Made For Skate

Posted by Chris - January 30th, 2009 8:41 am

The Illustrated History Of Skateboarding Footwear
by J. Blumlein, D. Schmid and D. Vogel
Let me start by saying this: Made For Skate is the best shoe history book of all time. Period. And yes, I’m including the dozens of other ’sneaker head’ books that are on the market. None of the multiple basketball-focused shoe books are as detailed as this essential volume on everything skate shoe related.
And I do mean EVERYTHING. The book is broken up into chapters that include Roots (early skate shoes in the 60’s – Vans wasn’t the official first by the way), The Eighties, The Nineties and The New Century to name a few. The attention to detail in each of these sections is unreal. I thought I was pretty well versed in skate shoe history and yet there are entire brands I had never heard of. Of course, the milestone shoes you know and love get the deluxe treatment with photos of the shoes, new and used, multiple magazine ads and in-depth written histories. To name a few from that department: the Converse All-Star, Airwalk Prototype, Etnies Natas and Sal 23s and the dreaded Osiris D3s. What’s even more amazing is that even the most obscure shoes include super rare photos and ads as well. Remember Alva’s own shoe band? Neither do I, but there they are…with multiple mag ads and an action shot. Amazing. It’s also important to note that the book is up to date. Really up to date,the new Cons line is in here as are the Gravis skate line.
There are also some really great stories bundled with the shoe profiles…why did all of the Bones Brigade all sport Air Jordans in Chin? Who was the first pro to be offered his own signature skate shoe only to turn it down? Where did the name Lakai come from? What’s the deal behind the Consolidated Dunk fiasco? It’s all in here.
There are hundreds of skateboard-focused books at this point, but very few capture the rich history and culture of skating in just the right way. Next to my copy of Sean Cliver’s Disposable and the Indy Built To Grind book, I’ll slide in my copy of Made To Skate. It’s that good.
And here’s an added bonus. The Made For Skate website has much of the book available to view. If you’ve read this far you need to head over to the site now and get clicking. It also includes fantastic image sets from the various gallery openings in Europe. So good. And yes, you need to buy the book anyway. This is serious history people.
- Chris


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