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There is no doubt that Stefan Janoski’s Nike SB pro model is one of the best selling skate shoes of all time. Since its introduction in 2009, it has been seen in a multitude of colorways and configurations and has been the go-to shoe for the majority of the team riders.
A year before the shoe we now know and love was released, a completely different version featuring a cupsole almost hit the market. Former Nike SB product line manager Shawn Baravetto tells Ripped Laces the full story in his latest interview.
“Not too many people knew, but there was supposed to be a Stefan that came out a year earlier. It was a cupsole, it got scrapped — we ended up not doing it at the last minute because he wanted to go back to looking at doing a real vulc shoe. So, at the time, it was Stefan, Linkfield, Arizumi and myself. James worked on the designs, Stefan had a pretty solid sketch going into it, and we were showing that thing around and it had to be a little more expensive. Tons of people were claiming it looked too similar to a Vans, or it was too expensive, or it just wouldn’t work. It was like, well, we spent a lot of time making it as good as we can in conjunction with what Stefan wanted, and we were feeling pretty good about it — but there weren’t very many people at the beginning that were!”
Baravetto drops a few gems about his time spent at Nike, and some of our favorite SB’s of past and present. You can read the full interview now at Ripped Laces.
