January 3, 2013

Wonderful Horrible

'Gram by Ripped Laces.

There's this reaction: "The new balance skate shoes look like old man shoes from the future". I sort of agree, but not in a necessarily bad way; they're sort of rad and PJ Ladd is the first guy on the team...

Some Devil's advocacy to counter our amnesiac rejection of all things "corporate in skateboarding." New Balance is privately held, made in the USA and entering skateboarding through a well-established and well-respected distribution house. Not sure how much that first part matters, but the latter two details should count for something.

A good number of older dudes: Don't tell me you weren't chilling in a pair of New Balances within the last 15 years.

None of these details are proof of anything, but I'm getting to the point where my feet have been treated so rottenly over the years by a tons and tons of different shoes from different companies that I'm keeping an open mind.

Trivia: Is there precedence for one distributor to move two shoe companies with two different owners in skateboarding? I'm not going to think so hard on it so if the answer is obvious don't fault me.

Update: Maybe the whole line:

'Gram by Vern Laird

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm down. These look sick. Now Saucony needs to step up their skate game and get Puleo as their front man.

Templeton said...

Only 25% of New Balance shoes are made in America. I doubt our highly disposable skate shoes are coming from American factories. not that it really matters... 25% is better than the 0% any other shoe companies can claim.

http://newbalance.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5

Anonymous said...

I was at the HQ and realized everyone had 'big corporate' shoes. It bummed me out because it seems we lost something that's fundamental to skateboarding.

Anonymous said...

To Above^

I hope you're not just figuring this out now. Theses corpo fuck-tard capitalists have successfully weaseled their way into skating and have taken us all as a bunch of fools.

Vote with your dollars and if you want skating to be void of the Nike's, Con's, and NB's, then support shoe companies who have been invested in it(skateboarding) since the beginning. If you don't care, then don't complain when skating and skate culture is in the complete fuckin toilet cause we let these bastards walk all over us.
Don't let the rich keep getting richer. Let's stop greed in its fucking tracks and remind ourselves why most of us started skating in the first place.

-I'm Drunk

Badger - NAILED IT!! said...

New Balance has always been a "poor man's" Saucony. Plus, having PJ "Worst attitude in skateboarding" Ladd is not much of an incentive either.

Anonymous said...

Wait, isn't Saucony the poor man's New Balance? I guess that doesn't matter, but PJ Ladd is a dork and hasn't been relevant in my book since that video came out with his name in the title. NB is already losing the game. I heard Jake Johnson as another rumored rider? Thoughts? Does anyone care? Will they take away part of the market share from Nike? Will we start to see fewer kids wearing high water dickies, Janoski's and more kids wearing baggy track pants and some NB's?

-I'm Drunk

Wylie Tueting said...

I don't think they look so bad at all. Right -- the corporate influence is unfortunate, but the public is weary of such a point. If those shoes are anything as durable as the Nike SB Zoom Tre 2nd edition, then I'm there all the way.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the public is asleep at the wheel. Time to wake up. But, we should know better than this. And I'm hoping we do. I realize that today's skate twerps are easily persuaded into these corporate gimmicks,(having P-Rod and Koston on your team can go a long way) but apathy has come too far and the revolution needs to start now. Why give any of these corporate snobs any more reason to take what was once ours? Sure, "they" make durable shoes, and why shouldn't they, they have been making shoes longer than any skate shoe company. But have some pride and don't support them out of principle for what they really are. It's big money and they can easily buy in to anything they please. I like to believe that skateboarding was founded on the principle of being a creative, free thinking individual. Maybe I speak for myself but it used to be us vs. "them" (the popular kids, jocks, preppy kids, whatever) now we're all one of the same. The "McDonaldization" of society is here. Another subculture about to be swallowed whole.

-Drunk Baby

Wylie Tueting said...

Oh, you're just playin' the postmodern, antiglobalization, anticapitalist card, and we see your weak hand. This isn't the late 90s any longer: we can't all remain loyal to brands like Maple skateboards and Axiom shoes. There's a new song in town -- and it rings of quality before longevity. Just hang onto your Indy's . . . if that's the sort of thing that makes you feel . . . totally . . . manly

platinumseagulls said...

I love the semi-trollrific comment above and I love it when Chris Hedges comments on here under the alias of "Drunk Baby."

But seriously, if the involvement of certain companies in skateboarding and what other people choose to buy negatively affects your skateboarding experience, kills it, or whatever, that's a sorry experience. It reminds me of the conservative who buys into the idea that social change is a threat to "Real America." Both are fears of things that only affect the individual as much as one let's it, while inevitable all the same. I know it's trollrific on my part for making the comparison, but they stem from the same place.

Barring that line of thinking, where does a "real" skateboarder buy his or her stuff, what should they buy and by that line of thinking, hell, where should they use it?

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Kareen Canbell on Axiom?

spencer said...

haha dude Quarter Snacks KILLED it; "P.J. Ladd seems to be their first teamrider, but bringing in Larry David might’ve been more of a power move."

Wylie Tueting said...

Responding to the serious skate inquiry of Mike's from three posts up, I now got a serious answer. Dig this: as for where a "true" skateboarder should use their stuff, I don't think there can or should be any single constant answer, as most skateboarders skate at different locations depending on their geographical location in the world. But as for what a skateboarder should buy and where they should buy it, my answer is that IF the skater is twenty-one years of age or older -- they should buy their stuff depending on a number of mature factors, not least of which revolves around their income, how close they are to a skate shop, and how busy is their actual life; for instance, if you're a full-time student and trying to skate at least once a week (which I am), you don't always have the money nor the time to go to Familia or Cal Surf to buy shoes -- sometimes it has to be Ebay for convenience sake and the spot has to be the mall area at the U of M at 9:00 A.M. on a Sunday. When you're young you can spend all weekend thinking carefully about skate matters -- not when your older, and that's a rite of passage in itself. Much obliged,