Professional skateboarder Cory Kennedy may be known for a few mind-blowing, gravity-defying maneuvers on the board. But his latest trick caught the eye of one of his sponsors: Nike.
The 24-year-old skateboarder last year showed up to a photo shoot for the Beaverton, Ore.-based company to promote the Nike SB shoe. The catch was that he wasn’t wearing them. Instead, he had on the Nike All Court, a tennis sneaker.
“I like a simpler type of shoe, something that feels worn in the first time I put them on,” Kennedy said in a statement. “I was looking for something fresh and saw the All Courts on NikeID. I had never seen them before, but I have always been obsessed with the toe cap so I decided to make a few.”
He did — and so too did many of his Nike SB skateboarding teammates. Sensing the skaters were onto something, Nike eventually added a version to its line up.
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The Nike SB Zoom All Court CK — which features a suede upper and tongue, as well as reinforced toe cap — debuted yesterday online and at skate shops.
For Nike, the new shoe is part of its continued push to appeal to more skaters. To drive interest for its signature shoe for skater Paul Rodriguez, in 2013 it launched online a collection of P-Rod 7-inspired GIFs of the sneakers. The goal: to show the shoes in action.
