Sizing

The Low and Mid Emerica Westgates both fit true to size.

Durability

The simple design of a one-piece toe cap in both Westgate models is not only a critical design feature, but it also proves it’s practicality; there are absolutely no seams and overlapping materials and thus, there is hardly any space for abrasion by griptape. The only thing in direct contact with griptape is the suede itself. We didn’t see any critical wear during our 10h test in the lateral area, however, there were first signs of a hole developing in the kickflip area. Emerica prevents this case by having an additional supporting layer under the suede which not only helps to improve durability but also maintains the stability of the shoe’s form, so there were hardly any waves in the long suede toe cap area. The whole sole of the Westgate CC made a solid impression as well; the sole pattern stayed grippy and had zero worn out spots. All in all, the durability of the Westgate is very good.

Cushioning

The Westgate CC is a cupsole model and the Westgate Mid Vulc has a vulcanized sole construction. For the Westgate CC, the G6 cupsole adds not only overall durability but also has a well balanced cushioning effect. Emerica uses a foam midsole with a considerably thicker heel area compared to the toe area. Also, the insole adds a lot more comfort to the shoe. The thin cupsole can cushion average impacts up to a certain extent, however, the foam midsole is too thin to cushion harder impacts. To sum up, the cushioning of the Westgate CC is average for a cupsole model. The Westgate Mid Vulc with its vulcanized sole, also a limited cushioning effect, however, when it comes to boardfeel and grip the advantages of a vulcanized sole shine brighter.

Shape

Both Emerica Westgate models feature a rather wide silhouette in the midfoot area and a very slim and pointy silhouette in the toe cap area. Also, the heel area is very slim cut which comes with the benefit of a very tight and secure fit. The Westage Mid Vulc is especially unique because its mid construction has can protect the ankles extremely well while also maintaining a very slim shape. Since both Westgates have the same teo cap area it can be concluded that the slim shape combined with a simple suede one-piece toe cap provides a good flick.

Boardfeel and grip

The cupsole construction of the Westgate CC provides good boardfeel due to a direct contact with the board. The sole is very flexible and molds to the concave; Emerica has developed a great balance here. As a result, the flexibility of the sole inadvertently improves the grip, and features nearly vulc-like grip. The amazing durability of the bottom thread makes sure that the grip stays good throughout the whole lifespan of the model. The vulcanized sole construction of the Westgate Mid Vulc has its grip and boardfeel advantages due to a slim and low construction ensuring a close contact to the board.

Comfort and stability

Emerica found a way to make skate shoes very comfortable for skaters. Upon first impression, the Westgates will wow the skater. Both sole constructions provide a comforting mattress feel for your feet with a clear shape and secure lock. Breathability is made possible due to the mesh on the tongue and medial sidewalls. Moreover, the tongue is held in place by two neoprene material-like straps that work to lock in your foot.

The really soft and slim construction of the Westgate CC around the heel and ankle area prevents the danger of heel-slipping and maintains a close fit even if you have rather slim feet. The Westgate Mid Vulc has an even higher ankle support with excellent heel lock. Both shoes have a very good stable form, which helps keep its shape really well.

Summary

The Westgate CC and Westgate Mid Vulc are both durable skate shoes that score major points when it comes to comfort and stability, but do have minor weaknesses when it comes down to cushioning hard impacts.

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The newest addition to this program is the Supra Ellington Vulc. While Erik Ellington’s regular pro-model is a athletic inspired cupsole, its designer took a rather blunt approach with this model: simply cutting off the cupsole and adding the Supra Cubas vulc sole. A rather interesting approach, and quite fitting for Ellington’s approach to skateboarding itself. But when it comes down to it, how does this modular concept actually skate? Lets find out.

Sizing

The Supra Ellington Vulc fits true to size, but a bit wider than most shoes. It’s best to try them on at your local skateshop first.

Durability

The Ellington Vulc follows suit with modern design-standards and features a one-piece toecap, with the thicker vulc sole offering some extra protection from griptape. Thanks to this design, most of the flick-abrasion didnt rip the usually occuring hole in the toecap but instead happened at the rather thick vulc portion of the outsole. Also, a little plastic layer under the toecap itself offered extra durability. Laces were well protected, no sign of wearing out here. However, with the mid-top design, the upper laces took some abuse and the shoelaces fraying was a bit more noticeable. If you laced them all the way to the top, theres a higher chance that the laces will rip there. The sole itself held up surprisingly good, especially since it was really soft (we expected a mid-top to be much stiffer) and grippy. Previous Supra model’s vulc soles go bald much faster, but their grippiness lasted til the end. One thing that might lead to some problems later on was that the mesh inside the heel area started to rip, which could lead to some pressure sores later on. Overall, durability was better than expected for such a rather soft vulc shoe.

Cushioning

The Supra Ellington Vulc features a rather simple sole construction, without any major cushioning technology. It protects you from weak impacts, but jumping down 15 stairs clearly wasnt the main intention of this shoe. The Suprafoam footbed kept its shape and did its job fine, but still, major impacts will be felt when skating this shoe (you might wanna check out the cupsole model for those giant stairs).

Shape

The Ellington features a classic shape, maybe a little bit wider than some shoes on the market. The shape of the toe-area makes controlling flip-tricks easy, even though it might take some flips to getting used to flicking with the sole instead of the actual toebox. But after a few flips you wont notice it anymore.

Boardfeel and grip

Boardfeel and grip, these are clearly the prime features of the Ellington Vulc. The flex of this shoe is much softer than expected for a midtop-model. This, in combination with the really grippy sole makes sure that the shoe molds perfectly to the shape of your board. The grip didnt take any break-in time and stayed pretty consistently grippy all throughout our testing time of 10h.

Comfort and stability

As already mentioned, the Supra Ellington Vulc features a rather soft construction. Maybe even a little too soft for a mid-top. Towards the end of our 10h test, the shoe didn’t lose its shape but started to get a bit too soft. This might be a problem if you have really slim feet. It seems that the upper, whose original design was to be supported by a cupsole, lacks a little support when comined with the super-soft Cuba vulc sole construction. This might be annoying, especially when jumping down bigger stuff. Stability also suffers a little due to this super soft design. The strangest part is that sometimes it kind of feels like your heel slips, even though it doesnt. With that said, that may be due to not lacing the shoe all the way to the top. It seems exactly like what is promised: simply combining 2 shoes into one without changing or adapting anything. We would have suggested to improve stability of the upper.

Summary

The Supra Ellington Vulc is a soft mid-top vulc shoe; strengths when it comes to boardfeel and grip, but could use a bit more stability. We suggest this shoe for low-impact skating, especially if you have a little wider feet.

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Sizing

The Etnies Marana Vulc fits slightly bigger than average shoes, we suggest trying it on at your local skateshop before purchasing.

Durability

The Etnies Marana Vulc features a recently popularized shoe technology; a rubber coating around the toecap. This greatly improves durability in this area, even though there was still visible wear during our 10h test. The sidewalls lived up to our expectations as well. The lateral part of the sole is protecting the suede whilst conserving the amazing flick. Moreover, the sidewalls don’t offer any seams that could tear. Even the Etnies logo is printed on. The only visible weak spot is the mesh material around the heel area, which tore rather quickly.

Cushioning

As shown in the cross-section, the Etnies Marana Vulc features a slim sole and a foam insole. The insole is constructed of STI Evolution Foam, a really lightweight material. This provides enough cushioning without sacrificing boardfeel, especially for below average impact skating.

Shape

Compared to other vulcanized models, the Marana Vulc is shaped rather wide. Even though padding in the tongue and heel area kept the shoe in place, we wouldn’t recommend this shoe for those with slimmer feet. For those with wider feet, the shoe ends in a pointy toe to help you control your flips.

Boardfeel and grip

The Marana Vulc focuses on boardfeel and grip. The already mentioned thin sole construction provides great boardfeel with direct contact between grip and board, even when skated straight out of the box. Grip is balanced really well, too. The flexible sole and the deep sole pattern did their part; grip did not decrease throughout our whole testing period.

Comfort and stability

Overall, the Etnies Marana Vulc is comfortable. The lack of seams on the inside makes sure no annoying pressure marks are possible. But the rather wide cut leaves lots of space in the general heel area, which leads to the need of lacing the shoe rather tightly. Weight and ventilation are below average, mostly because there is hardly any chance for humidity to get out the vulcanized sole is rather heavy. Stability is satisfactory, especially due to a stiffening plastic element in the heel. Overall shape stability is fair, the only part of the shoe that showed significant changes after our 10 H test was the opening of the shoe, which got a little wider.

 Summary

The Etnies Marana Vulc is a good vulcanized skate shoe. Grip and boardfeel are the major keypoints here, whilst cushioning and shape are a little off. If you have rather wide feet and are having a hard time finding a well-fit vulc model, this model’s made for you.

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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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The KA-One fits true to size compared with other Converse models and about half a size bigger than other brands.

High Quality PDF file: Converse KA-One review

Also check out the teaser clip

Durability

The Converse KA-One proved to be a durable model for many reasons. The new, truly one-piece toebox, which lacks the extra panel in the front and only features decorative stitching, is one of them. On one hand, it doesn’t feature an extra layer in the kickflip region anymore, which is a flaw, but on the other, it doesn’t have any components to come apart and the toe doesn’t offer any easy points of attack.

The sleek and additionally sturdy upper generally doesn’t offer the griptape any areas where a tear-apart process could start. This, in combination with the new, compressed suede upper of this colorway, which seems to be less sensitive to wear, meant the abrasion after the test duration of 10 hours was minimal. At the same time, it offers a bigger surface because of its microstructure, which results in better grip and flick.

Furthermore, the sole durability is great. The pattern is only of medium depth, but still, more than half of its initial depth was left after the test, even in regions with high wear. Keeping in mind that the side area of the sole is not very high, and the edges at the connection of upper and sole were still intact in many areas, the Cons KA-One sole unit handled the griptape abuse very well.

Cushion

The overall sole construction focuses more on great boardfeel than on dampening abilities.

The thin, removable insole is only able to cushion smaller impacts and the additional thickness of the sole unit in the heel area is also limited regarding distributing and absorbing forces. Overall – although it’s a cupsole – the KA-One is more suited for low-impact skating. After all, the good boardfeel comes at a price, which is less cushioning in this case.

Breathability

Converse and Kenny definitely put some effort into incorporating better breathability than most other skate shoes offer. The KA1 features a part-mesh tongue and ventilation holes on both sidewalls in the area of the logo and on the toebox. Unfortunately, the perforations are only punched into the outer layer, not the inner material, which is not as effective. Additionally, there are two metal eyelets on the inside sidewall that improve the breathability further. All in all, the model allows good airflow for a skate shoe.

Grip

Kenny’s cupsole pro model can’t entirely compete with vulc shoes regarding grip. Still, the soft and flexible sole causes enough friction to anchor the feet securely and fulfills today’s expectations of cupsole skate shoes.

The grip benefits from the updated sole unit that adapts well to the concave, causing a maximum contact area between shoe and deck. All in all, the sole unit balances to offer both great durability and moderate grip.

Shape

The soccer-inspired silhouette of the KA1 features an arrow-shaped toebox with a slightly dull peak. It offers good flick and fliptricks are easy to control. Towards the middle and heel, it noticeably widens, which seems to positively affect the stability due to a larger area to land on. Overall, it features minimal padding and fits very close to the foot.

Boardfeel

The thin insole has a positive effect on the boardfeel. The minimal amount of material between foot and deck in the front allows for good to very good boardfeel, especially for a cupsole. The increased flexibility of the sole unit contributes further to the direct contact. In conclusion, the KA1’s boardfeel can compete with most vulc soles.

Comfort

The KA-One is another model that proves that thin padding doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. Furthermore, the lack of tongue-centering straps, in combination with good craftsmanship and flat stitching on the inside, ensures comfort while they are worn and skated in. A disadvantage is the flat and thin removable insole. A more ergonomical shape, with a noticeable arch support, would be an improvement. The sole unit doesn’t require any wear-in time, it is ready out of the box, which is due to the flexibility of the sole. Still, some initial wear-in time is recommended. This way the feet will accustom to the rounded collar in the area of the Achilles tendon and friction will be prevented.

Support

Thin cupsole models tend to offer many advantages over vulcanized models, but often it also means reduced support, which is normally one of the strengths of classic cupsole models. This is not the case with the Converse KA-One. It features sturdy sidewalls due to the material choice of pressed suede and its construction. In addition, the plastic reinforcement in the heel helps create a supportive collar that offers a secure feeling. The medium-high cut around the ankles gives extra support to the foot  . With these features, expectations of a cupsole regarding stability and support are definitely met in the case of the KA-One.

KA-One vulc

At the same time as the improved cupsole version, Converse introduced a “sibling”-model with a vulcanized sole, the KA-One vulc.

On first sight, both styles look very similar. A closer inspection, however, reveals that the vulcanized one is a lot slimmer overall, more arrow shaped and, especially in the toebox area, a lot narrower, which offers outstanding flick. As a result, people with wider feet should try them in person before buying and when in doubt, opt for the cupsole, which has an overall wider silhouette. Apart from that, they fit the same.

The vulcanized sibling features superior boardfeel that is – typical for Converse vulc – as close to the ground as still bearable. It is easily possible to feel the threat pattern while walking. In return, a disadvantage is a further reduction of cushioning, an area where the cupsole is better equipped. Also regarding stability and support, the classic KA-One brings more to the table than the vulcanized version.

A Cons-exclusive feature is a new vulcanized sole mixture, advertised as “engineered for skateboarding”. The bright light blue color is easy to spot and in fact really offers very good grip with the typical stickiness vulc soles provide. However, whether this remains the case with wear and over the total lifespan can not entirely be foreseen, but the first impression is very good.

The durability of the KA-One vulc’s upper is similar to the cupsole version because of the shared upper design. The white sidepart of the sole does appear to wear out faster than the cupsole version, though, since it’s vulcanized. As a result, the cupsole has a slight advantage regarding durability.

Summary

The Converse KA-One is a thin, cupsole model focusing on good boardfeel and durability. It features above average breathability, medium grip and is quite supportive.

The KA-One vulc features many similarities with the cupsole version, but lacks cushioning and some stability and durability in comparison. This is compensated for, though, with very good grip and even better boardfeel.

If you attach very high importance to grip and boardfeel and overall appreciate a slim and very thin skate shoe, the vulcanized KA-One is recommended. If you prefer a longer lasting, more sturdy and supportive model, go with the improved KA-One cupsole version.

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High Quality PDF: REVIEW_HABITAT_GARCIA

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High quality PDF file: ODW Gravis Viking high vulc

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Concerning future projects I’ll hopefully be able to reveal some information in about two weeks, be patient, it will be worth it …

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