Blue above the rooftops.
I went a little heavy with Airwalk scans for the next batch. I always wore Airwalk in the late 80s and early 90s. I stuck by them up until 1994 or 95, primarily because of the Jim Shoe. I figure I had at least three or four pairs of those. I never had a pair of the 86 or their other big model of 1993, the One. I wasn't feeling the design of either.
The weather was good enough for outdoor skateboarding at the park on Friday and Sunday. There's still a single snow drift that was melting and making one side of the park slightly unrideable. This is a moot point because it's supposed to snow again tonight and stay cold the rest of the week. Friday was nice because it was warmer. Yesterday involved putting up with a bit of a wind.
The photo is by Daniel Harold Sturt.
Transworld - December 1993 Volume 11 Number 12
9 comments:
I remember a friend having multiple pairs of the One's back to back, I believe green, black and then blue. I was appalled at the time (mid high school) at how much they cost when to me they didn't look like much and I thought the sole was really weird (honeycomb pattern if I remember).
It's funny what happened to Airwalk. At one time, they were perfectly acceptable skateboard shoes. And then, no one would be caught dead in them.
I'm trying to think, Has any other brand fallen so far? Maybe Powell, after the "Dear George" decks came out?
Seeing maple skateboards in box stores was weird. Had a pretty heavy team back in the day,Marc johnson, Chad wilkins, knight. I loved airwalks, now at payless. Op was my surf brand, was the shit, yes I surf. Same story there too
Girl. LOL. If you go by the internet message boards, they stink. People seriously hate on them now. It's a little sad.
Powell was still pretty good even right after the Blind ads, in terms of the team at least. They probably started their decline in 93 or 94.
The Ones were odd. The upper was kind of a weird shape. I never had a pair, but a friend did. I don't think buying a pair was ever an option after I saw what they looked like.
The weird thing about skateboard companies is it seems like being "established" is almost a bad thing. People / kids want the newest, latest thing. At a certain point, the same company doing the same thing just isn't cool anymore.
I'm an old guy and when I stopped skating back in the day, Airwalk was still on top but had totally gone mainstream. It seemed everyone was wearing them and most of those people had never stepped foot on a skateboard or even realized Airwalk was originally a skate shoe company. A little while back I found a web page that posted a PDF of an interview with Sinisa Egelja, one of Airwalks original designers and probably one of the longest tenured employees. He gives great detail on the rise and fall of Airwalk.
http://www.boardistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/airwalkstory.pdf
Thanks for the link. I downloaded the PDF for later. I only skimmed it and it looks like a good read.
Yes, we are a fickle bunch. I know I'm guilty of only wanting new stuff. At the same time, there are established brands that continue to do well, Indy, Spitfire, Venture, OJ, Bones Swiss Bearings, etc.
Near the end it really gets into all the ways they went wrong. Basically they ended up hiring a CEO who hated skateboarding and wanted to turn it into a casual shoe company like Rockport or Nunn Bush or something. Well, as you know that went over like a fart in a diving helmet. The core base left as the quality of their skate stuff went out the window. Plus when something gets too mainstream, skaters kind of revolt. I know a ton of skaters who wouldn't be caught dead in a Thrasher T-Shirt because they see it on too many non skaters now. I still wear all 3 of mine! I'd love to have a reasonable priced re-release of some of their better skate shoes from years past.
A clueless CEO will do it. I really appreciated that the article was designed in Quark.
Thrasher is still skateboarding. I wish they made some of their older shirts again. I've got at least half a dozen because you get a free t each time you renew your subscription. I also bought a Pushead one because I liked the design. It's a good one to have for Halloween.
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