HISTORY OF SKATE SHOES - PT 2

They seemed to be a lot more successful when they weren’t actually trying to design skate shoes. Look at the first Jordan and before that the Blazer. Does that seem ironic looking back at it now?
Especially in Europe in the early eighties, it was much easier to get a pair of Nike basketball shoes than Vans. There were less skate shops, but you could just go into a sport retailer and buy a Blazer or later on, the Dunks. If you look back into the magazines of the late seventies you just see Nike and Vans hightops. Even in the US, Nike basketball shoes were huge. They had very good material, cushioning and stability, all the demands for a pool or halfpipe shoe. The first team Nike supported was the Bones Brigade in the mid-eighties. So they got a very good shoe care package from them. And I think most of you know the famous hand-plant photo on the chin ramp taken by Grant Brittain where most of the Bones Brigade are wearing the Air Jordan 1. In a way this shoe was a blueprint for all the modern hightop skateboard shoes in the late eighties (like the Airwalk Prototype). And the Dunk is still a simple and very good skateboard shoe. Oh and the funny thing is, 21 years later there are Jordan skateboard shoes!

Do other brands have a credible skate history?
Sure, Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars were very popular in the fifties to sixties and they had a big renaissance in the late eighties with pro-skaters like Hosoi, Mullen and Vallely. We have a picture from 1974 showing Larry Bertleman skating with Asics shoes. In European skateboard magazines, most of the skaters in the seventies skated in adidas and Puma. And in the late eighties you can see the Puma First Round on the feet of Hawk, Hosoi and Eric Dressen.