skate shoes
SKATE SHOE SHAPE
High top (or hi-top) skateboard shoes extend over the skater’s ankle, offering stability and protection for your ankles.
Mid top skate shoes are slightly shorter and try to combine the advantages of lo-top and hi-top skate shoes – ankle stability AND movability.
The majority of today’s skate shoes are low top (or lo-top) shoes – lightweight and making it easier to move the ankles.
SKATE SHOE MATERIALS
Skateboard shoes are made of leather, suede, nubuk, rubber, mesh or canvas. Suede and rubber are often used for the toecaps to provide good grip when performing tricks. Tongue and side panels are often made of light canvas or mesh to increase ventilation and decrease the skate shoe’s weight.
SKATE SHOE PADDING / CUSHION
Mainly air and gel pads are used for shock absorption in skateboard shoes although airpads tend to be unstable and burst on high impact.
SKATE SHOE SOLE
Basically there are two skateboarding shoe sole types:
Vulcanized soles: Made of thin rubber and glue-fixed to the upper skateboarding shoe by a rubber stripe. The use of rubber makes the skateboarding shoe flexible and skateable straight out of the shoebox and gives a good boardfeeling. However rubbersoles usually don’t last as long as and don’t offer as much padding as cupsoles.
Cupsoles: Usually poured of polyurethane and then glued and stitched to the upper skateboarding shoe. The polyurethane material is less abrasive and gives more stability than rubber. However to provide a good boardfeeling skateboard shoes with cupsoles need to be worn and broken in for a few days.