"These are the best nonskate skate shoes in the world, and I like that they have no bones about being a line of chill shoes." - Chris Nieratko
Clae was started in 2001 by Sung Choi. The shoes were initially distributed by Podium, the home of DVS, Matix, and Lakai. Choi was the director of footwear design at Lakai when he launched Clae. This is why the shoes have a very Lakai vibe to them. He had previously worked as a designer at DC Shoes. Clae is still going today, making higher end fashionable sneakers for men and women. I never had a pair, but they looked pretty good. I imagine they would have been decent for skateboarding since the materials would have been the same as DVS and Lakai. I want to say they sponsored a few other people beyond videographer extraordinaire Ty Evans, but I didn't do an extensive search after I found his ad. I wonder if Dave Carnie or Chris ever got the sponsorship deal they were trying to get with Clae back in 2002 to be on the chill team?
For the quote: Big Brother - December 2002 Number 91
Ty: Transworld - March 2003 Volume 21 Number 3
Pryor: Transworld - January 2003 Volume 21 Number 1
Langston: Transworld - Winter Issue 2002 Volume 20 Number 13
Miles: Transworld - December 2002 Volume 20 Number 12
2 comments:
It looks like they are still around making those unbranded and overpriced "rich guy" sneakers I see all the Tesla drivers in my area wearing.
Yup, they are still around. The founder even returned to the company. (Shout out to Linked In.) There's no mention of their skate adjacent roots on their website.
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