For those of you who adore Lakai shoes, you will be stoked to know that a special edition Pretty Sweet ‘Manchester‘ has been released this week. These comfy suede uppers feature a Girl Logo on the left shoe and a Chocolate logo on the right with the heels both sporting those Pretty Sweet words. They also come with a lapel pin that will come in handy when making a bong. Out now.
A pair of these arrived on my desk last week and just opening the box gave me a satisfied smile that one can only recieve when appreciating shoes that are designed and run solely by skateboarders. The relationship between Emerica and Andrew Reynolds is one that should be recognised and saluted. Throw in Altamont and you know that these are going to be a strong purchase and that’s exactly what your feet feel like once slipped into these puppies. They are pure quality.
Andrew Reynolds wanted some ultra-slim, low profile boat shoes to skate and chill in, and the Reynolds Cruisers are the result. The mix of suede and denim work extremely well and should last way longer than your average thin suede-only skate shoe, especially if you are partial to blasting holes through the sides of yours due to ollie abuse, which should never be a problem.
The tongue gives extra support and the gum sole sticks to griptape like nothing else. In fact, after a few skates in these, moving around became easier ending in perfect grip. Overall, once worn in these work a treat. Try some for yourself this Autumn.
I was looking for a new hood that would act as a jacket this summer and Altamont replied with the answer. If you are sick of taking a jacket with you to sessions and leaving it on a rail or on the floor because you over heat, this could be the answer.
The Basic Zip Hood is made of 65% cotton, 35% polyester, comes with a comfy hood, zipped front, has double pouch pockets and minimal branding. Seriously soft fabric jumped out of the packaging on first look and has not left me since. Definitely worth looking into if you are weighing up some options for new clothing this month.
Remember when Etnies launched their ‘Buy a shoe, plant a tree’ initiative to restore the Costa Rican forests last year? At the time, we were sent over a pair of these to check out and they were a serious winner. This year, the quest still goes on. Etnies’ drive to make shoes made from recycled tyre parts, bottles and cork are still going strong and are still as comfortable twelve months later.
Fake vulc and a canvas upper comes stylishly packed into the most basic and lightest shoe out there right now primed to be your best mate over the summer months. The best news of all is that you can grab these in the Etnies sale that is going on right now at £44.99. They come in 13 different colours this year so treat your feet to a pair of fresh pumps that will make you feel good about giving back to world that we shred on a daily basis.
There’s a strong feeling when you get a package of shoes from Etnies to review. Skater owned shoe companies are by far the only option for my feet and Etnies being one of the leaders in this field usually never let me down. Etnies’ latest pro shoe once again deliver the comfort on the highest level straight out of the box.
These stylish canvas beauties sporting Tyler Bledsoe’s signature bring a new twist to his first pro shoe. They are low. Way low. Cushionwise, the Bledsoe Low rocks the party. Super comfy and tough on the touch. No flappy shoe business going on here whatsoever, just pure comfort. They come up slim with a lace locking system and toggle that you can take out if you don’t fancy it, but it does the job and tightens your ride. I don’t recommend skating vert with this in your shoe though, but when was the last time you saw Specs on a 14ft tranny? Exactly. He rules the streets and brings a smile to his game the width of an Alien Workshop deck, just as you will when your toes slip into his new pumps.
Highly recommended. Support skater owned.
Deluxe wood is premium manufacturing made with the finest Canadian maple money can buy. There is no middle ground here. If you ride DLX, you are riding the crest of skateboarding.
Tony’s board is no exception. It’s a beast to say the least, but at 8.38″, it’s still very manageable on street as it is deep in the cradle. The length of the deck is 32”, pretty much what you would expect from a rig this size. I will say that I spent most of my time on the Love Toy enjoying the ever increasing number of decent bowls popping up around London this Autumn, however, I have taken to street with it and it felt equally as good. I am past the days of rails and stairs, but for cruising banks, curbs and hills, it’s a fine piece of wood.
Anti Hero remains one of my more preferred decks when it comes to choice for me. Their consistency in superiority is comforting and you know Cards would never ride anything but the best. Trust you instinct and get onto it before it’s too late.
AC
I think it’s weird that the majority of Americans get their foreskins chopped off. There’s something very unmetal about the idea of circumcision. I’m sure the act of it is gnarly and all, but the premise… it’s just too… too hygienic. It’s like saying “Let’s cut off our eyelids to stop getting eye boogies” and probably looks just as stupid. And It always reminds me of Kraftwerk for some reason. I don’t know why.
But I bet everyone at Creature has whooping great big,dangly, elephant trunk foreskins. I bet they trip up on them and can double them up as sleeping bags which keep them snug as a bug. A bug wrapped in a luminous green foreskin. I mean look at this dude that Mr.Skinner’s drawn for their ‘High On Fire‘ Limited edition board; he’s frozen solid. Probably because he hasn’t got any foreskin. You’d be surprised at what a couple of inches of skin can do to raise your body temperature. I wonder if the guys in High on Fire have foreskins? Maybe that’s why Sir Skinner chose to draw a frozen Ice barbarian; a bit of a private joke perhaps? Maybe Skinner specialises in Circumcision, hence his pseudonym… It’s all making sense now.
I’ll admit I haven’t listened to High on Fire in a while. I think it was around about the time that I heard they were touring with Mastodon and Converge that I stopped listening to them. I thought they were quite good, but they can’t be that good if they’re sharing a stage with fags like Mastodon and Converge. I thought I best pay the band a revisit in light of this review and even resolved to buy their latest LP. Admittedly I didn’t have a clue what their latest LP was called, so I got Bertha out and surfed the intergalactic cyber spaces in search of metal knowledge. It turns out they’ve got a wikipedia page dedicated solely to their latest album and everything. They must be famous. The album is called ‘Snakes of the Divine‘. Sounds a bit too biblical for my liking, but I suppose snakes are evil and evil is pretty cool. According to the LP’s wikipedia page “The album cover art and track listing were revealed on the band’s Myspace page on January 6, 2010.” ?! I stopped reading there because they’ve obviously been hanging round with Converge and Mastodon for too long and have turned in to complete pussies.
At this point I was starting to get confused; why would Creature release a skateboard in conjunction with a band who have overly detailed wikipedia pages? I put it down to the fact that the brutes at Creature probably don’t even know what the internet is and so have no idea about how unmetal High on Fire have become. They’re probably way too busy painting everything snot green, destroying concrete coping and having sex with hot horror punk girls. And hopefully punching them in the face afterwards and poking them with broomhandles whilst telling them how stupid and worthless they are and making them cry by telling them that her Stepdad gets off smelling her used underwear. Proper metal.
The size of this deck is proper metal. It’s fookin huge. 8.8″! It’s the same shape as Stu Graham’s pro board and he’s definitely proper metal. And the graphic is metal. It even comes with a special pack of three Creature/High on Fire Dunlop guitar pleks; which is kind of metal, sort of. And is a limited edition of only 400 and each one comes individually numbered. Which isn’t metal at all. But it has all the right things you need in a skateboard; made of wood, has holes in the right places and everything. So I’d recommend going and buying it. No, maybe go buy Sam Hitz’s new Creature board because I know French drew it and he’s got foreskin and isn’t in an unmetal metal band with multiple wikipedia pages.
Zombie
Bones Wheels are slowly being recognised as one of the best wheels on the market today, and with their Street Tech Formula wheels being used by a wide range of street skaters it makes you wonder: what’s caused all the fuss? Are they really that good? The answer is yes!
Chad Bartie’s pro wheel, aptly named ‘My Little Bartie‘, comes in – amongst other street friendly sizes – 53mm wheel in a skinny profile. A lot of people have a problem with coloured wheels as in some cases it can affect the quality of the urethane, but be rest assured that with these this is not the case. Bones STF’s are made to go faster, last longer and most importantly slide further! Every skateboarder can agree that there are few feelings better than bombing down a hill, powersliding every 10 seconds to evade the dreaded ‘speed wobble’.
Three weeks in and lots of powerslides later, I’m yet to see some sort of damage to this wheel. Don’t let the girly colour and graphic fool you, they’re the Terminator of all wheels! They may as well be egging you on to try and flat spot them, but it just wont happen. In fact, I am sure I’ve heard them screaming at me “GO FASTER! SLIDE FURTHER! GO ON, TRY AND BEAT ME!”. Terrifying.
All in all I can enthusiastically recommend these wheels. With an RRP of £35 it’ll be more than worth it as they’ll last you till the next millennium. Bones recently released a trailer for their new video which will feature all the usual suspects and – fingers crossed – hopefully some UK heads too! Enjoy!
Brewer
If you’re more of a skatepark aficionado then head over here to read our review on Bones’ SPF wheels designed specifically with skateparks in mind.