Lakai

As always, the design team led by Scott Johnston has come up with great ideas and designs for 2014 such as a new Marc Johnson shoe. The model is very simple which is exactly what Marc Johnson seems to like about footwear. In addition with the Madrid comes a rather technical model that features Lakai’s XLK cupsole. The lateral and heel area is made out of air-permeable material and has a welded flare.

Adidas

Adidas, like every year, presented very appealing and stylish new colorways of known models such as the just-released Silas SLR and the very popular Busenitz vulc. One of adidas Skateboarding’s highlights at the tradeshow proved to be the ZX vulc. The model is inspired by the ZX running shoe series from the 80s and has now been adapted and reformed to skateboarding needs. In addition to the shoe models, the adidas booth offered a wide range of  clothing to be released throughout the year such as jackets, T-shirts and shirts.

Supra

Supra showcased established models such as the Ellington in, for Supra’s standards, rather modest colors. A focus next year is on the Terry Kennedy Pro model, the Stacks and Stacks vulc. We have already looked at the Stacks vulc in more detail and you’ll be able to read the result soon on weartested.

Dekline

Dekline is known for their plain and simple designs. Up until now, they were almost exclusively defined by vulcanized soles and narrow, shallow cuts. Now Dekline has  followed the trend towards cupsole models and brings to the table a model that stands out from their usual collection, the Dalton.

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Supra

With probably the longest shelves and a shoe for everybody, Supra’s booth generated a lot of traffic. besides the recent releases of 2012 in updated colorways, they introduced a vulcanised version of the “Stacks”, Terry Kennedy’s pro model. The “Hammer”, that will be released in the following weeks was shown in new colorways, too and seems to sell quite good.

The new, vulc-soled Stacks.

The Hammer, Jim Greco’s signature style and inspired by a cut-down Skytop 3.

Lakai

With subjectively the most new models on the shelfs, Lakai definitely impressed. A new Guy Mariano, the first Vincent Alvarez, a Rick Howard boot in smooth brown and anthracite suede as well as the Quite Life capsule collection, there was something for everybody.

The newest Guy Mariano model that successfully combines a clean toebox and sophisticated lines with vintage running elements in the heel area.

The Vincent Alvarez signature style, well deserved and somehow brings back Lakai Manchester memories.

The Rick Howard/Fourstar collab boot was very well received according to the Lakai rep.

Lakai overview

adidas

Mark Gonzales is celebrating 15 years with adidas in 2013 and receives an expanded capsule collection including two new signature styles. Besides that, the Seeley is getting a color treatment by the adidas pros and the pro models of Dennis Busenitz, Silas Baxter Neal and Lucas Puig were presented in great new colorways for fall 2013. Adidas’ apparel offerings get broader and better with every season as well, especially many pieces of the Silas Baxter Neal range stood out.

Three columns, three team riders. Adidas presents great colorways every season, including fall 13.

The Mark Gonzales collection, at least parts of it.

The Adi Ease by Nestor Judkins, his third (?) colorway of the model and always a favorite one.

Other highlights

Praxis footwear had a tiny but stacked booth including an all rubber shoe, definitely an eye-catcher.

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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High Quality PDF file: adidas Ronan review

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Adidas Busenitz Pro

The first pro model of Adidas Skateboarding was maybe one of the most successful shoes of 2009. The soccer inspired style with the characteristic long tongue set a new standard and showed that a cupsole can offer as much boardfeel as a vulc sole while being way more comfortable. Remarkable is that Adidas completely trusted Dennis Busenitz’ taste and released the shoe with the soccer tongue, something that has never been seen on a skate shoe before. The not so usual soccer/skate shoe crossover design combined with excellent performance and great colorways makes this one of my favorites of 2009.

Nike SB Janoski

The second pro to ever get his own model on Nike SB was Stefan Janoski. On first sight it looks like another chukka low inspired shoe that virtually every brand has in his collection right now. The difference that  got the Janoski on this list is the great construction. This shoe manages to be one of the thinnest skate shoes ever produced but it is still offering enough support and cushioning, a balancing act that no other model on the market right now does as well as this one. The fact that almost every skater supported by Nike SB wears them since they released in May 2009 just underlines how well these skate.

Emerica Reynolds Cruisers

Like the Vans Chukka low the Vans Era is one of the most copied silhouettes right now. Most companies on the skate shoe market have a model that looks more or less like the Era, but Emerica is one of the few ones that actually improved the performance of the Classic. I own both models, the Vans Era and the Emerica Cruisers and there’s no doubt which I would chose to skate in. The lighter and because of the Soletech insole way better cushioned Reynolds Cruiser manages to be better than the original while most other Era inspired models are just average vulc shoes with weak support.

Honorable mention: Gravis Dylan Rieder low

One of the most controversal skate shoe releases of 2009 was without a doubt the Gravis Ivsk8 Dylan low. Described as “ballet slippers” to “most comfortable shoes ever” the completely new design attempts at Gravis turned heads wherever they appeared. They might not be the best performing skate shoes if you have a realistic look at it, but it’s nice to see that some companies aren’t afraid of going new ways, which definitely should be rewarded in a year where exchangeable skate shoe designs where the standard.

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High quality PDF version: Adidas Busenitz Pro Review

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Thanks to the German “Sneakers Magazine” and Jascha Muller, the Global
Sports Marketing Manager of Adidas, I’m able to test a pair before the actual release in July.

I received the shoes yesterday and what can I say…they are amazing! Design, the used materials, the fit … all is on point! The finished review will be published in #3 of  ” Sneakers Magazine” as part of their skate shoe special in that issue. It will be for sale around the end of June. Since the review will be in German, all English speaking readers must wait a bit longer, but I’ll definitely post a translated version here on weartested as soon as I can.

Unfortunately I’m not allowed to post pics yet, for those who haven’t seen them yet here’s a picture from CrookedTongues.com:

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