Archive for December, 2008
Skateboarder Mag is reporting a few more details on the upcoming addition to the Nike SB line, the Veloce.
According to the article the Veloce:
“comes with a sleek classic upper, clean forefoot and toe down and minimal layering that are still protected by a stitch and turn toe cap. The upper is slim and form fitting with embroidery and TPU details that match up nicely with the fast design lines. All this built on the same tooling as the Zoom Tre A.D. ensuring the tech side of the shoe is also covered. 2 colors will be launched this January with a follow-up in March.”
We’re not sure who wrote this description, but aside from the odd gramatical error it seems pretty legit. As for the shoe, it’s one we’ve seen a few samples of leading up to the launch. Overall we liked what we saw then and that hasn’t changed. White/red and black/white launch colorways seem a bit on the safe side, so maybe Nike is taking this one slow.
It’s that time of the year again, for the last time in 2008 no less! Not much change to report this month. Vans and Etnies have flip-flopped for the #3 & 4 spots, while Nike SB and DC still hold sizable leads over the rest of the competition. One other note is that we’ve started tracking Adio and DVS as single search terms (as opposed to “Adio Shoes” and “DVS Shoes”) which bumps them up fairly significantly but it’s probably a more accurate representation of where they stand. As always, these rankings are “not-so-scientific” so please take them with a helping of salt!
December 2008
- Nike SB (1.00)
- DC Shoes (.90)
- Vans Shoes (.66)
- Etnies (.59)
- Adio (.55)
- DVS (.52)
- Emerica (.25)
- Lakai (.22)
- Supra Shoes (.15)
- Globe Shoes (.12)
- Ipath (.11)
- Osiris Shoes (.08)
- Circa Shoes (.07)
- Fallen Shoes (.07)
The Wheat bares an obvious resemblance to the iconic Timberland Basic Boot, and will undoubtedly appeal to skaters and hip-hop heads alike. The Goldie on the other hand pulls out all the stops and will probably be snapped up by plenty of Ca$h Money Millionaires and maybe a few Drum n’ Bass fans.
Supra continues to straddle the fence between skateboarding and fashion/urban culture. They seem to be holding on to both sides fairly well at the moment, so kudos to them. But I’d also say enjoy it while it lasts. As we’ve seen in the past, if/when mainstream culture gets ahold of these Supra will be under a lot of pressure to widen their distribution channels. So when you start seeing them in Journeys and Footlocker, it’ll be too late to save ‘em…
Taking advantage of distribution channels, sharing customer service and warehousing costs, these are just a few of the reasons to umbrella brands. It’s no secret that the skateboarding industry (among many others) figured this out a long time ago. As it’s not always obvious who’s related to who, here’s a rundown of how skate footwear industry ownership breaks down. If a company isn’t listed it’s most likely private/self-owned:
Black Box Distribution – Fallen Footwear
Four Star Distribution* – C1RCA
Nike – Converse
One Distribution – Supra
Podium Distrubution – Lakai, DVS
Sole Technology – etnies, éS, Emerica
Timberland – Ipath
Tum Yeto – Dekline
VF – Vans, (many others brands)
*On July 15, 2004, Four Star sold off its snowboard properties (Forum, Special Blend, Jeenyus, and Foursqure) to Burton Snowboards and has become solely a skateboard footwear company,
Image courtesy of Mannequin
The line includes 3 styles, the Carnegie Pp, Tim Tim Pp, and Why-no Pp. All styles seem to be sporting the same vulcanized sole, with fairly similar uppers. We suppose the bland colors are to reduce the amount of dye that’s used during the manufacturing process (certain tanneries being some of the worst offenders when it comes to managing waste). But the amount of rubber in a fully vulcanized sole seems to be an interesting choice. Not sure if it’s coming from recycled tires or something like that…
It’s been a bit hard to find out any more information about these, so if anyone out there has the scoop, please drop us a line!
