Marc Johnson #5.

When I was putting together DC week, I noticed that a lot of other classic skateboard footwear came out in the same time frame of 1996 - 1998. This included shoes from Sal Barbier, Kareem Campbell and Eric Koston.

First up is the Emerica Gama. I don't think that this shoe necessarily qualifies as an all time great, but I had a pair and I really liked them. It was a plain and simple design with a good cupsole. It's interesting to note that other than Vans and maybe Sheep, nobody was making anything Vulcanized.

Emerica had some pretty catchy ads with good use of bright colors and unusual layouts.

Slap - April 1997 Volume 6 Number 4

Moses Itkonen.

I'm making Canada happy this week.

I like how raw this photo looks.

Moses was an all terrain ripper as his part in Mad Circle's Let The Horns Blow solidly illustrated. He was an am for Real, turned pro for Mad Circle and rode for Powell. The guy might be riding for Skull Skates these days. I feel like there are some gaps in my memory of his sponsors. Was he ever on Plan B? I want to say he rode for Platinum, too. Moses is also part of the Red Dragons from Vancouver. Their crew "liberated" skate spots from security guards in the early 1990s before turning into a proper clothing company that is still going strong today.

There's a couple of interesting things about this ad. First off, Moses is listed as being part of the flow team. The second is the shoe itself. As the vegan lifestyle gained popularity in the 1990s, skateboard footwear companies started to make shoes that where animal friendly. The Syntax was DC's synthetic shoe. It's kind of unusual that a guy who is on the flow team would have a shoe made specifically for him, since Moses is/was vegan.

That's a wrap on DC week. I'm getting a little tired of all the Helvetica. Next week might be about other skate shoes of the mid 1990s - The Koston, The Sal, Kareem's KCK, Emerica's Gama and one other. Or not.

It's another Jody Morris' photo.

Transworld - November 1996 Volume 14 Number 11

Colin McKay.

Why not put a little more Colin on the old internet today?

Along with Danny Way, Colin was one of the two original riders for DC Shoes. He would have been riding for Girl at the time of this ad. He started off with Powell Peralta, switched to Plan B, was on Girl, then went to Seek and is back on the reincarnated version of Plan B.

Colin took a lot of the early 1990s technical street tricks to vert. He could also do the tricks in the street. I think I recall some joke contract that they scanned in for the very early days of Crailtap where it said Colin had get a certain percentage of tricks out in the streets.

The grey and orange colorway is a nice one on the Lynx.

Granted I've been updating after Chromeball updates and slightly adjusting what I had planned accordingly, but I'm going to be more than a little surprised if I see a Moses post over there tomorrow morning.

The photo is by Jody Morris.

Slap - December 1998 Volume 7 Number 12

Josh Kalis #2.

There's some vintage footage of Josh on the Already Been Done website.

Even though the DC team was small compared to Airwalk or Vans, a lot of pros wore their shoes. Most of the guys in Alien Workshop's Timecode are wearing DC's. Jason Dill had a ridiculous amount of coverage in their gear during the end of the 1990s. Why he wasn't ever put on the team is beyond me. Pat Duffy probably should have been on the team, too. It would have been better than Recs or Pyro or one of those fly by night shoe companies that he did ride for.

Stevie Williams is on Supra now. I was kind of hoping he would be back on DC. It's honestly hard for me to think of Stevie and not think of DC.

The photo is by Paul "Skin" Phillips.

Slap - May 1998 Volume 7 Number 5

Keith Hufnagel #4.

That Hufnagel boy can ollie really high.

This is one of those photos that didn't seem humanly possible when it was published.

I had a pair of the Clockers. I honestly don't recall how they skated, but I think they were good. I know I liked the design of the shoe based on what it looked like in the ad.

The picture is by Gabe Morford.

Slap - August 1996 Volume 5 Number 8

Rick Howard #5.

You know what today needs?

More Rick Howard.

Mike Ballard took many photos for DC.

Slap - August 1997 Volume 5 Number 8

Rudy Johnson #2.

Just like heaven, but with J. Mascis and not Robert Smith.

Lance Mountain was the photographer.

Transworld - August 1996 Volume 14 Number 8

Scott Johnston.

Has the whole cleanest guy in skateboarding joke been beat to death?

Chops has a great interview with Scott at the Already Been Done website. He picks Lakai's Soca as one of his favorite skate shoes of all time, along with the Half Cab. The Soca is also one of my favorites and I was bummed out when they stopped making them. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then would it be possible for companies to stop ripping off the Half Cab and start making some Soca clones?

Anyway, in this ad you get to see the full line of DC Shoes. I dig the brown color for the Danny Way's and the burgundy for the Rudy Johnson's.

Thanks to Skate Daily for giving Vert Is Dead the link of the week.

Gabe Morford took photos.

Slap - March 1996 Volume 4 Number 3

Rob Dyrdek #2.

RD-9501AW.

For the next eight days, it's going to be DC week. The company has both its share of fans and detractors. I probably fall right in the middle. It's not something that I would wear today, but I can't say I hate them or anything. I've worn DCs before and liked them. They had quite the team back in the 1990s and brought a few new things to skateboarding. That was the spark that made me want to spend a week looking at their old ads.

DC Shoes started out from Droors Clothing. The team was initially Danny Way and Colin McKay. They soon expanded to include Rob Dyrdek and Rudy Johnson. They also gave Rob and Rudy pro models, which was kind of the start of pros having signature shoes.

In the early to mid 1990s, a pro model sneaker was relatively scarce. Steve Caballero and Salman Agah had models with Vans, which was really about it. Natas had a shoe on Etnies, but I don't think those lasted much past 1992. You had to be a big name pro in order to justify having a piece of footwear with your name on it. This of course led to pros taking jabs at other pros in interviews as to whether or not so and so deserved to have their name stitched on the tongue of a shoe. All of this seems rather strange compared to how skateboarding is today, where somebody turns pro and then follows that up with a shoe model.

This ad turned a few heads when it came out because Dyrdek certainly was an established and talented pro, but he wasn't necessarily thought of as being pro shoe worthy. He helped his cause by dropping the nollie nosegrind down a handrail.

Paul "Skin" Phillips took the photo. Atiba Jefferson filmed the trick.

Transworld - November 1995 Volume 13 Number 11

Richard Paez.

Richard is Jesse's younger brother. He was also pro for Consolidated. He had a cool cover for Thrasher doing a frontside nollie on a mini ramp in the late 1990s. That's a trick that I really like and want to learn. However, my body just doesn't work that way. I can pop half cabs reasonably well for somebody who sucks, but the nollie version isn't happening for me.

DC week starts tomorrow and goes until next Friday, so you get eight days of vintage Johnston, Huf, Howard and more.

Thrasher - August 1996 Volume 16 Number 8

Drake Jones #4.

I'm still sticking with my favorites from 1996 for one more day. Is Drake skating in boots?

Brandon Westgate's new part for Emerica is pretty damn good.

Thrasher - December 1996 Volume 16 Number 12

Julien Stranger #11.

Cultivate mystery.

Thrasher - June 1996 Volume 16 Number 6

Ed Templeton #11.

In keeping with the loose college mindset that I'm basing this week on, the Tempster was one of my favorite pros back in 1996. He can do no wrong in my book as of today either. Is Michael Burnett going to do a twenty years of Templeton interview? These decades are zipping by. I'm not sure I like that.

Speaking of things turning twenty, Blind's Video Days hits the big 2-0 and is the subject of an extensive feature in the new issue of Skateboarder. There are interviews with everyone on the team, including Jordan Richter. He is running a perfume business and is married with children now. He still skateboards.

Skateboarder magazine is now bimonthly and has gone back to the larger size format that it used to be, decline of print media be damned. They are also promising more in depth and well thought out stories, which is something that they have done a quality job of over the years. I hope they can keep this going for a few more years at least. They might want to look at mailing in some sort of plastic bag because my issue was shredded pretty good around the edges.

One last thing about Blind. I like how they are doing the throwback style ads to celebrate turning 21. I don't think they can keep that up for forever, but it is a nice change of pace.

Mike Ballard took the photo.

Thrasher - May 1996 Volume 16 Number 5

Skip Pronier #3.

This trick is crazy.

I graduated college in 1996 and I think for this week I've been working off a theme of skaters that I was a fan of while I was still a student. Skip definitely made the list. He had an interview in Transworld where he talked about how skating was getting good again and wheels were getting bigger.

Thrasher - August 1996 Volume 16 Number 8

Andy Jenkins.

Like everybody else roughly my age, I first came to know about Andy from the Wrench Pilot comic that ran in Transworld in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I was a fan from that point on. He's pretty much a behind the scenes legend of sorts in skateboarding, for lack of a better phrase.

Transworld - October 1996 Volume 14 Number 10

Jeremy Klein #2.

I like how Birdhouse had the running gag in their ads about how team riders ate a bunch of crap.

The picture is by Grant Brittain.

Transworld - December 1996 Volume 14 Number 12

Curtis Hsiang #3.

Never forget.

The disaster photo is by Bryce Kanights. Luke Ogden took the other skate photo.

Thrasher - March 1996 Volume 16 Number 3

Brian Chung.

Atlanta to SF, Black Label to Torque.

Sean Dolinsky was the photographer.

Slap - December 1996 Volume 5 Number 12

Danny Supa.

Danny built on what Salman Agah started with big switch ollies and nollies over things most people would have a hard time doing an ollie over regular. It's a little hard to tell, but he's wearing DC Clockers in this photo. I had a pair of those. They were a decent shoe. Unfortunately the Clocker sort of looked better in the ads than in real life. I'm thinking about having a week of old DC ads from when the team expanded to include the likes of Huf, Scott Johnston and Carl Shipman.

Grant Brittain took the photo. Dave Kinsey designed the ad.

Slap - July 1996 Volume 5 Number 7

Tom Penny.

To go with that scan of Tom Penny from fifteen years ago, here are my five favorite video parts from 2010. Looking the year over, I guess I didn't buy that many vids and I'm horrible at watching stuff on the internet. I usually pick up the not so latest videos when they go on sale a year later or hope for a free DVD with the new issue of the Skateboard Mag.

My two honorable mentions are anything they post online at Roger and Karl Watson in LRG's Give Me My Money, Chico.

5. Emanuel Guzman - Prevent This Tragedy

I don't think Guzman gets enough props for all that he does. I watched PTT again last night and he seems to follow in the grand tradition of such rippers as Tim Brauch and John Cardiel.

4. Billy Marks - Brain Wash

I'm a fan of Billy. Brain Wash is a nice video. The Dischord heavy soundtrack works well and you get another full part from Leo Romero.

3. Daryl Angel - Origin

I'd never heard the band Beach Fossils before and I really liked the two songs they had in the new Habitat video. Since Daryl skated to one of their songs and the other was for the opening montage, his part makes my list. I think Origin might be my favorite video of the year. The ten year anniversary section was cool, too. It could have used some Mr. Dibbs and RJD2 for the complete Habitat time machine effect, but that's trivial.

2. Dylan Rieder - Gravis promo

When's the Javier Mendizabal film coming out?

1. Brandon Westgate - Stay Gold

I think Andrew Reynolds said something to the effect of anytime they go to a spot and Brandon is trying to figure out what trick to do, he usually just opts to ollie the whole damn spot. This approach generated some very eye pleasing and gnarly skating in Emerica's epic video.

*

Incidentally, there was an eS ad of Tom in the same issue doing a switch crooked grind. It looked like he was wearing the same clothes for both photos. This is back when Flip first came to the states and Penny was blazing a stoned path of destruction on America's finest skate spots.

Transworld - September 1996 Volume 14 Number 9

Phil Shao #8.

Back at the grind.

Thrasher - February 1996 Volume 16 Number 2