Choosing Skateboarding Shoes

Video Transcript

"Choosing the right skateboard shoes, choosing the right shoes seem like it will be easy to pick out whatever style looks good but shoes are actually very different depending on which brand that you end up buying and the design of different shoes varies a lot. The different compounds that are used in the shoe or the rubber that the sole is made out of or even whether you choose leather, canvas or rubber type of shoes all make a difference with the feeling that you can feel the board and the feeling of your board sliding against the grip tape. Now, I have a couple different examples here of different types of shoes. Now, we have the classic slip on Vans which don't have laces on them and have a vulcanized type of sole rubber and vulcanized means that the rubber is melted on. Now, Vans aren't made in the USA anymore but when they were they were totally vulcanized. So, these are just almost base on vulcanized style. Now, this is probably the thinnest example of a skate shoe that you can find. Now, if you were to skate in these shoes, you probably wear an ollie hole through them very quickly since they only made of canvas and that's about it and since the sole is a pretty thin one. You also would notice that if you started jumping off something big with your skateboard ollying down big sets of stairs that your heels and your feet would start to hurt pretty fast because they're so thin and there's not much support. So, these are good shoes for skating around in but not doing too many ollies maybe just cuisine, pushing and being able to feel your board. Now, the next thickness I have here are these regular high top Vans shoes. Now, these have the vulcanized sole and the gum sole bottom that's really sticky against grip tape. Now, the sole of a pair of shoes is very important the way that it reacts against the grip tape. Now, you can feel it and feel if it's soft or not. If it's too hard, it's probably going to slide across grip tape and not give you any kind of stick to the board. Now, these are probably the next level of thickness because they're given a little bit of a thicker tongue so in case the board hits the top of your foot and you'll notice that there's a good suede here with double stitched, stitching here so that it can withstand ollying for a while. Now these won't last a long time but these will definitely last longer than the slip-ons. Now, the next grade we have is these Lakais. Now, these are somewhere in the middle. They have a thin sole but you'll notice that they don't have as many parts to the side or as many connections. So, they work better and they're harder to ollie through. Now, you'll notice these have a softer leather to them. So, this material grabs on to grip tape very well for flip tricks and ollies. You'll also notice that it's triple stitched. So, the stitching will last for a long time. Now, this shoe is a Nike and you'll notice that it's much thicker than all the other shoes and it has lots of layers. Now, these shoes might last the longest but what you're loosing with a thick pair of shoes is you won't be able feel the board as well. Now, they may last longer but you'll notice that you're not able to cup your foot on the edge of the board with such a hard shoe. You'll notice with a thinner shoe, you may be able to feel the board by bending your toes a little bit more. So, you'll notice also that the thick tongue on the top of the shoe creates a totally different look while you're looking down at the shoe. Whereas the other shoe looking down at it is much narrower. So, it all depends on the style of shoe that you want and how it ends up performing. Some of the other things to take in consideration when picking out a shoe is the laces that it has and how fast they'll end up wearing out. A lot of skate shoes come with a second set of laces because when you ollie on the side of your shoe usually this lace right here and sometimes this lace right here will end up wearing out. So, you want to choose a pair of shoes sometimes that has a space behind it so that you can loop the lace through and hide it and allow for this piece of material to cover up the lace and protect it. So, that's another thing when you're picking out a shoe. Now, all of these things have to do with individual taste and the type of skateboarding that you're going. A thick shoe like this might be good for jumping down big stuff because it has a lot of support to it. So, that's one of things that can help but when you're choosing a skate shoe, the most important thing to do is make sure that your shoe fits. Make sure that it's not too small or too big. If you have too big of a shoe, your foot will side around inside and it won't feel right and if you have too tight of a shoe, you'll probably end up hurting your feet and cramping your toes and probably hurting your ankles or your back in the process. So, when it comes to picking shoes, it's very important and this is how you properly pick out skate shoes."