Let's all be honest with ourselves right now. Skateboarding kept evolving and has been for decades that the mainstream media and bigger corporations want some piece of the pie. It was once a rebel artform, revolution beyond the streets of outcasts that is all about the hell ride and inherently in an anarchic stance. However, it has become a consistently profitable business or a huge investment.
Consequently, the jewel in the crown of LVMH, the world's largest luxury suitcase maker, Louis Vuitton is now venturing into new territory. The high-end brand well-known for greatest designs has created a signature lv skate shoe.
But when the former Thrasher editor in chief Jake Phelps was still alive, for him fashion's obsession with skateboarding is "corny as shit."
"We laugh! Because it's corny as shit!" Jake Phelps said. "You can tell that people want to bite it because skateboarding is the hardest fucking thing known to mankind. I mean, Rodney Mullen: shit, come on! It's fucking hard! It ain't no friendship club, that's for damn sure." Phelps said. "And now you've got rappers like Lil Wayne trying to get into skateboarding. Any saturation of skateboarding into the mainstream is good, in a way, because it's good for us. But at the same time, it's corny as fuck." Phelps continued saying that, "What's sad but true is that a lot of the clothing companies that suck are what's propelling the industry right now. So now you can buy the skateboard look and look like a skater, but not ever take a hit in your life. Phelps also mentioned. "If you're dressed like that and you've never slammed on a skateboard, then you know that you're just fucking lying to yourself, basically."
Professional skaters such as Eric Koston, Nyjah Houston, and Paul Rodriguez are some of the household names that were signed to Nike SB and are also competing in globally televised skateboarding contests like the X-Games and Street League Skateboarding. Not to mention, skateboarding was supposed to make it in the Olympics in Tokyo this year hence, the COVID-19 situation suspended the event. Supreme also collaborated with Louis Vuitton where it all started and as a result, the first-ever Louis Vuitton Skateboarding Shoe was born.
The creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear and one of the powerful people in the streetwear industry Virgil Abloh has revealed on Instagram that Louis Vuitton signed the first skateboarder deal with Lucien Clarke, allowing Clarke to design his own lv skateboard shoe.
As mentioned in the Instagram post below, Lucien Clarke teamed up with Thrasher magazine for a full advertisement in which he is seen wearing his pro Louis Vuitton skate shoe and the coinciding video part will probably release at the end of the year. Despite the fact that Phelps is not about fashion the ad on the magazine probably won't make it if he is still alive.
Core skaters were not having it and were mocking the skate shoe and some say it is the end of skateboarding which is just like what Jake Phelps feels about the fashion in the skate industry. The lv skate sneaker will probably cost more than an actual shoes that core skaters wear so it's not ideal for someone to skate it but if you view them as an investment, it will surely be profitable as LV's regular shoe price is $700 USD. No matter what normal people say that that it's just a shoe, puting the name "skate" in a shoe means a lot in skateboarding as it is meant to be to skated.
Maybe the Louis Vuitton skate shoes will plummet or it will be a game changer and hit sky rocket, who knows maybe it's going to be just like Icecream skate shoes or DGK Rebook? Only time will tell.
As a skate rat and you've been given a once in a life time chance to join Virgil Abloh's Louis Vuitton skate team to represent the lv skateboarding shoe and make bug bucks, will you ever ride for the brand? Or you will pass the opportunity and stay true to what you believe that it should be forever underground?