Aspect
This shoe is designed to fill a void in the current market by offering a skate shoe with substance and style!
This design is intended to feel like an abstraction of two shoes in particular; the Emerica Templeton 1 (left), and the Emerica Reynolds 1 (right), both designed by Franck Boistel around 1998. It takes inspiration from both by means of a rubber toe cap protecting the flick area, and a paneling scheme that exposes a mesh window in the center of the quarter panel. The design then pulls directly from the Templeton through an exposed polyurethane ‘wing’ in the center of the midsole, and directly from the Reynolds by sculpting a contour into the foam, and adding a window in the heel area to showcase a proprietary cushioning technology.
A key feature of this design is the structural deco stitch placed in the ollie area. The intention here is to allow the skater to saturate the stitches with super glue to increase durability, while simultaneously promoting lateral stability. Aesthetically, the stitches take inspiration from scaffolding, visually complimenting the idea that they provide added structure to the upper of the shoe. The scaffolding motif is also used as a reference to the art direction of the emerica brand that was in place during the time period that this design is inspired by.
The goal is to create a design that has a modern shape and profile suitable for todays standards, while also providing the visual and physical feel of the product that Emerica was offering in 1998-99, the time period that represents the zenith of emerica, and skateboard footwear design as a whole.
Arto Saari (left) and Andrew Reynolds (right) doing the work in the Emerica templeton 1 circa late ‘98-early ‘99. Notice how the exposed P.U. wing acts as a visual cue making the shoes instantly recognizable.
And to show a bit more love for the wing, here is arto saari, fresher than ever in the Templeton 1- as seen in the 'chaos’ section of 411 video magazine issue 34 - May/June 1999 (The quality of this video is better on the mobile version of this website)
