HISTORY OF SKATE SHOES - PT 1

Does riding in bare feet seem crazy?
Not really, it was a surf based sport. People that surfed really wanted the same feel on the land. You don’t wear shoes on a surfboard so why would you on a skateboard? When there were no waves they would be skateboarding.

You were living 5000 miles away but you knew Vans were super cool, how did they create that aura?
As a kid you get sucked into the marketing. Nike never advertised in the magazines, but they had the best skateboarders wearing their stuff. That was enough to make people want to buy Nike, but Vans took it a step further, they had really marketable skaters wearing their stuff, and you could make custom shoes as well. But the marketing was the big thing, because of the photos in the mags, it just made you want to look like these guys. If you had the proper shorts, the proper pads and the helmet, but shitty looking shoes, you weren’t wearing the uniform.

Plus all this shit was super hard to get right?
I only got my first set of Nikes when someone went to the States and when he came back I looked a million bucks. My first pair of Vans came off a mate that had sent away for them, but by the time they came back his foot had grown and he couldn’t wear them, so I got them for $20! I was stoked, but he was spewing. I used to send off for mail order to get shoes, I still have all the documentation and letters they sent me.