‘Twas the year or so before December 2012 when my friend Nick Halkias finally emailed me with the question he’d long been hinting at but never previously managed to put into motion: Would I be interested in collaborating on a shoe for Nike SB? But not just any old shoe—this was to be the Holiday 2012 release—and he asked if I was familiar with the mythological creature known as Krampus. "First, hell yes I'm interested," I responded [1], "And kinda, maybe, only sorta I'm familiar?" While most demonic figures had crossed my radar at one point or another, I wasn’t entirely hip to all the fabled facts behind this particular pagan beast. Nick, who had apparently run across a vintage greeting card depicting Krampus and subsequently gone down the proverbial rabbit hole in search of more background on his origins [2], thought it would make an entertaining holiday story for a Dunk and that I would be the ideal artist to tackle such a project. Woohoo!
Vintage Krampuskarten.
Upon pitching the concept to the team at Nike, though, Nick was met with consternation and worry that the story may be too obscure for the mainstream market. Still, Nick wasn't dissuaded, and he proceeded to bully it on through until he received the greenlight. Times had been good, sales goals were being hit, what could possibly be a problem? (A lot, actually, but more on that later.) With official blessing in hand, he proceeded to kick all kinds of Krampus knowledge my way to assist in the creation of art for the tongue tag, insoles, accompanying apparel collection, holiday card, and a premium “point of purchase” display item for select SB retailers. Beyond that, the shoe design was essentially baked, because I balked at going whole hog on that developmental side of the project. Don't ask me why, I have issues up the wazoo and back again, but at the time I remember feeling intimidated by the prospect and way out of my comfort zone. I wasn't a shoehead by any stretch and nobody in their right mind would (or should) ever follow my fashion-challenged lead [3]. Nick and the design team handled most all of those details—from the horsehair and black, cracked leather foxing on the outside to a black fur lining on the inside—leaning into the more beastly aspects of Krampus. The one and only thing that disappointed me about it all was the fact it was slated to be a Dunk Hi and there were absolutely no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I’d quit wearing high tops back in 1992 when I, like many others, abruptly stopped wearing clunky Airwalks and the assorted high-like and started hitting the shoe outlets for cheap Adidas shell toe lows, so I was mostly just bummed that I wouldn't be able to wear a shoe that I'd worked on.
The Nike SB "Krampus" Quickstrike, Holiday 2012.
It would behoove me, I suppose, to backtrack a bit. I first met Nick in and around the year of 2000 on eBay when I began selling off some of the excess skate detritus I’d accumulated over the previous decade of employment at Powell Peralta and World Industries: old decks, tees, stickers, and original art for the most part. Nick was an early buyer of such items—long before they’d started to accrue any significant value and collecting was still viewed as a niche pursuit—but once he established who I was and what I had in my "unofficial" collection, he set to picking me clean. Just kidding. Well, sort of. I mean, he did start buying up a lot of my stuff, but mostly I was just happy to have it all going somewhere to be appreciated as opposed to sitting in boxes under my bed or garbage bags crammed into darkened, dusty recesses [4]. Plus, I was recycling the funds into the beginnings of my own “official” skate collection, so it was a win-win as far as I was concerned. Amid the all the buying, selling, and occasional trading, Nick and I struck up a line of friendly communication where it was realized we had a lot more things in common than just skateboarding: comic books, underground artists, counterculture, monster movies—you know, all the stuff that made you a pariah long before even setting foot on a skateboard in the ‘80s. Thus began a beautiful friendship.
Throughout the next several years, I bobbed and weaved with the assorted Jackass projects while maintaining a salaried art position at Birdhouse (and Hook-Ups by default), while Nick went on to become an employee at Nike. Not only as a regional Southeast sales rep but a contributing part of Sandy Bodecker’s core team that would basically define the SB brand and the worldwide shoe culture it ultimately begat. Me, I was simply the unwitting benefactor of his involvement at Nike, as he’d send me promo boxes of shoes every so often. I didn’t know shit from Shinola about what I was receiving; I was just happy to be getting free (and fun!) shoes, from the Pusheads and Mondrians to Gibsons and Newcastles, all of which I happily skated in.
While I don't have any skate shots in the time period referenced, I do have this fantastic one of me in the Nike SB "Gibsons" taken by Spike Jonze in 2010. If you're curious about the backstory, as you should be, this was popped the morning after the Jackass 3D sneak preview at the San Diego Comic Con, when both he and I asked our driver to pull over so we could relieve our stomachs. The day before, I’d really outdone myself by having a couple drinks in the afternoon, skipping dinner altogether before going to the preview event, and then really over doing with free drinks at the after party, entirely forgetting that I'd had nothing whatsoever to eat since that morning. Anyway, at some point I could feel the consciousness tunnel closing in, so I stumbled out of a bar in the Gaslamp Quarter to try and make it back to the hotel before blacking out. Had it not been for Chris Pontius who saved me from stumbling in the complete opposite direction of our hotel, I'm not sure I'd even be here today or, at the very least, not have one of my kidneys sold on the black market.
All right, all right… enough backstories and assorted nonsense. Let’s get back to Krampus—more specifically, the design process in 2011 that turned into a lot of tedious back and forth I wasn't emotionally prepared to deal with. You see, for much of my so called professional life, I'd had relatively little experience in dealing with corporate oversight. I was, after all, considerably damaged goods having once been employed by Steve Rocco, who steadfastly believed—perhaps to his own detriment at times—that if you hire creative people you should just give them the tools and freedom to do whatever it is they do. Sure, that's a recipe for disaster like no other, but it happened nonetheless and left me wholly unprepared for a life outside of this flawed, happy-go-lucky, shitass frame of mind. For instance, when Nick and I thought the trademark tongue of Krampus could be cleverly curled up to mimic the Swoosh, I was completely dumbfounded when the idea was rejected following an in-house legal review. "NO," they decreed. Huh? I'm sorry, but what exactly is this “NO” word you speak of? Damn. It's some 13 years later and I can already feel myself getting re-worked up about all this.
Anyway, but perhaps most importantly, my knowledge of all that went on behind the corporate curtain is secondhand, having been cautiously spoon fed the bad news by Nick who experienced it all firsthand. Good thing, too, because I lack the patience, tact, maturity, and decorum when it comes to dealing with such ridiculous situations in person. So, I'm gonna pass the mike to Nick (depicted in italics from here on out) for his personal take on all that went down…
"I don't talk about my time at Nike SB very much… I spent almost two decades in that corporate environment and I should still probably see a therapist to process all that happened in the last decade. But creating the Krampus products brings back great memories, because the early days of SB were truly magical and fun. It was like the Island of Misfit Toys but located at Willy Wonka's Wonderland. There were some egos to deal with for sure, but the environment was really collaborative and everyone helped everyone with everything.
In 2012, I was flying from my home in Tampa, FL, to the Nike HQ “Campus” in Portland, OR, almost every six weeks, working closely with the entire team from a sales focus. At the time, the heads of footwear and apparel projects were mellow and welcomed outside ideas, and the General Manager that held the wallet for both couldn't have been a mellower or greater guy. Everyone was hitting goals and celebrating success, but the success also got us into some trouble and that trouble came in the form of the Nike legal department. Since we were a team and I was a team player, I offered to attend the legal meeting to explain the Krampus project. From what I recall, the minute we sat down it was obvious the woman from legal was pissed after reviewing our submission depicting the side Swoosh as Krampus's tongue. 'You cannot manipulate the Nike 'Check' in any way,' she curtly said in response."
Before legal… and after legal.
Okay, sorry, I have to quickly interject here, because Nick's remembrance is about to get ahead of itself, or me, I guess, because I hadn't addressed any of the other proposed graphics. First and foremost, the primary sketch of Krampus delivering a wedgie to a distraught child, because that turned out to be an even bigger NO. But, if you remember, or even if you don't, Krampus's whole reason for mythologically being was to scare kids into behaving themselves all year long lest he come on December 5th to abduct them from home, throw them in chains, and swat 'em with a birch switch. He was, after all, the holiday foil to St. Nicholas, because being bad doesn't just mean no presents—there were corporal consequences to being naughty. What a concept! Imaginary or not! Wait, isn’t that just another form of reli—ahem, no, in the spirit of the holidays and goodwill toward men, or humans, I guess, I’ll simply play nice and not go down that contentious path. So, anyway, best case scenario for these sniveling brats was to be presented with a lump of coal on Christmas morn for being such insufferable little shits throughout the year… yet another scenario of which I depicted that was met with a NO. Okay, on that recurring negative note, back to you, Nick.
Yep, legally speaking that would be a NO and a NO.
"Before I could even respond to her issue with the Swoosh, she raised her voice and demanded, 'Did you really think Nike would release an image of child abuse? Child torture?!?' All I could say was that I was sorry and I didn't really see it that way. I just figured the kid was naughty, so he got a wedgie. The word 'naughty' must have broke the ice, because she calmed down a bit, gave us some notes, and we agreed to come back in a month to review the project again. Fast forward to the next meeting, when I presented a tongue label with the image of Krampus's head and his tongue resembling a Swoosh. It almost got approved, but then the legal lady's anger returned. No, we had to fix the tongue. Next up was the sock liner art: Krampus looming over a crying boy holding a lump of coal from his stocking. This sent legal into a conniption. 'Is this a child crying? On a Nike shoe?!?' Our hands got slapped and the new marching order was that we had 'to show good defeating evil.'"
Hey. It's me again. Non-italics guy. Figured I should chime in here, seeing as we begrudgingly gave up on the whole Krampus tongue fiasco, as well as the traditional idea of Krampus terrorizing young children. Instead, we defaulted to pitting the furry rascal up against jolly St. Nick—the Westernized version, of course, aka Santa Claus, since the traditional European renditions look more like a Pope who took a walk on the wilder side of the apse and that certainly wasn’t going to fly (or land) with anyone. So, classic jolly-old-bearded-fat-man-in-red-suit it was, and in a somewhat more MAD magazine-ish "Spy vs. Spy" conflict-oriented manner. Or, if you want to get more quasi-Eastern and dynamically balanced about it, a cheery, seasonal clash of yin and yang, but with yang decidedly coming out on top because the legal eagles obsessing over the supposedly evil overtones of the project had to be placated above all.
From initial sketch to full color completion, a sockliner journey.
"Luckily, Sean knocked out a Santa vs. Krampus illustration quickly, and we were able to satisfy both our apparel and sockliner needs. The cherry on top, though, was the ability to create something special for shops: A holiday decoration to promote the Quickstrike story. Vintage holiday decorations were another obscure interest of mine at the time—I had fond memories of having a 4-foot tall skeleton with hinged arms and legs as a kid—so I guess it was 'part-Halloween decoration part-huh?' because nobody understood what I wanted to make. But our GM was the raddest. He gave me a small budget to make 250 of the decorations [5]. My boss Sandy liked it so much that he had two six-foot tall versions made for his office. Upon seeing them, I begged him for the proper channels to have one made for myself as well.
The Krampus paper doll point-of-purchase promotional decorative display item.
This is still my favorite Nike item that I was able to work on during my time, even though the shoe came out to little excitement. Europe was concerned that Krampus was similar to another odd holiday character of theirs from the past—"Black Pete"—and I believe they declined to distribute the shoe. Nike was making these incredible dri-fit pocket tees that I loved at the time, and we were able to place the Krampus head on the pocket of the tee, but these booked so poorly they basically became a giveaway item. The hat, that wasn't even created by us… it’s something that just showed up and also booked poorly everywhere but overseas. Still, I loved the whole collection, and this was the very first product Sean and I worked on together." –Nick Halkias
During the Nike SB x Skatepark of Tampa "Gasparilla" release in February 2016, Nick put together an art show that included a full display wall of all the Krampus original art and products.
For those who've been with us since the Paisley days, you already know that Nick and I revived Krampus in 2017, borrowing heavily from the original sketch that Nike's legal team had shot down, and he's since become a tradition of sorts for us over the years, including an extra special guest model with Jim Thiebaud in 2019. So, it's perfectly understandable that both Nick and I received several messages from folks asking if we had any involvement in the upcoming Nike SB Krampus dunk release for Holiday 2025, but the answer is NO. We do, however, have an entirely unrelated and purely coincidental Krampus deck that is also coming out on Saturday, November 29th. Oh, and to all you kooks who are like, "Yo, why you all into the Satanic devil and shit," all I can wholeheartedly say is: Lighten up, Francis (also, maybe do a little research before knee-jerking asinine comments). —Sean Cliver
From L to R: Paisley Skates "Krampus & Trump" (2017),StrangeLove Jim Thiebaud Guest Model (2019), StrangeLove "Krampus & Kids" (2023), StrangeLove "Krampus & Pig" (2024), and the latest for 2025… StrangeLove "Krampus & Kid".
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1. This isn't verbatim, of course, as I have no idea what I actually said. I mean, yes, I obviously said yes, but it's worth noting that up until this time I had declined a few other offers of Nick's. At the time, he was working with Michael Hernandez as co-creative director of the Tampa Am and Pro experiences, and he tried talking me into being the annual artist on a couple occasions. Again, I have issues, and I politely said NO every time he brought it up.
2. In 2011, Krampus had not yet infiltrated Western pop-culture to the horrific degree he has now.
3. I'm an unapologetic 12-year-old for life. Just look at any photo of me. I'm the poster child of arrested development and the reason Nick doesn't take any of my apparel notes seriously.
4. Granted, I was a bit (read: a lot) premature in my dumping and sold myself way, way, way short on a lot of stuff, but the only item of sincere sentimental interest—the one that I’m still kicking myself in the ass from here to Timbuktu for letting go, is the original art to my first skateboard design for Ray Barbee in 1989. That will always be my biggest regert.
5. It's worthy to note that this was indeed the beginning of our love of bagging items and placing a header card on them—something we do to this day at StrangeLove.