Skateboarding began as an offshoot of surfing, but since surfers don’t wear shoes, skateboarders had to look elsewhere for appropriate footwear. Quickly, it became evident that basketball sneakers provided the technology that skaters need, such as cushioning, stability, and flexibility. Even today, retro basketball shoes offer classic designs that allow for updated state-of-the-art tech to […]
NYC legend Daniel Kim’s weird-ass brand Stingwater teamed up with Nike SB to release a fly agaric-themed Dunk Low — and it’s packed with trippy detail. Dubbed “Magic Mushroom,” the Dunk’s upper features the titular toadstool’s signature red hue and white-dotted surface. Gone is the large Swoosh so typical of Nike Dunks; a mini-Swoosh shares […]
Skateboarders love to brag about their sport being defined by endless diversity. This might be true for tricks and the diverse ways we bust the balls of scooter kids, but it’s still uncommon to roll with LGBTQ folks. Skateboarders are not necessarily more progressive than any other social group, which means that the stereotypes, prejudices, […]
As Bronze 56K and Reebok’s partnership enters its second year, the Boston-based sports equipment manufacturer dug up two pairs of vintage sneakers for Bronze to give the old make-over. For one, the Answer IV, Allan Iverson’s signature basketball shoe that was released just after the beginning of the new Millennium. The other is the Reebok […]
Thanks to the fucking pandemic, we’re forced to cancel this year’s Jam of Mainhattan. We know, it’s a shame. But there’s a silver lining: as infection numbers dwindle and vaccination rates rise, we’re confident that in 2022, we will once again invite y’all to Germany’s Capital of Crime. In the meantime, however, we’d like to […]
Nike SB honors its 16-year old partnership with pro skater and Primitive founder Paul Rodriguez with a pair of Dunk Low SBs that look like the designer suffered a stroke while designing them. Officially called “What The Paul,” the Dunks are the next part of a practical joke that started a stir back in 2007. […]
Jeff Kutter’s Boys of Summer videos remain some of the best homie productions out there. Boys of Summer I and II are the visual equivalent to Don Henley’s titular song which somehow produces nostalgia for something you’ve never really experienced yourself. So even if you’ve never stood on a skateboard (in which case: how the […]
Hunting for sneakers shares striking similarities with the pastime of fishing. Both require having too much time on your hands, both require you to wear a bucket hat, and both will put your tolerance for boredom to the test. Sitting around all day (and, inexplicably, night), the sneaker enthusiast waits for some exotic release to […]
Do you remember punk rock, the supposedly anti-conformist music genre whose followers were into dying their hair in rainbow colors and hammering rivets into their leather jackets? No one could ignore punk rock in the last third of the 20th century: you didn’t get past it on the radio, where the Sex Pistols sang about […]
It’s not often that we’re writing about skateboard trucks on this blog (it’s the first time, I think). Trucks are incredibly boring: when they work as intended, you don’t even really think about them. Sure, when you get a new deck, you’ll make extra sure not to switch up front and back trucks (always looking […]
Basketball is like a cobalt mine to skate shoe designers at multinational sportswear companies: the storied sport is an endless source of essential raw material used to create almost every skate shoe released today. Adidas Skateboarding has once again sent its designers underground to unearth some pair of forgotten sneakers that have long since sedimented […]
Maité Steenhoudt, who recently made the team at Evan Smith’s new board company UMA Landsleds, just got her very own Samba ADV with Adidas Skateboarding. In tandem with fellow team member Nora Vasconcellos’ signature Gazelle ADV, the collection was announced on International Women’s Day and is expected to drop in the very near future. Regarding […]
Evan “Starheadbody” Smith, known far and wide for mind-melting tricks and exquisite head of curls, just launched UMA Landsleds, a brand-new skateboarding company specializing in decks and apparel. He didn’t do it all by himself, though; visual artist and skateboarding filmer Thomas Campbell came to Evan’s aid as the brand’s creative and art director. The […]
There’s a German idiom claiming that having an ax at home will save the carpenter. A praise of DIY, the saying was coined by poet and proto-emo Friedrich Schiller; it’s still widely accepted that sweat and discipline will enable anyone to repair (or produce) anything. Not us, though. The above-mentioned ax would only save us […]
In the late ’90s, when skate shoes followed the design principle of ghetto blasters and pants were as wide as ten-man tents, when the wheels were barely bigger than the cracks in the ground you constantly got stuck in, and when Supreme was still cooler than Primark, two letters stood for the promise of being […]
Before iPhones and GoPros, before digital video and handheld HD cameras, there was Sony’s VX1000. Released in the mid-90s, the VX was one of the first consumer-grade video cameras that made TV-level quality affordable to the masses. Its small size allowed for a massive jump in flexibility compared to what was available at the time, […]
Jason Dill is what you could call skateboarding’s mad scientist. He has weird hairdos, says weird shit, and comes up with all sorts of crazy ideas. While many skaters fancy themselves as artistically gifted, most of them simply don’t have the clout to turn their creative, uh, outbursts into reality. Jason Dill, on the other […]
At the end of Ford v Ferrari, after Ken Miles and his GT40 made Italian Lorenzo Baldini look small at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the film proudly proclaims that Ford managed to go on a winning streak in the following three years. While the fine people at Ford are probably still popping corks in […]
Skateboarding: there’s hardly a subculture that suffers so severely the Peter Pan syndrome that the local carnival clubs would have to fear such formidable a competition. Impressively, Russian label Rassvet’s (PACCBET) new collection proves the unrestrained willingness of adults to dress up (and sometimes behave) like late ‘80s and early 1990s kids. Since its early […]
Nike SB’s BLZR Court is the most recent addition in the never-ending series of slapping a rubber pad on a pair of old-school sneakers to make them look skateable. Seriously, you could put an ollie pad on a pair of clogs and make them look like a pair of 2001 DCs. Ollie-pads will make any […]
Blondey McCoy — artist, model, skateboarder — released a see-through Adidas Skateboarding Superstar 80s in late 2019 to show everyone what cool designer socks he was wearing at the time. In an effort equally as transparent, he released yet another Superstar that will expose your feet to the rest of the world. That said, like […]
Nike SB’s most recent Dunk Low release features watercolor paintings of six popular street food dishes from six Chinese cities and looks like a Chinese restaurant after a gas explosion. Paying homage to street hawkers — street food vendors that supply hungry city folk, tourists, and the steadily increasing number of China-bound skateboarders with snacks […]
Have you ever tried to explain what’s so great about skateboarding to someone who doesn’t skate? It’s hard to convey in words why we love skateboarding so much, isn’t it? This is because we need more than words: we need images. And every once in a while a video releases that seems to give us […]
In this part of the world, the city of Baltimore, Maryland, is predominantly known for HBO’s The Wire, a show about the city’s drug trade and the persecution thereof. It’s certainly not the first destination of choice for hip, travel-hungry skateboarders, which is why it’s refreshing to see the city being home to another thriving […]
