Altamont have some great summer clothing out right now so if you are getting fed up with sweating your balls off in this heat then read on. Shorts have either graced your body since you were a kid and are destined to appear from the wardrobe on May 1st, or the thought of wearing cut down trousers and exposing your sorry-arse excuse for legs is just too much to consider. The fact that you are on this page right now clarifies you are probably connected with the former. But the question is, who is putting out decent shorts this year?
If you desire a pair of shorts that are comfy and cut to shape then Altamont are offering a decent option right now. These chocolate coloured Barge shorts are durable due to a mix of 55% cotton and 45% polyester so skating in them is definitely on. They are designed with 2 deep pockets on the front and back so you an easily carry your daily gubbins, and come with a clip and button to fasten, plus a zip for easy access to your crown jewels.
There are no strings attached, no over branding, no silly studs, or pockets you don’t need- just a simple, quality made, bifurcated garment from Andrew Reynolds’ company that doesn’t use your computer to search wikipedia for a fancy word. Go get some.
As soon as I saw this jacket from the new Altamont Spring Collection I knew I had to have one. Sometimes you can see stuff in magazines or online and you know it’s for you but on some occasions fate doesn’t work in your favour and said product just looks funny or different to how it looked in the photo shoot when you see it with your own eyes. The good news is that this jacket really does look as fantastic when you peel it out of the cellophane wrapping and comes with a few welcome touches too.
The Night Stalker has been designed by the elusive artist Neck Face who has been contributing to the Altamont collections since 2008, but this year he has managed to influence a full range of clothing that include tees, a jersey, chino’s and a bandana.
This is a mid weight jacket made from 100% cotton finished with a brushed cotton (suede feel) under the collar, inside trim and breast pocket. Disguised by the buttons you see pictured here it also has a full heavyweight zip on the inside plus deep front pockets for when you are skating home in the wind. These also have super deep inner pockets which I guess are the hidden interior ‘stash’ pockets although when I got her home I spent a good 10 minutes trying to find a Muska standard ‘stash’ pocket sewn into this jacket for ‘stash’ before seeing this video and realising that there ain’t no doobie smuggling going on in the Night Stalker! Saying that though you can fit pretty much everything else in these double partitioned pockets bar the kitchen sink as you can see. They are huge and will come in well handy when you need to carry stuff about.
Overall this jacket is a comfy, stylish and simple Altamont number that retails roughly about the £100 mark so this comes highly recommended. Scout one out and get stalking your much needed new Spring/Summer jacket today.
Last weekend when we had a mini UK heat wave I realised I had a few options for short sleeve shirts but wasn’t happy with the choice of old wears. Thankfully Altamont’s sterling delivery service has sorted the current problem by the arrival of this short sleeve Kicker Shirt.
Designed by Baker pro Bryan Herman, the Kicker is super light weight and not a figure hugger meaning you can actually skate in it and not feel like you are going to rip through the sleeves when performing tricks that require much movement.
This plaid design comes in red and green (but looks purple to me on the Altamont site) and is made up of 100% cotton. You will be happy to know that these are also softer than a baby’s butt once on your back due to Altamont’s care in detail for producing quality gear so grab one and kick out those old yarns and replace them with new threads whilst the summer is in sight.
Spring 2011 has arrived and there are many new products out there for you to check out this month. Here’s a selection of our recommended purchases if the recession is allowing you to wallow in some luxuries right now from Superdead, Flip, Palace, Baker, Independent, Kill City, Death, Etnies, Emerica, Altamont, Spitfire, Lovenskate, Dephect, Supreme, Supra, Kr3w, Quiksilver, Element, Alien Workshop, Brixton Addict and DVS.
The Holiday Season is always packed full of great products to chose from so here’s our second round up of what we’re stoked on arriving in skater-owned-shops right now, including a few last minute gift ideas at the bottom (because we can’t be the only ones shopping for them on Christmas Eve). Click here to see part one of the Holiday 2010 Line Check.
Vincent Alvarez name came up quite frequently when asking others who their favourite skater of 2010 was. His pro model for Chocolate was approved by the masses, and the watercolour line is classic Chocolate aesthetics.
Unbelievable right? It’s true, Alien Workshop turned twenty years old this year and to celebrate, all their riders got some classic AWS iconography attached to their name on these rad decks.
It was a good year for rippers getting the deserved bump to pro status as Boots’ first pro model for Death came out this month. Cliché close up for the holidays leaving us with this little team model to get bamboozled over.
Theeve have reportedly the lightest, strongest, straight up best truck on the market. If you have a little extra Christmas pocket money this year maybe you should try a pair out. Thunder continue to bring the goods with Marc Johnson’s ‘special blend’.
Momentum keep rolling out amazing looking wheels for the stocking filler hill bomber market this Holiday season, this time employing the capable hands of Andrew Pommier to decorate their urethane.
OJ Wheels made a welcome return to the urethane spotlight this year. Click here for a review of the the Street Razors.
It’s definitely the time of year to stock up on these badboys. So be sure to keep your head warm this winter, but also rep skateboarding while you do it, and who better to rep than the good folk at Girl, Chocolate and Fourstar?
Lots of good stuff from the Soletech camps are entering UK skateshops right now. éS may be renowned for keeping your feet secure above the good wood you ride but they’re pretty rad at keeping you warm and not a flu-stricken wreck too while you’re off it.
Etnies take the tried, tested and massively approved classic approach with these awesomely plain and simple hoods.
Emerica unsurprisingly go a little leftfield with their winter warmers, fully repping the kind of grandpa festive sweater steeze that some of us here at Crossfire love a little more than the others. Make your own mind up on that one but we’re all down for Heath Kirchart being rad.
More goodies from éS who have already won us over with their amazing Bobby Worrest collection earlier this year.
Only one pair of trousers are on our Christmas wish list: these perfectly crafted cords from Altamont.
Nick Dompierre’s pro model for DC is hitting UK stores this month, alongside more boot throwback goodness from Supra’s Tom Penny.
Simple, effective and guaranteed to have perfect board feel; standard practice for Emerica.
Hsu’s are such a great shoe to skate and this camel colourway is an excellent move. It would be rude not to give the pro shoe to come from this year’s SOTY a mention too, Leo Romero’s purple model is dope.
Perhaps it was the little interview éS ran this week with team rider Kellen James, but we’re definitely super stoked on this SK8MAFIA collab on the Square Two.
John Rattray is simply the best around. Rep Scotland with these in 2011. It doesn’t matter if you’re not Scottish, John Rattray is and therefore you should start wishing you were.
Need some last minute gift ideas? You can trust the Crailtap camp to deliver the raddest stocking fillers this year.
And there’s no way we couldn’t include these… amazing holiday merch from the ever rad DEVO. Watch our interview with frontman Mark Mothersbaugh here…
It’s no secret that Altamont is a skateboard thread with a difference. They have diversity in their lines and produce cloth of the highest standards. When being treated with the honour of giving their product the wear and tear test on this occasion, I got hold of some Alameda denim’s and a T-Shirt collab between Altamont and the coolest cartoonist to ever grace paper with pencil, Ralph Steadman.
If you are yet to set legs in a pair of Altamont denim then I can simply say you are missing out on a revolution in skate apparel. These 98% cotton / 2% spandex five-pocket Kurabo denims were designed purposely for skateboarding with style. The abraised denim itself is rather heavy and very soft with superior craftsmanship in finish. Andrew Reynold’s designed these himself and even though they are quite skinny – let us not forgot the legs belonging to the man who is designing these jeans here – they fit comfortably and work a treat both on and off the board. Go get some.
For those not in the know, Ralph Steadman is the genius behind every illustration that ever accompanied the Gonzo Journalism by heavyweight author, Hunter S. Thompson. The two of them go together like independent trucks and pool coping, a perfect match. Altamont collaborated with Ralph and brought a range of Tees that showcase work out of ‘The Curse of Lono’, the book referred to as Fear and Loathing in Hawaii! It’s one Tachen’s finest presses in my books and I highly recommend you get hold of a copy for Ralph’s drawings alone; every sketch is a cerebral piece.
Altamont’s collabs have been consistently good over the years and I like very much that someone finally put Steadman’s visuals on cotton, his work should be seen by everyone, it’s truly unique! If you ever thought of getting your hands on a classic Steadmans, then I highly recommend you start with The Curse of Lono. It’s filled with great art and Hunter S. Thomspon writes a damn good story as per usual, but who could doubt that?
I find myself three hours into a cross-Atlantic flight, mindlessly eating vacuum-packed sludge while I watch Drew’s section from This Is Skateboarding for the nine thousandth time and doing everything I can to avoid eye-contact with the strangely terrifying person I have had the misfortune of being sat next to.
It is at this moment I realise that the flight attendant is in fact Gok Wan, had he lived on Californian breakfast burritos throughout his entire life and actually didn’t know how to look good naked, at all. He even had that horrible accent. ‘Coffee Sir?’ I shudder to recall, even now. In terror, I mistakenly look at the person sitting next to me and discover what can only be Dibble’s long-lost twin brother. Shit the bed and sleep in it, no wonder I was scared (I kid, I kid). None the less, I named him Dobble. I couldn’t help but wonder though: Is this flight filled with doppelgangers a cryptic omen of what is to come? Well, kind of.
Wait, what? So here’s what this account is about. Our skateboarding brothers at Sole Tech (Etnies, éS, Emerica, Altamont) kindly invited us skateboarding media-types from around the globe to stop lurking in our respective countries and come and hang out at their labs in Orange County, CA to get an insight into the ever-progressing System G2 heel cushion and E-Suede, have a skate in the super Etnies Training Facility and get a sneak preview of some of the shoes dropping later this year. Sounds too good to be true, right?
For a while, as I looked over to Dobble to check if he was asleep so I could have a piss without talking to him, I thought it was. But after twenty-six hours of battling through snow, customs (are you SERIOUS, America?), terrible in-flight movies and vicious lookalikes I ended up in Pierre’s Marina Lofts ready for three days of non-stop skateboarding. Here’s how this epic sausage-fest went down.
Saturday
The Euros arrive first, before things really kick off (in more ways than one). Our wonderful host, James Appleby from Sole Tech Europe greets us with one of the countless cans of Blue Ribbon (imagine Coors Light, but lighter) and shows us around our home for the weekend. Pierre knows how to fucking LIVE. Yet despite these fairly spectacular distractions, it’s only a short amount of time before we all nerd out and start showing each other our magazines, scene videos and exchange some stories from where we’re all from. We are skateboarders after all; contrary to mainstream belief, we’re the friendliest neeks out there. Give us a beer and a laptop and there’s no stopping us.
The Euro-pad (unsurprisingly the smaller of the lofts, and even more unsurprisingly the cleaner of the two at the end of the trip) was shared by Fred Demard from France’s Soma Magazine, Angel Sanz from Uno reppin’ Barcelona, Holger Von Krosigk from Germany’s Place Magazine, the Italian Davide Biondani and the Dutch Love-Machine, Jeroen Smeets on behalf of Reload Magazine. Straight-up the raddest roommates an awkward Essex lad from Wales could ask for; and all as passionate about this ridiculous wooden thing on wheels that has dictated our entire lives, and brought us all together for this trip. Planes, delicious Blue Beet cuisine and early blogging don’t half take it out of you mind. Get the sleep in while you bloody well can.
Sunday
The day begins with James having fun pretending to be a photography tutor guiding us around Newport Beach while we all have fun pretending (badly) not to be tourists. Those cameras permanently attached to our faces weren’t fooling anyone, and there I was wearing nothing but a flimsy t-shirt during California’s ‘terrible weather’ period. James looks at me and grumbles, ‘you’re so obviously British‘. Outed!
Back at the lofts, it’s time for the arrival of the American press dudes. Without so much as a ‘Hey, what’s up?’, Etnies Marketing Head Honcho and part-time lunatic, Ashton Maxfield barges into Euro-Pad sporting nothing more than shades and a killer tache, picks up a chair and throws it out the window as if it had dissed said killer tache and spat in his face. The broken chair is then assembled into a pile and set alight; less than ten minutes later Holger runs outside and throws a mean frontside flip over the small inferno. The weekend has landed.
After geeking out over the staggering awesomeness of Mindfield for the rest of the afternoon, Pierre André and Don Brown, the masterminds behind Sole Tech and freestyle legends, introduce themselves and take us on a cruise in Newport Harbour. Meeting people of such status is often unnerving, but can of Blue Ribbon in hand and a ridiculous leather chair made of skateboards to laugh at, talking to the two is just like standing on a mini-ramp platform, chatting about nothing and happily sharing the unmatched atmosphere that is generated by skateboarding. If you want people to look after your feet when shralping, these are the guys are who you go for. Additionally, if you want people to throw a BBQ with an impromptu food-fight, these are also the dudes to see. Check out the footage courtesy of the Skateboard Mag’s three-trick extraordinaire and generally super-rad broseph, Paul ‘Animal’ Chan. Messy…
Monday
There are two perfect remedies for a monster Blue Ribbon hangover. Coffee, and -apparently- Bloody Marys. At least, this was what was on offer after shaking hands with The Boss and The Other Boss at the Sole Tech Institute. I’m not even kidding. Bloody Marys work a treat too! They go down damn fine with some tasty new shoes too, which is after all what we were all here to see this morning, after Don arrives fresh from the slammer that is. Pro tip: if you find yourself being accosted by the police who are yelling “What are you doing?! Do you want to be arrested?!” while drunkenly trying to drive some unknown dude’s boat down Newport Blvd at three in the morning, do not, whatever you do, reply with “HELL YEAH!”
All in the name – Don Brown is a Don.
First up are Etnies, and a cheeky look into the gorgeous Black Label collaboration that serves as Kyle Leeper’s new pro model. The Perro is a great shoe in itself, boasting the new Kevlar fabric addition to the System G2 Cushioning Gel. Kevlar is the same material used in bullet-proof vests, and protect your heels as if they were guarding the President through the not-so-blue states. On top of that, you have some gnarly Black Label graphic that keeps style looking tight, whilst obviously not slacking on substance. Be hyped because the shoe has dropped alongside the new Black Label video. Oh, there’s also a Thunder Collab to get hyped on – did I mention in the photoblog that the tag is a riser pad? Well, it is, and come on, how cool is that?
éS are next, and Bobby Worrest is summoned to the stage to speak a little about his debut shoe. The hangover may have got the better of him and Bobby’s conclusion on these bad boys is “yeah, they’re good. I like them.” Similar to Cardiff’s loveable Pirate Man, Bobby is an all-round nice guy, and has a soft-spot for Rambo. ‘First Blood‘ is the name of his shoe and you know what? They’re pretty damn good, and I bloody like them. A lot. I’m wearing them right now as I type this very sentence. Aesthetically simple, technologically awesome. The Sole Tech lab geeks are skaters too remember. They know what we want.
The Boss, coffee in hand, is up next and delivers a cool, calm and straight-to-the-point speech on why his new Cruiser shoes are boss, why Altamont’s Fall line-up is boss and why working for Soletech is boss. After a short video of Drew being Drew, he takes a sip of coffee and poignantly remarks how he ‘just wants to work with skaters’, with a nod towards Pierre and everyone in the room feeling some wonderful bromance. If it wasn’t for the upcoming visit to the TF, I’d have whacked my laptop out and posted in the Stoked thread on Sidewalk before BDF could say edit my post and imply that I am a gaylord. We all love the bromance.
Just before invading the mind-blowing awesomeness of the Etnies Training Facility (or Etnies TF if you want to abbreviate things and therefore resemble someone who is cool and abbreviates things) we had some more traditional Californian cuisine, courtesy of Mexico, that tastes delicious but does unspeakable things to a European stomach. In this interim, a couple of us now dicky-tummied Euros had the pleasure of speaking with Rob Carlos, a designer from Etnies Plus. Etnies Plus are already known for making some bad ass collabs with killer artists, and we were happy to hear of a future collaboration with So-Me of Ed Banger Records. I don’t know about you, but I’m hyped.
I won’t go into too much detail about the incredible TF, as any footage of the place speaks for itself. But let me just tell you that journalist types can shred too! Holger tore the place apart with style and the other French Fred got buck-wild on the mini. Animal Chan and I rinsed our three tricks for four hours and then sat back and happily watched as Malto, Bledsoe, Worrest and Mikey Taylor showed us all up. Check the brief interview I had with Mikey to hear his recollection on the GNARLIEST slam / collision I have ever seen. Ridiculous. Click here for an interview with him from this trip.
Before we hit the bars, we had an in-depth tour into the STI Lab (imagine what The Berrics might have looked like if it were designed by Steve Berra and Dexter; as in the loveable, animated, four-eyed, ginger genius, not the serial killer played by Michael Hall). Inside the labs were a lot of things, that a lot of us honestly had no understanding of whatsoever. Apart from ESPN’s Josh Brooks, who came out of his shell and revealed himself to be a secret physics nerd: so big ups to him, his knowledge of forces and his awesome RUN DMC style Obama tee. The tour itself was a fantastic insight into how these things we throw on our feet and slowly ruin are put together; just check out the pictures and peep the relentless testing each shoe is subjected to before it is deemed safe and worthy of making your feet look and feel a lot nicer.
And it was in that lab that I came to realise the significance of those doppelgangers that plagued my journey out here. It’s all to do with repetition and difference, something that Sole Tech has nailed. Steve Neale is a known bunty man (as anyone who has studied film will back me up on), but he did spearhead this particular theory on how things are constantly improved by repeating elements that work, and playing with them ever so slightly to make something new and great. Sole Tech are doing just that. System G2 was great, but adding the Kevlar and creating G2 Platinum is perfect evidence of making something great, well, greater. The same can be applied to E-Suede. Look at the comparison of suede and e-suede after 2500 rotations in the KICKFLIP MACHINE (!) to see what I’m getting at.
Unfortunately the same praise cannot be said about American Airlines, as I sit back in my chair on my flight back to London and continue to get offered disgusting coffee by an even shittier Gok Wan variation… all the while trying not to make eye-contact with what appears to be someone I will later name ‘Dubble’.
Did you know that when throwing yourself down the London Bridge ten, more often than not you exert around 18-times body weight straight onto your heel or toes?
Eternal props to all the dudes at Sole Tech for bringing us media-heads together and showing us all how these things on our feet and body we often take for granted is so generously made for us without asking for anything in return other than your support. Extra thanks to James for being a rad host, and all the safe-as-fuck dudes I had the pleasure of meeting out there. And big up skateboarding, for being the greatest fucking thing in the world.
If you enjoyed this feature, click here with an interview from back in February 2006 with Pierre André Senizergues.
Altamont have some great summer clothing out right now so if you are getting fed up with sweating your balls off in this heat then read on. Shorts have either graced your body since you were a kid and are destined to appear from the wardrobe on May 1st, or the thought of wearing cut down trousers and exposing your sorry-arse excuse for legs is just too much to consider. The fact that you are on this page right now clarifies you are probably connected with the former. But the question is, who is putting out decent shorts this year?
It’s no secret that 
For those not in the know, Ralph Steadman is the genius behind every illustration that ever accompanied the Gonzo Journalism by heavyweight author, Hunter S. Thompson. The two of them go together like independent trucks and pool coping, a perfect match. 
I find myself three hours into a cross-Atlantic flight, mindlessly eating vacuum-packed sludge while I watch Drew’s section from This Is Skateboarding for the nine thousandth time and doing everything I can to avoid eye-contact with the strangely terrifying person I have had the misfortune of being sat next to.
