Skate shoes and trainers

Skate shoes have a different design to traditional look trainers, you get a typically flat sole, born from the need to get maximum tread on the skate board surface and good bite on the grip tape. (That same grip tape will ruin the fancy art work and canvas on cheap skate shoes so be warned, buy quality shoes, you get what you pay for!) The other main difference with skate shoes is in the street and graffiti influenced artwork that's helps them stand out in the crowd. It's ironic that many of the former niche designers, who produced limited edition trainers and skate shoes with the individuality hard core skaters crave, have become larger corporate shoe brands that everyone shops for due to the good looks they brought to the market in the first place! Design choices are many and varied with smaller brands like Lakai and Kustom competing with big skate names such as Vans, Etnies and DC Shoes. You know when a thing has been a mega success in the past when old (but great) designs are resurrected, usually under names like Retro or Old School skate shoes but don't discount these, you can often get a really neat looking skate shoe with better technical design than the original.