SKATE SHOES
But this is not your grandmother's art, and these skate shoes are not for everyone.
Skate shoe brands are collaborating with underground artists - graffiti and otherwise - to create exclusive models not only to boost sales but also to maintain the ever-important connection with their target market - hard-core skaters who are the lifeblood of the business.
Brands such as Etnies, Dekline and Vans all have some sort of shoe deal with artists, and many of those shoe models were on display recently at the Action Sports Retailer Show in the San Diego Convention Center.
The show attracts about 20,000 people, and is one of the main trade shows for the action sports industry, which includes sports such as surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding.
The merger of skateboard and art is not as incongruous as it first sounds, said Eladio Correa, brand marketing manager for Etnies, a skateboard shoe and apparel maker.
Art has always played an important role in the skate world, he added, from its stickers with crisp graphic designs to boards with elaborate Gothic designs to the tattoos that many skaters sport.
"Skateboarding itself is an art form, and artists are drawn to skateboarding," he said, explaining that the sport emphasizes creativity in movement with roots deep in the counterculture.
For the spring, Etnies has several artist collaborations, including one with Chester Bennington, of the rock band Linkin Park, and his chain of tattoo studios called Club Tattoo. Etnies has also joined up with Gary Benzel, a San Diego artist, for its Seed Project, a line of environmentally conscious shoes and T-shirts.
Etnies Girl even has a program called Starving Artist in which the company works with an up-and-coming artist on shoes and apparel. This year the company selected Casey O'Connell of San Francisco to add her designs to T-shirts, totes, shoes and flip-flops.
Mindy Cook, a spokeswoman for Etnies Girl, said both parties benefit from the arrangement. The artist gets exposure with a mainstream brand and the brand is given entree into the trend-setting art scene.
"In key markets, they help us as much as we help them," she said.
While many of Etnies' artist collaborations will be available in such mainstream stores as Journeys or Pacific Sun, the key to many artist-designed shoes is exclusivity.
For instance, Dekline has a deal with Bwana Spoons, a Portland artist, to make shoes that are available only at Kidrobot, a retailer of limited edition art toys and apparel.
Vans' Dennis McNett designs, which feature bold block print art, will be made only in limited quantities and be available at independent skate stores, said Chris Overholser, senior communications manager for the company. Vans is also collaborating with Taka Hayashi, a well-known artist in the skateboard world, on a holiday line of shoes.
Focusing on the skate shops is a way to reward both the store and its customers, he said.
"It's underscoring our support for creativity. It's something that is really important for our consumers," Overholser said, adding that Vans also sponsors art shows and has billboards in Los Angeles that display original artwork on a rotating basis.
Working with underground artists and limiting quantity is also a way for a brand to prove its "core" credentials, said Andy Tompkins, the show director for ASR.
"Kids hang out at these specialty shops like it is 7-Eleven," he said. "You need to give them a reason to keep coming back."
Shaun Neff, a graphic artist who makes brightly colored hats and T-shirts targeting the skate and snowboarding market with his company Neff Headwear, said plenty of large chains have asked to sell his product but so far he has had to turn them down.
"We can't sell to them because it would dilute the brand," he said.
Neff recently designed a shoe for San Diego-based Pony but produced only a limited amount - about 1,200 shoes total - to be sold at stores where Neff already had a strong following.
About 13 pairs went to one store in New York and by the end of the day, 11 were sold, he said. A few kids even lined up to get a pair after reading about the shoes on Neff's Web site.
It's not only skate brands that are working with artists. Nike, for instance, has shoes designed in conjunction with well-known graffiti artist Stash.
Colin Brickley, director of public relations for Pony, said artists allow brands to target a certain segment of the market that want only the most exclusive sneakers and go to great lengths to get them.
This phenomenon was highlighted on an episode of the HBO series "Entourage" on which the character Turtle failed to grab the last pair of limited quantity sneakers made by a fictional artist known as Fukijama at Undefeated, an exclusive Los Angeles sneaker boutique.
"It all kind of plays to that supply and demand thing," he said, adding that there's a whole segment of the population that gets their cues from such trend-spotting sites as Hypebeast.com.
Overholser said Vans also has Syndicate, which is a limited line of shoes that focuses on a small niche of core skaters by offering limited quantities - as few as 60 pairs - and limited distribution - available in as few as 20 shops nationwide.
The shoe business, Overholser said, is much like a pyramid, with the top representing exclusive models - many of which are a collaboration with artists - that helps fuel the whole industry.
"It's important for us to have our marketing and our key products appeal to the top of the pyramid," he said. "A lot of your money is down below but your freshest products and your creativity is at the top."
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