You Don’t Have to Be a Skater to Dig Tyshawn Jones’s New Shoe

Skate shoes aren’t like basketball shoes. While Donovan Mitchell and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the newest inductees into the world of signature sneaks, skaters are far more likely to get, say, a colorway of an existing silhouette to call their own, rather than a brand-new, custom-designed pair of kicks. It should go without saying that Tyshawn Jones—the Bronx-born phenom behind this, maybe the best magazine cover, skateboard-related or not, of the last decade—isn’t most skateboarders. So, naturally, he’s just released his first signature shoe: the Adidas Tyshawn. And it looks like a hit.

The shoe first dropped in the all-white colorway seen here in June; a green-and-gold pair are out this month. The Tyshawn doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but does just enough to set itself apart from the pack. There’s the height, to start: a not-quite-common midtop cut. There’s some tasty gold trim, and a cushy, corduroy-feeling wrap around the collar. It’ll stand up to skating, if that’s what you use it for—the toe is reinforced; the tongue is made from memory foam—but even if you don’t, it’s the kind of sneaker that makes too much sense with tall socks and short shorts on a hot Saturday.

Things are looking up for Jones: on the heels of a bonkers part in Supreme’s “Blessed” video, he was named Thrasher’s 2018 Skater of the Year—about the only award that really counts in a sport not terribly interested in awards. He’s got his own restaurant, Taste So Good (Make You Wanna Slap Your Mama), back home in the Bronx. He’s still out here skating through (and on) aggressive New York City traffic. And now he’s got his own signature shoe to do all that cool stuff in, too.