HISTORY OF SKATE SHOES - PT 1

First skate shoes you remember?
There were no skate shoes when we began skating.  Nothing.  We used to destroy our shoes so quickly that we bought the cheapest deck shoes we could find at the discount shoe store in the poor part of Santa Monica.

Who were your idols?
Many of the older surfers at my local beach. We all dressed like surfers back then, scruffy Levis or pinwheel cords and t-shirts underneath Pendleton button down shirts. There were three choices of shoes we wore: blue deck shoes, wallabys or winos. Winos were these black mesh over a gum rubber bottom shoe the winos and homeless people used to wear. We thought they were cool.

Name the coolest skate shoes of all time?
There is only one genuine skate shoe and that is by Vans, the blue deck shoe all of us Z-Boys wore. Vans was there first, at least an entire decade before all the other companies finally followed. In fact, Vans was so early they weren’t considered legitimate by other shoe companies because they were involved in the skate world, which was not taken at all seriously at that time.  They have my vote. I still skate in Vans!