1992 Saw the birth of one Skateboardings most influential companies, Element. They established themselves quickly and soon became household names amongst skaters and those who choose to wear skate apparel.
For years and years they produced excellent skate products, whilst their team riders at the time (Donny Barley, Reese Forbes, Mike Frazier, Kenny Hughes, Natas Kaupas, Tim O’Connor, Bill Pepper, Rob Pluhowski etc) delivered world-class video parts on all fronts. Everybody knew of their talents as they ruled the scene, especially the Element Ramp scene!
Not one of the riders mentioned above are still on their PRO team; they’ve been replaced by the likes of Bam Margera, Mike V, Tosh Townend, Brent Atchley and many others. All of them are unique in their own way, especially Tosh and Brent, but Element has a different feel to it. People move on and companies change, evolve and come up with new ideas. Elements latest addition to the skate industry (besides the amazing Nyjah Huston) comes in the form of footwear. That’s right, they’ve taken the big step and decided to launch a shoe range.
Not a bad idea I thought at the time and looking back at it now, I remember checking their site and thinking the shoes don’t look half bad…till I actually received my pair of Travertines. They look like deck shoes crossed with Clarkes finest own brand casuals. I thought “fuckit”, they might skate better than they look, so I starting wearing them in a little.
The back of the shoe comes in really low and hurt the back of my ankle a lot. This gradually became less irritating as I continued to sport them, keeping the faith. Other than that, they were fairly comfortable and rather grippy.
I suffered a heel bruise whilst trying them out and realised that there was very little cushioning going on underneath my heels.
I was losing my faith in their shoe concept and fortunately for me, these shoes started perishing after the first skate and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before they fall apart. They say pictures don’t lie, so I documented my element shoe experience for the sake of it.
You decide…
“Shoes have always been on our agenda,” said Element Founder and President Johnny Schillereff. ” We feel that the time is now right for Element to enter this category. The line has been in development for some time and we are looking forward to bringing it to the market. Shoes are a natural extension to the Element brand and we will focus on delivering a fresh approach in design, functionality and performance.”
Since reading our reviews of Element Shoes on this very site, the company have told us personally that “Element took on board the criticism given and hope that in Autumn/Winter, all those out there who are Element fans will see the changes they are looking for next season in the new line of footwear.”
TWO PEE
