange and black tones of 1978's Dawn of the Dead movie poster. An illustrated decaying zombie was etched into the insole.
The tennis shoe sure isn’t for crawlers, but that Air Sole unit would give definitely breathers the boost they need to run for their lives in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
Putting the ‘pump’ in Pumpkin
Reebok released the Pump Omni Lite ‘Pumpkin’ to coincide with 2013’s Halloween celebrations. Crafted like a real jack-o’-lantern, these came with full glow in the dark underlays. No stealing the kids’ candy in these Pumps, the neighbours would see you coming from a mile off.
The Mummy’s Curse
Nike tried their hand at embalming in 2015, imagining what the Blazer would look like if it’d been unearthed from an ancient Egyptian tomb. The mummified model was wrapped in unevenly stitched white linen designed to resemble bandages. The SB Blazer Mid PRM VNTG ‘Mummy’ wasn’t a model that’d have you phoning home to your own mummy, though. This understated white and gum design is one of the few Halloween-themed sneakers you can dig out on a date other than October 31.
The Posite-geist
With most of these spooky sneakers coming in men’s sizes, it’s easy to forget that Halloween is actually a holiday intended for kids. The Little Posite One ‘Halloween’ was one of the few instances in which adults found themselves coveting a children's release. We’re still holding out hope that the Swoosh will ‘treat’ us to a big-kid version of this freaky Foamposite.
The Not-So-Dreadful D Rose
The prize for the least terrifying Halloween-themed shoe surely goes to the adidas D Rose 7 BOOST 'Halloween'. It’s hard to see exactly why the Stripes decided that this release ought to be an All Hallows Eve tie-in. Its cool blue colourway with a swirling pattern stretching across the lace cage makes it one of the most calming basketball models we’ve seen in the past couple of years.
However, as Derrick Rose told SLAM back in 2014, ‘I have no fears’. Perhaps D Rose was just showing off with this release, boasting that nothing can scare him! He probably should be a little concerned about those losses to the Nets and the Knicks, though... Anyway, if this year's endless parade of Stranger Things and Wonder Woman costumes has you feeling fatigued, kick back in these chill numbers on the 31st for a quiet night in.
While we're on the subject of all things freaky, check out our collection of the 13 Most Horrifying Sneakers Ever. They may not be scary, but some of them sure are stomach-turning!
