Phelper's Choice.
We have to take a moment to ponder the absurdity of Jake's shoes. As Ashley Trujillo described them, his choice of footwear was the "how-do-you-still-find-those Marc Johnson Emericas", which seemed to be on his feet more often than not in the last two decades.
The shoe itself is a somewhat simple cupsole design with a good amount of protection for your toes and heels. Emerica has had several models that were basically variations on the same design over the years and especially at this time in skateboard history. I'm not big on the M on the side, although it makes sense why it is there. It's a tad odd that this is the shoe someone would pick to keep wearing, but sometimes it is the strange little things that end up appealing to us the most.
Marc's first pro model for Emerica was released in 1998, although it might have slipped into the marketplace in late 1997. His second pro model came out in 2000. Marc left Emerica for Lakai in 2001 and was formally announced as being on the team in 2002.
That probably should have been the end of the MJ1. But it wasn't.
A strange thing started to happen. You kept on seeing photos of Jake wearing the MJ1s. This made sense for the first few years of the 2000s, but as time flew by, the shoes with the M were still there. Where did he get them? Did he have a stockpile? Was Emerica doing small runs for him?
Over the years, Jake had photos where he was wearing Fallens, Adidas or maybe another Sole Tech shoe, but he always seemed to come back to that first Marc Johnson design. In a recent Ronnie Sandoval interview, Ronnie said he likes a Tony Alva model that Vans made at one point, but has since discontinued. Vans is custom making the shoe for him in limited runs of thirty, which is what I assume Emerica did for Jake. Being the editor of Thrasher most likely had a few side benefits in terms of getting odd product requests honored.
I was going through my old Thrashers to find photos of Jake wearing the shoes, but there weren't always pictures of his feet. Once the mag put the memorial retrospective online, I took the easy way out and pulled a few pictures from that.
Here is Jake at the lost skatepark in Japan from 2000. The photo is by Luke Ogden. That's firmly in the production run of the shoe.
Fast forward to 2011. This picture by Atiba Jefferson shows Jake and company in Paris. Of course, he's rocking the MJ1s.
Michael Burnett snapped this photo of Jake rolling into the Pizzey Park in Australia in 2012.
Twenty years after its release, here's Jake in a pool with Tony Vitello still wearing the same sneaker in 2018. The photo is also by Michael Burnett.
However it happened, Jake kept the MJ1 alive for far longer than most skate shoes will ever exist. There's something very respectable in all of that. I've reached a point where I want to keep using the exact same gear for skateboarding so I don't have to get used to anything new so I understand the thinking behind this.
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Vert Is Dead will be back on Monday, July 8th. I need a little break. Have a good Canada Day and a safe Independence Day.
The shoe: Transworld - January 1998 Volume 16 Number 1
All the other photos are from Thrasher.
