This post may seem out of nowhere but if you were ever into skateboarding perhaps this story might interest you.  I grew up in southern California in the early 90’s when street skateboarding was becoming a big thing.  People were jumping down huge stairs and really pushing their bodies to the limit. There was one skateboarder owned company that saw a need for a skateboard specific shoe that could provide proper support and durability; Etnies.  In that time they were doing things that had never been done before and created a standard for skateboarding shoes from that point on.  In the mid 90’s they created two other footwear brands under their mother company “Sole Technology” that would cater to different needs; éS & Emerica. From elementary school to high school all I wore was skateboarding shoes with the majority of them being among those three Sole Tech brands. Eventually I stopped following skateboarding and became disconnected with what was going on.  Fast forward to 2018 I’ve noticed every time I saw a group of kids skating around they were all wearing corporate brand shoes. This confused me because the shoes didn’t’ look like any skate shoe that I remembered.  They were extremely thin and flimsy looking which I can’t imagine would be very durable or comfortable for skateboarding.  In doing a bit more research I found that the industry had just moved toward a more slimmed down shoe and that caused all the corporate and skateboarder owned brands to follow suit. This kinda bummed me out because there was a time in my life when I had the passion to design skate shoes as a career.  I was really passionate about the technologies behind it all and it seems that sort of passion has become diluted among the industry because the market is asking for cheaper shoes. However recently I was very excited to hear that Etnies is reissuing several older models in their original form.  I have so much respect for this because they are such a small company in comparison to the other corporate brands and this proves their dedication to the culture and refuse to dilute their brand. I wanted to share my story and pay respect to Etnies because they paved the way 30 years ago. 

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 A few years ago Steve Vai had rejoined the Sony team which gave us the freedom to release in it’s entirety the DVD filmed at the Nokia theatre called “Stillness In Motion”. The timing was great because we were also approaching the 25th Anniversary for his most beloved album “Passion & Warfare”. Of course it was necessary to honor that album with a special release and we didn’t want to just do a simple “re-master”. Steve has so much unreleased material that exists in the vaults. Some of the tracks had been entirely finished and some had been abandoned in the early tracking stages. If you’re a big enough fan you’d have known that Steve had an entire albums worth of music that was recorded just after Flex-Able and before Passion & Warfare that never got released. The 25th Anniversary was an obvious time to unveil that lost music. We decided that we were going to compile that music onto it’s own disc and treat it as it’s own album. One of the highlights for me was when we got to the tracks “Mighty Messengers” & “The Lost Chord”. Those songs were performed in a band Steve formed called The Classified which consisted of Tommy Mars, Stu Hamm, Chris Frazier, & Sue Mathis. Those particular tracks only existed from live recordings as they had never gotten around to recording them properly. So that meant we got to bring all those musicians back into the studio and record fresh versions of those old songs. It was amazing to see Steve and the band pick up where they left off and tackle this music with the upmost care. Linked here is “Mighty Messengers” & “The Lost Chord” which on the album seamlessly flows into eachother. There’s so much more about this project but not enough time to share it all here. If any of this interests you I urge you to pick up the physical CD so that you get the full story in the booklet. Enjoy! 🙂

We’re very excited to share a special Online Charity Auction that helps raise money for our Daughter Orenda’s school enrichment programs. There are hundreds of amazing items including some very special one’s that I know you’re gonna love! Please take a moment to watch the video and you can find all the links to the auction items in the description section or go here. Thanks so much for your support and Happy Bidding!!

p.s. The Auction Ends on May 5 8pm PST so don’t miss out!