Category: Skateboarding Product Reviews

It’s winter again and thankfully packages have started arriving from the brands that want to make the most of their new winter wear. This year Element have launched their new Wolfeboro Collection to beat off the cold snap and when the box of gooness arrived this Dulcey Jacket was definitely one that most of us had our eyes on to take home.

The inside provides a patchwork, polyester inner lining which is soft to the touch and also wonderfully toasty once you are inside it. The ribbed cuffs and waitband don’t allow the cold to seep in, the hood can be pulled right in via toggles and the zip goes above your chin to your lips.

Pocket wise there’s one deep inside to the left and 2 front ones at the ribcage so you can keep your hands warm and the comfy hood is toggled for wind proofing. The most important fact is that the outside is waterproof to fight a downfall and doused with a 1000mm clear PU coating for water deflection to fight the freezing showers that we are to expect in the next couple of months.

There’s no over branding with the Dulcey, just a couple of toggle logos, stitched logo on the arm and breast making it simple but very effective and will set you back between £60 and £70 in stores that stock Element. Look out for more reviews from their Winter 2010 collection here in the coming week.

Zac

The heads at Volcom are regular purveyors of quality garb for all kinds of styles a skater may ask for, and this is something they have proven year after year. Although their range currently extends far beyond the typical flannel and cord lines that skaters tend to sway toward more often than not, what they offer in this department is as top-shelf as you’d expect. The Cuspid comes in a ‘Wood’ colourway which is the kind of post-Dulux colour range title job I’m really into, and it sure is the colours one would expect an iconographic woodchopper to be covered in. And judging by what the kids are wearing at skateparks and what my own wardrobe is full of, what we all sub-consciously want to be doing when we’re not rolling around on a plank of finely chopped wood is chopping it. So this is spot on.

The shirt comes in a classic fit, which I believe is a little looser than what the skinny white kids in E1 are parading around in; perfect for someone with a budding beer belly like myself. The material isn’t at all irritable so there’s no need for another layer underneath like I often find necessary with many shirts of this style. Though the coming UK winter chill may render the shirt redundant for keeping you warm and snug, it’s a fine shirt to lay amongst the others in your wardrobe and will get a regular outing when the weather doesn’t call for nine hundred sweatshirts and a coat too big to fit through standard size doors.

Stanley

Volcom’s Fall 2010 range has just hit the shelves and with the furore surrounding Mark Appleyard’s move to Element we picked out his signature denim to see if the fuss was worth it.

These fellas come in a classic straight leg but slight boot fit meaning they sit just over the top of your shoes and are made up of a super soft and comfortable 98% cotton and 2% spandex. You also get a zip instead of stupid button flys for old-man access which suits me as doing up the stiff buttons on jeans tend to really get on my tits – especially when drunk.

This is not the first and will not be the last pair of Volcom jeans I will own. Some skateboard company jeans are made cheaply, badly designed and as a result come with a lame cut but Volcom’s Stone series usually ticks all the boxes and as a result, don’t come overly branded which is important. So many brands who make jeans these days place unwanted logos, embroidery and metallic buttons all over them as a selling point, but for me there’s nothing worse.

Appleyard’s colour choices for these come in Indigo (blue/black) and Mechanic Wash and both work well worn with this Elsdon jacket also from their Fall 2010 range which is out now.

3P

The European takeover on some of DVS most respected shoes has already proven to be popular amongst some of our reviewers (the Coen and Luster have been shredded already) and it was with pleasure that I recieved Lucien Clarke’s shoe to test myself. Having worn and torn a Munition CT in the past I was stoked to see Lucien deservedly get his name on some fly pieces of gorgeous maroon suede.

Now, I grew up skating London and for whatever reason would always see Lucien Clarke on my skate-travels to the extent in which it could have been labelled unintentional stalking. So it was with trepidation I entered the grey streets wearing shoes with his name on in case I get accused of accidentally going over some sort of ‘line’. Thankfully, this was a stupid thought and these shoes caused no troublesome encounters whatsoever. What they did cause, were great feelings of comfort in my feet (the low profile offers superb board feel without compromising cushioning) and lightweight joy. For a mid-top they’re not too bulky which is a major plus and they have proven to be most durable.

Another great shoe in a really, really nice colour. Go out and support Lucien Clarke, because he’s one of London’s finest. And I don’t mean that in a weird, stalker way.

Bellend Sebastian

Brandon Biebel is one of the more fascinating specimens of skateboarding. Not only does he spend most of his time gathering the most quotable footage in skate video history (consider for a moment how often you’ve said ‘it hits you hard bro!’ or ‘off the nose’ in public) but he’s even managed to get himself his own world. Normally, the idea of making a soundboard filled with stuff you’ve said for the purpose of making a soundboard would make someone either batshit crazy or just plain weird. But this is BEEBS, so it’s all really, really awesome. Just like his shoes. By association, they’re instantly dope… Biebel isn’t someone who would put his name to a pair of whack kicks.

The black/purple colourway is an inconspicuously fresh touch that’s neither garish nor dull but instead a subtle flair to compliment a great low-profile shoe. It’s thinner than you’d imagine but fits snug even on outrageously misshapen feet (my own). The sole boasts the underrated Lakaitning construction (great grip, long-lasting, should be talked about more often) and is topped by a durable suede upper with some neat little soft leather bits. It’s a superbly comfortable shoe with nice ventilation so your ten little piggies never need to feel like they’re flipping boards as if they were flipping burgers in Hell’s kitchen. Standardly solid stuff from Lakai, standardly dope design by Beebs. It hits you hard, bro.

Bellend Sebastian

When a truck is tried, tested and approved by Arto Saari then it is a truck I hope will somehow give me the confidence to stop slacking and learn some new ledge tricks. It was the original D2 prototype that was given the thumbs up by the only man who can get away with skating to two Bowie songs one year and popular math-rock another. The D2 Lite is a lightweight (duh) construction achieved mostly through hollowpoint kingpins and a lighter design shaped through the same D2 geometry that helped Arto fluidly carve around a corner and backlip a double kinked rail. The addition of the inconspicuous East-Coast killer Jake Johnson earlier this year was a good move too. Their job on Destructo is to sell me a product and they have done a good job: hitherto Jake Johnson’s welcome clip, Destructo never really came to mind when buying trucks, and I found myself excited to try something new.

A snapped kingpin troubled my younger self frequently so I was overjoyed to find that a month of regular night sessions through the city has done little to no damage. So don’t let the term ‘Lite‘ fool you into thinking by choosing this design you are compromising a truck’s necessary strength. These are solid. And that is not to say that I haven’t been shredding the shit out of these! Doubters gonna doubt, sure, but you readers better be recognising that I have taken all five of my ledge tricks to the D2. I even learnt a new trick for the first time in years! Once they were fully worn and grooved into my awkward stance I found they provided a smooth, consistent turn (which given how slow-footed I am, is an absolute necessity) with a genuinely noticeable lightness and somehow made grinding feel radder than usual. Like butter.

The D2 Lite is relatively inexpensive for a simple lightweight truck, and I can only recommend that you give these a try too.

Bellend Sebastian

It’s fair to say that the one thing I always look for in a new jacket is big pockets. It’s not as if I have massive hands or anything, I just always seem to have a lot of stuff to carry about and in the winter. I have always found that it’s a good idea to have a spare t-shirt in my pocket once the sweat pours out of me from a cold session, then at least I’m dry on the way home and catching pneumonia doesn’t have to be on the day’s to-do list. The Elsdon jacket comes with deep front pockets and a front zipped breast pocket that are accompanied by 2 more pockets on the inside that once again are deep enough for t-shirts to be shoved in if needed.

Although this is in the Volcom Stone Age Fall 2010 range, it’s certainly not the all conquering winter jacket. For a start there’s no hood so if it rains you need a hoody underneath it, it’s cotton based so not waterproof as such and it’s not lined with the warm padded stuff to beat the temperature when it’s super cold. So although it’s no contender for the warmest jacket of the year the very positive and most important info that can be taken from wearing this for 3 weeks now is that you can easily skate in it without overheating and that’s what makes this a must have. It’s one of those jackets you crave for on a crisp winters day when it’s cold out and the suns up which is pretty much half of our winter here in the UK. It’s also soft and without stupid overbranding and zips everywhere that dig into you when you fall which makes a big difference to me personally.

So there you have it, go and put one on in a shop and decide for yourself and if this doesn’t float your boat then have a look at the other jackets that Volcom have in this collection here as they make some of the best clothes for skateboarders out there.

Back in my schooldays Euro Trash was the kind of filth we talked about during lunch on the playground. This was before the internet made tits and arse easy-viewing and some tacky bits of tail on Channel 4 was a great deal more exciting that the Clarks Bootleg shoes on our feet. Now, we live in a much more mature world where filth can be saved for private evenings online and the talk of the streets is instead what’s on our feet. And in some sort of ying yang twist, what we’re talking about at lunch here is still Euro Trash, just this one is a little bit more tasteful.

The DVS Coen model has been remixed by the illustrious Mark Baines, whose colourway is smart, simple and carries a lot more visual appeal than those that featured in the garish sets of TV shows long gone. Foolishly, I was under the impression that by wearing these shoes I would instantly be able to do nollie frontside heelflips just like Mr. Baines. But magic is obviously just a childhood dream inspired by the sleazy French presenter’s promise of nipples and bums. I wasn’t too put off. What we actually want, are solid shoes, worthy of our cash money. The Coen is such a shoe. It’s not too bulky, it boasts a sweet navy suede upper, it lasts a lot longer than the trendy vulcs that normally hang off my feet and it’s just straight up reliable.

So save the filth for online. Get these kicks on and go skating outside you trashy euro bastards.

Dick Bastardly

Watch Baines do nollie frontside heels and more better than you can below in his part from the Euro segment of DVS’ ‘Dudes, Dudes, Dudes‘.