The Alife Vs. The Muska

So my fascination with shoes goes way back to the days of the OG pump i guess. Not the basketball ones but the tennis ball ones. Right. The closest I ever got to those were the Reebok Blacktops. My big brother had all kinds of shoes I always wanted but never fit into. He had the Classic bball pumps when they came out and the Shaq ones too. My father always said that shoes make the man. First thing someone pays attention to is your shoes so make sure there are no holes in them and stuff. New Jordans always made my brother bad-ass even though he wasn't mars blackman. Do you know?Do you know?Do you know? From there I tried to make my shoes a very important part of my dress. Jr. High introduced suede into the equation. BK Knights and Airwalks was the direction I went instead of the Hare Jordan. That being said, I've always loved that Jordan the best. Never had the confidence to rock 'em though. Still, getting older and into skateboarding I started to forget the importance of good shoes. Short stints looking for cheap Monkeyboots and Doc Martins went nowhere. I pretty much stayed loyal to the Airwalk strait through the early '90s. I cut off my Enigmas in '92 and never looked back. Ones, Desert Boots, NTS2s, Jason Lee's, I was on it. Starting to really get into skating, too, I saw the need for more than one pair of shoes. Shoes weren't 24/7. Shit started to open my eyes. I was so stuck in that one idea I never saw what was to come sooner than later.

Emerica,DC,ES,DUKES,Duffs, simple, too many to remember all came out with so many skateboard shoes its insane for me to have just chosen one anyway. I was definately partial to the skateshoe that nobody else had. Until everybody had skateshoes that everybody else has but aren't using them to skateboard in. Which is super hypocritical on my part because I was always not wanting to skate in my good skateshoes anyway. But always eventually did and don't have anything left to show for all those pairs of sneakers I once owned oh so long ago. KCK's were FUCKING THE SHIT PERIOD. Today almost non-existant. So since my long departure from any retail skateboard(which basically started my shoe knowledge and really is a glorified shoe salesman/babysitter)/shoe store I have seen so many other styles of shoes trying to look the ways they did when they were cool to only a few and not cool to the whole world. But the whole world is way too cool for anything not new now. So if its old but looks like its new then thats cool. Get it?

Anyway, the new hot ish in sneakers have been Supra shoes for quite some time now. The Circa got the axe and the everybody who liked the skully Adrian Lopez'z/Appleyards started rockin' Supra, which is like even better than super according to Ben Stiller in The Pick of Destiny. The first supras I saw were like dunk knock offs anyway and saw the turn coming. I haven't seen the fascination with these shoes ever. I've been kind of super loyal to the Dunk for almost a decade now. I saw Bam on Nike in like '98 and never looked back really. Nowdays Element makes shoes and sponsors not only the Bam but the Muska aswell. Not sure who wears what shoes anymore and don't really care. SB has really kept me alive as far as motivation to keep skating. Seen the Ice-Cube P-Rod commercial yet? I figured out that the skate shoe was only there to go away. They are made to fall apart when you skate in them. So, then you have to buy new ones. Lame right? Tricky shoe people make you think that Patent leather or Nubuck is going to make your shoes last longer. Ha. Once i realised that the thing you have to look at is the shoe as an addition for life I realised what kind of shoe person I really was. Similar but different.

When I very first met the Muska I diddn't even meet him directly. I met Aaron Snyder and some of the other Shorty's crew way back when in like '99 after some contest. Chad was rocking ES shoes. There was some 411 with Muska sporting the Koston 2's and it looked like a total 180 for the "sport" I think i even went and bought a pair of the Soloist from the shop I worked at just because too. It was at some contest party at Chico's pad in PHX that I saw where cali was on the map as far as the shoe game. Except any sample sizes were always super small so I had nearly no chance at fitting into any of those early releases. Any time anyone would come out o skate AZ or was at a demo or contest I would try to find size 12s. Not easy. Any way I could I wanted to find shoes that would make me the man I wanted to be. By 2004 I figured out what I wanted was to be in cali where the herb is as good as the skating and vice versa. Shoes were easy to come by in LA and I was looking forward to becoming a hardcore sneakerhead before too long. Didn't happen that way really but I was though introduced to some of the most choice styles in years. It was there that I discovered the ALIFE. There was some graffiti site I was looking at from time to time from the CAL-ARTS computer lab that had pics of these shoes I had never seen before but looked a lot like Half-cabs. Vulcunized sole and dunky pattern and everything. But Argyle. Yes, argyle Everybody-High's(and lo's) I fell in love with these shoes and started my search. Noone in LA had them at the time I wanted them and the only place I found 'em was on Ebay. They were sold at Barneys NYC but I was never ever on the East coast so my chances of getting them was slim to none. Very slim since the ones on Ebay were still going for about a bill with shipping and all. No dice. But I still liked the style and kept my eye on them for a while. A while, while.

2005 was the next time I came in contact with the Muskabeatz/Chad. My friend Nuse had known Muska for years being that he was a one time AZ res. Around that time there was no Supra. Muska was rolling his Escalade and dating Paris Hilton at the time. He's usually around town durring the hollidays being his pop and sis live here. (Lindsey's rad Chad) He was at Nuse's for X-mas and I go to chat it up with him for a bit about bullshit and what-not. He asked me about the Sundance film festival and wondered about entering one of those things. I had no clue what that convo would do to me. I actually remember seeing he was rocking Vans at that time and had to comment on the ALIFE shoes I so loved. Being I knew he was mr. nyc at the time I knew he had to know style. The funniest thing was that he did know but he didn't. I explained the shoe I liked and the brand name and where it's available and he soon realised what I was talking about, but he didn't. He had said he was familiar with the brand and that it was French. Pronounced Ah-leef-ay. As I had no idea what they were or where they were from I went with it being confident that Mr. Muska knew what he was talking about. He did but he didn't. It is not French and is pronounced A-Life. It showed me what the shoe game was to me. A LIFE LIKE NO OTHER. That's what's on the ALIFE tag and thats what it means. A life not like the others because the others don't know what the fuck they are talking about. It was the first time I saw how cool I really am. Muska's Skytop 2s are out this week and everybody's gotta have 'em. It'd be nice to have a pair of the shoes that everybody wants but I'm way more Nike now then Supra or ALIFE. But hey, I do still own a pair of the K2's(grey and green) so I guess some influences never go away.