After cleaning out a bunch of old, heavy busted skate shoes from my closet I started to think about ways you could save weight and increase airflow while still preserving durability. After a few trial thumbnails, I landed on a super clean low skate silhouette that I thought was worth exploring.
The main functional element of the upper is the closed seam that separates the durable synthetic leather or nubuck vamp from a breathable 2-layer sandwich mesh in the heel. This will give the sneaker an indestructible front end for flip tricks, while maximizing comfort and airflow in the rear. The placement of the closed seam also maintains the perpendicular line element that has been featured on most of my previous designs. The toecap is designed to be a hot melt synthetic nubuck to add texture. Because the toecap will be bonded to the vamp material through heat, no stitches are necessary.
This was also a chance to loosen up my placement of the logo and stripe detail. After a couple weeks of exploration I determined that a design DNA of all my previous concepts could be maintained with numerous placement executions. I’m pretty happy with the results.
