Are you an east coast skater that has always wondered what it would be like to live the life of a bro’d out, sun tanned, mellowed out west coast skater?  Or perhaps you’re a west coast skater that has always wished you had the stylish, weird sounding, rough around the edges life of an east coast skater.  Or maybe, you’re a Midwest kid that wished you could just get out of the Midwest but never really had the inspiration to do so?  Well maybe Danny Supa is your man.  Or as I would like to call him, Danny Supasirirat. 

Living on both coasts, Danny has the unique perspective of how life is on both sides and gives a detailed description as to which side is greener.  Upon answering this question, he also delves into what seems to be an everlasting question: “Why don’t we see more guys from the east coast standing tall at the top of the industry like the west coast guys?”  Is it the weather, is its the skate spots, or is it something not as obvious? Watch and find out on the COAST. 

Where would you be without today’s skate shoe?  Today’s skate shoe encompasses some of the most advanced technology you can find in any sneaker today.  Maybe except for the Roller Shoe.  Where would you be without the added stronger fibrous layers of a Nike SB.  Or the multidensity rubber and gel pocketed sole of a DC shoe?  And supposed you didn’t have the hidden pocket within the tongue where you can hide little baggies full of things like, you know Skittles. 

Well without yesterday’s skate sneaker, none of this would be supporting your feet now.  You would probably be wearing $15 ghetto boots from Wal-Mart, which aren’t that bad except they fall apart fast. 

Well Sneaker Freaker as usual is there to drop some knowledge on you with the History Of The Skate Shoe.  This first segment takes a comprehensive look at how it all started between the years of 1960 to 1985.  Most of you may not have even been born yet and if you were alive, you were probably still a zit-faced virgin.  Regardless, you should still read it.

Over the years, Lance Mountain has contributed so much to the skateboarding community.  As an O.G. member of the Bones Brigade, he inspired skateboarders all over the world.  As a kid, I was always captivated by his unique stylish eyebrows as well. 

Now, Lance Mountain is participating in an exciting collaboration with Nike SB and given the shoe company and the addition of C.R. Stecyk III, you know that it’s going to be an exciting campaign.  I think it may be the most exciting thing he has done in a long time.  Not to mention it will probably elevate his stock shoe heads (if they still exist). 

Kevin Imamura says, “Lance loves the Blazer and so does Craig.  But asking them to simply collaborate on a shoe would be doing a disservice to the collective “lifestyle” we all consider ourselves a part of.  It started with a simple conversation ove ra year ago between old friends and ended with a project that has taken us back to the essence of skateboarding.”

Nike has put together a special mini site to promote the shoe.  It includes a nice abstract short film/teaser reminiscent to a Gus Van Sant movie.  It’s dope!  Check it. 
 

But you also have more mainstream dynamic duos like Kobe Bryant and Shaq.  But both were different for two horrible reasons, although they still did good for their team.  Kobe was an overly aggressive and highly passionate player who tend to ball hog a bit much could not win a championship without his better half.  And his fro back in the day was pretty awesome.  Then his teammate Shaq who got really out of shape and lazy during the off-season showed that with his lacksidasical mentality, proved he can still win championships.

As shown, it proves that some duos work and some don’t.  Well in the case of weird friendship duos, Paul Rodriguez and Clark Humphries are like the best of friends.  Almost like Balki Bartokomous and his Cousin Larry from the show “Perfect Strangers”.  Nike SB put together a nice segment featuring a Weekend With Paul & Clark.  The photo/video blog showcases not only their skills, but their thoughts on being the best of friends.  Okay, I’ve been exaggerating the friendship thing a bit much, but the SB feature is really cool.  Check it!

I’m not sure if you really want to skate in these because they’re so nice and because they’re in limited supplies.  Or if you’re a human rights activist and you’re just against anything produced by them.  But Nike has just released line sheets of their Fall line due out this month.  By the looks of things, it seems that Nike SB has deemed Paul Rodriguez as the front running icon of the brand by creating him a P-Rod High, very reminiscent of a basketball star they once called “Rick Barry”.  Oops, I meant Jordan. 

This August the shoe will finally be launched to the rest of the world and it will be the only general release of the shoe ever.  The P-Rod high comes in white/black colorway with a touch of red and takes inspiration from one of Nike’s basketball classics.  Matching apparel is offered through a set of high quality zip hooded fleeces all featuring the renowned Nike SB wood grain pattern.

I’m not really into the shoe all that much because it reminds me street wear cartoon looking fools walking around Artesia California but the hoodies are pretty cool.  Anyways I don’t know jack about fashion, especially street fashion so check out the Nike SB website to decide for yourself.  Must be nice to be P-Rod right now. 

A lot of time goes into the production of skate commercials these days. Some companies incorporate special effects, others use creative story telling, and others just use aesthetically pleasing craft. I’m not sure what the Worrest eS shoe promo falls under.

In what is probably the oddest video promo for a skate shoe ever, Worrest X Krooked eS pro model has fancy written all over it. It probably doesn’t beat the original 90′s Duffs spots but this one is kind of odd. The ending is pretty disgusting; drinking wine out of shoe. Eh.

Check it out over at the eS website.

As for me, there are some pretty memorable skate sneaker spots that you have probably seen before. DC’s basketball spot features no skateboarding whatsoever but its viral video style makes it fun to watch over and over. Then you have a neat Nike SB spot with special green screen visual effects takes promos to a whole new level. Then of course there is my favorite skate sneaker spot. The Sketchers Commercial. After watching it, you will understand why I got into skating in the first place.

I’ve been out of the sneaker game for some time now because the overly saturated market of such shoes like the “Tweety Bird Dunk”, and the “Custom High Kanye Dunk”.  These shoes just began looking ridiculous and fitting for those attending rave parties every Saturday night looking forward to popping pills.  Pure ridiculousness.  But with so many different releases from these shoe companies, odds are that they may present the public with something worth taking notice at. 

Nike has debuted the Nike WiFi Dunk to the public and with highlight key elements like an integrated wireless internet detection system, which is embedded under the flap of the left shoe and a blinking LED signal notifying you of internet connections within 50ft away.  This shoe WiFi shoe is called “A Step In The Right Direction” and unfortunately for you sneaker geeks out there, this shoe will not be mass-produced according to the MSTRPLN. 

The prototype is a great looking sneaker and hopefully one day it will be available to the public because like me, I’m sure you have had your share of trouble trying to latch onto someone’s existing Internet connection.  Just expect to pay upwards of about $500 or more for these.