DAMON WAY - DC SHOES

Do you think the industry might have hit a brick wall as far as skate shoe design and technology is concerned?
I think the evolution of design and technology with skate shoes can keep progressing as long as the skate shoe companies hold up to their responsibility to do so. There are a number of brands in this space that bring absolutely nothing to the table in the way of technical innovation and the advancement of footwear in this industry, and do nothing more than exist on the reinterpretation of styles that do well in the mass-market retail channels. These are the brands that are homogenising the skate shoe market as a whole and keeping the category stuck in lower price point ranges, which is working to cannibalise any meaningful advancements in this sector. We are working hard to challenge this and doing all we can to offer new ideas and solutions for all the working components of the contemporary skate shoe.

How do you feel when the traditional sports brands do skate ?
It only really bothers me when the culture itself drinks their kool-aid and lets them in… And at this point it I think it is an absolute sham.

Why hasn’t their approach usually worked? Is it a product failure or an inability to communicate with the market they’re chasing?
Both… They try to understand something that is not natural for them to understand. The only solution for these outsider corporations is to poach people (really good people) from within the industry to guide them. What is created at this point is more or less a wolf in sheep’s clothing that culture blindly supports without much critical thought as to what they are truly supporting. This strategy has ultimately led to breeches in the culture where corporations have been able to come in and permeate the inner wall.