Nike SB Zoom FP Wear Test
Shoes and skateboarding. Skateboarding and shoes.
Despite the existence of those grainy-filmed gorilla grippers and the occasional absent-minded long boarder, the connection of skate+shoe is a permanent bond for both mild and wild riders of boards ? so much so that it's looked upon with a collective duh nowadays ? but this wasn?t always the case. Back before things started getting forgotten, we?d just ride what we?d find: basketball shoes, deck shoes, tennis shoes, and sneakers. No one cared. No one thought about it.
(The song of the Beaverton sirens: Nike SB Zoom FP.)
Then came the so-called skate specifics, mainly labled as such because of a signature endorsement by a skate super hero. But most have been tweaked versions of (a) some other jock?s court slappers or (b) some other 50s throwback to play shoes (as opposed to church shoes) that kids wore around the neighborhood.
(Bob delivers.)
(25 men. One bus. What could be better?)
(Zoom FP classroom.)
(The now and former kings of SB Zoom.)
(Could have made a pretty sick colorway just from our lunch.)
(A fine point on sharpness. Hunter Murira.)
Luckily or unluckily (depending on who you ask), today?s offerings literally fill the warehouses, big ships, and boats (and eventually skateshop shelves) of our big-market world, and even the tiniest of know-it-alls claim know the difference between, vulc, cup, and soulless skate footwear. But after all the knowledge, and innovation, and colorways, it?s always the brightest of bright days when you don?t care, you don?t think about the shoes on your feet, and instead you just unconsciously ride your board.
(Ishod Wair knows where the magic is.)
(Big Don.)
(Church in America.)
(Boys are back in town. Chet Childress somewhere down by the bridge.)
It's hard not to think about it, though, when your friends who work for one of the biggest shoe brands in the world invite you to their hometown to do nothing more than skate in some new shoes they came up with.
You almost want to think, criticize, and analyze the whole thing when you're up there in the land of the Ducks, getting all athletic and shit, pouring rubber into waffle irons and shit, experiencing the best shoes ever made in the history of the world and shit.
(Get digi. Joey abides.)
(Maxiapolis' finest. The High 5's Todd Bratrud, Familia's Tucker Gerrick, and Nike SB's Rob Sissi.)
(TSM OG: Jon Humphries and Arro.)
(There's a new bowl in the Nike SB penthouse. Chet disasters.)
As such, Nike SB has another new shoe and it?s no jump off ? at least not a jump from anything you can put your finger on. Although the Zoom FP ($104 USD) does borrow from the simplicity of the past while hinting at the future, you can?t point directly at, say, a Dunk or a Top Sider or some ubiquitous running shoe with the FP and say, ?I see where they got that.?
The shoe has laces, for example, but it?s also a ?toungeless? slip-on sort of affair. The upper is fully synthetic and minimally stitched, but doesn?t appear or feel to be overtly tech. The sole isn?t gummy or plastically or super thin or super fat or obviously one thing or another, but it offers amazing board feel and an unspoken confidence that you aren?t gonna bruise your feet the first time you step on a pebble.
(Pat Smith (targeted here) and Ben Mohr were responsible for the top floor bowl.)
(The Zoom FP tested well with the 18-35 y.o. ping-ponger demographic ? SB's Shea Johnson, Goods' Steve Gonzales, and FTC SAC's Gabe Collins.)
(That place. Windells is sooo worth the trip if you find yourself in Rip City. Bring your tranny pump and your cruise shoes.)
(Snuck away for some Trail Blazers pre-season action. Of course we were all awarded with Chalupas.)
(SB's X Ray tech, Oliver Flores.)
Future and primitive come together in the Zoom FP to produce this newest of SB new, but ?the story? which NikeSB and the rest of the company like to attach to the launch of anything that they roll out isn?t really there. Instead they appear to have delivered a shoe that isn?t claiming to solve a problem, fill a missing link, couple perfectly with a plaid or a hue, or right a previous wrong. Instead they've come out with a simple skate shoe that is somehow new but not too new, proper but not pretentious?a shoe that you can put on, go skating in, and not care.
What do I think about it?
Nothing.
That?s the point of anything worthwhile ... I think.
paul rodriguez travis pastrana mike vallely chad muska bob burnquist
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