Our Nike SB drop for Spring '21 has seen a good variety of SB Blazer shoes land with us, there's Nike SB Zoom Blazer Mid shoes in vibrant and classic colours, the new remixed Nike SB Zoom Blazer Low GT and the eye-catching Nike SB Zoom Blazer Mid Edge, all coming in a choice of colours. This drop also see's the addition of the all new Nike SB Blzr Court Shoe, which is the latest addition to the Blazer family with it's lightweight canvas construction, rubber ollie patch, hidden rubber toecap reinforcement will make it an ideal skate shoe as the better weather starts to kick in. So we thought with so many Blazers in the collection we thought it would be the perfect time to take a look back at the history of our favourite classic court shoe by the Swoosh.

The Nike Blazer has been around for nearly 50 years now and although there's a lot of well deserved heat around another of their classic silhouettes (the Nike SB Dunk) at the moment, it's still the Nike SB Zoom Blazer Mid and Nike SB Zoom Blazer GT Low shoes remain the first choice shoe for many skaters. First released in 1973 and named after their local basketball team The Portland Trail Blazers, but were made popular by George "The Iceman" Gervin of the San Antonio Spurs. Then in the 80's when Nike turned their focus to sporting innovation and developing it's new Nike Air technology for their basketball shoes, so the Blazer with it's thinner vulcanised construction was quickly abandoned by basketball players.

But it didn't take long for skateboarders to adopt the Blazer for their own. Many skaters wore Nike Air Jordan 1 and Dunks, but the Blazer with it's grippy sole designed for court traction proving ideal for grip and feel on a skateboard. Despite it's popularity in our sub-culture the shoe spent many years in the wilderness, until in 2003 street artist Futura 2000 collaborated with Nike on a limited release which brought back it's wider popularity with a bang.

So as Nike SB took off the Blazer was an obvious choice to add to the line, albeit with some key improvements like bulking out the tongue and reinforcing the toe cap. This clean and simple design is the reason why the likes of Supreme, Comme des Garsons, Virgil Abloh's Off White and Stussy chose the Blazer to re-work and collaborate on, and team riders such as Grant Taylor, Lance Mountain, Brian Anderson, Alex Olson and Kevin Bradley love to skate in.   

Check out all Nike SB shoes UK at Bored here.