SMALL HISTORY OF SKATEBOARDING SHOES

Courtesy of Complex magazine.

Block: That original look came from the hip-hop days. Run-DMC put their tongues out, or people would actually cut out a tongue from an old shoe and put it under their tongue on a new shoe.

Eric Koston, professional skater: My very first skate shoes were some Airwalks. They had this “A” on the side and a spider-web print. You could get them at Mervin’s for like 20 bucks, around 1986.

Bird: People that didn’t skate saw the skate shoe and thought they were more comfortable because they were bigger and bulkier and had more padding. That had a lot to do with the explosion of it.

Tony Hawk: Airwalk was born out of skating, but they hit their biggest stride as skateboarding’s popularity was waning. They were open to new ideas and willing to try anything. And I was thankful to be getting paid by any of my sponsors at all.

Block: The original Jordans really influenced the way skateboard shoes are today. The simple sole design, the way that the panels on the upper works, that type of thing. And that evolved into the Dunk, and evolved into many of the skateboard shoes that are out today.

DC shoes Big Push 2009 from ciaran on Vimeo.