Why Skateboarders' Shoes Wear Out So Fast

2723 Words6 Pages

Why Skateboarders' Shoes Wear Out So Fast

Through out skateboarding history a sand paper material known as grip tape has been glued to skateboard decks. This material made for gripping onto boards also destroys sneaker soles. Grip tape causes friction between sneakers and itself, while making a grip and facilitating control of the board. Pedaling wears out sneakers like walking, but at more accelerated rates; much higher than walking. Becoming more circwnspect, there is the factor of increased movement on the board such as turning your lead foot (generally for most people the left foot, unless they skate goofy foot) back and forth in between pedaling. With the grip tape being very granular and necessary for skateboarding, it constantly and easily scrapes away at rubber soles, making sneakers wear out faster than in any other sports or hobbies. With this problem of sneakers wearing out fast and being discarded, the skateboarder with limited financial resources suffers additionally from the losses.

WHY IS GRIP TAPE NECESSARY

The grip tape is needed for a skater to maintain control over the board by the means and the uses of friction, Unforttmately grip tape helps wear at the ollie area (an area of the shoe that is just behind a person's smallest toe on the outer side of the foot) and the sole rapidly. Grip tape is necessary for street skating tricks (examples: ollies, kick flips, nose grinds and nollies) and ramp skating. If there was no grip tape vert skaters (skateboaders who skate on ramps) would lose control over their board easily, there by raising the risk of danger and serious accidents. Vert skating is already rather risky. Who needs more broken bones? Street skaters depend on their grip tape for special moves lik...

... middle of paper ...

...ue to the factors of cost and little improvement in durability. Fortunately, my other tests were original. The Wearforce went from 15,000 to 20,000 cycles in the Wyzenbek test compared to sneaker leather's 1,000 to 1,500 cycles, and boot leathees 2,000 to 5,000 cycles. In the Taber test, Wearforce passed with over 100,000 cycles. Lastly, from skateboarding with the Wearforce on my sneakers, it was learned that Wearforce is much more durable when compared to leather, and does not give off an unwanted grippy feel.

CONCLUSION

With the acquired results of Kevlar's failure and Wearforce's success, my hypothesis is simultaneously rejected and supported. Kevlar failed due to high cost and poor performance testing; where as, Wearforce succeeded in protecting the ollie area of a skate-boarding shoe at an economical cost without any drawbacks to the manufacturer.

More about Why Skateboarders' Shoes Wear Out So Fast

Open Document