I cringed through the whole thing. Thanks Tony Hawk and ESPN for taking things mainstream and this is what we are left with.
"If I saw a lot of people wearing them I would definitely be more interested. It says something about that shoe if I see a lot of random people wearing that shoe."
and I have a feeling things will get worse before they get better.
most kids don't even know what a 'skate shoe' is anymore, the same way as a lot of them don't know what a video 'part' is anymore either (I seriously overhear so many use the term 'part' to describe full-lengths, montages, etc... like 'part' is some kind of cooler word for video now). it's not their direct fault... they're just constantly exposed to skateboarding in 2018, the apparence of which isn't curated by skateboarders anymore (and hasn't been since a long time ago). the kids being 'interviewed' here are a natural product of what corporations are doing to skateboarding; an activity the confused youth is driven to - and wants to trust - when in need for personal answers, only to in turn be fed with swooshes and stripes.
those of them who won't have quit skateboarding two years ahead from now will have done their research and learned by then; or at the very least, their generation is lucky enough to have convenient tools to do just that, so chances are if they're interested in skateboarding in a way that's any sincere, they will look shit up, or run into older skaters eventually, and get a better grasp.
the quote you picked is actually pretty funny because I think most everybody who was already skating at least ten to fifteen years ago (before skateboarders let the big names in) could have uttered the exact same words as that kid at some point; 'random people' would have just referred to a different crowd back then; most likely other, low-key skateboarders you'd see in weird ass rare shoes that would intrigue you. the real difference lies in that nowadays, everybody is trying to look like a skateboarder and the skateboarders themselves blend in, so we aren't 'random' anymore.