Looking to for things to try during quarantine? Try the NB 440.

Alright, I'm gonna be completely honest with everyone here, I started skating in 2005 which was the tail end of what many people have told me was the golden age of skating. A "golden age" where the shoes were comfortable! When everything was cupsole! 

Growing up pretty much every shoe I skated was vulcanised, because for some reason I couldn't stand the feeling (or lack of) cupsole shoes. Every shoe that I so glowingly remember was a vulc sole. Remember the Fallen Chief? Or the Lakai Koston that was made from recycled fabrics? What about the ES square one? Or my (personal favorite) the Arto Gravis? What I'd GIVE to skate another pair of Gravis. 

Anyways, you get the point. Cupsole - bad. Vulcsole - good. I religiously skated vulc shoes until one day I saw the NB 440 at the shop and thought that it didn't look too bad. It was slim, the colors were nice, but most importantly, the sole wasn't like 2 inches thick. Look I get it, you know we've all landed primo, it sucks, and we've all had that thought "well maybe if my shoes were more padded it wouldn't hurt so bad". Don't get me wrong there's some validity to this, but you can't overdo it. 

So I skated a pair, and to my surprise, they were awesome. For someone with a wide foot such as myself, I thought that these would pinch my feet in the same way that a lot of slimmer shoes do, but they were pretty forgiving. The materials were durable, the 2 piece toe has a bottom underneath so that when you (inevitably) rip the stitching your foot doesn't just pop out of the front end, and most importantly I could feel my board!. 

Now I know this all sounds kinda like a weird New Balance infomercial and this is my "testimony", but let's be honest here. I'm sure you're just like me, bored out of your mind, trying to think of ways to mix up your day to day because working from home (while at first seemed pretty sick) sucks. Now's the time for weird experimenting! Try something new! Check out the 440 here