story

My name is Ishod Wair, and I am from Bordentown, New Jersey.

The first time I got on an actual skateboard was probably in a Walmart or something. I was just stoked and I couldn't do anything. I was just kicking this thing around.

I would get home from school, I would take a nap, my mum would get home. She would take me to the skate park. I would be there till 11:30 at night, go home, not do my homework. But all my teachers loved me, so I was straight.

It took me a year to learn how to kickflip, because I was skating by myself. And then after when I was 17, it just took off. 
I am Eric Koston, professional skateboarder.

The first time I met Ishod, he was skating in this amateur contest that the X Games had. He was definitely impressive. Even then, you knew he had that talent.

Sometimes you'll watch him and he'll do some gnarly trick, but he'll do it 40 times. Getting a Nike signature shoe is quite an honour. The whole process was really fun and it was exciting.

And seeing the thing that's on paper, you've been talking about for years, finally come to fruition and being in your hands is pretty dope. 
I'm David Nickless, Senior Footwear Designer for Nike SB.

The first few meetings, it was very clear that Ishod was going to be really involved. He has a strong point of view. He knows what he likes. He knows what he doesn't like. And Ishod was somebody who wanted to see every sketch and work through each and every detail, which

brought us to where we were in the end on this shoe. The start-up point was ... is I was like, well, you guys got there somehow. I want to see all the drawing and then looked at them and was like, "Ah, take this, take this, take this, take this".

Ishod previously was skating different models for different benefits. And really, a key focus on this one was making sure that we can bring both sides of those benefits into a single space.

Ultimately, I think the ethos that drives us at Nike and then specifically in SB is providing solutions to something that we know can get better. This shoe is no different than that. It doesn't really look like any other shoe. You know what I mean? It has hints,

but it's not really based off of any other shoe. Really, it was our desire and Ishod's desire to bring something new and fresh to the table to just capitalise on the fact that he's Ishod and you expect nothing less.

We are sitting in a meeting room, looking over the design work and it took a minute to sink in, and Ishod had that moment of just like, "Yep, that's it". That kind of "aha" moment. The shoes just recently got sent to me a couple of weeks ago.

That was the first time skating in them. It was comfortable. There was good boardfeel. The flick was insane. A lot of people haven't been put in the position that I am able to be in right now.

And all I've got to say is, it's a blessing. It's an absolute blessing, it's crazy.

Behind the Design

SB Ishod Wair