Weedy kicks: How MH-themed sneakers became a 4/20 tradition

Every year for the past decade, and perhaps dating as far back as to 2004, on the sacred and holy day of April 20, Nike SB, the company’s skateboarding division, has released a limited run of high top sneakers celebrating marijuana and getting high.

Last year it was a fuzzy high top  of different textures and panels, given the retail name “The Dog Walker.”

As befitting its title, the sneaker had green suede, hairy black and brown spots, red swooshes. Bone shaped tags were attached to the rear, and spare laces came in doggy bags. The Dog Walker retailed for $110 and sold out the day it was released.

Early word in sneakerhead culture has this year’s Nike 420s coming out in red and green suede, with the name “Strawberry Cough SB Dunk High” to honor the popular cannabis strain. A small comic rendering of a coughing strawberry sits on the shoe’s outside heel.