I have spoken a bit in the past about the efforts by major shoe companies to muscle into the skateboarding industry based on name recognition alone. The action sports company Consolidated Skateboards and skate shoe company Osiris have teamed up to create a satirical version of mainstream sneaker shoes with the Drunk. This shoe is available now in skate shops around the United States.

The shoe is a standard skate shoe with patent leather from heel to toe. The large yellow banana that streaks across the outside of The Drunk shoes the light hearted nature of the Osiris/Consolidated Skateboards collaboration. If you are looking for a statement and a skate shoe, The Drunk seems your best option. The only issue I have with this effort is that Osiris and Consolidated Skateboards are preaching to the converted. Skateboarders and action sports fans likely dislike the corporatism of Nike and Adidas already. In the end, you may be able to spark conversation and retrieve skateboarding from the jaws of corporate giants with a single purchase of The Drunk.

There are few genres in the shoe market that have as much flavor and style as the basketball shoe genre. From pumps in Reeboks to Nike’s effort to promote Gary Payton’s “The Glove” handle with a unique lacing structure, basketball shoes are meant to be stylish enough to look good while running suicides. Nike is releasing the Nike SB Brut Dunk High styled after the cologne for gentlemen who won’t wear these shoes.

The SB after Nike is obviously for skateboarding which means that there are no future Bill Waltons that will wear these shoes. This is the one problem that the current shoe market possesses: everything goes into the “buzz” market of skateboarding. Companies like Nike and Adidas are trying to co-opt the niche market of Etnies, Airwalk and Vans in the hopes of being hip. Basketball players also look for something that mixes the support of a cross trainer with the style of a basketball shoe. I hope that a few street ball players test out the Nike SB Brut Dunk High on the court and make a statement. Street ball is the next frontier of marketing after companies finish working over skateboarding so street ballers should make their love of shoes like this known to the world.

I really like these shoes and once they come out, I am certain that they will fly off the shelves. My hope is that they are put on a shelf of shoes near basketball shoes instead of the skateboarding section. This isn’t the start of a war between ballers and skateboarders, just an attempt to get back to traditional basketball footwear.

Here is a preview of Nike Skateboarding’s Spring ‘08 release. The Nike Skateboarding Air Trainers comes with the brown speckles on the midsole. The great thing about their upcoming line are the simple colors and materials used.

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