Author Topic: The Lakai Pledge  (Read 126293 times)

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I Can't Think

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The Lakai Pledge
« on: July 30, 2012, 03:01:29 PM »
I heard on Slap that Lakai has changed factories and has since seriously improved the quality of their shoes, so I'm considering snagging a pair when I get the chance/cash. I'm currently skating either G-Codes or Kostons which are both amazing in their own right, but I'm curious if Lakai can match the quality. Also is their any way to tell the difference between old and new factory, from tags or markings?

pica

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2012, 03:11:52 PM »
honestly you'll notice it just by looking at the shoe, the bad batch looks terrible you can tell it just by looking at the stitching, glueing and the sole. if it looks like a blind man has put the shoe together it's probably old factory if it looks proper it's the new one.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2012, 03:16:00 PM by pica »

I Can't Think

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2012, 03:15:41 PM »
honestly you'll notice it just by looking at the shoe, the bad batch looks terrible you can tell it just by looking at the stitching, glueing and the sole. if it looks like a blind man on a pogo stick assembled the shoe it's old factory if it looks proper it's the new one.

It's really that noticeable huh, well that makes finding them much easier.

pica

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2012, 03:18:33 PM »
i don't know about tags or numbers on labels, but working at a shop i've seen the bad ones as well as the new ones and the difference is
obviously visible. the new ones are proper skate shoes and match the average quality of any legit shoe brand on the market.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2012, 03:22:06 PM by pica »

I Can't Think

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2012, 03:41:58 PM »
i don't know about tags or numbers on labels, but working at a shop i've seen the bad ones as well as the new ones and the difference is
obviously visible. the new ones are proper skate shoes and match the average quality of any legit shoe brand on the market.

Alright, I'll have to grab a pair then, because I won't be able to keep buying kostons.

chillout

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2012, 03:48:19 PM »
Expand Quote
i don't know about tags or numbers on labels, but working at a shop i've seen the bad ones as well as the new ones and the difference is
obviously visible. the new ones are proper skate shoes and match the average quality of any legit shoe brand on the market.
[close]

Alright, I'll have to grab a pair then, because I won't be able to keep buying kostons.

http://www.brickharbor.com/product/261495

ive been skating these for a month now.
they're similar to kostons but feel more sturdy and all around better in my opinion. but they take a little longer to break in.

I Can't Think

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2012, 04:02:28 PM »
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
i don't know about tags or numbers on labels, but working at a shop i've seen the bad ones as well as the new ones and the difference is
obviously visible. the new ones are proper skate shoes and match the average quality of any legit shoe brand on the market.
[close]

Alright, I'll have to grab a pair then, because I won't be able to keep buying kostons.
[close]

http://www.brickharbor.com/product/261495

ive been skating these for a month now.
they're similar to kostons but feel more sturdy and all around better in my opinion. but they take a little longer to break in.

Those look fresh, and I have no issue breaking shoes in, especially if they can out skate the kostons. I can just walk around with them for a day and they're good. I'll have to goto the local shop and see what Lakai's they've got.

Nick..

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2012, 04:11:36 PM »
I like my Nike's and Adidas' too much.

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2012, 06:36:16 PM »
Those Rick Howard shoes are really good, as are the pico xlks. Any xlk cup or even lakai cup right now is super good. They are kinda stiff at first but break in nicely. I'm breaking in the picos as we speak

jeveuxdelacoke

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2012, 06:59:47 PM »
I like my Nike's and Adidas' too much.
Blasphemy!

professional

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2012, 07:34:33 PM »
Those Rick Howard shoes are really good, as are the pico xlks. Any xlk cup or even lakai cup right now is super good. They are kinda stiff at first but break in nicely. I'm breaking in the picos as we speak

Backing the new Pico XLK. After a day of skating it feels like you've been wearing the shoe for weeks(in a good way).

professional

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2012, 07:41:43 PM »
XLK sole is true size^

HASHTAG

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #12 on: July 31, 2012, 10:35:20 AM »
You should definitely try some Lakai's out, I'm only skating the Lakai Carlo these days. Really good shoes, break in really fast and they don't rip too fast.

Kind of look like Janoskis but thicker.

Check em out
#HASHTAG

mini greek

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #13 on: July 31, 2012, 01:34:49 PM »
You guys would be surprised at how often shoe companies change factory's.  There are literally millions of shoe factories in Asia and companies are always looking to get the best product at the cheapest price, so factories will bid on their business, and the shoe company will pick the best fit.  The problems come in when factories represent themselves at a certain level of competency, and then when it's time to produce those shoes, it's a whole different story.  These shady factories will send the uppers to random stitching houses and then have them assembled with outsoles at another shifty factory, and the next thing you know, a whole years worth of footwear is fucked.  The only places this doesn't really happen is with Nike/Adidas/Sporting Goods CompanyX, because they generally own or are financially invested in their factories.
Get litty.....

Frank

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2012, 01:53:10 PM »
i don't know about tags or numbers on labels, but working at a shop i've seen the bad ones as well as the new ones and the difference is
obviously visible. the new ones are proper skate shoes and match the average quality of any legit shoe brand on the market.

i second that. the old batches had problems like non-fitting insoles, shitty or just plain wrong stitching and many more. it was never the whole lot that was affected, but often certain sizes would seem shittier, like all the 11s of every model almost looked fake compared to the other ones.

also, the belmont for example had three or so different types of seaming on the toebox: one with a strip of nubuk covering the stitching(on the nubuck model, i did one ollie and already had a nice hole). then inverted stitching on another one and also one belmont with a one piece toebox where it?s just decoration.

the newer ones look really good, though. i didn't skate one of them yet, but a friend skated lindens and loved those.

dankradschwag

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #15 on: July 31, 2012, 03:25:30 PM »
i've had some carlo's since april, they've held up real well although i havent skated in like seven weeks due to a bummed ankle

I Can't Think

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #16 on: July 31, 2012, 04:30:02 PM »
You should definitely try some Lakai's out, I'm only skating the Lakai Carlo these days. Really good shoes, break in really fast and they don't rip too fast.

Kind of look like Janoskis but thicker.

Check em out

I actually tried on a pair of carlo's a while ago, they were incredibly comfy and I loved they look. The only reason I didn't pick them up was  because of my previous negative experiences with lakai. I'm probably gonna order a pair and toss in my lunarlon insoles... Mmmmmmmm


You guys would be surprised at how often shoe companies change factory's.  There are literally millions of shoe factories in Asia and companies are always looking to get the best product at the cheapest price, so factories will bid on their business, and the shoe company will pick the best fit.  The problems come in when factories represent themselves at a certain level of competency, and then when it's time to produce those shoes, it's a whole different story.  These shady factories will send the uppers to random stitching houses and then have them assembled with outsoles at another shifty factory, and the next thing you know, a whole years worth of footwear is fucked.  The only places this doesn't really happen is with Nike/Adidas/Sporting Goods CompanyX, because they generally own or are financially invested in their factories.

This would explain the generally consistent quality I've seen with Nike then, didn't know changes were that frequent but it explains a ton.

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #17 on: July 31, 2012, 04:57:58 PM »
As far as i know they changed from factories in China to one in Korea, so the better ones are korean made. Should be written on the tag I guess. Can anybody confirm?
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pica

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #18 on: July 31, 2012, 05:05:59 PM »
Expand Quote
You should definitely try some Lakai's out, I'm only skating the Lakai Carlo these days. Really good shoes, break in really fast and they don't rip too fast.

Kind of look like Janoskis but thicker.

Check em out
[close]

I actually tried on a pair of carlo's a while ago, they were incredibly comfy and I loved they look. The only reason I didn't pick them up was  because of my previous negative experiences with lakai. I'm probably gonna order a pair and toss in my lunarlon insoles... Mmmmmmmm


Expand Quote
You guys would be surprised at how often shoe companies change factory's.  There are literally millions of shoe factories in Asia and companies are always looking to get the best product at the cheapest price, so factories will bid on their business, and the shoe company will pick the best fit.  The problems come in when factories represent themselves at a certain level of competency, and then when it's time to produce those shoes, it's a whole different story.  These shady factories will send the uppers to random stitching houses and then have them assembled with outsoles at another shifty factory, and the next thing you know, a whole years worth of footwear is fucked.  The only places this doesn't really happen is with Nike/Adidas/Sporting Goods CompanyX, because they generally own or are financially invested in their factories.
[close]

This would explain the generally consistent quality I've seen with Nike then, didn't know changes were that frequent but it explains a ton.
nike had some troubles with a couple of bad janoski batches as well, leather ripping after two sessions and stuff. so if the factorys don't fuck it up the companies that deliver the materials still can.

I Can't Think

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #19 on: July 31, 2012, 05:21:59 PM »
As far as i know they changed from factories in China to one in Korea, so the better ones are korean made. Should be written on the tag I guess. Can anybody confirm?

Hopefully that's correct because that will make weeding out the crap much easier.

nike had some troubles with a couple of bad janoski batches as well, leather ripping after two sessions and stuff. so if the factorys don't fuck it up the companies that deliver the materials still can.

I remember reading that, there was supposedly a conspiracy thing that nike was cutting corners on the Janoskis so people would move to the team edition shoe so nike would get more money

Alan

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #20 on: July 31, 2012, 05:28:00 PM »
I actually wrote them to complain about the quality of their shoes, got no reply. Thanks, Lakai!
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Randozzi

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #21 on: July 31, 2012, 05:39:38 PM »
Recently or when they were Podium?

I Can't Think

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #22 on: July 31, 2012, 06:24:57 PM »
Recently or when they were Podium?

I'm not sure, the last lakai's I got were the xlk manchesters in the vince colorway and I was able to create a hole 10 kickflips in so perhaps after whatever season that was they began improving things.

Randozzi

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #23 on: July 31, 2012, 06:30:54 PM »
Weird, I had a few pairs of those and never had a problem.
Might have been right around the switch over.

Nick..

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #24 on: August 02, 2012, 08:05:38 AM »
Expand Quote
I like my Nike's and Adidas' too much.
[close]
Blasphemy!
False, I loved every single pair of Nike's or Adidas' that I owned.

Cosme

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #25 on: August 02, 2012, 11:42:31 AM »
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
I like my Nike's and Adidas' too much.
[close]
Blasphemy!
[close]
False, I loved every single pair of Nike's or Adidas' that I owned.

Then... What are you doing here...?
Haven't you heard about those other two threads 'Post UPCOMING Nike releases thread' & 'Post the Nikes you're wearing'...?
Take your devious propaganda where it belongs... Oh, and fuck school, for that matter!

Just joking...  ;D


Ripped Laces posted new Marc's and an interesting new model called Griffin:





I Can't Think

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #26 on: August 02, 2012, 12:42:45 PM »
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
I like my Nike's and Adidas' too much.
[close]
Blasphemy!
[close]
False, I loved every single pair of Nike's or Adidas' that I owned.
[close]

Then... What are you doing here...?
Haven't you heard about those other two threads 'Post UPCOMING Nike releases thread' & 'Post the Nikes you're wearing'...?
Take your devious propaganda where it belongs... Oh, and fuck school, for that matter!

Just joking...  ;D


Ripped Laces posted new Marc's and an interesting new model called Griffin:






Wow, those look quality, I'm really digging the Griffin, what makes it special? Looks like a standard "simple shoe" to me.

sleepypancakes

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #27 on: August 02, 2012, 01:23:07 PM »
It's a really simple shoe, it's got marc's name on it, and hopefully should skate like a champ. Not much else to that one

Frank

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #28 on: August 03, 2012, 01:45:15 PM »
As far as i know they changed from factories in China to one in Korea, so the better ones are korean made. Should be written on the tag I guess. Can anybody confirm?

yes, i looked it up and the tag says korea. even the boxes have a better design now, ha ha.

micky682

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Re: The Lakai Pledge
« Reply #29 on: August 03, 2012, 03:22:10 PM »
Anybody skate the Belmont XLK, how is the sizing, do they run big, small, or true to size?