‘Swoosh’ — The Latest One From Supreme & Strobeck

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Before the concept of a “skateboarding shoe” really began maturing and booming in the nineties, a lot of “skate shoes” came from discount stores. Nike’s GTS was a canvas tennis shoe that covered sales racks at Marshalls two decades ago. It has largely been forgotten, beyond the fact it made its way into a bunch of skate photos and video parts, mostly on the feet of dudes who paid attention to their gear as much as the tricks they were doing. Today, with about 1/5th of the kids at a peak-hour L.E.S. session trying to look like they stepped out a Marshalls in 1995, it makes sense to revisit a cult-classic — which in many ways, was a proto-Janoski.

Supreme is releasing a run of GTS Nikes later this week. In the lead-up for it, they got Brian Anderson, Kevin Bradley and Alex Olson to skate both the most iconic plaza spot that still exists, and the most photogenic new plaza spot to be built in the past ~three years. With so many new skate videos (at least the ones filmed in cities) taking a spots-that-aren’t-really-spots approach, there’s now something refreshing about seeing B.A. do his first-ever Love line in a twenty-year-spanning skate career, or Challex doing improvisational turn-around lines at Republique that aren’t far off from Stevie’s wandering Love lines in The Reason. And shit, when’s the last time a pro simply did a crook fakie on a ledge to start off a line? Like 1999? That was nice to see.

We got the shoes, now how do we bring the plazas back? :(

Previously: the red devil, Joyride

20 Comments

  1. I want 45 mm wheels and 8.75 trucks if you want to go full 90’s…if we ain’t doing that shit, let’s not talk about revisiting 1996

  2. Kevin is only $ 1400 away from his surgery co pay.. C’mon everyone let’s pull this off.

  3. “dude brian anderson makes my dreams come true with every tre he lands” -ElfantasmaDeZT, 2011, Comment on Youtube

  4. Yes I definitely was caught up in the non-skate shoe craze in ’95. All I needed to see was Pepe wearing it and I was with it. I remember showing up at Love/City Hall one weekend and it seemed like everyone was rocking GTS’s – or the similar ones that were nubuck and had a cupsole. And of course everyone was trying shit like those odd, vertical frontside flips.

  5. The talk about this shoe is not BS. Was a huge Pulaski shoe, everyone had them, you can see Reese rocking them in his classic Eastern Exposure shit.

  6. I cant wait for suprem to drop em!! Canvas rips quick, but gonna cop to just chill in then skate the fuck outa em at les

  7. love dis an all strobeck’s commercials
    the “running start” is the most underrated trick in skateboarding

  8. haha – yes, honestly the first thing I think of when I think of Nike GTS, is Pepe skating Pulaski. Switch frontside flip up the steps and such.

  9. Bring back the Brooklyn Banks! Too much history to not let it be skated again! I’d say that was one of the best “plazas” ever.


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