Author: Crossfire

Now, éS have tried this whole “lightest skate shoe in the world” thing before, and I wasn’t convinced. How do you categorise a ‘skate shoe‘ and say it’s the lightest one? I mean, an obvious comparison would be Osiris D3’s vs. Vans Slip-Ons…. Well, you know what I mean.

The Breeze’s don’t actually feel much lighter than a shoe of similar size; I compared them to a current favourite amongst everyone, the HalfCab. Whilst maybe a tad lighter overall, what really is different is the éS feels a lot more ‘balanced’. It’s hard to explain, but basically it’s like BMW shifting stuff around in their cars to make sure it’s not too front heavy. All the components are there, but they’ve been placed somewhere else to keep the weight even. The Breeze is exactly like that.

The main thing I noticed was whilst the HalfCabs are very heavy in the soles, there is no weight at all on the Breeze. The soles are light and this makes flips so much easier. This is partly to do with Sole Tech’s excellent Flo2 technology, putting holes and perforations in to allow air through to ventilate your sweaty feet. It actually works too, no lie. You can feel cool air flowing into the shoe from the sole and sides.

The one downfall of this, and something I think the Californian designers didn’t think of when shipping this over to wet old Blighty. Puddles. Whilst also letting air in, they also do an incredible job of letting water in if you step in the slightest of puddles. Admittedly though, you wouldn’t be skating in the rain, so I can’t really complain. But it does mean that the éS Breeze is a ‘skate only’ kind of shoe, which is their only downfall but your advantage. Just make sure you check your local weather forecast before going out in these, pray for sun, because skating in blazing sunshine in these is a joy.

Visit www.esfootwear.com for more.

Moose

Any shirt that comes with a stash pocket sewn into the inside and a label inside that says “Wash when necessary” is definitely my kind of shirt. Not that I’m going to hide anything illegal inside it of course, but it’s useful to have there, just in case.

So, my first outing in this garm was an art exhibition in ‘trendy’ East London, so already I managed to camouflage myself into the crowd with its 1950’s plaid design. Now it’s a good job that this thing says to only wash it now and again, because the free booze on offer quickly flowed straight down my front, and I don’t know about you, but I still don’t deem that worthy of getting a proper wash, just yet.

The stash pocket did actually come in useful for hiding cigs inside it too, as well as trying my damndest to get a bottle of beer inside it to smuggle into another place we went to. No such luck though, and I steadily got very drunk indeed.

However, the great styling and quality of this Altamont shirt meant I still looked ‘cool’ enough to get into some swanky bar, with its detailing distracting the bouncers long enough for me to get inside without them seeing that my face had tried jumping about 3 inches to the right of my head, and my brain had long since gone. Thank you Altamont!

This is the perfect summer shirt, as the weather in ‘orrible Britain gets better. Light cotton means it’s great to skate in too, and provided it doesn’t stink too bad at the end of the day, will make you look fresh as you stroll to the pub in the evening. And you could always wash it, if you wanted…

Go to www.altamontapparel.com for more.

Moose

Skate Mental are pretty much my favourite company at the moment, and they haven’t really done anything yet. But a team which consists of Matt Beach and recent signing John “tre flips in water, whilst acting like Gollum” Motta has gotta be good.

So I set this new shred sled up whilst watching A Happy Medium, with the intention of going out and doing polejam wallrides and ollieing through tree, and naturally ate shit going up a curb, like I always do. The only thing that made me smile from this scorpion-like slam was the excellent graphics that Skate Mental come up with. Brad Staba’s evil doll emblazoned on the bottom of this 8.25″ beast cheered me up a lot, so I set off to try and land something.

Although my feet are about the same size as cross-Channel ferries, this board is wide and big enough that I felt like there was enough room to wander about all over it. Moonwalking, river dance, and the rest were all possible with the amount of footspace this offers. Great for games of skate, when my kebab flips need a little ‘after land’ readjustment, aka. The Shuffle.

Skate Mental are all about having a laugh, which you can see from the amazing tshirts and board graphics these guys release. And while all boards are essentially the same, the fun I’ve had skating this deck far exceeds any others, even just hacking it through pedestrians in central London, laughing as I go like some deranged lunatic. Skate, Mental? Yes I am.

Click here for the Skate Mental ‘Am Chowder’ video review.

Moose