The design process was the same: drawing things, making models. I opened the shop with my best friend, Trevor Thompson. The process was extremely stressful and hectic. In terms of design, for me, that’s a good ethos anyway: keep pulling stuff away until you feel like you find the right spot. Something classic has that capacity where it’s just enough-but not too much-in the right places simple but has enough detail where it feels really considered and can stand out. Everyone has footage from ten-or-so years back where you’re like, “I wore my pants like that? What was I thinking?” The same can be extended to footwear. But skateboarding has gone through a lot of fashion phases and changes. I wanted to make what I wanted to make, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t set out to dream of this thing being timeless or existing ten-plus years from now. To me, the nice thing is that those two goals overlap a lot. Did you set out to design a shoe that would have a broader appeal? Or were you focused on making the shoe you wanted? That’s just how I work.įew signature skate shoes have stuck around for a long time, but those that have-like the Vans Half Cab or the Nike SB Janoski-have had a huge appeal outside of skating too. Maybe it’s because of the background I have in architecture, we make models, or maybe I studied architecture because I like to make models. I like to be able to hold it and say, “Do I like this? What do I hate?” and move on from there. I think switching back and forth between different modes of making and thinking about stuff is really important, at least for me in the process of iteration and narrowing in on something. You’re so focused on connecting this to that, you might not see an opportunity. To build a model, I get really into that process and sometimes, along the way, you get different ideas than when you’re all the way zoomed into a 3D model. We work so digitally now but it's hard for me to get excited about a digital image. For a shoe there’s a lot of, like, “Does it look good from the top down,” or “What does this feel like?” but sometimes it’s more to convince myself I like something. Sometimes it’s essential just to wrap my head around it. How important are tangible iterations in your approach to design? But thanks to an uncanny ability to perform well under pressure, Sablone earned enough from competition skating to make rent and pay her way through undergraduate and master’s degrees. Sablone spent years on the periphery of paid sponsorship, instead relying on competitions for a living, while most male skaters at her level could support themselves with lucrative endorsement deals. The skateboarding industry has only recently begun to make strides in non-male representation. were released today, companies would immediately queue to offer sponsorship opportunities like those Sablone finally now gets, over 20 years later. Sablone pops sharply, flicks with authority, and clears stair sets double her size. Ladd’s Wonderful, Horrible, Life (2002) with a minute of footage that was a resounding anomaly in skating: an unknown girl from the East Coast skating to “Mambo Italiano” with power and style on par with any of skateboarding’s (almost entirely male) professionals. At 16, she debuted in the cult favorite skate video P.J. Alexis Sablone began skating, mostly alone, at age 9 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
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