The History of Skate Shoes

Sneaker Freaker has a few skateboard shoe features that have some great paraphernalia shots aside from just the skate shoes. Part one is with Tony Hallam who was a pro skater from New Zealand in the late 70’s and early 80’s and reportedly has one of the best skateboarding collections in the world. I made a note to highlight his website before, but it seems to be in a state of disarray right now. Here’s the link for when he gets it fully functional again. There’s some shorter interviews with the likes of Bruce Walker, Stacy Peralta and others hidden towards the end.

Part two is with Juergen and Daniel, the guys behind the Skateboard Fieber museum and the Made for Skate and Mags We Read traveling exhibits.

Also of interest, an interview with Steve Van Doren about the History of Vans, a company his father started after leaving the company that actually made the first skate shoe, the Randy 720’s seen above. (Those guys are way behind on my royalty checks.)

This is a s good a place as any to mention that the Nike owned Converse also has a skate division called CONS. If not Vans or Air Jordans, the other undeclared skate shoe was certainly the Chuck Taylor. And while were at it, since I don’t usually cover shoes or snowboarding, you can also get snowboard boots that look like space boot/ sneaker hybrids courtesy of Nike Snowboarding.

Assorted Sources: Skate Daily and Sleestak.