We’re pleased Braden Hoban found time to speak to us for this “Visuals” interview in the middle of a hectic schedule. Thankfully, the stars aligned and we and we had the chance to dive into the video part, trick, skate photo, and board graphic which have impacted him. With a brand-new pro shoe fresh on the shelf, his second video part of the year dropping, and yet another one in the works, we also took this opportunity to learn more about this exciting moment in time…
Words and interview by Jacob Sawyer. Braden Hoban on the road shot by Leo Romero
For some a skateboarding career is punctuated by a stint of sponsor-hopping in an attempt to find the right fit—the space in the van that feels like home. For Braden Hoban it seems like the universe conspired from the jump, delivering him a second family he’s still just as amped to be on the road with years later. His love and enthusiasm for these nomadic quests and the humans he shares them with is palpable. Every piece of visual stimulus he picked for this conversation reflects his journey, one which is only gathering pace as he heads out to Europe during one of his most productive years to date.
Braden started the year with a Street League victory in his hometown of San Diego. One month later he closed out the Toy Machine Real Life Sucks video with a memorable, hammer-heavy part that was the result of some serious months in the van. This interview took place just as his pro shoe for Emerica was about to drop, a milestone moment that involved him simultaneously working on a separate filming project led by Jon Miner, to support its release. As you’ll learn more about later Braden would be out filming all day as per usual, then going in for round two while everyone’s dinner was still digesting. This hard graft resulted in the incredible “Into The Light” part which comes out the same day as this interview. As this is being typed he’s back out there crafting another part—a work ethic instilled by the crew he once dreamed of joining.
Read on to find out more about the impact Leo Romero’s part in Stay Gold made on Braden, the point in time he started to explore Emerica’s back catalogue of videos, and the full-circle evolution to now where they’re both skating the spots Braden used to trip out on, together. Find out why Jeremy Leabres’ technique continues to be a motivating force and inspiration, and why a photo Dakota Servold took of Aaron “Jaws” Homoki and Tim Aguilar with a Cody Long assist is burnt into Braden’s mind. The final “Visuals” component discussed is the classic Toy Machine Monster graphic which was brought to life by Ed Templeton and Sean Cliver in 1995, a board that is still in Braden’s boxes today. We closed out the interview by finding out more about dodging shadows for the “Into The Light” part, designing his new Emerica shoe, how contest skating feeds into what goes on in the streets, and more…
Leo Romero – Emerica Stay Gold (2010)
Choosing this was easy, Leo was a huge inspiration growing up and this has always been one of my favourite video parts. Stay Gold as a video too is my favourite full-length for sure. Everything in Leo’s part is just gold, the tricks, the spots, the song. Obviously Jon Miner edited that one and he nailed it. The video has always been a huge inspiration to me from when I started skating again in 2014. Stay Gold being released actually coincided with my break from skating, I didn’t skate from fourth grade to seventh grade, so for about four years I was just doing other stuff. When I first started skating again MADE: Chapter One came out, then all the rough cut B-Sides followed and I started getting obsessed with Emerica through those videos, they changed my life. Watching those B-Sides, and seeing those dudes out on the road communicated much more than just the skating, [John] Miner put them together so well that it felt like you were there with those people, out skating with them.
So from that exposure to MADE I went back and watched Stay Gold and all of the B-Sides from that video and Leo has my favourite part, he’s the greatest of all time for me. The spots he picked to skate blew me away as a kid, he was skating all these neck high rails, and crazy gap to rails. That definitely resonated with me when I was younger, it made me want to skate like that and still does. It seemed really fun and you can find rails like that anywhere, spots that people would usually dismiss as not being a spot or overlook. Leo was skating all the rails like that and it pushed me towards that type of skating, big handrails, gap to rails, huge handicapped rails and shit like that. I still like to skate that stuff and it’s all due to Leo and that part.
As for moments that really stood out for me, everything that he did on gap to rail at the end made a big impact on me – the noseblunt, the front feeble, the nosegrind. Also there’s a rail he does a few tricks on but he frontside crooked grinds it too. It’s super tall, a five-stair rail that goes out instead of down the stairs. It’s super mellow but tall, I always thought it was ridiculous just how tall it was, it was rare to see a frontside crooked grind on a rail like that. The way he does it is just so sick because he has tight trucks so he doesn’t really pinch it, he just grinds it rebel style. I think it’s so badass how he does them. He has some good flip-in stuff in here too, kicky grinds, it made me want to learn kickflips into frontside grinds. It definitely made me want to learn front crooks, and front feebles too. I wish I could do front feebles like him, the old school way of doing them. Mine are the new school way of doing them where your front foot is kind of pointed, back then the way people did them was with your front foot in an ollie position. I always though the way he did them was really cool, I just can’t do them like that.
This video part really set the bar. I knew when I saw it that this is skateboarding, this is what I want to do with my life, and these are the people I dream about skating with. This represented how it should be to me pretty much, and how it should look. I didn’t get to see Leo skate in real life until I was on the same team. When I first started getting flowed Toy Machine boards there was a demo at the Etnies part in Orange County which was the first time I saw all of those dudes skate. I don’t think I even introduced myself or anything like that. So that was the first time I saw any of them in person and I must have been sixteen years old. I didn’t properly meet any of them or interact with them until my first trip. I was starstruck, it was definitely a trip to go from looking up to all of these dudes for my whole childhood to being in the van with them. If I could have told my little kid self this would happen I would never have believed it.
“This video part really set the bar. I knew when I saw it that this is skateboarding, this is what I want to do with my life, and these are the people I dream about skating with”
Another thing that’s funny is that when we’re on the road we usually start our days by watching skate videos and Stay Gold is one we watch a lot. Either I will put it on or Dakota [Servold] will put it on. It’s cool because all of the little kid questions I had about the part I have been able to ask Leo. I’d be watching the video sitting next to him asking him where spots are or getting him to tell us stories about things. It’s really cool getting to pick his brain and be a little kid again, finding out how long it took to film specific things or asking why he doesn’t do certain tricks any more. It’s a trip dude. I think the main thing I’ve learned from skating with all those dudes, but especially from Leo, is perseverance and dedication. They taught me that hard work pays off. Those dudes are the definition of blue collar workers when it comes to skateboarding, they truly don’t stop until the bell rings. They don’t stop until they physically can’t get up anymore. Seeing that was very motivating to be around. As a kid I couldn’t believe how gnarly those guys were but it’s because they worked their asses off. Watching those videos as a kid I decided that this is what skateboarding is, then seeing it in real life and seeing how hard they work for it added another dimension, it all made sense. That’s what I wanted to be doing, I wanted to work hard like those guys. Their dedication and perseverance was a good life lesson.
The Mott the Hoople track Leo skates to is sick too. At the time when I first saw this video I was listening to Andre Nickatina and Mac Dre, lots of Memphis rap.Watching skate videos and especially Emerica videos made me realise there was a whole other world of music out there to be discovered. Then also being in the van with all of those dudes broadened my horizons even further.
As far as something I have seen Leo do with my own eyes that made as big an impact on me as this video part is a specific frontside 50-50 I watched him do. He is always searching for long grinds and you know there will always be a long 50-50 in one of his parts. We were in Sacramento on an Independent trip and there’s a rail out there that’s a two-stair flat out-rail which goes for about 150 feet flat then down a thirty-stair rail. The rail is all fucked up too, it’s super thin and wobbly which just makes it even harder to grind. It was one of those times where it became a five hour battle. He’d be making it to the end but not landing it, then not being able to make it to the down rail for a while, slamming super gnarly, almost rolling his ankle on the stairs, everything. Watching the whole process was inspiring, he wasn’t freaking out or even pissed off, he was just laughing. Any other person would have stopped way before and thrown a tantrum but Leo was just cracking jokes. It was cool to see him enjoying the moment and appreciating the process of trying trick for five hours, hahaha. When he ended up rolling away it was the greatest, everyone was so hyped. It’s one of the longest rails that has ever been done for sure. That’s something Leo did that has stuck out for me in recent years.
Jeremy Leabres – Toy Machine: The Re-education of Jeremy Leabres (2014)
I picked this because at the time when I saw it all I was doing was kickflips. My friend Giles and I would just go to our local skatepark which had this little bump to rail. We would just try and learn every single kickflip trick on the rail. Both of us were just super fired up on kickflips. So seeing this as a kid made a big impression, it was a super tall rail which seemed insane, and the way he did it was the opposite cross-lock which I think is the sickest way to do kickflip front grinds. It’s the cross pinch but the opposite way, just the sickest way to do them. Jeremy [Leabres] has so much style too, he’s a style lord so he made it look so sick. Any time that I do a kicky front grind I hope that it does the opposite cross just like this one.
Jeremy is awesome, there are a lot of tricks in this part that I went and tried to learn. This is a Toy Machine video but I wasn’t specifically looking at Toy Machine videos for inspiration at the time, it was more all of the Emerica videos so I wanted to watch anything involving the people who were part of that crew, all of the dudes I just really wanted to skate with. Everybody, Dakota {Servold], Leo [Romero], Jeremy [Leabres], Dan Lutheran, CJ [Collins], just that whole crew. All I wanted to do is skate with them and travel with them but I never thought it would actually happen. That’s such a crazy thing, to think I want to travel with those dudes, and now it’s a reality. As a kid that seemed impossible but when [Mike] Sinclair asked me if I wanted to get boards it felt like one step closer which was definitely pretty motivating to just go out there and get it. It felt achievable that I could end up on a trip with those guys.
“seeing this as a kid made a big impression…Any time that I do a kicky front grind I hope that it does the opposite cross just like this one”
I’m also lucky those guys have such longevity and I fully get to skate with them. Those dudes just don’t stop, they’re only getting better. I met them all at a really cool time too. Most of them had just got sober and they were all absolutely killing it. So the first trip that I went on was at the tail end of filming for the Programming Injection video. Just to be thrown into the van when they’re finishing off a video was pretty wild because everyone was going the fuck off and trying to get enders. That was really cool to see and be a part of. They got everyone around them fired up. Leo [Romero] is 37 now and he’s like fine wine, just getting better with age.
The first trip I ever went on with Jeremy [Leabres] he got hurt unfortunately. He’d been there a week when I showed up then he hurt his knee so I didn’t get to spend that much time with him. After he healed up and started to come on all the trips again it was really cool. We were road mates together and room mates in every Airbnb or hotel. He is such a cool dude, very mellow, kind, and a funny dude to be around. So I have seen his kickflip 50-50 in real life and it’s pretty fucking sick. He tried one on this last trip too, he kickflip front boardslid this bump to rail then tried to flip grind it. I really wanted to see it but it didn’t end up working out. I have seen his front crook too and he has an amazing front crook, his flatground too for sure. Anything Jeremy does really is magic, he’s got so much style and the spots he skates are just fucked. He makes everything look good.
Tim Aguilar, Aaron “Jaws” Homoki & Cody Long. PH: Dakota Servold (2022)
This is Tim [Aguilar] and Cody [Long] on the other side of the lens. I was there for this one and they did it about five times too. I haven’t seen this photo for a while but I have the image of Tim Aguilar doing the boneless on Cody Long’s stomach burnt into my mind. It’s so sick dude, Jaws [Aaron Homoki] is backing them up with the frontside air. This one made it into Thrasher too. I think at first they were just doing it with an iPhone and at a certain point Dakota stepped in and said “let me get a photo of this”. It was so funny to watch and they did it so many times, they were all really good at it. Tim [Aguilar] has a mean backside boneless and Cody Long’s body is perfect for doing a back boneless off. It meant Tim was able to bounce out too trampoline style, hahaha. I want to see more photos like this for sure, doubles are always good anyway but to put a Cody Long in the equation too is fucking sick. This photo is amazing.
I have a long history with all of these guys, they’re all my brothers. Jaws was actually on that very first Tum Yeto trip that I went on. I don’t remember a photo that Dakota ever shot of me, Leo has taken a few, but I have definitely shot some of him. I took some sick photos of Dakota on my little Fuji camera. I shot a photo of him doing a noseslide on a double-kinker in Seattle which came out pretty sick. It wasn’t in Thrasher, I was kinda bummed, I thought it would have been a cover, haha. That turned out good though, it was the second day of him trying the trick too. When someone goes back for the trick and then gets it it’s always epic.
“I haven’t seen this photo for a while but I have the image of Tim Aguilar doing the boneless on Cody Long’s stomach burnt into my mind”
Tim Aguilar is always fun to shoot with. He is always in the video too, always in the clips because he is trying to get the best possible photo. It’s so funny, if you look at the last Toy Machine video [Real Life Sucks] I think that he has more clips in the video than anyone else had. He is in so many that it’s kind of just a running joke now with everyone. The first person I started shooting with was actually Dave Swift, I would just go out with him and our buddy Alex Willmes who rides for Skate Mafia. Skating with him was a pretty cool moment in time. Then the first time I ever skated with Rhino was at O-side hubba, that was really sick. Oceanside is twenty minutes from where I live in Encinitas. My buddy Alex and I had already skated this hubba and got our tricks. I did a kickflip nosegrind and he did a back 180 nosegrind to regular. So we got our tricks but a week later our buddy Jesse told us that Rhino wanted to go and shoot the photos and asked if we were down to do it again. We were like “Of course, it’s Rhino!” So we went and redid our tricks for him That was such a fun session, he asked me if I wanted an Independent box the same day. After that we’d skate with Rhino every weekend which is when I came out with my ‘Lunatic Fringe’ in Thrasher.
Toy Machine Monster graphic (1995 – Present Day)
This board is what I got in my first ever box, the classic Toy Monster. I think I had a couple with a green woodstain and a couple with blue. I had skated some before that too that I had bought from the skate shop. It’s just one of the most classic skateboard graphics of all time. It was such a trip getting a box of those boards as a little kid. I was looking up to Leo [Romero] and Jeremy [Leabres], and it really felt like I was a part of something after getting a box of those boards.That was such a special thing for me at that time and it will always represent that. This will always be one of my favourite graphics.
There are a lot of Blake Carpenter tricks where he’s skating one of these, Jeremy [Leabres] often skated this graphic too. It’s iconic, you can see that board in videos for decades, It’s been around forever just like the Zero skull and it’s stood the test of time. I still get those boards today and it’s still the best. The board I skate is a little over 8.4” but it’s pretty much 8.5”. I have my shape pretty dialled, the boards are out of BBS and I think the shape is a B16, a classic Bareback shape made with a Mold 4 which is a little steeper than the regular mold. I’ve been skating the same shape for the last three years. I’m not too picky about wood stains or anything like that, it’s just the shape that’s important to me. My favourite top ply is probably brown or the dark grey ones that are almost black are pretty sick.
“it really felt like I was a part of something after getting a box of those boards”
I don’t have the Toy Machine Monster on my wall at home but I have a Toy Machine flag up, it’s the ‘Bury the Hatchet’ graphic with god and the devil. There’s the Toy Machine American flag graphic with the Monster and I put that up outside my parents house as well. I have Leo [Romero]’s board on my wall, Dan Lu [Lutheran]’s board, Jeremy [Leabres]’ board and Dakota [Servold]’s board on my wall too as well as some other random Toy Machine graphics. I actually have the Monster tattooed on my leg. They have the free tattoos at the Tampa contest, that graphic was one of the ones available so I thought “you know what? Let’s do this!”
I think my favourite personal graphic would be the Halloween one that Ed [Templeton] did for me based on John Carpenter’s first Halloween movie. That’s one of my favourite movies ever, I have the poster for that movie on my wall as well. Ed [Templeton] hit me up to discuss using that as a board graphic and I didn’t even think that could be an option because of copyright issues but he already had it drawn out with the sect as the pumpkin. That was really sick to see that and be able to do it. Also my first ever board graphic means a lot because it was my first board, and it had boobies on it. Who doesn’t love boobs?
Braden Hoban’s “Into the Light” part for Emerica
We were stoked to see your “Into the Light” part, it’s incredible. It must have been weird from being out with crew all day, eating together and then venturing out again when they went home. Did you end up getting into a rhythm with it?
We definitely did end up getting into a rhythm but it was tough. I knew it was going to be hard when Jon [Miner] first threw the idea out there. Going on a trip like that already involves a lot of skating and it wasn’t getting dark until about 9pm. I knew it would be challenging but I was willing to try because I knew the end product would make it so worthwhile. I couldn’t help myself when it came to skating in the day, I couldn’t not skate these spots we were going to when everyone else was skating. If we went to a sick ass rail and everyone is getting fired up I couldn’t just sit there and not skate it to reserve energy for the night. On the first night mission we went on during that trip I tried to film this ledge line. It’s the one where I do a back noseblunt, a heelflip, then a kickflip nosegrind to fakie. I was trying to do a switch tre afterwards and I just couldn’t fucking do it. That ledge line ended up being a three hour battle and I was definitely losing it a little bit by the end of that. Thankfully Dan Stolling was there helping me with the whole situation and trying to enjoy it.
This is the first time you had been out and tried to film at night?
It was the first time on that trip. I had filmed two clips before actually in Encinitas. Those were really cool actually. The very first trick I filmed was the impossible over that rail and I brought my whole family out for that one. Were just chilling and I told them I was going to skate this rail down the street and invited them to come along and watch. It was cool, they brought some beers and got food, it ended up being really fun. That made me think the whole thing was going to be cool and not stressful at all so to go from that to the first line I tried on the trip was kind of a nightmare.
Is that something to do with being out there on your own?
I try not to put it down to not having my homies around me, it’s not always going to be like that I’m just lucky that it often is. It wasn’t down to not having people around to make the situation easier it was more about being tired from skating all day. I didn’t want the first session to be a failure it was just a battle, I’m just not good at skating ledges whatsoever. I tried not to overthink it and put too much weight on that one bad experience though.
Did you manage to turn that solo process into something that was like meditation and treat it differently?
It’s a whole different vibe and energy going out at night versus skating in the day. Most of those missions were just me and Dan [Stolling]. Then Tim Aguilar would come out most of the time to shoot photos. It’s a whole different thing skating at night without the crew, you just get more in your head about everything. You’re out there, you’re tired from the day, you know everyone else is just chilling watching a movie at home, and part of you just wants to be there. That was a motivating force though, it made me want to get the trick done as fast as I could but there were a lot of hiccups depending on the spot. Sometimes we’d go out to a spot and it would be so dark already, then we’d light it up and it wouldn’t even help that much because there would be so many shadows. It wasn’t like we were going out searching for spots or checking them out either it was a planned thing. We’d skate all day, look at spots and I’d call out what I thought would be sick to revisit at night. So I would only have one or two ideas and I didn’t want to ever go out and come back with nothing. I wanted to get at least one thing on every single night that we went out.
The lights always make me think of the Brian Anderson quote at the end of Modus Operandi about feeling like a jewel thief when setting up generators with Ty Evans. There’s something romantic and memorable about those kind of missions.
There is, and it feels good when you do get something. I think that mindset of wanting to get at least one thing every single night helped. It ended up working out, every single night that we went out on that trip we got at least one thing. I’m actually very proud about that. We had a pretty good streak going.
Are you going to miss those missions now they’re done?
Erm, no! Hahaha. It was a really good time though, and I had a lot of fun doing it. It was tough at times but that’s just skating, it’s never going to be easy.
“every single night that we went out on that trip we got at least one thing. I’m actually very proud about that. We had a pretty good streak going”
Did having the lights help you focus and make it easier for you to get into committing to stuff or were they distracting?
Honestly it made everything ten times harder in my opinion. There’s a lot you’re dealing with. I’m pretty excited I’m only going to be skating in the daytime from now on.
The music and Miner’s editing made the whole thing feel otherworldly, I loved the video game vibe of the lit rails where you did a half cab down the stairs and then a flip 50-50.
He really killed it, and one of the things that got me so fired to to do it was his vision. Talking to him about it it was obvious that he’d been thinking about that idea for a good while. He tried it with HK [Heath Kirchart] and it didn’t fully work out, he’s been wanting to do it ever since then. He had a lot of faith in me when he brought up the idea which was really cool and the timeframe we had was kind of gnarly.
What was the exact timeframe?
I had three months and I’m very glad it worked out. [Jon] Miner is crazy, he’s a genius when it comes to that stuff. It’s funny, we were talking about the part at the premiere, and I hadn’t seen it until it was shown there. He was explaining it to me beforehand, that it’s not meant to be one of those all-time parts with huge kinked rails and hammers, it wasn’t supposed to be like that, it’s something much more conceptual. But how he explained it was “we’re not having sex and fucking all gnarly, we’re taking our time with it and making love”. It was so funny hearing him explain it like that. He’s thought about it a lot. He was telling me that with every project he does it’s really hard for him to release it because it’s his thing. If he wanted to he could just keep fine-tuning it forever. It’s like releasing a piece of himself out into the world, and having to let go of it.
The core constant of skateboarding for you has always been being in the van, filming trips, stacking clips. But you have these unique personal battles. This part for instance isolated you but you also have the solo discipline of going to compete in SLS or X Games amongst it all. Has that become something you crave and enjoy? Like an additional itch that needs to be scratched?
I really enjoy those trips, it’s actually worked out really well because we go on trips for so long, for two or three months at a time. It’s not like I’m on a trip for ten days and have to leave during the only weekend we have for contests. We have so much time so I can just bounce out and skate Street League for the weekend, then come back in and know that I still have time to film video parts.
Warming up for the Rockstar Energy Open by adding extra heat to a kickflip backside noseblunt slide
How does it feed into filming? Do you think working on video parts would be harder without that element of laser focused skatepark maintenance in the background?
I think it’s helpful for sure in multiple ways. Let’s say we’re in Denver for a week and I only have the week days to film before leaving for the weekend it gets me more fired up. I know the tricks I want to try and know I want to get them done before we leave. I never want to leave feeling like I could have done more so it’s helpful in that way. It’s also a way of keeping the sword sharp, going out and skating a skatepark for two days straight, and fine-tuning all the tricks.
I’ve talked about this with other people but when you’re on a trip you want to be as sharp as possible so we’re definitely hitting parks in the mornings and dialling in our tricks. But it’s cool to go out to a contest and practise tricks that I want to bring to the streets. You’re just getting them more dialled, the two things work pretty well together. It’s also an opportunity to make money. I feel very lucky to have the opportunities to go and skate those contests because not a lot of people do. It’s hard to make a living from skateboarding and there are so many skateboarders out there who deserve it all but have nothing. I feel very fortunate to have that other space in skating I can go and do.
How was that Rockstar Energy Open contest?
That contest was so fun! It was one of the sickest events I have ever been a part of. We were there for a whole week, all the Rockstar dudes. We went there on Monday and filmed for these little videos they had playing in the middle of the contest between runs. We went out there to street skate and film a bunch of stuff, I got to skate with [Chris] Joslin and Lazer [Crawford]. They seriously did that event right. It’s really sick too because [Steve] Mateus the Rockstar TM kind of did it all by himself and it could have easily flopped. He had a lot of pressure on him from PepsiCo, all the bigwigs over there, all his bosses. Lots at stake but it went really well for everyone involved. Anyone I spoke to who went there for it had the best time ever.
I was talking to a lot of the transition dudes and they said it felt like the Vans Park Series which was one of the sickest contests in their eyes. They said it was something they’d been searching for in the contest world for a long time. There was less of a jock element and it was more of a fun event, a breath of fresh air for contest skating. Everyone skating in the contest was staying in the same hotel which was awesome, everyone was hanging in the lobby, grabbing drinks, people hanging outside. Just one big family, everyone having a great time. It was the sickest event I’ve ever been a part of and I can’t wait for more.
“It was a really fun process to be involved with and I got to create something I want to skate in forever”
Braden’s new Emerica pro shoe ‘The Hoban’ in a traditional inaugural colourway
Finally congratulations on the pro shoe. What are you proudest of achieving with the design of this one?
Thank you dude. I think I’m proudest that I love the shoe, I love looking down on it and being hyped on what I’m seeing. It was a really fun process to be involved with and I got to create something I want to skate in forever.
Was digging through the archives the funnest part of the design process?
Definitely, I loved looking at all of the shoes I have skated throughout my life, and creating something new inspired by that. This new shoe involves a piece of all the shoes that I loved skating in growing up, it was amazing implementing all of that into one shoe. It trips me out looking down on it and thinking I have a shoe, it’s crazy. I really enjoyed fine-tuning everything, it’s sick to be involved in something like that from the ground up. Having an idea of something you want and watching it slowly build into something without really knowing what the final result will look like, but consistently trying new things to get there. It was great putting things into the shoe that I have always wanted on others and making the perfect shoe for me.
Braden gives his new shoe the kickflip nosegrind test for Kyle Seidler’s lens
What’s a more obscure shoe you may have referenced when designing this?
Lots of the Inspo came from the first DC Wes Kremer shoe. It’s funny, I saw a lot of comments when images of the shoe first leaked onto Instagram. Lots of people saying “that’s just the Wes Kremer”. That’s definitely where we started. I loved skating that Wes Kremer shoe, I skated it for so long. I wanted to draw from that but add all of these elements of other shoes to make it perfect for me. It’s funny that people were saying that, i’s so much more than a copy of another shoe, I recommend trying it for yourself. Another shoe I skated a lot was the Jerry Hsu so there’s a lot of inspo from that as well. I skated the Dickson a lot and always loved how that had such a strong heel piece so it wouldn’t just flop out so we put that in there. Then obviously the Emerica Vulc is my favourite sole so we had to put that one in there too. I’m hyped on it and very stoked that they gave me a shoe.
How has it improved skateboarding for you?
I no longer have to think about all of these little things that we as skaters often overthink. We are all in our own heads about shit and how it affects what we do. Be that your board, your shoes, your whole setup. Skating is already so fucking hard, I just wanted to make it so that I don’t even have to think about my shoes at all. Everything I want to be there is there, everything is dialled, and it’s helped out for sure. I’m not overthinking things any more.
Thanks for your time Braden. Any last words?
I think that’s it, I appreciate you thinking of me.
We would like to thank Braden for this one and look forward to seeing the next part he is working on. If you didn’t catch his Nine Club Episode then we recommend tuning in for more over there. Follow Braden on Instagram for the latest from his world.
Braden’s Emerica shoe will be with us next week. You can shop with us for shoes from Emerica and hardware from Toy Machine.
Previous Visuals Interviews: Jaime Owens , Charlie Munro , Lev Tanju , Jack Curtin , Ted Barrow , Dave Mackey , Jack Brooks , Korahn Gayle , Will Miles , Kevin Marks , Joe Gavin , Chewy Cannon
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