Back in April we ran a comp on site for one lucky human to spend 24 hours with the Etnies team on the day the UK leg of their ‘Recognition Tour’ wrapped up with a demo at Bay Sixty6 Skatepark, London.
It was eventually James Callum from Bristol who had his name pulled out of the digital hat and spent a day in the company of Sheckler, Malto, Bledsoe, Tuuka, Torgerson and co.
As mentioned in the full ‘Recognition Tour’ article in the latest issue of the mag, James documented the day for us by way of a snapshots blog, part 1 of which is online below. Check back tomorrow for part 2.
Having got the train down from Bristol to London, I arrived at the Shoreditch Hotel. I was stoked on the room and immediately took part in some standard free tea/coffee/biscuit indulgence.
The view from my room was pretty cool, the weather was perfect all weekend.
I met up with all the Soletech guys for a few beers outside the hotel while the team were still out shooting. Once they arrived back we were all introduced and headed down to Hoxton Square for some noodles.
This was taken in a random karaoke pub we went to. As I walked in there was a hipster on stage rocking out to ‘Sex On Fire’, the American guys looked a little worried as to why we were there. I remember Tom saying that he was borrowing a good camera and it was impossible to take a bad picture with it. I agreed.
I think myself, Tom and Joe were the only ones left in this place by about 2am. We made it back to the hotel and hit up some hotel street beers with Turv.
Driving through the city, in the van, with Notorious B.I.G’s classic Ready To Die on was too good. I felt pretty dead from the night before, but the sun was fully out and after a couple of coffees I was alright. We arrived in Covent Garden ready for the singing at Slam.
The que was huge! I was pretty impressed at the number of kids (boys and girls) who had turned up to the signing. They all seemed super happy to meet the team, especially Sheckler. It was cool to see them all come out repeating word for word what Devine, Tyler, Sheckler or Davis had said to them.
The signing took a couple of hours. Some product was tossed into the waiting que which seemed to go down well. I saw numerous pairs of Etnies sunglasses chucked out which went down well with the kid. I wandered around, took some photos, chilled in the sun and drunk some more coffee.
Ben and Pete were really friendly as soon as I joined into the tour, they got me involved in everything and were so sound. Cheers guys.
Concludes tomorrow…
