Soap shoes
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| Soap | |
 |
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| Type | Subsidiary of HSL |
|---|---|
| Founded | Torrance, California, 1997 |
| Headquarters |  Carrollton, Texas, USA |
| Industry | Extreme Sports Equipment |
| Products | Grinding shoes, Grindplates, apparel |
| Revenue | undisclosed |
| Employees | undisclosed |
| Slogan | Shoes For The Daily Grind |
| Website | http://www.soapshoes.com/ |
Soap Shoes are shoes made for grinding. They were introduced by Chris Morris of Artemis Innovations Inc. with the brand name "Soap" in 1997 and simultaneously invented a new extreme sport based on Aggressive Inline Skating. They have a plastic concavity in the sole, which allows the wearer to grind on objects such as pipes, handrails, and stone ledges. It was not necessarily because of these sliding properties that the name "Soap" was chosen; the original executives decided that it was fit to represent their open-minded nature. The company and their product rapidly gained popularity through numerous fansites, a video game, and live demonstrations across North America and Europe soon after, but fell to legal vulnerabilities and was readministrated twice, eventually bringing the brand to Heeling Sports Limited. The act of grinding on rails and ledges specifically using soap shoes has been dubbed "soaping," with the "soaper" being the one performing said act.
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[edit] History
Soap shoes were essentially derived from rollerblades and aggressive skating. Chris Morris, a resident of California who worked at RollerBlade in Torrance for over sixteen years, envisioned a shoe that could "grind" when designer and coworker Dave Edmond proposed a "what if" question regarding the matter. They quickly worked to customize a simple shoe that had a grind plate embedded in the sole; it was an average Nike, fitted for sliding. Morris immediately tested it upon completion, fell on his rear, and contacted his patent attorney. Next, Concept 21 (a recently founded design firm) was called upon to design a sample so that the product could be finalized. Alongside marketing partner Pat Parnell, they then formed Artemis Innovations, which would be the company the brand would be sold under for four years. In 2001, Mr. Morris lost control of the Soap license through legal problems. Activity within the company slowed down, and eventually the remaining executives sold Soap.
In-Stride, a company whose target market was primarily wrestling gear, purchased Soap. The company's industrial focus made some believe In-Stride wouldn't be able to properly manage Soap, and keep the brand's focus in its original place. Throughout the time that In-Stride owned Soap, new designs and models were not produced. The company went bankrupt in late 2002, and Soap was once again available for purchase.
Heeling Sports Limited, the company behind the shoes with a wheel in the sole known as Heelys, realized that the grindplate could be very profitable when paired with their wheel, and acquired Soap later that year. In early 2003, six new Soap shoes were released, each in multiple colorways; simultaneously, HSL was designing hybrid shoes to sell under the Heelys brand. HSL has been criticized for releasing too many new models at a single time, and not supplying requested stock to retailers frequently enough. Since HSL's debut play on Soap, desire for a more distinguishable variety of shoes has been expressed by the fans; five of the six models included the same fixed grindplate and had the same sole design. Two of the six were actually the same shoe, but sold in different colorways and with different names. There is one model still in production from the first generation released by HSL, the Soap Express.
The sport never caught on to the mass market in comparison to, for instance, skateboarding, but the brand "Soap" does have a professional team mostly consisting of pro inline skaters. Soap's heyday was in the late 90's and early 2000's, when competing crews from across America and Europe were releasing internet videos on a regular basis, spurring a dedicated, albeit small, online community of "Soapers". However since then most of the crews have disbanded along with the website forums, and now there are only pockets of proponents of this marginal extreme discipline around the globe. A revival of sorts was noticed in early 2006 as more people were attracted to Soaping, and HSL responded by retroing their Express model and releasing it in limited quantities.
[edit] Techniques
Soap shoes can go hand-in-hand with freestyle walking or Parkour to form lines or multiple tricks strung together. An example would be landing into a royale and grinding, finishing the trick with a 360 Method out. It is one of the few land-based extreme sports that can be easily practiced in both dry and wet conditions.
There are two schools of thought for basic frontside/backside grinding with Soap Shoes; the first using the leading leg (your right foot if you are goofy and vice versa for regular) as the leg you leap off, landing with your back foot on the rail/ledge/etc. first and subsequently placing your leading foot on moments later. The second technique is to leap off your trailing leg (left foot if goofy etc.) and place your leading foot on the rail/ledge/etc. first following it with your trailing foot moments later. You can also endeavour to land both feet simultaneously on the rail.
There is little advantage from one technique to the other; leading leg first often yields more speed but this is at the expense of control, and abandoning a trick if your trail leg fails to lock onto the obstacle proves difficult without risking injury, as your leading leg will be sliding away from you. On the other hand, the trail leg first technique is much more controlled and safer in the event of poor execution, but speed is sacrificed.
The technique used is mostly based on preference due to your natural bias. e.g. a right footed person who is of regular stance (the most common combination) will find it far easier to leap off their left foot and land with their right foot on the rail first using the trailing leg technique outlined above.
[edit] Sonic the Hedgehog & Soap shoes
Soap Shoes were featured in the videogame Sonic Adventure 2, developed by the Sonic Team at SEGA. This game presented many billboards, blimps, and benches advertising the shoes; also, hero Sonic wears a custom version of the Scorcher shoe while the darker character Shadow wears hybrid jet hoverskate/grind shoe, as grinding (or "soaping") is an important gameplay element in the game. Grinding is now a core element of recent Sonic games, though now he sports his original trademark shoes. This is because after In-Stride bought control of Soap, no actions were taken dealing with the continuation of the partnership, and neither has HSL. However, in two episodes of the anime Sonic X, Sonic's Soap shoes are brought in to give him an advantage over his enemies.
[edit] External links
- Soap Shoes Official Homepage
- - The official Soap Shoes Myspace
- Solid Grind - The Biggest Soap Shoe Resource Online
- Soap Shoes Online - Soap Grind Shoes pictures, videos, and tutorials
- AthensFSW - Soap Shoes Community
- Sonic and Pals Soap Store - This webcomic has an entire section on Soap shoes, is the only dealer of new Soap shoes size 3-12.
