Unfortunately key-brands of recent years didn’t have a booth, such as Nike, Converse, Etnies…as a result they won’t be covered in this recap. However, here are a few impressions as well as personal highlights of the companies that attended Bright. We will start with Habitat and HUF footwear, two younger companies that are able to claim a solid piece of the skateboard footwear cake for several seasons now. Check back for part II and III and more Fall 13 footwear of brands like adidas, Vans and Lakai later this week.

Habitat Footwear

Following the successful and aesthetically grown up skateboard department, Habitat footwear is cementing their existance with new silhouettes and – besides adidas – the best colorways in the business. Austyn Gillette will have a second pro model coexisting with his first vulcanised shoe, the AG, and the relatively new Kerry Getz signature shoe looks solid as well.

Overview at Habitat’s booth: many subtle earth-toned colorways.

The Habitat AG, Austyn Gillette’s 2nd signature style. The lacing is pushed far towards the heel, so the laces shouldn’t break. It features a very thin and flexible cupsole construction that should offer outstanding boardfeel. One of our favorite colorways of the trade show.

The Habitat Kerry Getz, a slim vulcanised style that features design DNA of his former signature models.

HUF footwear

Hand in hand with the very successful HUF apparel, the footwear division gains more and more momentum. The young company’s success is based on daring design that takes elements of classic silhouettes and mixes them up to something fresh, not just a blatant copy. An example is the reworked and improved Vans Old Skool sibling Southern with the leather patch that we reviewed. For Fall 2013, they will realease new colorways of models such as the Joey Pepper and will introduce the Peter Ramondetta signature style that features a unique toe box. They also keep pushing the lines with a hiking/running hybrid that apparently prebooked very well.

The Joey Pepper signature model in bordeaux and grey, well deserved Mr. Pepper!

The Peter Ramnodetta shoe that will be out in June or July 13. The toebox is pretty unique and an example for HUFs creative endeavors.

The HUF hiking/running hybrid, can you pull it off?

Other Highlights

Alien Workshop has besides Habitat – as always- awesome graphics lined up for 2013. Almost too precious to be skated, these belong on the wall.

For more behind the scenes pictures, the Nike SB 10 years exhibition opening as well as pictures of the “House of VANS” party, have a look at our Facebook page or follow us on Instagram (@weartested).

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VANS Stage 4:

One of the oldest -if not the oldest- skate shoe brands out there surprised after years of sticking to the classics with a technical but still subtle model. The Stage 4 features the new “wafflecup” sole, an almost one-piece upper and new sunken eyelets.

Converse KA1 vulcanised:

Cons has an equal approach as Vans: stick to the classics and keep it low-tech. Again, this brand tries something new in 2012 with a new vulcanised sole unit. Same pattern, different rubber mixture for more grip and a bright, baby-blue color. One of the first models to adopt it is the KA1 vulc, as seen in the picture (please excuse the bad quality…). Furthermore, the KA1, Kenny Andersons original model, has been redone and features an improved cupsole in fall 2012.

adidas Lucas Puig:

adidas skateboarding presented itself stronger than ever: bigger booth, classic as well as innovative models, nice colorways and always the best craftmanship. The highly anticipated Lukas Puig promodel didn’t dissapoint in person. I don’t want to reveal too many of the technical features right now, but it is light and thin, but still offers support…and the never-seen-before toebox design looks great and unique.

Lakai Marc:

Lakai didn’t disappoint either. It is one of the last true “core” skate shoe companies which has been brave enough to believe in cupsoles since years. Their unique and time-proven XLK sole unit spreads trough the whole collection now. The team loves it, so the models have it, it’s that simple. Many styles are offered in two options now, vulcanised or XLK-cupsole. Newest member of the XLK-family is the Pico. Pictured above is one of the few remaining, but still exciting vulc models, the “Marc”, which has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

Nike Blazer:

Picture: www.dunkbar.de

Nike will fuse the Nike SB and 6.0 programs into one in 2012. The first hints were already visible at Bright. Nevertheless, they overall impression of their booth was: they will continue to make very good skate shoes. Lunarlon, which has been introduced with the Koston 1, will spread into more and more models and the Blazer, one of the classics, got redone, too. It features now a toe stiching resembling the original Blazer design with the toe bumper, the vulc sole seems slightly thinner and ,one of the best features, the collar features now a very soft and stretchable, achilles tendon-friendly, heel panel, as seen in grey in the pictures (to the left).

Habitat Austyn Gilette:

Since no pictures leaked so far of this new model and since it is not an “everyday”-design, we will stick with a brief description of it for now. It features a sole unit similar to the Garcia and is overall boat-shoe inspired. At the same time it doesn’t look like a Janoski or another Vans Chukka low at all…a very unique design. It has 3 lace holes and the lacing is pushed far towards the heel, rounded up with a sidepannel design that reminds of the OG Emerica Johnson.

All in all skate shoe design is more brave again in 2012 compared to the last few years. Companies try again to be different, innovative and exciting, which we appreciate a lot.

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High quality PDF file: Habitat Quest review

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