Welcome back to the Turbo Sports Radio. Me, Ryan Dodds, and over in Canada, we've got Mr. Fuck Bill Will Hickey. How's it going, mate?
Yeah, it's got a good man, how you doing? It could be much better, mate. It could be much better because, I mean, it's hot to press. Super excited for, you know, had my iron before the release date, you know, and waiting for the release date.
And when I finally saw a shop that had them in stock in a size 9 UK 9 US 10, I just, I'd buy them there and then, and people thinking, I mean, if you're thinking, what am I talking about? You're living under a rock. What I am talking about, mate, is the nine times vans Rowley XLT. That's the baby there, mate.
Right. Right. Right. Obviously, like this is radio.
So unfortunately, if you need to see a picture of it, you can just Google Rowley XLT and you'll be able to see it probably better than how I'm showing wheel right now. But it's a, mate, it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful shoe. Yeah, that's looking, uh, it's looking exactly how it needs to make the nice little diamond logo on the side XLT stamped into the back of the heel. Nice, gum, soul.
Oh, lovely, mate. It's weird, right? Because I've been skating the Nike SB Bruin React sort of shoe, the Slimer sort of shoe, but still wide, there's still wide shoe, they're just a bit more slim down. Had my gold on the Adidas's and they're just, they're way too thin for me.
We've spoken about this before, but you, what you gain in kind of control, your flip and your flip might be quick and anything you lose in a lot of other things. You lose stomp stability. It's more kind of accurate skating whereas when I first got these shoes, like they were particularly big, they were bigger than like an SXL or anything like that. You know, they weren't particularly puffy or, or a links.
Yeah. So I didn't know what to expect when I, when I clicked by and waited, you know, they came the next day as well, makes obviously they're over 100 quid. So they're gonna get that next day delivery. They're gonna have to do that to kind of protect themselves.
So it kind of, it's one of those, but they're a lot chunkier. They are a lot chunkier than I kind of was expecting them to be. I think they were gonna be a little bit bigger, but when you put, when you feet, mate, and obviously I told the turbo boys that they're a slipper at the moment, they don't go outside. You know, they're not gonna be going outside for a while, but they feel so good.
And it makes me wonder, it's like, fuck, if I just be missing out, why did I kind of leave? You know, I held it true with the SXL slipper a while, mate. You don't get me wrong. I did, I held, but I, you know, it's, it's that re appreciation of why you, for example, still like a puffy tongue.
Yeah, exactly. It's, it's nice seeing a shoe like that. It's, it's a proper throwback. Yes.
They are just, you know, because even when I showed you on the camera, mate, it doesn't look particularly bulky. No, but it doesn't look small. No, no, it doesn't. It's, but you can see the tongue is a nice, it's a nice puffy tongue.
Yeah. I'm not gonna get all the words right on the, the breakdown of the shoe. Again, if you want to, if you want to really deep dive, shoe review, there's, I'm sure there's a YouTube channel with an old boy that knows all the terms. Yeah.
But I'll start, you know, let's start with a tongue mate, super, super beautiful puffy tongue with the, the vans and the rally logo underneath it, which is always a nice touch seeing that. Always makes you feel good. You've got the classic kind of, it's like more of a modern touch at the time. It was more of a modern kind of swoosh of the van's wave or whatever you want to call it.
Yeah. Yeah. No, definitely. It's a slightly different kind of shape.
Maybe because the shoe that it's on, it looks different, but it's not the same wave that's on a, like a new era or any of those other shoes that I don't really know the names of. The gum feels the same as the original gum because this gum, this is sticky gum. Nice. This isn't, this isn't, I don't know if you can hit, I can see that.
It's always getting that sweet cat of it because it's so, it's, it's really sticky gum. So, super grippy. Super grippy. But they were super grippy.
Yeah. They were super, I mean, I remember these went down. It was a sad day when, because I skated these for probably two years straight or whatever it was, taping them up and everything like that. But when they got so thin that you're, it was, there's probably like two millimeters away from your, from the bottom of your foot.
Yep. And you know, one day it's like, I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to buy another shoe. Oh yeah. And you're not going to get these shoes.
Ah, definitely something as well about that. Like a waffle grip on that. I'm not too sure if it is. Yeah.
It is. Yeah. It's just, you're not getting that, obviously bands are a big shoe cooperation now and they were still big when the XLT first came out, but they were really kind of in that striving progression of new skate shoes, really big and relevant. And I think, remember as a kid having a shoe with a waffle grip, it was almost mesmerizing, you know, it wasn't many shoes like that.
You know, you had your, your nights and things like that that had like prominent soles and things like that. But there was nothing like a waffle grip. And especially on like a cup sole. Yeah.
You know, you're going to get them on those flimsy flimsy bolts that you get your feet bad in, but you never really got it on a proper skate shoe. You know, what I'm getting at, it just feels authentic. It feels super kind of authentic. And even like the little turned up kind of like running shoe kind of detail that isn't actually, it's just, it's just a side really.
There isn't anything different in there, but it just looks like it's turned up, which is kind of gives it more of that athletic sort of style, which is kind of my sort of sees, you know, I like that kind of look on the, the toe box there, mate. That little bit, that little bit of gray is actually like a 3M sort of like reflective piece on there, which is a super cheeky little touch, you know, like that is, because I can't remember if the original side that they surely didn't. Did they? I can't.
I can't remember. I might have a little Google, but one of my first vans, which I'm saying probably come out before the XLT. I might, I might be wrong. The either the DC Spectra twos, and they had a couple reflective notes on them, and they had right on the front of the toe box a very similar thin line across and just being a kid having a new mildly technical shoe when you didn't have it.
Things are that really stuck out. So it's kind of like big, big things to remember. Oh, yeah, definitely. Definitely.
And, you know, obviously it's got the lovely XLT logo on the heel, which was iconic. Yes. But I do like a lot of people have been reading a lot of comments, mate, because I'm on all these social media channels just perving over the shoe, waiting for them to come out. And so many people are hating on the dime, kind of the dime logo on it, saying it's ruining everything.
It's like, I'm going to get into this. Dime, we're probably the ones that touched base with vans initially. It wasn't rarely asking for the XLT. Yep.
He's skating in a shoe. You can see him. I've got the shoe that he kind of skates in a lot now. It's the, it's like the, it's the LT or something like that.
It's got the motorhead colab on there as well. So it's a really cool shoe. It's a puffy, puffy, a van shoe, but, you know, not, not as, not as cool as the XLT. But so many people are hating on the van at the dime stuff.
And it's like, these boys got you the shoe. And also, I don't know if they've realized, but the original rally on like the heel, mate, just on the side of the heel, that was white. Yeah. Because it went with the stripe that was on the side of the sole.
So what they've done, it's really nicely and subtly as they've just, they've just put themselves where that white kind of font type was before. And they put their name on there. It's a really super understated place. It's on the fucking heel.
It's not in your face. They haven't even, if Dime really wanted to, they could have gone on the, the tongue. They could have tried to get that logo. They didn't do it.
They, and it's done, it's a really nice plastic, it's kind of like a plastic kind of vibe to it. Nice. Yeah. It was something, I don't know what they call it.
But it's like, and the only other dime logo they've got is on just there. Yep. And that is kind of scribed into the suede. Yeah.
What are people crying about? You've got the shoe in your hand, you know? Yeah, I don't get it. Just letting you know, mate, yeah, the little was on the original.
And it was, and it was three M as well, mate. Is that like, was it reflective? It looks reflective. It does look reflective, didn't it?
Yeah. Because it's not the same sort of color as the white. Maybe, because fuck, I knew enough, 3M was about, or it might have been about, but not have, may have not been like, as widely known as 3M, it might have just been known as reflective strip. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm sure if you worked in like, the construction game back then, you might know. Yeah, that's it. Yeah.
But yeah. I can understand why some people might think they have the right to disdime on something like this. But without them, to right, mate, you know, just one person, if Rowley was like, all right, bands, I want to recreate this. And they might be like, you know, we have to think about that sort of thing.
But when you have more than one person and a whole entire company behind it, there's a lot more push, there's a lot more money, you know, to get these things made again and kind of modernized a little bit so that, you know, they work with modern day times. And that's not going to happen without someone like I'm, you know, sticking their aura in and giving an extra person. They've helped out and done so many different reissues of people that have been really tasteful. They work really good, mate.
Like, wow, you wouldn't abort them if it wasn't, regardless if time did or not. You're only getting them because of how nostalgic it is to you as well. And I just like, I will get on to how much we love the, well, fuck it, we'll say how much we love the shoe, mate. This shoe is one of, you know, you can tell how excited I am.
This shoe is one of my, one of my shoes. Don't mean it's one of my shoes in, in my clap, you know, my all, if I was going to show stars, shoe stars, the XLT's in it hands down. There isn't, it's 100%. It could be number one.
It could be number one of my, my, on my all stars. So I absolutely fucking love this shoe and to be offended by four letters on the side of a shoe. And that's not a bit around the bush, mate. Don't I'm sweet as fuck?
They're so cool. They are, they are dripping in skateboarding. They're not, they're not some cash cow motherfuckers just trying to, trying to get some of this piece of pie. Everything they do is skateboarding.
Like, I mean, let's move on to the advert, mate. The intro for it. It's dripping in skateboarding. Like, you know, the humor within it is skateboard humor, you know, rally in the bath, going on a plane, you know, money, money fine everywhere.
It's like, it's just, I mean, yeah, what do you think about the advert? Because I loved it. I'm pretty sure I watched it twice just with how, how funny it was, you know, and skateboarding used to be like that more often than not always a bit more jockey and outlandish. And I think that kind of brought it all back as well that skateboarding is just fucking fun, whatever you're doing in with it.
And dying really captured the having fun with whatever their tie in into stuff and rally can do that as well. So it was just so, you know, smiles all around, mate, great watch. Yeah, I mean, the fact that like he's, you know, they've got that pilot, oh boy, turn it up at Jeff Rowley's camp. He says about the XLT and Rowley's like, the XLT, I'm at that name in a long time.
And then they do the the pulp fiction, open up the briefcase in the glowing, glowing light kind of hitting Rowley in the face and then, you know, getting him to get him to reanimate as, you know, as the XLT. Yeah. And then he's in the back of limo doing a shave on the, on the plane, printing money, you know, it was just, it was perfect. Absolutely perfect.
It just gave me, it gave me that sense of skateboarding that I've been missing for a long time. So I mean, really kind of gave it gave it back to me. It's like, fuck, you can, you can still do it the same old way, you know, you can still be, you can still be in that place that you were. You can still appreciate, I mean, we appreciate new weapons coming skateboarders, more than a lot of people, always like to have my friend on a pulse and give props where people deserve it.
But, you know, and we always joke about it on the all-stars, but it's your time, whenever your time was, whenever your time was, that's your special little place and you're never, you're never going to get it back. So having, having a physical artifact from that time, you know, giving to you by the time guys, it's just beautiful, mate. I can't, I can't thank those guys enough. Yeah, no, it's fucking awesome.
And everything goes full circle, mate. You know, it comes back and everyone, you know, sometimes you might, a year or two ago, you might have even thought about an XLT popping back and something like that happened. Just how cool is it? You know, yeah, big things from Daim always.
So that's really cool. Great. Just to have Rowley stay in relevant, not saying that he isn't, you know, he's always doing something amazing and progression, whatever he's doing, skateboarding life, his outdoor pursuits and stuff. And he has had a part out this year as well, I mean, he has, he did put that freedom part out, which was pretty cool.
Obviously it was just a lot of aqueducts, but it's still quite gnarly, if you want to say that word, it was gnarly shit because aqueducts, there isn't, there's no other way of describing an aqueduct mate, if you're just getting that is. And we'll take an aqueduct from Rowley because that's what you want to see. So did you see like the, the videos of the event in Paris, mate, do you see any of that stuff? Well, I thought that was a really cool set up where the rail was like the closed rail and they're like the gap and over it, tricking on it.
You know, it was awesome. It seemed to be quite if you'd cool faces there. And obviously, you know, like the Canadian, quite the Canadian boys in the Dime squad seemed to be kicking off really. It seemed like a really cool event.
It's annoying. It's like they're the sort of events you'd love to be a part of. I mean, it's cool seeing it. Awesome.
They filmed it and took some great pictures of it. But it'd be like, that's a sort of event just to have it sink a BMA, have a little smoke on the side. Enjoy the, enjoy the whole scenario. Even the way they kind of had, I think the landing ramp, was that like one of the pictures that was on the wall in like the cabin that they kind of put together?
It might have been, yeah. I think they kind of, they kind of, it looked half-assed, you know, in a way, but started to be done. So they've obviously built, you know, they built ramps for the glory challenge mate. So they know how to kind of put something together, construct something that may look kind of authentic and still is, you know, but it's functional.
No one's going to land on a ramp and fucking break through it because no one wants to see that. Yeah. It looked like a, I think it's like a picture of sunset or something like that. Yeah.
I think it was hanging over where the shoes were, but then they kind of repurposed it, popped it down knowingly, you know, that was a part of the gig and everything. But it just, it kept the illusion of, you know, this is kind of like a dime store selling the rallies, all kind of, you know, in a cabin style place that Rowley would want it to be sold in, like you said, with the outdoors and that sort of stuff. It kind of, everything kind of fit together nicely. I was just, yeah, it was a cool event.
Really cool. Just what a cool person as well. I'd love to meet Rowley. I think it'd be a top-down.
It is, I have met him. It's one of the, it's one of the pictures, you know, I don't get, you know, I've had some pictures with Penny, you know, there's an old crew picture with me, you, Penny and Taylor and maybe Malcolm or something all outside the shop at one point. It's a really cool little lineup. So, you know, I've got that sort of stuff.
I've got, you know, I've got countless moments with Penny that I don't need to be, you know, I don't need to be sharing left or right and something. You know, it's just one of those things that you don't need to do it. But when I met Rowley, you know, I'll kind of reiterate why I'm saying this, but like when I met Rowley, met him, spoke to him at the 50th anniversary event, went down on the Saturday or something. And he was just, just went up to him, spoke to him.
We were just chatting. Then we kind of spoke about SS20, spoke about Tom Penny and everything kind of worked around and everything like that. I got a picture of him. I actually took a picture on my, on my DLSR.
So, you know, it's quite a nice picture. But if you see the fucking smile on my face, mate, like the boy, like the child inside me just come out and next to Jeff Rowley, I don't think there's many people on the planet that could have that could have made me feel that way and look that way. Like they said, this is fucking Jeff Rowley. Because, you know, I'm not going to find that over a lot of people.
And, you know, I've met some, I mean, they're doing wrong. You're finding that inside, maybe controlling it. But certain people, you can't, you can't control it. You know, it's like, for fuck's sake, because I've said many a time when I've seen, I've seen Reynolds, I've been a game of skate on the Venice Beach with a few of the Baker boys.
I couldn't go over there and ruin that. Saw it from a distance, you know, like 20 yards away, that's something, mate. But I can't go over there and go, Andrew, you know, it might even cool a bit. But I can't do that.
Whereas Rowley wasn't a vent. And I couldn't contain that one. You know, he was just, he is one of my, him and Reynolds, they are the reason why I do the front side. You know, I love the kick look so much.
You know, so Rowley is, he is at top like such, such a nice old boy. Got a lot of time for anyone who's just willing just to obviously don't want to be chewing his ear off. You want to listen to him asking questions. Let him do the talking because he's been there and done it.
But yeah, he's such, such an awesome guy. Well, let me just, uh, pretty interesting. Let me just play off on that. I've not met him and haven't, you know, had an interaction with him.
But, um, sometimes I listen to the Steve O podcast, just an audio one as well as the YouTube one. But he was saying that he was having like a little, little party get together thing. Steve O was invited. Rowley and Rowley was like, yeah, I'd love to come.
So we turned up, he invited him. I think Steve O had like a little mini round ball half pipe though, so he's like invited some friends and some skaters that he knows. He invited Rowley. And apparently, you know, he was just having a good old chat to everyone.
Even Steve O said he was going, I was just Rowley. He's here. And, um, apparently, you know, yeah, had a great time. And before he left me, he went to everyone and said goodbye.
Like kind of like, all right, nice to meet you goodbye. I'm kind of one of those people, you know, maybe it's the English, you know, we do a lot of greeting highs and buys, you know, it's quite drilled in, I think. And that's a sort of thing respectful people do and they've met nice people and you leave them with an impression. And what, what a tough guy to go and do that.
You know, obviously being probably a lot more famous than some of the people there and not on the other side, but nowhere to go around and, you know, do your peas and ques get you along with me. And it just kind of shows, shows you what's up, person you are. Yeah, it just shows that he's not big time, you know, shows him, he's, he's, he's humble. Yeah.
Met some nice people and he doesn't want to just flake out, you know, he wants to go out to someone and yeah, shake around or whatever, you know, whatever, however he does it. It's funny you said that Steve O, they make because when Rowley posted his shoe, when it released, Steve O said like, fuck yeah, or something like that. And Rowley responds to it. It's like one of the first comments on there.
Oh, nice. I'll have to send you some of your legend or something like that. So it all kind of makes sense that they are, you know, they're tighter than people know they are, you know, they're connecting. Yeah, awesome.
So that would be cool to mention. Just put just popped into my head. But, um, mate, how obviously I know you're a, you're a black shoe motherfucker, navy shoe motherfucker, you know, those sort of, those short lines. Yeah, obviously, we're two other colorways, kind of a white and white and a blue and yellow, those that colorway and maybe something else.
Yeah, so there was a, a birch, I think it was, which was there kind of like the more tanny kind of, it's like an off white color, I think. Yes. And then there was, was there like a weird pinky sort of fucking thing? Was there really kind of outrageous, I think there was a really like outrageous colorway.
It might have been, let's, let's try and do some research for the people here. I just got them up. No, I think it's, oh no, these are OGs. Yeah.
So you're gonna ask me what I thought about the other colorways, mate. Yeah, we'll just just hit on the other colorways and then we can talk about some classic ones. Yeah. So the, the other colors, they released that birch one, I thought was a really kind of nice, nice touch.
I'm not sure if they did it back in a day, but it was a really classy kind of what rally could possibly wear back in a day. You know, I think he could work with it. The other one looked a little bit kind of out there to me, a little bit too funky. And I think even when Dine posted it or Vans posted it, you could see Don Brown from S kind of comment on it saying like fucking out, whatever, you know, they're a little bit, they're a little bit wild and even rally responding going, yeah, they're, it's probably an inside joke, but they were, they were a little bit kind of cheekier than he would probably go for.
Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Is that, is that, is that it, mate?
Was that the one? Yeah. That's it. I just come across them.
Yeah. So it's a pink and black. And to be fair, mate, if they're from a diamond from Montreal, aren't they? Yeah.
Yeah. See if they were from Calgary, you're kind of naked woods. I mean, that's Brett, they hit my own heart colors there. Yeah.
They're actually from, from that angle, I think they're not as bad, but they're a little bit loud. Yeah, definitely. And you know what? Sometimes there's got to be a loud one in the bunch, isn't they?
I've got the exchange between Don Brown and Jeff Rowley. Well, Rowley puts, punk is not dead. And then he says, come, Rowley says, comes with a neon green headband and a swatch watch. So that, you know, he knows they're a little bit, a little bit wild, but like some people want wild, don't they?
Some people want to be, you know, have a cheekier kind of touch. So it's not terrible, but the other ones, I think, are looking at them are really, really nice. Still with the gun bottom, which kind of pulls it all together. Yeah, like a, like a birch and wipes combo, really, really nicely done.
You know, if I, if I could keep those sort of colored shoes, mate, clean, I wouldn't be against getting someone in, but I can't do it. I can't do it. Especially when you're skating, mate. So it's not an easy task.
Yeah, well, I mean, for me, I'm walking across fields going to a pub, mate. Yeah. So you're never going to get across a field in those shoes without ruining them. They are going to be permanently going to be able to have some grass, grass stain, cow shit, you name it.
It's going to be, uh, cemented into that shoe. Yeah, it's almost, I'd say some slippers, mate, won't they? Unless you know, you're going out in some dry concrete weather. Yeah, I wait for the summer, mate.
Yeah, I mean, I wait for the summer for the rallies to make an appearance. And John know fucking asking me, can I still frontside flip on them? Mate, the frontside will be fucking perfect in these things. Oh, the built for it.
Mate, yeah, I do not need to be, I do not need to do any sort of flick on these shoes. They don't deserve a frontside flip flick because that's an inside, inside down flick that is a strong, striker to match. It's not like a little flick. It's not like a trade flip flick where you're actually not really touching it.
Yeah, it's not like a backside flip either. You can't just play it. No, it's, it's, it's under inside and under to make that flip do it, especially the way you do as well, mate, because you, you have more of like the proper, not complete illusion flip, but it kind of, it does a nice close close to close to a musker. And that is an inside flick.
That's doing it. Anyway, we'll do that, right? Yeah, there is no, no, no, no stuff like an involved. Yeah, I mean, let's let's just talk about Jeff Rowley's original XLT advert, mate.
Ah, I'm actually, I thought I had the original one, but I don't know. This is definitely the different one. Yes. So I saw that.
Yeah, this I think that's the original print ad. Yeah, definitely. But I'm talking about the the video, the video ad with the frontside flip over there. It says like Jeff Rowley, Liverpool, England.
And he's got a voice over talking about, you know, the shoe he wants to skate in all this stuff and the performance was got a shoe and he's just rolling down his aqueduct and just does a most perfect frontside flip over like what they call LA river or something, you know, that sort of deal on these two, yeah, ramp to ramp exactly. Yeah. And I'm sure I'm sure he does kick flip it gets a frontside flip and I'm sure Arto sorry, it's a backside flip on it in like, sorry. Right.
Yeah, I'm sure if you see, because obviously Arto and Jeff's always had this weird kind of like their mates, everything, but they've always had this weird competitiveness about each other. You know, if you remember Rowley's front frontside lip side down that double kinker that middle on that competition maybe like a year or so ago, with the flip back lip, but Rowley first front lip that and then in the eight workshop video or whatever it was, or a flip video, Arto backside lips it. Oh, you know what I mean? It's a one up.
Yeah. So they've always, they've always had that. I mean, I would say frontside flip it's easier. But then again, throwing a backside flip that blindly over something that big mate.
Oh, mate. To catch that, you know, like frontside flips probably technically harder, but once you've thrown a backside, like you are, you're in limbo land, right? You're kind of fucking just hoping, when you look over your shoulder, you're straight. Yeah, you just, ah, it's just leading you, leading you where you're going.
At least we were frontside flip. You can just fling, can't you? You could just fling and just be up in the air. See where you're going.
Yeah. But with a backside flip, I suppose, you just got to trust, trust the process. Yeah. Oh, definitely.
But I thought that that advert mate was just obvious era. You know what I mean? It was just obvious time. It was just, it was perfect.
They had the the van's logo in the corner with like the circle with the wave in it, which I always really liked like the oval and the little van's wave in there, which I think they should bring that logo back more. I think it was just just more of the 2000s, you know, 99 2000s sort of era. Oh, mate. So such a good shoe and just in awe of all the color ways that have been out in all the XLTs, just they've had some good color, they've had some good color ways mate.
They've had, I like the black, the black and reds always been a favorite of mine. I do like that. That's a business, you know, that's getting shit done, you know, you can wear some black trousers, black T-shirt, some black XLTs and get shit done, but those mate, that's, but they've had some really weird, they've had some loud ones in there as well, mate. They've had some super fucking garish ones in there, but I've always liked that there's been a white one with a red, a red van's logo, I think, which I thought was a really classic touch.
I thought that was a really nice, I suppose that's probably what this new, this newer light ones have written from as well. Yeah, it's a bit closer to that, but I really like that white, it's like white, gray and red. That's it. I did have a picture of it not too long ago, let me get it up right now.
Like there's two white, I think there's two white color ways, or they're way more than two white color ways, but here we go. There's two. Oh, yeah, yeah. They're both nice.
They're both fresh, mate. I don't, which one do you prefer? Those? That's this one is almost a bit more quieter, but the yellow, but the gray and the red mix really well on that one.
Yeah, that's a, because that yellow cheeky accent of yellow do just pull that shoe together. That's a nice, I mean, you have to keep the right gear on as well, mate, to keep that looking fresh, but the good thing about having a gay, a gay shoe, is that you could wear a gay hoodie with it. So you could wear a gay hoodie. Yeah, you could wear a gay hoodie.
You'd be gay. You'd be gay. Yeah, you'd wear a gray hoodie, gray, gray sole of a shoe. Yeah.
Just that alone can actually pull shit together, mate. People don't understand the power of the color of the sole, you know, like it can really, really pull shit together. So many good XLT color ways. I can remember having pretty sure they were all black, red stripe, maybe even almost a leathery, not a suede, like a leathery sort of feel.
And the inside the sole was graffiti, and that was kind of what I typed on as the child, it was all graffiti on the inside. What the actual insole you could pull out was graffiti. Yeah. That's sweet.
That's nice. And I got that from, there used to be, I don't know, vans in Vista Village. That was my go to mate. Yeah, that was nice.
You know, a really good fucking van back in the day. It was such a true good van sharpened. Anything from there back then was great. And some really good deals there as well, mate.
That place kept me fucking going. You go there back in the day and get yourself some vans for 1999. Mate, I got some for a tenor. They were terrible.
They were terrible. I think I was thinking about it now. But the kick of the bike down the Yox Pen 7s there, that's where in those really, they're almost like a blazer, like a leather, puffy blazer, they look terrible. I must have said it before, I got taken a piss out of when I was at the table by someone else saying that you're buying your granddad shoes or something.
And it's like, shit, like everyone's just like kind of laughing at me. It's like cheers. I've got a tenor, skating's on my shoes fall apart. These will do.
These will do. They've got, and what I can remember is they had a decent kind of soul to them. So I knew they weren't going to perish. They had this kind of bulkier kind of remembered them.
Around that sort of era, fans didn't have like, it wasn't waffle, but it was almost like circles, like all cylinders on the bottom of the soul really tightly knitted together. So they were probably heavier than you'd want them to be the shoe because of how thick it was. But they had a good grip on them and they'd last long enough. So that's the reason why I bought them.
And they were ten, obviously. Oh fuck. Was there any other places you could go as well and guarantee a cheaper shoe without no. So we'll just talk about vans for a second.
Make obviously pick up to vans for going along with this, getting out there, even under being this new massive corporation that they are, apparently still holding it down for the skaters. They've got this reanimation series. So this is the inaugural shoe of the reanimation series. So it's the first one.
Decent. Good way to go. I'm just going to say, what shoe would you like to see? And I'm not just saying vans, mate.
Is there a shoe? I mean, you've probably been blessed and we've been blessed seeing a Stevie William, seeing the K-listies. So we've been quite lucky in that respect. Is there another kind of shoe that maybe you'd like to see?
We'll keep this going, mate. We've just seen Musca have a shoe out with this. So that's a good, I mean, we can talk about that, really. How cool was that to see?
Oh, great. I follow loads of OG shoe sort of things. And one of the biggest ones is everyone talking about the Musca's, bring out the Musca's. And Musca being such the big, big iconic person he is, you can't just reissue someone from one of the main men.
Same with Rowley, you've got to do your research, you've got to make sure everyone's on board and really perfect it. And yeah, they look sweet, mate. I was able to check a couple of pairs of the Musca's out that it's one in grey and blue that I checked out. And they were a very nice thing.
And if I had a little bit extra money in the bank at that time, I would have taken those straight home. Well, those ones, obviously, they've got the red and black colour as well, but I've seen Kelly Hartskate in the grey ones. I think it might be at Peerold's Park or something like that. And he was looking, he looked fresh, mate.
The grey was definitely... Because you don't really get to see a lot of grey shoes. Not like that, no. So seeing someone wear some nice grey shoes and just with an old school kind of shape that is in, you know, people trying to get these big fucking shoes out there now, you know, people just mainstream fashion wants a bit of skateboard and a bit of bulky shoe.
But seeing the Musca, you know, seeing that shoe out, I mean, I would prefer, there's a different Musca that I prefer to see out. You know, that's just how it is. But that isn't a bad Musca to have out. The recent Thunder of only Krieger as well, mate.
Oh, mate. And I've seen the Krieger as well. Same shop. How is it?
Really fucking cool. And it from being, you know, same as you from the era where these were normal shoes. When you see it, it just kind of, you just click with it because it's not, you know, we used to see more technical shoes coming out and things changing all the time. So just going back and seeing like a classic skate shoe is strange, but really pleasing.
Yes, I bet you it is, mate. I'm just thinking about that grey Musca again, but like holding that, you know, being able to hold that grey Musca in your hand, you know, I bet that is, that does just, like we're saying, just takes you back to a time when you would have taken, and you might not be able to afford it because generally a lot of those pro shoes were a bit more expensive. But at the time, to be able to just go into a route one of the legends and SS20, you know, whatever, slam six skates and pick up a, pick up an old, you know, like a fucking Musca and just smell it, you know, like this shoe, this fucking shoe. And it was, you know, it might be an eight-quid at the time.
It's like eight-quid to spend on a fucking shoe. And it's not, it's middle of summer, end of the day, it's not near Christmas. This shoe was not happening for me. Yeah.
I mean, like, it's in the bag and then. Yeah, exactly. But I was just going to look at going back before we came on, mate, and I was making notes of like a lot of the old pros that kind of getting shoes and everything. You know, you've got Musca.
Reynolds is getting his own kind of, you know, they're bending a little bit of a new balance, making him a shoe. You know, I'd like to see that go a little bit further, but you know, I don't know how well that's going to really work. You know, I'm still kind of, you know, skeptical on the whole Reynolds with new balance deal. I just, I don't know where, they're good with skaters, you know, you've got to go over there.
They've got Jake, Jake Hayes over there as well. Yeah. So they've got some big-time players, but I just, I'm still, I'm still waiting to see if they do kind of give back to skateboarding, if they really, really want to give the skateboarding, do a big-time video, proper video, proper skate shoe. You know, I just, I'm waiting on that one.
But you know, we've had Williams and Kayless, the one I'd like to see, which kind of happened is, I think they call it the silo now, maybe on S, it's the cost, the cost in three. Was it the event or something like that? Or it might be the silo. There's one shoe they kind of kind of replicate the cost in three.
Yeah, it's got like the same same things, but that's not completely the same. I think that was the event of all the events, yeah. Yeah, the hem got like the turned up toe. It doesn't look exactly like the shoe, because Penny was iconic for skating that shoe.
You know, like he's, when you saw Penny in his prime, he was probably, he probably had some cost in three times feet. Yeah, and it was almost kind of that almost basketball style, but not kind of shoe, you know, that sort of, yeah, definitely on the sides and stuff. Because it was leather, wasn't it? Yeah.
So it did, yeah, it did have that kind of, that kind of stitching in the side, kind of giving it that technical sports shoe shape of the time. Yeah, I don't know if you ever remember like the cost in four or fives, this is when it obviously was, they weren't a good shoe. My friend had the next, it must be a four or five, you know, they might not be in a five, but it was one, it was after that. And they just, they were very ugly.
Yeah. ugly shoe. They weren't, they weren't great at all. You know, I think it was back then it was because shoes were so good and technical and had a lot of just effort put into them.
And then we're trying to modernize it while making it lighter, more aerodynamic, get more feel. Some of it, you're just sacrificing so much other parts of a shoe that some of the shoes just really didn't go as good as they, you know, some of them did refine out to the maximum and some of them just didn't, they just couldn't, couldn't perform like that. Yeah, I've got a picture of the cost in five, it's a cost of four, sorry mate. So they probably would have been durable, but man, they were a fucking bulky, ugly, bulbous looking shoe.
Yeah, just looking like a pair of boots. Yeah, I can see what they're trying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not, it's like a really, it's like a wack Stevie Williams, you know, it's like, it's just, yeah, no good. And you know, if they jiggle that round a little bit back then, they could, might have been able to make it work, they're just just not right there.
No, it is probably even like anyway soon, mate. It's already talking to Tiger Woods. So I've got, I've got a little, obviously Penny's, Penny's been putting out some more shoes, they're giving up any two, which is really nice to see. Yep.
He's still shredding it, he was obviously with Jeff at the event, you know, which was awesome to see. So, so nice to see those two. Like, as soon as I saw that, I showed, I like held it because it was a kind of story, what I've been showed at Ashley and look at the boys. Nice.
Look at that. It's just like, screenshot it as well, mate, because that stuff is golden. Seeing Jeff and Tom together. Both, yeah, happy chappies and they must, you know, they must feel a certain way around each other, knowing, you know, both coming from England on flip and breaking that barrier for English skateboarders who come in some of the most famous skateboarders in the world.
At that time, yeah, England will put an ounce and, you know, they were top tier skaters. Top tier skaters coming out there. I mean, you can't get much higher than Penny and Rowley. No.
And like, the amount of people who speak about those guys, you know, coming to America and just tearing it up and, you know, being on the war path, you know, people were probably scared about what these guys were going to do just in case it made it look bad. Well, Penny did, you know, Penny did when he went, when he went to the, I don't know if it's like a Huntington beach spot or wherever it was, but Robbie D's there. There's a few other people there and he just shuts it down over that, that, that chaining fence down into the bank and Penny's like, oh, I'm just going to do every trick down. It's going to put my ball forwards, do all the tricks and I'm going to turn my board around and just carry on doing all the same tricks again.
It's like, can you stop doing that? Because I can do one of those switch tricks, but now like you've just done it first try. So, yeah, you're going to invalid this spot. So no one's going to be able to do anything.
Well, he did shut it down, which, you know, if that's how it is, that's how it is. Yeah. There's one other one that I wanted to kind of speak to you about. I've actually got just underneath my desk right now.
I've got an old fallen shoe. They're not in my size. So, I remember originals, yeah. But they're the, they're the chiefs.
Nice. The Chi 11. Wow. So I've got like a little cheeky, like almost like Hawaiian little touch inside them, like that.
Yeah, nice. But what, you know, it's a nice, it's a nice classic fallen shoe. Yeah, you know, roadblock for ones we like, it wasn't the biggest fan of the cheap, I'm going to be completely honest. I was more into the Quiz Cult shoe for many reasons.
But do you think like, obviously he's with straight now, all of a doing their own thing, would fallen ever, like, would they ever try and kind of build that bridge and say, you know, could we, could we reanimate one of your shoes? Or do you think we're nowhere near that? Do you think that just isn't going to happen business-wise? Is it not going to happen?
Who knows? It would be a great move for both parties, regardless on how straight feels, would feel about it. But you got, you know, just a little celebration of how good the chief was, you know, maybe I'm sure they could just instantly reissue it without calling it the chief and maybe switching something up. But adenin would just make it blow up and that, you know, you could really do it.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the removal of a name. No, it doesn't, it's not lose a lot of justice. Because you know, you can still buy the Quiz Cult 2, Quiz Cult 3, or maybe like one of the Quiz Cult DC shoes, it's called the Crisis. Yes.
So it's kind of close, you know, it's almost what Quiz in the name. And it's a good shoe, I've skated it, it's a good shoe. So I know the reason why they don't want to drop it. But it's almost like, that's a shoe man.
That's gone. You're gonna have to just tweak it enough. Tweak it enough so it isn't his shoe. Yeah, just mix it up.
You'll be able to do something. You'll be able to just put a logo on the side of it, a bigger logo on the side, or what, because it did add a really small logo on the side. So if you just double that in size, it would change the shoe. There's ways in it, but I just don't like it where you're nodding to the person who, I mean, that was their fucking shoe.
Yeah, it's definitely a funny one. But it'd be great to see a couple of chiefs and a couple of replays or something pop back up. For me, the the the circa that I'd love to see is the musker with the the red and the red and white mate. I mean, that's that's that shoe to me is is just that's musker.
That is the musker. That's the musker shoe. If you see him do a musker flip in those shoes with a tank top on, you're in there, then you're treated. Yeah, you can wear a little banner.
You can put a bandana wherever he wants it. He wants to put a round of wrist, his neck, his head, his ankle, he just needs some flailing somewhere mate. You know, just needs some clubs on his way because he had his fingers, gloves, zero as well, which I, you know, questionable. But I liked it.
Yeah, it was authentic to him. Yeah, I'd love to see that shoe. Yeah, that'd be sweet. Before we leave the listeners, we've got to get into so we'll the level listeners know we're always a part of this really elite skate crew back in the day, right?
Only, you know, he's able to let you know who was who was in who was out of it. But you were in the XLT gang mate. So I was called. I believe it might have been called the gang at group.
GG, XLTGG. Yeah. Tell listeners about the XLTGG mate. Yeah, back.
I'm trying to think of what I don't think I could think of the year, but I was probably about 12 to 13. So good. Good 20 years ago, pretty much. And yeah, obviously being lucky enough to be next to the best of village fans.
There was quite a few local people who would also go there and about four or five of us, and we say Marco La, Elliot Gwynn, maybe Charlie Ball or something like that, maybe George Bradwell. All had rally XLTs, different color ways. And just the initiation everyone would be putting their foot in the circle, just giving it the old stamp. It was, you know, the XLT group gang group.
And if you didn't have XLTs, well, you weren't part of the mate. It sounds like it was a privilege to be a part of that group mate. And I think it's just, you know, just the stomp and the chant of the XLT gang group that was rolling, you know, a magical part of someone as a little kid, but not even thinking anything other back then, you know, and then thinking about it now, just XLT, XLT gang group, the stomp on the ground, everyone with the little XLT print on the back of the shoe. It was a really cool way of, it's almost you had your own merch, you know, without making your own merch because your XLT gang group.
And back then, you had to ship. Oh yeah, and back then, you know, it was either a, if you're a skateboarder, you're a skateboarder, you know, you ain't no, you know, back then, you wasn't a chav or, you know, whatever you was mate, you know, if you was a skateboarder, no one else is wearing skate fucking shoes. And if they were, might have been like a BMXer who was like on the side of doing something else, you know, you ever had bands if you was into that, into that sort of thing, or you was on the other side of the spectrum, mate. You didn't see it.
You wouldn't even know what an XLT was. You've had a skateboarder shoe, that is, you know. And it was, so it was even more special mate. So how, sorry, how did the chant go?
Come on now, man, you all want to know because I want to be initiated into the group. So I can't, if I don't know the stomp, how am I going to, how am I going to be a part of the extra? More initiated by Mark, Mark Ola being a year, a year older. I could just remember him stamping his foot on the ground in a proposed circle of the boys.
Let's go. Join in the XLT group gang group and it just kind of carried on as a child and then everyone will be joining in with the XLT. Obviously, yeah, you can't do that alone. Shoe coming in and then stamped out.
You're looking down at that circle of shoes and everyone's just, you know, the white and red colorway comes in the original blue and you go, yeah, yeah, it's a sweet and then you see like a funky one, like a luminous green one, but it's an ex-sept teammate. You know, they're in the gang group. You just see someone trying to slip in just a new era of hands or something like that. It's like, like, I'm sorry.
Yeah, exactly. Like, yeah, like I said, so strong. Yeah, like the toe. Yeah.
Oh, fucking. That's good though, man. I love that. Yeah, good, good bit of like kind of just really takes you back into the roots of like why skateboarding was so cool back then, obviously, aside from doing it, there was so much for an effort and coolness put into it.
And that's why it's so special to everyone now. And Rowley is, who he is and Vans made themselves one of the biggest household shoe names in the world by pushing all of this forward. You know, I think my dad's got a pair of hands. My dad's like 71 or something like that.
Sorry, my dad wears the Kyle Walker, um, lace this one. He struggles, um, Tanya's shoes now getting down and doing it. So he, yeah, so I bought him two pairs each birthday now. That's, I just get him his size, Kyle Walker with a velcro tab over the top.
Yeah, so yeah, he's in and he loves it. I mean, the best shoes he's ever had. You know, because obviously, you know, skateboard and they got a bit of technology in there. They're a bit more, even if they're smaller shoes for the average pedestrian, they're a great fucking little active shoe.
So I sound like out there, mate. I remember when I was a teenage, they can fucking have one starting to wear Vans now. You know, when it'd be a thing where someone might laugh at you for wearing Vans because you're not a normal, you know, you're a skateboarder. You know, it wasn't everyone was skateboarder and everyone was cool unless she was into that.
That's it, mate. That's it. And also, just picking up a pair of bands wasn't as simple as it's buying as a mary dad's or buying as a like or or a cat or whatever. Just a pair of ends, you know, you's going to wherever the fuck that skate shop was.
Yeah, that skate shop might have been London. You know, I mean, you might not have had, you might not have had enough or the shoe that you wanted there and then so. And then, you know, lucky if you can afford the shoe if it's a special, you know, if not, you're looking at the bargains. That's why Vans outlet, Vista Village is sweet.
Or yeah, you get there, mate, and you're just trying on shoes to see what size picture back then. Have you got any still growing? Yeah, at least eight and a half might do this. You know, this eight might do this.
Yeah, whatever age you're right. You know, you just can I? I'm not going to look at the size because then it would tell me I can't wear them. They're just putting my foot in them.
I think it's okay. Yeah, they'll, you know, they'll break in a little bit, you know, they'll soften up a little bit. I can cut my tone out. Yeah, let's go.
That needs a stretch a bit. Yeah, these are the things socks, mate. These are the things socks. Your mum's looking at you going, they don't fit.
They don't know these are the things socks. Like walk around for me. Yeah. Don't win.
Yeah. Right. Well, let's leave the listeners with a lovely little XLT chance. So we just just just finished so we did XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT XLT.
Hope everyone has a lovely time with their XLTs and we'll see you real soon. Excellent.