All About Skate Shoes

Skate shoes or skateboard shoes are a type of footwear specifically designed and manufactured for use in skateboarding. While numerous non-skaters choose to wear skate shoes, the design of the skate shoe includes many features designed especially for use in skateboarding, including a vulcanized rubber or polyurethane sole with minimal tread pattern or no pattern, a composition leather or suede upper, and double or triple stitching to extend the life of the upper material. A low, padded tongue is often included for comfort.

Adio
Adidas Skateboarding
Airwalk
Airspeed
Axion Footwear
Circa
Converse
DC Shoes
DVS Shoe Company
Duffs
Emerica
Element Skateboards
éS Footwear
Etnies
Fallen Footwear
Globe International
Gravis Footwear
Habitat Footwear
I-Path
Lakai Limited Footwear
Nike Skateboarding
Osiris Shoes
Puma SE
Qix
Reebok Skate
Servant Footwear
Simple shoes
Supra
Tribal Skate
Vans
Vision Street Wear
Vox Footwear
World Industries
Zoo York

Many features of a skate shoe are designed to increase its durability. Skate shoes are subjected to the abrasiveness of a skateboard's grip tape on a regular basis when used for skateboarding. This is why skaters tend to go through shoes quickly. Super suede, action leather, and plastic underlying the toe cap help to increase the durability of a skate shoe. Lace loops and protectors are designed to prevent laces from shredding by shielding the most common areas that contact with grip tape.

Other common features include: triple stitching with thicker treads to prevent ripping, more width so that there is more contact with the board with thicker tongues and sides to compensate, and deep sole patterns for grip.