Not to long ago I was lurking on our Ripped Laces FB, just dicking around not doing much. Occasionally I post, answer any shoe related questions you might have and chat with you about a shoe you're interested in. I may not know everything but I do pride myself in being able to help you guys out and field some questions. As I was just chilin on Facebook, I get a chat notification. It was from a dedicated reader and skater, Dave Van Housen.

Dave hit me up on Facebook chat and wanted to know if I had any suggestions on Vegan skate shoes. We went back and forth trying to figure out what canvas skate shoes could last the test of time and not rape your wallet in the process. I, myself, use to be Vegan for 5 years so I know this situation too well.

Since the mid 90's, vegan friendly shoes haven't been as easy to obtain without putting a tremendous hole in your wallet and shoes. Most vegan friendly shoes (when I say "most" I mean Ed Templeton and Geoff Rowley models) use to be indestructible and better than performance suede. They would always have a nice, thick rubber toe piece kinda like the Emerica Templeton 4. Since those days are over, I dug deeply into my skate nerdery of a brain and looked online to help Dave find a solution to his problem. In the end, I told him that a CONS CTS in canvas should do the trick. It has a solid rubber toe cap to manage his kickflip problems and has a strong layered toe box to handle some abuse. In helping Dave, I also came to a conclusion myself. I must review a canvas skate shoe.

Originally, this review started because Timothy Olson of Roger skateboards asked me if I'd like to do an Adidas review. I was all like "Fuck yeah, brah!" and he was all like "Oh-kay…..brah" and the rest is history. Weeks later, I received a package from Adidas to find the Ronan and the Adi-Ease. Obviously, I wanted to skate the Ronan and feature them in our reviews but after remembering my conversation with Dave, I knew that skating the Adi-Ease would make for an interesting and insightful article. It all lined up incredibly well so here is your Adidas Adi-Ease shoe review.

The review was done using our month long format and the shoe was skated for a total of 20 hours. Check below after each section to view the grading system. We base our ratings from 1-10. 10 being the best and 1 being the absolute worst. Enjoy.

As you might've read or completely ignored, we suggested not to skate The Edgar out of the box and to give it a 1-2 day breaking in period. Now, because we're completely impatient and have no sense of direction, we went ahead and skated the Edgar right out of the box. The Edgar is so tempting that we caved and tested it out for 4 hours to let you know what potential battle you'd be facing. Here are some of the our conclusions.

The Edgar can be skated out the box but you'll have a difficult time. We strictly did it because we're insanely impatient and wanted to test them out asap. As stated before, it's a stiff shoe and despite it's wide appearance, it feels somewhat narrow. This is all attributed to the hidden rubber toe cap that lays beneath the suede. It's added layer is ultimately what makes the shoe in itself stiff. For those with larger and wider feet, I'd suggest to carefully decide whether you want The Edgar that bad. For myself personally, speaking from a wider foot point of view, I can say that the pain is worth it. During the 1st and 2nd hour of skating, you'll feel slight discomfort on the sides of your foot. It isn't overwhelming enough to add any blistering to your foot or toes but nevertheless it's something that cannot go unnoticed. During the 3rd and 4th hour of skating the shoe, I felt it loosening up a bit and making my skating a little easier. It's one of those shoes that pay off in the long run after dealing with some minor setbacks. The hidden rubber toe cap is a bitch at first but overall adds to the durability and takes an extreme amount of damage like nothing. Skating them out the box felt uncomfortable but was awesome in retrospect. The height and placement of the toe cap is in perfect position to do any flip trick with ease. Normally, with a shoe like this, you wouldn't even attempt any flip tricks on the first day because you'd end up annoyed and flustered. But again, we went against the grain and broke the rules to see how far our boundaries stretched. I did try some flip tricks at the very beginning of skating The Edgar and I'd say about 75% to 80% of them were successful. Now, I'm no Cory Kennedy but because of the positioning of the toe cap and it's height, with a simple flick of the ankle, all flips tricks seemed plausible.

We're going to continue to face the Edgar and give you a full month review in the future. Look out for it and see how well we really did against The eS Edgar.
Peace.

A staple in any house hold kitchen

Before every review, we place careful consideration into effect so that each review is as appealing as the next. The shoe & brand should represent a quality that we would love to recognize, a unique design and offer some form of new technology during the process.

When we reviewed the eS First Blood awhile back, we threw all those thoughts to the side. They were still our guidelines but we strictly just wanted to skate the fuck out of that shoes. It was the best and most organic way to skate them. Normally, after reviewing more than a dozen of shoes, reviews can potentially become more of a "job" than actually skating. Sure, you get to skate free shoes but you have to make sure you're on top of how many hours have gone by, record the data and then publish it before you get blacked out wasted. On top of this, schedule each review carefully to make sure everyone of them remain relevant. This can all be very tedious and at times annoying. You're starting to see what I'm talking about, right? But I'll save my bitching for a later time and wipe my pussy now so we can continue on with this post.

Luckily, every so often their is a shoe that I would actually love to skate, even if I had to pay for them. This was the feeling I got when we were approached to review the eS Edgar. It's a shoe that brought back all these feelings of nostalgia from the First Blood review. Sure, it wasn't long ago but it did in a sense reminded me why I started doing these reviews. When we first started out, we paid for every single shoe out of pocket up until the C1RCA Gallant review. Since then, shoes have been piling up and everything has been getting crazy. Regardless of that fact, we still push on to let you know what shoes are durable and worth your hard earned money.

This post is titled "Ripped Laces v.s. The Edgar." Why? I don't know, it sounds cool but also, it's about showing the initial test we put it through and our "breaking in process."

1st Test of The Edgar

In order to make this article work, we had to get into the "Bobby Worrest" state of mind. Which leads us to our first two photos. Before doing that, we had to figure out the blueprint of the shoe to make sure it could clench our ice cold beverages.

2nd Test

At first, we tested it with an Australian beer to see if it could hold it's extra large bee-ear. We then moved onto a Heineken. This was possibly the best review I've ever done.

Our Blueprint

Our testing isn't at all complete. This was just sort of a cock tease of whats to come. Check back in tomorrow to see the first day of skating The Edgar.

You should all have my head for not putting this review out sooner. The fact of the matter is that I've been looking forward to filming a review rather than convincing you with my words. I've come to the point where I feel like I'm hypnotizing readers instead of actually showing them how good some products really are. Unfortunately, the realities of life get in the way and in between scheduling dates and losing footage, the video review just couldn't get done. We made a valiant effort but it's all gravy…or wavy…Whatever. Anyways, back to the review.

I've had these King Foam insoles for about a month now and they're worth every dollar. They haven't gone thru any specific or major changes, such as flattening, deterioration or tearing. They've also been in and out of different model shoes in order to see how well they perform in different silhouettes. From cupsoles to vulcanized shoes, the King Foam insoles best quality is the ability to adapt.

Some information or advice towards using King Foam insoles are the following…Please note that I do not work for Footprint so you're taking advice from some fucker behind a keyboard who may be abusing his power….Just kidding.

As stated, these insoles should be used to increase comfort and support for those shoes that make your feet ache after a full day of standing or skating. I have a flat foot and I could tell you that they lowered the pains in my ankle from standing substantially but don't necessarily increase arch support. When Alex Figueroa first skated the C1RCA Widows, we went filming and he attempted a 50-50 to a large 6-foot drop. After several tries, he refused to skate it anymore after feeling some unwanted heel bruises coming together. Alex then skated the Widows with the King Foam insoles and felt a massive difference. Even though King Foam insoles thoroughly adapt to any model shoe, I'd say that they would work best with most vulcanized shoes rather than cupsoles. Traditional cupsole models always feature a patented formula for added protection instead of maximizing boardfeel, which explains the demise of its popularity since the 90's. The vulcanized shoe of today depends on a solid insole in order to subject your feet and lower back through the pain you put it through. Let's be honest, their isn't a better feeling in this world then boardfeel, but I can actually think of one better…..being able to walk when I'm 65. I'd honestly recommend, if they fit correctly, to put the King Foam insole underneath those paper thin stock insoles you're given when slipping on new shoes.



Since the demise of eS, I've paid homage to the late and great company by skating in Accels. These aren't the OG ones, they're the reissue series from last year with the Ortholite insoles and heel counter shank around the heel of the insole. No doubt that the stock insole is great but after skating a number of days in a row, my feet did started to feel sore. These King Foam insoles have the same depth in height as the stock insoles, but what sets them apart are their clean non-perforated bottoms.

Some insoles already come micro-perforated in order to add breathability and decrease the possibility of fungus build up in your foot. Unfortunately, these micro-perforated insoles do potentially lead to wear and the loss of buoyancy in the insole. The King Foam insoles do not have any openings or holes in them which may lead to flattening, ripping or loss of comfort. Another honorable mention is the weight to the insole. They don't have a remarkable amount of depth to them but supply enough cushioning if you plan to use the King Foam insole alone. This practically opens up endless possibilities to how you'd like to use King Foam insoles. Layered or Alone, the insoles perform remarkably.

As stated before, at $15.99, King Foam insoles are a must. Even if you don't intend on using them all the time, I'd suggest having them as a solid back up plan when it comes to skating large sets and/or drops.

Thanks to Jason at Footprint for getting this review together and expect more from FP in the near future. I hear they've got some crazy things in the works.

Ripped Laces success hasn't grown over night. It's taken hard work and dedication. We've been recognized for so much of our hard work that we're proud to say that Jerry Hsu himself has approached us to introduce his First Glance. The Hsu 2 Fusion from Emerica is next up in our list of reviews. We asked him to provide a few words on his new shoe and here's what he had to say... (photo below)


The Hsu 2 Fusion is the next shoe to be featured using our video reviews but more importantly it's the 2nd Asian shoe review we're doing this month. The first one is the Converse KA-ONE and we spoke on whether Kenny Anderson holds the key to eternal youth. Their is still no confirmation on this but hold tight, we'll get you your answers. Now, we're moving onto the Jerry Hsu 2 Fusion from Emerica. It's entirely the opposite of Kenny's shoe. Jerry reintroduces us to his mid-loving ways and adds a few bells and whistles to this shoe. It has an in-sown toe cap, which hids the stitching from any unwanted blow outs and has a very comfortable and refreshing silhouette. I'm extremely happy to say that this latest mid-top doesn't look like a halfcab so thank God for that. Oh, I almost forgot, here's the english version of what Jerry had to say about his shoe.


The review should be out by the end of the month with a full video behind it. Oh and btw, we're looking to get this shit hole off blogger and make it legit. Any graphic designer out their wanna make some mula....? Hit us up at RippedLaces@gmail.com

Peace.

        So as in the post below, I told you that September was going to be crazy. Normally, if you've been checking on Ripped Laces, you've notice that we've been know to give out a sneak peek of our up and coming reviews. This just goes to show that you never know when some exclusive review will be coming through the door. The Prod 5 review just sort of fell on our lap. Originally, we were going to have 2nd Nature skate shop owner and man of newly found Quartersnacks fame, Doug Brown aka "Pretty White Boy Number 1" do the review but seeing as how he's a busy man, we went with the only back up plan possible, Chris Pierre-Jacques aka Lil Chris.

Despite his short time on earth, Chris has earned his reputation as the local ATS (All Terrain Skater). He's been killing everything in his path for as long as I've known what woman want, meaning forever. I'd like to think that Chris came out of the womb flicking his foot so it must've been a natural transition from the chooch to the board. Now, because this isn't our traditional review where myself and the reviewer receive a pair of shoes, their is only so much I can say about the shoe seeing as how I actually didn't get a pair. Normally, companies send us shoes for review but thankfully Chris took the initiative and supported his local skate shop.

Screen shot of Chris Pierre-Jacques doing our latest video shoe review.

I'm looking to hit you over the head with so many updates this September. We've got the following reviews coming out this month:

• King Foam insoles in-depth written and video review.
• Adidas Adi-Ease review and how canvas is going to be the next trend.
• Supra Skytop 3 shoe review and why you should spend your parents money on it.
• Converse Ka-One video and written review.

At the very top is a photo of 2nd Nature Family and 5boro flow rider Chris Pierre-Jacques ripping up the next video review we're hosting. Any guesses? The video is going to be up this week. Keep posted. On another note, check this out. It's the greatest thing I've ever recorded, totally topping the first steps of my unborn child, without a doubt.



For the full collaborated video, check out Jenkem Mag's article

Peace!

These are the "House of Marley" brand headphones. It's a new brand coming on to the market started by the Marley's to tap into the ever-growing headphone market. They sent me these headphones to do a review on there quality and sound but truthfully I'm no professional in that field. I mostly deal with letting you guys know what shoes suck and what will last you for your buck. So, because I cannot test these, let alone keep them, what should I do with them? Originally I was going to give them away in a contest format. The format was going to consist of contestants smoking a lot of fucking weed and then doing the best tricks possible on video. Maybe even to the sounds of the late/great Bob Marley. Unfortunately, I have to ship these headphones back to the "House of Marley" making this only an idea fading away into existence.


So now, I'm temporarily stuck with these headphones, that I can't keep or give away, but I must review them. Here's my review:

This type of "House of Marley" headphones are a high-tech in-ear design for deep bass and sound proof performance for maximizing the listening experience. When I wore them to skate, I couldn't hear shit but the music and the vibrations from my rolling wheels on the crusty ground. There is additional information on their site but they fail to show you how the headphones come after purchasing. The HOM headphones come equipped with a eco-friendly sack for storing your headphones for all occasions. More importantly, I tested how much weed the sack could hold. This Rasta inspired, eco-friendly sack can contain a quarter ounce of that good sticky icky, which translates to about 7 grams. Perfect for a stylish weed storing system.

For additional info, check out www.thehouseofmarley.com