I’ve been a fan of the Airwalk brand for most of my life. Growing up it was the “cool” skate company right up there next to Vision and Vans, only for me, my best friend’s older brother skated in Airwalks, Prototypes of course. At the time it was just a crazy different shoe with the lace cover, and with aspirations of flying high on a vert ramp, I assumed that you HAD to have a lace cover to be good. I never got my hands on the 540’s, nor did I ever become much of a skateboarder. As I grew up I found that my size 13 feet weren’t really on the same pace as the rest of me, and my skills developed at my finger tips despite my memories of skateboarding through the Dairy Queen drive-thru when I got my first skateboard (it was my Dad and Uncle’s idea!). My time on a skateboard is limited to a “commute” to the ocean, the grocery store, and occasionally to the local watering hole.

With Airwalk celebrating 25 years this year, I’ve been following Twitter account (@airwalk_online) and also on the blogs like Highsnobiety that ran a great piece on the history of the brand. One of the interesting things about Airwalk is how it’s progressed along with my life path. I wrote a piece on why I thought Jeff Staple and Airwalk when I worked for Nice Kicks, surprisingly, Jeff saw that I linked to his blog, and tweeted it to a couple of people with in the industry saying, “This guy pretty much sums it up perfectly.” As someone who was just getting his foot into this crazy industry, it was a great confidence boost for me, and it was even posted on Nice Kicks. Shortly after that I took a leap of faith, left the job with Nice Kicks and moved back to California, because I wanted to be closer to my family and the ocean among other things.

A few weeks after the move, I was contacted by NDP from Sole Collector, and ended up lining up a job with them. I often talk about how things in life come full circle, and that’s where I’m headed with this rambling session. A couple weeks ago I decided to leave Sole Collector on the same leap of faith approach that I left Nice Kicks, it’s not that I have any problem with the people I worked with at either place, but I have always believed in one quote more than any, it was from Bob Dylan, who said…

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.

Yesterday I received a package from the people at Airwalk, I had won a Twitter contest a little over a week ago by being one of the first to retweet a message of theirs. Inside were a couple of t-shirts and a sticker pack celebrating their 25 years with all of their classic logos. Coincidentally, I began on my adventures of being completely self-employed also, and moved within just a short walk to the ocean. I’ll still be looking for opportunities and picking up freelance jobs as I go, but, I’ve never felt better about my future even though it has never been so uncertain.

Thank you to Nice Kicks, Jeff Staple, Sole Collector, and Airwalk for being an imperative part of this journey I’m on, I’ll be sure to paste some of your stickers along the blank walls as I paint my future. I may even skate through a drive-thru while I do so.