Yesterday, me and m’lady went to the mall so she could get a pair of sandals… our first stop was at Payless Shoes, where I spied something that weirded me out a bit:

These are lady’s “garden clogs”, which seem to be a pretty popular cheap shoe (I’ve been seeing a lot around town)… the thing that struck me is that they’re from Airwalk… for those of us that were skating back in the the 80’s and 90’s, Airwalk was one of the big names in skateboarding footwear… Tony Hawk, Jason Lee (yeah, the actor), and lots of other big name pros rode for Airwalk, now they’re selling rubber shoes at payless? Damn! It’s almost like seeing one and old friend getting strung out on crack or something. Anyway, my surpirise wasn’t over yet… we went next door to a store called “The Shoe Depot”, where they had a rack of clogs that looked exactly the same as the ones above… I walked up and read the label, only to find that they were made by Vision Street Wear… another huge name in skate shoes back in the day. At one point and time, I’m betting that nearly every skater over the age of 25 rocked at least one pair of Visions… now they’re forced to pay the bills by selling junk shoes at the mall. It’s kind of sad, but at the same time, it’s just as good… both Airwalk and Vision, who were rooted in skateboarding, chose to make money the number one priority in their businesses, forgetting that skateboarding was what made them the giant comanies that they became… now they’re just sellouts… nothing more than brands that are stamped onto junk products. I just figured I’d throw that out there.

On an unrelated note, the Hammond Daily Star’s Sunday edition (today’s paper) has a Reader’s Choice survey in the back of it… I’m a survey-filling nerd, so I’m putting Small Time’s name down in every category that it fits (I’d mark Small Time’s as my favorite place to buy produce, but I can’t honestly say I’ve ever picked up a head of lettuce from Kerry). The results will be published in a future version of the paper, so if you’re inclined to mark down the shop in the sections that fit, it’d be rad to see. If you don’t want to do that, then you can make a really big paper airplane out of it and see how far it floats.

Ok, sorry for the ramble, it’s Sunday and I need some more coffee. Peace!

I know I write this a lot, but I have to bring it up for our new readers… we’re not a bike-riding site, unless we’re talking about Terry Adams. Terry is basically the best flatland bike rider to ever live, he’s a local, and he also happens to be a better skateboarder than over 90% of the people you know. Terry’s a great friend to all of us at the shop, and he’s seriously one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet (he comes to the park pretty regularly so you’ve probably at least seen him). One of the things that makes Terry so awesoem is that he keeps it small… this cat travels the world (he’s practically in a different country every week), he has more sponsors than I have hairs on my head, yet he doesn’t let any of it go to his head… he’s one of the most chill, humble, and coolest people to ever walk the planet. He gets much respect from all of us here, and as it turns out, he’ll be getting some respect from national television in a few days. Check out this email he just sent me:

Just wanted to let you know that I will appear on a TV show called Master of Champions next Thursday (July 13th). The show airs on ABC at 8 PM Eastern / 7 PM Central. This is primetime. I was going to battle Rodney Mullen but he backed out.

I will be toward the beginning of the show and should be on for at least five minutes. ABC sent a camera crew to Louisiana to interview my Family, Friends, and see what I am all about. They even filmed me at the Voodoo Jam. So this should make Flatland look pretty Cool. Please check it out.

If you are curious:

http://abc.go.com/primetime/masterofchampions/index.html
http://www.tv.com/master-of-champions/episode-5*
http://online.tvguide.com/newsearch/detail.aspx?

As noted int he email that Terry sent me, Rodney backed out of the flatland challenge, but it’s still awesome that Terry is getting the full blown coverage that he deserves. Much respect Terry… much respect!