Culture & Community | Economic Development | Arts & Culture | Ninth Square | Skateboarding
Neha Middela Photos.
From far away, the AS-1 Pro just looks like a white, dark-soled shoe. Get closer, and details appear: the white exterior is marked by green accents, including the distinctive star-and-chevron-symbol Converse logo and squares of varying sizes next to the laces. The dark sole is designed to allow skaters to most effectively latch onto their skateboards.
On a rainy Saturday evening, members of New Haven’s skate community filled Plush, located at 96 Orange St., for the launch of Alexis Sablone’s AS-1 Pro in partnership with Converse. As DJ Fatherbop played music inside, a truck parked on Orange Street played videos of her design process. Skaters and attendees inside mingled, enjoyed refreshments and pizza, and tried on the shoes.
Sablone, a skateboarder who most recently won fourth place at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, is also a co-owner of Plush, which opened in September 2022. In addition to her newly released shoe, Sablone has also designed “skateable sculptures” in Sweden, New Jersey, and Virginia, and written and illustrated a graphic novel about nuclear waste, among other creative work. The launch at Plush on Saturday followed a release party at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Plush is owned by Sablone, Ben Berkowitz, and Trevor Thompson.
According to Sablone, her experiences as a skateboarder greatly informed her design process, both during initial stages of brainstorming as well as in final iterations of the shoe design.
“Through years of skateboarding, all skateboarders develop preferences or ideas about their footwear and then as a designer, I have the ability to take those ideas and transform them into something tangible,” she said. “A shoe for a skateboarder is also kind of a tool … it’s the point of contact between you and the skateboard.”
Sablone said that the process for designing her shoe mirrored the design processes for other, larger-scale creative projects that she has worked on. Through continuous processes of iteration, she was able to bridge the gap between her ideas and the reality of the finished product. While the design process involved collaboration with many people, Sablone said that Converse was open to trusting her creative vision and allowed her to maintain her “strong opinions” about the design of the shoe.
Patrick O’Malley, a longtime skater and launch attendee said that he appreciated the construction of the shoe, and how Sablone incorporated different design elements to create a useful shoe for skaters.
Throughout the night, launch attendees expressed their appreciation for having the shop as a hub for the New Haven and greater Connecticut skating community. Attendees continuously trickled into the shop and lively conversations remained constant.
Sir-Michael Burrow, a Plush employee, called the shop “the first of its kind,” adding that the shop connects to the “real skating industry.” Burrow said that the events held by the store, such as vintage clothing pop-ups and video premieres, are consistently well attended and allow skaters in the area to meet each other. According to Burrow, the shop has these events around two times per month.
O’Malley concurred, stating that the community created by the shop serves as “proof that Connecticut has skateboard heritage.” Having the shop in an area like New Haven, he said, reinforces the message that “skateboarding is for everyone.” Sablone said that she and Thompson had “dreamed of having a shop like this to go to” when they were younger.
Launch attendees also noted the significance of Sablone designing the shoe. According to Sablone, female skateboarders are underrepresented within the sport and few shoes are designed by female skateboarders.
“I’m still trying to process it all,” she said. “I’ve been skating for over 25 years and of course, dreamed of getting to have my shoe but never really thought I would, so it’s pretty surreal to have all this happening. All I saw growing up was that only guys got shoes and to be part of that change, it feels like I’m part of something that’s a lot bigger than me."