story

"My name is Karlie Thornton, she/her. I'm the founder of froSkate. I'm L Brew, they/them. And I'm VP of froSkate."

"froSkate is a Chicago-based skate collective that exists to serve the BIPOC, femme, queer, trans and non-binary communities. I joined froSkate around August of 2019, a couple months after it was founded by Karlie."

"Found them on Instagram. I am a BIPOC queer skater who was skating by myself for years, so finally was able to find that community and be able to have a bunch of folks who look like me to skate with, and help me feel comfortable in the skate park. "

"So yeah, It's really just about bringing everybody together to have a good time and skate and encourage each other, help ourselves develop. Most of us hadn't had community before. I would describe a skateboarder's relationship with their sneakers as a very..."

"...personal one. Your feet and your board are kind of one and the same when you're skateboarding, so it's super important to have a shoe you feel comfortable and confident in. We chose a Dunk High, because we really do love the way that that ankle support comes in..."

"...especially for beginner skaters or folks that are at more risk for rolling their ankle or something like that. Our design team was hands down so amazing. Mau did awesome on coloring..."

"...Carly did a great job on materials. She helped us come to the idea of having this rub-off effect on the shoe. With the rub off, it's easier to see your progress. It's easier to see in this shoe..."

"...where you're even trying your kickflips. Like I can see right here, I'm trying too close to my toe. I need to go a little bit more to the left. All Love, No Hate is one of our main mottos at froSkate. It just rhymes with our name."

"And it also just speaks so well to the mission of froSkate, that we are a space for all love, and this is a safe space. Forget racism, forget homophobia, forget sexism. When you're here, everyone's equal..."

"...and there's all love for you here at this space. And we just want that to be adapted in a way that the world thinks in general. So, just to have this kind of repeated throughout the shoe like a constant chant was really important for us."

"Yeah. That love aspect is also incorporated into these little perforations here. Typically, these are just circles, but we were able to make them teeny tiny hearts, which we so love. And they're so cute."

"Well yeah, we just wanted to give people options on however they want to customize the shoe, to do that. And whether you want to skate off this rub off, or even find some kind of solution and make designs in the rub off I would love to see."

"You can truly get creative with this shoe. That's the purpose. That's what skateboarding's about. That's what froSkate is about. The gold aglets we have, these are not homage to gold jewelry..."

"...which we love to wear exactly as Black and brown folks. I think gold just pops on brown skin so well."

"We always try to pay homage to our past our ancestry and just what makes us who we are. We are the first Black women collaboration with Nike SB."

"We didn't expect any of this when froSkate began, so to be able to get to this point and be the first Black women collab with Nike SB is huge. To be that inspiration for... Yeah."

"It's really also exciting for us because we get to inspire other skate collectives and skaters like us, that this is possible. This is achievable for them. And now they get to see themselves in this position. And..."

"...train for that. This is that representation. Yeah. Our goal is total inclusivity in skateboarding. I want all races, all genders to be skating together and be comfortable together. This was Behind the Design of froSkate SB Dunk High."

"Thanks for watching. All Love, No Hate, froSkate."

Behind the Design: SB Dunk High Pro x froSkate 'All Love'