What’s up Rowan? Why are we playing baseball tomorrow?

Pretty much when it came time to decide on a theme for this launch party, Bob Lasalle knew I’d been playing a lot of baseball. The idea started as a tailgate party and it just snowballed from there. Now it’s at a full stadium. We’re playing a real game, there’s an announcer, a dj, vendors, and it’s a real big thing. It’s sick, I’m excited.

So how did you guys pick teams?

We just made a list of people that would be sick to have on the field and then sent out the invitations. Once we figured out who was down me and Jesse Alba facetimed the other day and did a fantasy draft. We tried to make it even, assess everyone’s level, and then we also tried to split a bunch of homies up. Like you two are on separate teams, same with Dono and Cephas, Jake and Curren are split up. Just try and make it interesting.

Who got picked first?

I let Jesse go first and he picked Natalie. That’s his girlfriend but she’s also probably going to be one of the best people on the field tomorrow. 

I was gonna ask if you’re wearing your new shoes tomorrow, but then I saw you got the custom Rowan 2 cleats made. How’d that happen?

When we were planning it was at the same time where this pitcher was pitching in Vans a bunch. So we were like “Whoa, it’d be insane to get people on the field wearing Vans cleats.” Now he’s on the Phillies and he threw a no-hitter and everyone was tripping that he did it in Vans. So I think Vans just reached out to congratulate him and stuff and then they must have gotten the same connect to where he gets his. It’s insane.

What’s new about this shoe compared to your last one? What was the process like?

Pretty much we created the first shoe from scratch. So I got to do exactly what I wanted to do at the time, which was make something that looks classic but feels like all the other shoes that I love from Vans. This time we just looked at how we could make this thing better. More sturdy, more durable, kinda just an upgraded version. And this was at the same time that they were developing a new outsole, which is the impact waffle. So pretty much what we tried to do was use a very similar silhouette for the top of the shoe. Use the same shapes and heights for everything so from afar you’d think it’s the same shoe. But when you get up close you can see it’s a bit more tech, a bit more sporty, and has the impact waffle.

What part of the designing process is most fun for you?

Man the whole thing is pretty rad. I told them that if they need help designing any other shoes I’m down to just come around. It’s pretty fun seeing how talented the designers are with their craft and to watch them work so quickly and make adjustments. I think my favorite part is seeing line drawings and sketches become cad. Then after that you get your first samples. But the very first samples always look a little wonky, and then they just get better and better until you finally have the finished project. It’s crazy that you just watch this thing come to life just from drawings and pictures and inspirations.

How many physical sample rounds did you go through?

I mean I’m sample size so I’ve had quite a few. As far as rounds from the very first one that came in there was probably somewhere between six to ten. Something will come in that looks great on the computer but then you see it in person and the shape’s off or something. The worst part of the whole thing was the commute because I was doing it all in person. Vans office is all the way in Costa Mesa and I was really going down there like three days a week sitting in traffic. Obviously it was a choice. I wanted to be involved and I wanted it to be something I was proud of and can represent wholeheartedly. 

So from shoe designer to videographer. How did Blurry come about? 

Well they knew with the shoe and collection coming out they needed something and I think the classic approach is normally just a video part. Which is kind of what this video is, but I wanted to have more of a homie video feel. I wanted to include a bunch of people from Vans that I just hang out naturally with and travel with. So on all these trips, I didn’t really film any of the hard tricks, I just filmed a bunch of b-roll stuff and funny hijinx that goes on in between tries and what not. I would send it all to Greg and he was like “this shit looks great, we should see if we could mix it together.” Editing it with Greg was so much fun.

Tell me more about that process. You were sending him clips while you were getting them, then he was editing them and would show you something?

Periodically he would send me a timeline of the footage I had with the other footage that people got on trips. So then I’d mix it with mine and make really sketchy, jank versions of edits with a song. I’d make those on iMovie and send them to Greg and see if he got the vibe, and like a day later he’d send back the most insanely cool version of something totally beyond what I was trying to get across. Like he’d just pick up on the idea and do his thing, and he’s one of the greats you know. We got to a place where we both understood what type of video we wanted to make. From that point he kind of took over. I would just sit with him once a week or something and chat through stuff. 

Have you ever made a video before?

Yeah, I’ve made a ton of stuff! The biggest thing I ever made was a curb edit during covid. We were skating this McDonalds that’s right around the corner from here. I made a 22 minute curb edit with full parts and shit, Atiba and Ako shared a part in it. It’s called The Mcslappy’s video, you gotta check it.

What’d you film it on?

That was all on iphones, in the beginning it was just me and two other homies sitting mad far away from each other and filming. Then when the world went kind of back to normal we were still just hanging in this lot cause it was the best place to skate. It all started because we didn’t want to put tricks up on the story. We didn’t want other people to come skate there. “Let’s gatekeep the curb spot.” All of a sudden I had a ton of footage on my phone and I had the homies send me everything they had filmed. So by the time it ended up getting knobbed I had an insane amount of clips. I just took my time and made the whole video. We had a premiere for it and everything, brought a projector down to the river. It was rad.

Damn they knobbed the curbs?

Dude first just with skatestoppers and I went with a hoodie tied tight and pried them all off… Fuck, maybe I’m gonna get in trouble for this… But I pried em off and then we had another like two weeks. Then they installed metal poles filled with cement in front of them so it’s done. But we had good times in that lot…

So how long were you filming for Blurry?

I think around 8 months or so, something like that. 

You took your camera on every trip?

Yeah I took it on every trip. It’s funny as we were editing the video the camera totally shit the bed. It’s a cheap camera, you know, I can get another one. But it was just funny that the filming was done and this thing just croaked. When we started Greg was like, “even if you just film a few clips it’ll be cool to use.” And it ended up being maybe 15%-20% of the video. It was a lot of stuff. I just wanted to add a layer to it that felt personal. Also I think at the start, only having so much time to film a part, I was like “Oh let’s involve other people!” Take some pressure off you know. 

Did you pick the music for Blurry too?

Yeah, all of it. The intro song and the last track are my fiance’s really good friend Stu, who’s also a really good friend of mine, but I met him through her. His artist name is Somniac and I’ve always just thought he made really cool stuff. When it came time to pick music I found one that I thought fit really well and he was down. He’s actually flying in tomorrow cause I was like dude your shit’s gonna be on the big screen, you gotta be here for this. And then the other song is just a reggae song I like by the Gladiators. 

I also liked how there was a good amount of time with no music at all.

Yeah that was really Greg’s idea cause we were getting too much footage to fill the songs. We were gonna have to start taking the lifestyle stuff out and we were both really adamant about keeping that in there. So that was kinda his idea to have that break in the middle giving the footage space to breathe.

What did it feel like being behind the camera watching someone try something scary?

It’s fun man! It’d be different if I was the only one there capturing it because there was no pressure for me. But it almost made it less scary to watch you know? There’s like a buffer in between the real thing happening and your eyes. But I can’t imagine being the only one on scene, like if you fuck up this person’s gotta risk their life again? I don’t know what that’s like.

MW: Where were some of the places you went for this video?

We went to Australia, Paris, New York, Toronto, all over LA. That’s pretty much it. The big ones were Australia and Paris for sure. That’s where a lot of the hi jinx and fun b-roll stuff comes from. A lotta the stuff of Diego, lotta stuff of Zion. Diego, Zion, and ET really came through. I mean Elijah and everyone else too. And good on them for being down to let those clips go cause I’m pretty stingy nowadays, it’s harder to get clips than it used to be! When I get something I’m proud of a lot of times I want to hang onto it. So I’m really hyped to have those guys in this project. I feel like it makes it more special than if I just dropped twenty clips by myself.

It’s a way cooler showcase, a creative outlet that’s not just a shoe part.

I just had so much fun traveling this year it made sense to try and capture that same feeling through the video, which I hope comes across. Even if it comes off slightly different than how it felt, that’s fine too.

You can check a condensed video interview and some highlights from the shoe release party here: