haha i remember this, the original samples were absolutely terrible haha.
when they released most skaters were hating on them too. the people that actually liked them were the people who didnt skates haha. really a changing point in skateboarding where there was a shift from core-skate brands (baker, es, emerica, flip, girl, lakai, blah blah blah) to an acceptance of the corp brands nike and adidas.
id say a good reason is the design it was actually a great one for skateboarding. nikes and adidas do have generations of experience making shoes over skate brands. also there was a shift in the actual progression of skateboarding at the time. shoes were really just getting out of that adios, circa, dc, moon boot phase, at the time skateboarding became less about handrail chomping and stair counting, and more about speed and fluidity.
also core brands made huge mistakes, biggest probably being too margin driven. seemed like it was all about using the cheapest materials, and flooding the market with the most logo heavy designs, instead of creating great silhouettes with high quality material. I see a return to putting more money into the product, with "made to skate" shoes model in emerica and lakai, as recently over the past few years things have flipped and nike has thrown out quality control in favor of oversaturation and controlling the footwear market. seems like the start of a vicious cycle (or maybe im just a younger early 2000's skater that hasnt seen the skate market enough). I wonder what the next wave of skate shoes will look like, what companies will be around, what will be popular...
random stupid thoughts