I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the Stem Primal Origins are not just great for casual wear, but are also great for skateboarding.  In fact, these shoes are the best shoes I’ve ever used for skateboarding…almost.

The Good

Right from the start, the Primal Origins are great for skating because the outsole, while minimal, protect your feet from the ground rushing by as well as from the rough grip tape on the board.  Also, the shoes are light and don’t feel the slightest bit clunky like some skating shoes can be.

In addition, the thin and flexible nature of the Primal Origins adds something that makes skating with them an entirely new experience– ground feel.  The contours of the deck are clearly felt and you can even feel the texture of the asphalt during the brief moments when pushing off the ground.  Even cooler is that you can curl your toes over the edge of the board for better grip when carving left or right.

It’s the best of both worlds; the connectedness of skating barefoot on an old fishtail board and the protection necessary for doing tricks on a modern board.

Why not the best?

There’s no question that the Primal Origins feel great while skating, but the problem is that if you do any amount of tricks, they will not look good for very long at all.

I made a small hole in my shoe after a couple of ollies:

Hole from ollies

To be fair, all shoes suffer from this problem to some extent.  Though some skate shoes may reinforce the high-abrasion areas with additional padding or stronger material, pretty much all shoes will require a dose of Shoe Goo sooner or later due to the inherent roughness of the grip tape on the deck.

What would be great though is if Stem created a shoe specifically for skating with reinforced material in specific areas of the vamp/upper to stave off the need for Shoe Goo for as long as possible.  The larger stitching style used on the Primal Origins may also need to be modified as the grip tape would likely make short work of the exposed thread.

Large stiching may need to go

I love what Stem Footwear has done with their take on casual shoes, so I’m very interested to see what they could do for a skate shoe.

How about you? Would you be interested in a Stem shoe made specifically for skateboarding?