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I don't get why we're singling Braden out now when a majority of skaters over the years have been recorded or posted their own media stating the exact same sentiment with no scrutiny about the quality of shoes.
That said, Soletech is in the lead or near the top for stock insoles being quality.
Lot of brands have underwhelming insoles in most of their models (DC, Adidas, Lakai, LRAB [early drops], and Converse [currently - Lunarlon era was the best] come to mind)
The majority of pro skaters are not sponsored by Footprint and do not promote their product. Braden doesn't list them in his sponsors on IG, has no posts promoting them, and isn't listed on their webpage. I briefly perused the FP page itself and he isn't on there anywhere. Given that I would say its a (mild) bad look. Do you see any other pro showing off their new pro shoe and it clearly has an aftermarket non-sponsor insole? If the G6 foam is that great (which it seems to be since everyone likes it more or less) and they were going to the effort to make a pro shoe I'd hope they could accommodate him enough with their own tech.
Is there another pro who has had a pro shoe designed that has publicly noted that the stock insoles were not up to par? I know Reynolds was vocal after leaving Vans. Insole sponsorships are not widespread so it would likely just be because of that.
I am not saying that those brands have stellar insoles as you have pointed out. Just that it is a weird position if Hoban is sponsored by FP to promote both items. We are at a point in shoe tech now that theoretically a brand should be able to build the shoe to spec for the rider.
You misunderstood me because I didn't clarify. My "majority" of skaters was in reference to skaters sponsored by an insole brand. Not majority of skaters, period.
Again, we've seen sponsored skaters promote insole brands over the stock insoles because they PREFER the aftermarket insoles. Not because the stock are bad (they could be though) but the aftermarket ends up being the cherry on top to make their shoes perfect for them: team model or pro from X brand.
A lot of people don't like FP/Remind/Etc, as well, and feel that the quality is not actually there. Again, it's preference most of the time, not that stock insoles are automatically bad because someone uses aftermarket ones.
Gvien that you're also the same person who's shared some quite negative feedback about Emerica quality previously, it's curious how you're now throwing out the sentiment that they should be able to afford/implement more tech to achieve this desired insole thing. But how can they if they're stuck in dated shoe tech and have poor quality according to you?
Bottom line, Emerica (and literally every other brand) streamlines their insole development to save cost by having one insole mold used for a variety of models (team or pro versions). So it should be no surprise to you or anyone else that a pro is pushing aftermarket insoles because they like them more than stock insoles.
Pushing aftermarket insoles does next to zero to pull away from shoe sales unless the advertiser for the aftermarket insole is actively shitting on the stock insoles. Which, I've rarely seen from anyone backing aftermarket because they genuinely love the shoes but want that +10 equipment bonus via aftermarket insoles.
We're making mountains out of this molehill, though. It's a valid question about why he's promoting an aftermarket insoles for his presumably pro shoe. But that's it, just a curious question on your and others minds. It's not that deep
Topic: Emerica containment thread (Read 171187 times)