story

"My name is James Whitner, Owner and Founder of the Whitaker Group. I'm from Pittsburgh, PA, more specifically, Montview Heights, better known as Whitaker.  Hey, I'm Julian Turner. I'm Justin Turner. We were the directors for the short film Free Lunch. Free Lunch was the journey every summer..."

"...that started our day. You walk out the door and you connect with the hustlers that been out all night, connect with people who they want to hoop. Rec center starting up, but the first thing everybody's thinking is, 'Yo, Free Lunch is opening. Let's go eat.' "

"We're telling these unique stories, but we wanted to do something that was very unique for us. There was this opportunity to do a high or a low, and we chose to do what's known now as the Social Status dunk. So the Chocolate Milk Dunk, we wanted to take cool materials and use them in ways..."

"...that people ask themselves, 'Why didn't they do this before?' On the tongue, you get the lunch ticket. The story evolves, because free lunch happens in the projects. The ticket is a play off of school free lunch. Any idea that if you got..."

"...free lunch, that was one color ticket. If you had reduced lunch, that was another color ticket. If you've been through the free lunch situation, it's super nostalgic. And then you got the expiration date here. You have the ingredients here. Another unique detail is the gum swoosh..."

"...because it's actually a milk swoosh. And we felt like the rope laces drove distinction for our model and with something very different, that's been done on any NSW dunk. We start talking about a milk carton box, and then you start going into some of the details..."

"...of the box. If you remember lunch, the tissue paper got schedule on it. Just didn't miss any details, just the contents, right. And then just the ingredients, I love the 100% authenticity, 100% integrity. So we just wanted to really replay..."

"...the whole mood and that whole vibe, through the boxing experience. Working with the Turner brothers was incredible, and having people who understand the culture as a director, because they live the Black experience, they can connect with the..."

"...story in ways that someone who didn't live it probably couldn't. I go back to this Denzel clip that I've seen. You can't explain to someone what the environment feels like on a Sunday, when a Black woman is straightening her hair..."

"...with a hot comb. If you haven't experienced that, you never understand that there's sound associated with it. There's background music. There's the sound of the comb. There's a very distinct smell. That's culture. They were able to capture my literal, natural..."

"...environment to tell a story that was not just representative of my story, but representative of our story as a culture. Since we shot it in the exact neighborhood that James grew up in, we were able to learn from the people..."

"...who lived there, mirror and take elements from what's actually there. We wanted it to be as natural as possible. And we were trying to capture the essence of his childhood and just the essence of Black joy in a lot of those communities, where you..."

"...don't necessarily see that portrayed in the media. So in the story, like the voiceover said, it's not all bad in the hood. And we love telling them their story and being able to provide those that haven't come from those situations context, and allow them to empathize."

"Our goal is to be a change agent. I have a unique opportunity to not just come back to my neighborhood, but we have an opportunity to come into every neighborhood around the world and pick our culture up and start to change some of the systems that's kept us oppressed for so long."

Behind the Design: Dunk Mid x Social Status

Behind the Design

Social Status x Nike 'Free Lunch' Dunks