By Jim Harrington

The Mercury News

Nike and the Grateful Dead are jamming together.

And the result are these cool new sneakers — the Nike SB Dunk Low Grateful Dead shoes.

Soon to be the preferred footwear of Deadheads from coast to coast, these Grateful Dead Nikes will be available in three colors — yellow, orange and, the best-looking of the bunch, green — and borrow from some of the band’s most iconic imagery.

Of course, these new Grateful Dead kicks feature the group’s famed dancing bears, which have adorned car bumpers, backpacks and bootleg concert T-shirts for decades. You’ll find a dancing bear grooving away on the front of each of the shoes’ tongues. But the bear-ish detailing doesn’t stop there. What’s even more awesome is the faux bear “fur” to be found all around the shoe and how the Nike Swoosh is frayed to properly mimic the bear’s collar.

The dancing bears have a long history with the band, having made their debut on the back cover of 1973’s “History of the Grateful Dead, Volume 1 (Bear’s Choice).” These joyful critters reference Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the Dead’s former patron, sound system pioneer and, yes, the “Bear” in “Bear’s Choice.”

Also, not surprisingly, these shoes also riff on the band’s most iconic logo —the “Steal Your Face” skull —w hich you can see by looking on the underside of the tongue.

And speaking of the tongue … that’s where you’ll find a little zipper stash pocket, which I’m thinking will be a very convenient place to store your house key while you skate about town in your new shoes.

The orange GD sneaks hit July 18 and are available through San Francisco skateboard clothing/lifestyle company FTC (ftcsf.com), which — appropriately enough —got its start in Haight-Ashbury. The yellow offerings are released on July 24 through nike.com and at select skateboard shops. The green ones drop the same day as the yellow, but only at select shops. The shoes run $110, and they’ll likely just fly off the shelves.