Why did Axion and Kastel shoes die?

[LFA]

I'm certain Kastel died a sudden death due to the shoes being manufactured in Taiwan at the time and government agents were sent from China to close down factories that were manufacturing goods for US companies.

[L.S]

i skated strictly axions from about 98 to 01. officials were probably my favorite model, but second marianos and sports were also great.

[madgrimy]

the officials were tight

[skatemore,man]

i got a pair of kastels in 01, all the ghetto kids in bio class were like "what the fucks up with those wack ass generic shoes" i'd just say "they're kastels man, skateboard shoes" and they'd relate it to THPS1. The shoes skated alright though.

[defiantnate]

I used to love Axion... I liked the Marianos, the officials, the islanders and the aries (even though they were a little crazy).

[countbrakula23]

i got sick axion shirt at salvy a few months ago. fits perfect and in good condition

[Bipsmound]

Ahh the memories...  Kastel Alf Rawls were my first legit skate shoes after Airwalks.  They fell apart like crazy, but I was a stoked grom anyways.  Axions really were the good shit though.  Both Mariano's and the Kareems with the little NY logo.  Some of the Axion ads were pretty ghetto, but that team was king.

[chocolate pow!]

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Droors is now DC, which is what "DC" stands for---Droors Clothing. As for Vita, their financial backer also bailed on them. Kastel had some pretty weird designs, like the Ronnie Bertino Pro model with the crazy rubber piece. As for Axion, they definately had the hot shit back in the day. Everything from their riders, designs and art direction were on point for a couple years. It seems like there is a huge disconnect between the people that create the companies (skaters) and the people that finance the companies (dudes with money).  When the dudes with money start trying to run the show, that is when most companies turn to shat...

oh well, the 1st Kareem's on Axion were dope....

[close]

you sure about that droors dc stuff?

from what i understand they started dc shoes and named it after droors clothing... there was a time when both dc and droors were around and they also had dub which i think was mostly snowboard related...enventually droors and dub went to world...i believe droors went first (i could be wrong) and dub stuck around for a bit with dc...i remember kalis, dyrdek, williams, and few others that escape my memory being on dub around this time...

droors/world era had a sick team...smaller than when it was with dc but mccrank, creager, ba, chany, cairo, and others were on the droors/world era team

to sum it up...they basically got rid of droors and dub because dc was coming up and making the same shit droors and dub made...they focused their efforts on the dc brand

[remEMBer]

I love skating Axions!

Nuteks
KCK 1's & 2's were sick
Guy's "Aries"  shoe was sick too !

oh and the MVP's !!!

As far as Kastels? never skated them, but they had a sick team.

[BEEF STEW]

-droors got bought out by rocco and then whent under a few years ago.

-Im not too sure about Kastel, but they were one of the first skate shoes i know of that you could buy at a sports store...that might have had something to do with it. Ronnie Bertinos shoe was nice.

-As for Axion, i remember Kareem talking about its demise in an interview....i remember him saying something about there being way to many people on the team and it was hard to manage, plus i think he was doing it on his own at the end, sans rocco's money.

I'm going out a limb here, but I think Vans, Vision, Airwalk and a myriad of other shoes were available in Sporting Goods stores well before.

[truthbetold]

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Droors is now DC, which is what "DC" stands for---Droors Clothing. As for Vita, their financial backer also bailed on them. Kastel had some pretty weird designs, like the Ronnie Bertino Pro model with the crazy rubber piece. As for Axion, they definately had the hot shit back in the day. Everything from their riders, designs and art direction were on point for a couple years. It seems like there is a huge disconnect between the people that create the companies (skaters) and the people that finance the companies (dudes with money).  When the dudes with money start trying to run the show, that is when most companies turn to shat...

oh well, the 1st Kareem's on Axion were dope....

[close]

you sure about that droors dc stuff?

[close]

from what i understand they started dc shoes and named it after droors clothing... there was a time when both dc and droors were around and they also had dub which i think was mostly snowboard related...enventually droors and dub went to world...i believe droors went first (i could be wrong) and dub stuck around for a bit with dc...i remember kalis, dyrdek, williams, and few others that escape my memory being on dub around this time...

droors/world era had a sick team...smaller than when it was with dc but mccrank, creager, ba, chany, cairo, and others were on the droors/world era team

to sum it up...they basically got rid of droors and dub because dc was coming up and making the same shit droors and dub made...they focused their efforts on the dc brand

Thats pretty much it. But here is some more info you left out.

The company was originally called "Eightball" and only made T-shirts for skate shops. The owners were sent a cease and desist letter by a man in Seattle who had allegedly already copyrighted the name "Eightball." The man had made an offer to allow them to use the name "Eightball" if they had given him a large sum of money and a cut of the action. The newly hired Clay Blehm refused the offer, and they began to look for another name. The owners then created a new line of clothing called Droors Clothing, in which they create ads spoofing famous ads ranging from Calvin Klein to famous rapper's CD covers. Famous rap and hip-hop groups "Cypress Hill" and "The Beastie Boys" sported their clothing. DC originally stood for Droors Clothing Footwear, but since the sale of Droors (which is now defunct), DC no longer has any ties to Droors and is simply DC Shoes.

[beeda weeda]

I hada a few paiirs of Kastels, they were alway so cheap, adn on sale, I coudlnt resist!
I had the Chop Tops
Steve Olson "dairdevils"
The Rawls
and the bertino...they were pretty good kicks, my friends all dissed me for rocking welfare shoes, but whatever...I was like 13-14.
I never had enough money or was fresh enough to shell out the money for axions.

[Mad Max]

My mates got a pair of Kareem Capbell Axion Kicks in blue suede and gum sole, plus a some Steve Olson Kastels if anyone's interested?  Brand new with box. 30-40€ each.

[Jawn Gyatti]

Looks like someone bought the rights to the Kastel name, but they don't make skate shoes and are based in Norway. Their Instagram shows they collected their previous namesake models, though

[benboardbreaker]

just a side note. when kastel and planet earth went out of business, some how the biggest Danish supermarket chain had gotten hold of some of the left overs and was selling it. back then you could only buy skate brands in niche skate shops over here. it felt so weird to go in the store and they had a ton of it, selling it really cheap.

just an anecdote if any one care. planet earth was sick. kastel not so much.

[Vds]

what about recs?

Recs was laundry money

[decoi1]

the officials were tight

I saved up for a long time to get some Officials back in like 99. Couple days after I got them I left them outside and came out the next day and one was gone. Never got to skate em

[addie pray]

shout out kastel for having ricky o and kale sandridge on the same team

[Democratic Republic Of Mongo]

Vita had Jason Dill, Reese Forbes, and Tim O’Connor.

Duffs had Danny Montoya and Matt Hensley.

Nadia Footwear had Ronnie Creager and Devine Calloway.

Genetic Shoes had Bucky Lasek and Pat Channita.

Skate shoe brands come and go, every Axion has an equal and opposite reAxion.

[rocklobster]

People like the idea and nostalgia attached to the shoes but no one actually wants to buy them.

[DISTANT RUMOURS]

I never had Axions or Kastels, they were pretty hard to find here. I was also a head to toe DC guy.
But I loved how the Kastel "Alphonso Rawls pro-model" looked.

KCK and Mariano Axions were INSANELY good-looking shoes.

[Bristol_Palin]

I remember when I first started skating, I went to a skate shop and the employee referred to kastels as “can’t sells”

Cool team though. Ricky Oyola skated for them. There’s sick footage of Jake Rupp skating in them and wearing their shirts.

[Allen.]

Shout out to Axion Steve

[happenstance]

The quality of Kastel was definitely lacking. I had one with very soft foam on the upper sole that was eaten away after a few days of skating. Probably the fastest I ever destroyed a shoe.

[benboardbreaker]

I remember when I first started skating, I went to a skate shop and the employee referred to kastels as “can’t sells”

Cool team though. Ricky Oyola skated for them. There’s sick footage of Jake Rupp skating in them and wearing their shirts.

Can't sell - Hahaha. Glad Ricky got a few bucks though. I still buy his boards from Traffic.

[steele]

I'm certain Kastel died a sudden death due to the shoes being manufactured in Taiwan at the time and government agents were sent from China to close down factories that were manufacturing goods for US companies.

The reason the distributor gave was whatever country was hit with a hurricane or the like and wiped out their factory and the owners Ezekiel decided to cut their losses & concentrate on the clothing co.

Axion's downfall began as soon as they split from World. None of the Kareem Co's were reliable after that, even though the brands were sick.

[SquintinTarantino]

I never had Axions or Kastels, they were pretty hard to find here. I was also a head to toe DC guy.
But I loved how the Kastel "Alphonso Rawls pro-model" looked.

KCK and Mariano Axions were INSANELY good-looking shoes.

I had a pair of Mariano's back in the day and they are still one of my all time favorite shoes. I had a pair of Campbell's in the late 90s and the soles started to break away from the shoe before I even skated them. I should've returned them, but ended up just continuously shoe goo-ing them until they were destroyed. That soured me on Axions and was the last pair I had.

[Mongo Lloyd]

Axion Bronson

[Yossi]

All I really remember from Kastel is dozens of Ronnie Bertino's shoe at Ross dress for less for $20. Every skater in our town wore those in white/blue for a year or so.

[Watson]

It's funny all the nostalgia over Axion. The brand only had like 2 good years, maybe a year and a half before the designs were completely horrible. Don't get me wrong, it's all I wore for those good years and still love the models from that era, but even in it's original run Axion was bad for longer than it was good.