People start new board companies left and right, but theres only really 3 core shoe companies (lakai, emerica, supra) that dont make bad shoes. Is it more of a money issue than making boards is?
Because every single pair of Nike, Adidas and Cons shoes a skater buys we get further and further away from that happening anymore.
Sure, it's nice to have so many options these days, but that comes with a painful price to our industry.
I remember when all we had was Vans, Airwalk, and Etnies in the shops and in the catalogs, and sometimes you'd see Simple shoes and the first veggie shoes Zero-Two, it was maybe 2 or 3 pages of shoes tops, and that even felt like one too many brands trying to compete. Then Duffs, Es, Emerica, Osiris, DC and DVS entered the game. We had come along way from Chuck Taylors & Vans Authentics, but at least most of the brands were all skater owned.
One thing leads to the next and the big athletic companies started to notice how much $$ skateboarding was pulling in on the shoe side of the business, especially when skate shoes ended up on non-skater feet. You'd already saw some people skate Puma Clydes, Adidas Superstars shell toes and Chuck Taylor's anyways. So one thing leads to the next and the tables turn, now seeing a guy skate what you'd call a "core" skate shoe brand it's like it was back in the early 90's when we saw a skater skate a Puma or Adidas, it's "rare". It's fucking weird, and honestly makes me feel nauseous when I stop and think about it, so I try not to.
Sure I hate it...but I understand that business is marketing and marketing is $$$.
And for myself it get's harder and harder to find a good inexpensive vegan shoe, specially when I only try to support skater owned brands. Coming from the days of $30 Vans, spending $60-$70 on canvas shoes in 2013 sucks.
Topic: why is there not more core shoe brands? (Read 9030 times)