Rowley [SPV]

Nieratko: What's different about this shoe than others you've made in the past?

Rowley: "The whole approach is different. I'm tired of listening to people and I'm just going to do whatever the fuck I want this time. I don't think this is a time to be conservative. It's time to make the best, proper skate shoe that you can. This shoe is definitely visually completely different from what you've seen in the past from me. It's a shoe that I wanted to make a very long time ago. I made samples of this kind of shoe seven years ago, but everyone looked at it and went, 'What the fuck is that?' Now we've revisited it, and people are stoked on the way it looks. Vans has the raddest grip, the best fit; they've got it all. It's the original skate shoe as far as I'm concerned, and I think [Vans is] the only one that still gives a fuck and still gives back to skateboarding.

"The biggest thing about it, the whole idea behind the shoe, is that it's a super-lightweight vulcanized shoe. The tread is brand new on it. It's the same waffle tread that's on all the other Vans shoes except that it's slimmed down. We've basically taken all the weight out of the rubber. There's absolutely nothing internally in the shoe. It's about as light and low-cut as a vulcanized shoe could possibly get.

"It has no fucking gimmicks. It's the lightest, lowest, grippiest shoe that you could possibly make. That's basically it, really."