Holiday Gift Review: Last Resort AB
I have a love-hate relationship with skateboarding.
For months, I’ll be obsessed with it, not wanting to do anything but skate, thinking it is the best thing on planet earth, then one day I’ll decide my skateboard is worse than the plague.
I can never really predict the change coming; maybe it’s having a few bad skates in a row, being preoccupied with other things, or feeling like the thoughts I have while skateboarding could send me on a holiday to the psych ward. At times, my gear has a lot to do with that; not necessarily having the “best” or newest – last year I skated a board for five months, and I usually skate my shoes until they’re hanging on by a thread – but just something that feels comfortable.
Which brings us to the Last Resort VM003, for a week, they were the only thing other than socks that came close to my feet. I skated, went to the pub, saw bands, hung out and worked in them. I even got stuck having a ridiculously awkward conversation with my former-boss, who is incapable of understanding a social cue and wouldn't stop talking to me even though it was beyond clear I had no interest in talking to him, while wearing the Last Resort VM003.
The only colourway I was able to get of any Last Resort model in my size (US 8) was the black corduroy, which is fucked, like, what is the idea behind using corduroy for a whole shoe? Corduroy is for the trousers worn by fans of the iPath Preview: Summer 2005, not shoes. Even though I’m a fan of iPath and sure they made a corduroy shoe, everything that I’m about to say still stands. Corduroy uppers consistently remind me of this black suede/yellow corduroy colourway of Kyle Walker’s first Vans shoe – arguably the ugliest skate shoe of my generation. Even making the comparison between Last Resort to the 2016 Skater of the Year is making me sick. I cannot imagine that a white guy from Oklahoma who wears an oversized tie-dye t-shirt and frontside 180s of the side of buildings, then, while rolling away, will exclaim, “THAT WAS FOR Y’ALL”, is where the brand co-owned by Pontus Alv takes its influence from. However, that's much more than I can say for Vans, whose design team are obviously looking at the Last Resort catalogue with an eagle eye and little shame – just take a look at their new model, the Era Stub and then look at every stubby-toed shoe on Last Resort's line.
Honestly, if I were in that design room, I’d probably be looking at the Last Resort range too. The silhouette of the VM003, unlike the Oklahomie’s pro model, is one of my favourites on the market. The lowkey, sleek upper, stubby toe box, contrast stitching, and thick laces are exactly what I want to look down at when I glance at my feet, sans the corduroy. However, those visual pleasantries become cons as soon as you put on the shoe. The toe box is extremely narrow, and for the first five days of wearing them, it felt like my pinky toes were being skinned alive. This shocked me, as my feet are already extremely narrow; I couldn't imagine the agony of having a wider foot and wearing these. They took a while to break in, and honestly, the five-day break-in period was a time of extreme discomfort for my feet, whether skateboarding or not. While not more uncomfortable than being stuck in a conversation with my former boss, who is known for his extreme micromanagement, pretentiously stroking his beard, and snaking someone at the skatepark, which led to them breaking their arm. Skateboarding in the shoes was uncomfortable and not something I enjoyed.
On my first day in the shoes, I took them to the skatepark I’ve skated more than anywhere else – the same one where the previously mentioned arm-breaking incident happened – thinking it would be the best place to try breaking them in. As I started skating around, I was overjoyed by the way they looked on my foot; they looked tiny, one of my favourite design qualities a shoe can have. That thought instantly triggered the memory of a conversation I overheard at a spot when I was fifteen, where one of the older guys said, ‘Size 8 is the best looking shoe size.’ While doing a manual over the obstacle, my friend coined ‘Blue Island’, I giggled to myself, as I always do when thinking about that interaction that was initiated while looking at a brand new pair of Stefan Janoski’s he had just got in his Nike box.
After two, no-pop laps of the skatepark, which I have taken to some varying degree every time I’ve gone to that skatepark for the last eight years, I decided it was time to pop my board. I made my way through the park and to the manual pad where I began the next part of my warm-up, trying to do every manual – regular, nose, switch, and fakie – I missed the nose manual. At this point, even though only five or so minutes into my skate, I was concerned about how skating in the shoes was going to go. The thick vulcanised sole, quite heavy and especially when paired with the extremely thin, almost weightless upper, felt disproportionate and not great on foot. After redeeming myself on the nose manual, I knew it was time for the classic new shoe test, doing a kickflip. It took me four tries to land the kickflip, way more than I would’ve ever wanted. The sole is so grippy that I couldn't flick it the way I was used to, resorting to doing a shit kickflip to make it work. Disappointed, I went on with my skate, hoping I would be able to get used to the shoes, as I’ve spent the last month really enjoying skateboarding.
Things didn’t really get better, the sole continued to feel off balance, feeling too thick and grippy, then quickly turning to thin and flimsy after it started feeling good. Not feeling like they were going to have much life in them, and retailing at $150 Australian dollars, even though they look great, for that price tag I’d much rather a shoe that’s more comfortable, lasts longer and doesn’t share qualities of the shoe the Christian flyout savant, Beaver Fleming, regularly sports.
The Last Resort VM003 sent me into a strong hate period with skateboarding, causing me, while at the skatepark one day on my lunch break, to take apart my skateboard, put my trucks and wheels in my bag, leave my deck on the ledge I was sitting on, and walk back to the library, not setting up a board for the next month.
Note: I don’t enjoy skating in any vulcanised shoes, so my opinion on skateboarding in these shoes really isn’t of any value to anyone.
