Kevin and Rob have been requesting I do reviews for a long time, so here’s my first one. Now that it’s done I should add that I think the tightened wheelbase, lower truck height and the heavy hangers contributed to the flip trick struggles. Anyway, maybe I’ll do more as it seemed to at least make my friends laugh some.
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COMFORT
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BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL
This shoe might be the best vulcanized shoe on the market. It’s got a great shape with a wider toebox and lots of durability. There is a rubber internal toecap. The only two negatives I have to say about this shoe are that the sole goes bald kind of quick, however it still retains it’s grip so it doesn’t really matter. The other thing is it’s kind of a clumsy vulc. I think the internal toecap kinda takes away the flex in the front of the shoe. But really, the shoe is a good one. Really comfy, good durability and it breathes well.
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL
I’ve had a couple pairs of the Westgates now. They are a good shoe. This pair with the yellow sole did not grip or flick as well as the previous pair I had with a regular gum/white sole. This shoe is very comfortable though. I could skate longer than normal in them. The board feel isn’t as good as the 288S or 533v2. But it’s still decent. They have a good heelflip.
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL
I thought this shoe would be a dream shoe. Very minimal heel lift, decently wide toe box and very flexible. I have been wearing this shoe without an insole. Normally I wear size 12 in NB, but in this shoe I wear 11.5. I had size 12s of this shoe too, and they were huge so I would say it runs slightly large. Although I’m not wearing the insole so it’s probably true to size. The sole isn’t as durable as other NB# shoes like the 533, but it does flex. The board feel is kind of whatever in this shoe. The flexibility helps the board feel a lot, but the sole construction is some weird compound that kind of kills some board feel. I don’t really care for the sock liner, but it does fit well so whatever.
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
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Rating: OVERALL
The New Balance Numeric 379 is a slim vulcanized shoe with very little padding. It’s good for what it is, but my feet definitely wanted a little support. The shoe has a great flick. I feel like this herringbone tread pattern is not as grippy as the older vulcanized soles NB makes (255, 345). Anyway, a good simple shoe.
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL
For a few years now this has been one of my favorite shoes. I’ve probably skated a dozen pairs of the 212. My favorite thing about this shoe is the wide toebox. I also love how this is one of the few shoes that can hold up to my annoying razor toe. I rarely have to shoe goo my ollie/kickflip toe area. It’s so great. It’s a very steezy shoe, I like that they are making them now without the rubber toecap. The one negative about this shoe is it’s so incredibly thin that it normally starts to hurt my heel after awhile. So I don’t normally skate multiple pairs in a row. But overall I think this is one of the better shoes on the market. Especially if you rock the stock insole which adds some heel protection (currently I’m using Footprint Gamechangers).
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
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Rating: OVERALL
It’s been awhile since I’ve skated these, but I’m trying to catch up on my shoe reviews. As an older skater Tony Hawk has been a long time favorite. I was on a cupsole kick and these seemed right up my alley as they were quite flexible. I liked them for awhile, however the pointy toes got me and they started to become very uncomfortable. The heel is a little thicker than I desire in a shoe as well. Overall I’d say that this is probably a decent cupsole for most people (I just need a wider toebox that most). It’s a nice looking shoe that clearly reminds you of the old Airwalks Tony wore a lot. The packaging is really cool too. I used the box for my sticker collection.
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
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Rating: OVERALL
My first shoe review in awhile. The Adidas City Cup cupsole shoe.
This is one of those shoes that’s incredibly close to being perfect, but the negatives are quite bad. First the good. It’s one of the most comfortable shoes ever. Great shape, sole thickness, board feel, grip. There are really only two negatives, but as you can see they are huge. First is the durability. That toe piece wore out real quick and there is nothing under it. The other negative is there is quite a bit of heel lift. It’s not so bad on normal skating, but I found heelflips to be impossible in these shoes. So overall, if you don’t have razor toe like me and don’t do heelflips this might be a great shoe for you.
After work then a Crisis run I went to Broomfield park. It was pretty warm out, but the wind at times was intense. There was a crew of rippers there that I’ve never seen before. They were pretty quiet and all skating. So it made for an awkward warm up for me just totally sucking while they were ripping. They were doing tricks like back tail front 270 shove out on the tall brown ledge, kickflip back nosegrind, crooks shove the bigger hubba, switch manual fakie tre out. And here I was bailing ollies up the little blue ledge. I tried to skate though. It’s weird, it was a pretty lame session, but some things went alright. I pretty much did every trick I wanted to on the quartapotty first try. Just basics like disaster, front feeble, fakie pivot fakie, hurricane, but it was fun. Slappy crooks on the curb are always fun too. Flip tricks weren’t working, but I like to blame the wind for that. Ledge tricks weren’t really working either. I tried to do front 180 into the bank then halfcab noseslide, but the wind made it so awkward. Sometimes I’d be going too fast, other times the wind would stop me. I did a random backside ollie on the brick qp and it felt really cool. Boardslides on the bump to bar were fun. The wind kicked in even more and I left.
(setup 8.25″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es swift 1.5 grey size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL
This shoe almost completely rules. It’s got one of the best soles for a skate shoe that I’ve ever skated. This is the most important part of a skate shoe to me. Unfortunately the suede wears away really quickly and requires constant shoe goo attention. The little sprayed on coating around the toes does nothing. The shoe is comfortable and skates great.