Did you notice Andrew wearing some new shoes in *Play Dead*? So did we.

With the exception of Guy Mariano, there hasn’t been much precedent for street skateboarders over the age of 40 to get a shoe deal with a new company. (Guy was 39 when he signed with Nike, but 40 sounded better.) Where is someone that established in their career going? And why? Aren’t we all supposed to be washed up at 25?

According to Sebastian Palmer of New Balance Numeric, a few months ago Andrew showed up to their office with a garbage bag full of shoes from all different brands cut in half and a lot of questions, specifically about the New Balance Numeric 1010.

We spoke to Palmer, who told us “The initial conversation was around how could he improve what he was skating in to give him more support cushioning. I said ‘If you go out on your own and develop a shoe that keeps you skating, we’re all good, just don’t steal Jeff Mikut.’ We need Andrew skating for as long as possible, skateboarding needs our legends skating for as long as possible.”

As footage of Andrew in the the 1010 shoe began surfacing, it began to feel inevitable that something was happening between him and New Balance. We called him up to talk about his skate shoe journey, and just exactly how finding his new home went down.

Village Psychic: Andrew, how are you?

Andrew Reynolds: Good. I tried to film this thing yesterday and I didn't get it. The New Balance guys I film with are telling me today is the last day we can get anything for the Instagram edit that welcomes me to the team. I’m going to try to go back and handle what I didn’t yesterday.

VP: Before we talk about New Balance, let’s talk about some shoes you grew up skating in. Which ones stand out?

AR: I started skateboarding around the time that actual shoes made for skateboarding started being made. I remember going into a mall store around 10 years old and the first Airwalks were there. I just thought, “Those are made for skateboarding. I want them.”

Andrew’s old Vision Street Wear shoes. These belong in a museum.

I think the first skate shoes I had were Vision Street Wear. They were basically a Chuck Taylor with an ollie pad. Before that I was just skating in Chucks, because that's what my mom would get me. I'd wrap duct tape 5 or 6 times around the whole top and bottom. It would wear off the bottom and get really gooey. I thought it was good, kind of grippy.

Around when I met Tony Hawk and got on Birdhouse (about 14 or 15) I started getting free Airwalk shoes. I’d skate anything they sent me. Airwalk was cool at the time, everybody was skating them — Keenan, all the cool people that I looked up to. I really liked the Tony Hawk Airwalk shoe. It's a cupsole and it had a “T” on the side.

VP: What about those shoes stood out?

AR: They were just simple. The Jason Lee shoe was really cool, and Geoff Rowley was on at the time. The team definitely influenced how I felt about it.

At that point, it was so different. Basically, anything you could get is what you were skating in. I don't ever remember getting a box from Airwalk between 14 and 17 and thinking they were weird or bad. It’s just what I had.

VP: So what eventually led you to leave Airwalk?

Andrew in Transworld’s *Greatest Hits* from 1997, feeble grind to 50-50. Tough to say if he’s wearing Airwalks or Etnies with the 30 year old camera quality.

AR: A big change for me was when I started visiting California. I was still sponsored by Airwalk, but I noticed a lot of people were skating in Etnies. They looked different, they were puffier. Etnies started to get a couple people on the team and that made it feel a little cooler. I remember I put the Etnies Screw on after wearing whatever Airwalk was giving me and I was like, “Oh, these are better.” Just like that, I was done with Airwalk. At that time, Sole Tech was making the best skate shoes. That’s really what it came down to.

VP: From an outside perspective, it seems all that happened pretty quickly. Did everyone moving away from Airwalk feel fast?

AR: It definitely happened quickly. As soon as people started realizing that there were better shoes to skate in, it just felt like a necessity. Somebody is making something better and you just go with it.

VP: So then Emerica…

AR: Yeah, well there were a lot of different things that happened. I have an Etnies ad, and that ad came out after I had already been announced on Emerica. There were some legal issues and Emerica went away for a little while, so we were all kind of just on Etnies. Etnies would send these black suede Raps, a basic cupsole shoe. Jim Greco called them the “market boots”. As in they’re shoes you’d see in a tub at some market, no box, held together by the laces. He would just be like, “Now we gotta skate these market boots.”

After some legal trademark stuff, Emerica was going to come back and be more of what most people know as Emerica — you know, Justin Regan, Donny Barley, Senn, me, all the kids, Spanky, Herman, Ellington, Ed Templeton. That’s the Emerica I'd say we were all really proud of.

VP: You were on that Emerica for two decades or so. What worked about those shoes?

AR: Our thing, or at least mine, was jumping off stairs. That was how we skated, big gaps and rails. Emerica made thick, puffy shoes with airbags, you know what I mean? Your feet were fully protected. What’s crazy though is those were actually on the thinner side compared to a lot of the shoes that were made in that era. Ellington's first shoe, my first shoe, they didn’t seem like they had thick shoes at the time.

An early sketch of Andrew’s first Emerica pro model via Don Brown.

If you look at my first shoe or Ellington’s, or the OG Accel, that was normal. For me, I did so many years of hard skating in that kind of shoe. It’s really what I've wanted the feeling of since then.

I want to draw a diagram to explain this: In my early 20s, my body wass fresh as it could be. I could take beatings every day and I am wearing the thickest, most padded, air bag shoes. Then I’m older, 40 to 44 and I have the thinnest shoes I have worn in my life. It's the opposite of how it should be.

It's funny how thin everything has gotten and how we do an impact “sport,” or whatever you want to call it. It seems obvious that you would need some cushioning, something that soaks up some of that impact that is going into your body. I swear, if some young skaters start in shoes with decent padding they could probably skate for another 10 to 15 years longer than if they didn't.

I should be super clear though that cupsoles are what work for me specifically. Some people need thinner vulcanized shoes with a lot of board feel. Everyone has different preferences with this stuff.

The original Emerica Andrew Reynolds pro model. if you have a pair, hopefully they’re in this pristine of a condition.

VP: Do you think you could skate your first shoe now?

AR: I wouldn't want to look at a shoe that big, but I could skate it. It would be a little stiff, and a little puffy in the tongue. The shoe isn’t what's happening now. They would look funny.

VP: Yeah, it would definitely stand out. It seemed like you would be on Emerica for the rest of your career.

AR: I could see my time with them coming to an end for about three or four years. The little kid in me, the skate rat, wanted something new. I wanted to try other shoes.

I'd see clips of people in Half Cabs and loved how they looked. I thought “Vans is the place I want to be.” I also didn’t think many people would be shocked if I went to Vans. Plus, Vans has a lot of Baker and Deathwish guys and everybody I worked with there was really cool. It was the right choice.

VP: You looked so sick in Vans, but as a cupsole skater that had to have been an adjustment when you first got on.

AR: Being a cupsole skater for 20 something years, I told myself, “I'll skate anything and get used to it”. Cup, vulc, whatever, just go skate. I thought, “I’ll figure out what I’m skating later”, and I tried every shoe they made. I’d even try putting an extra insole in. In the end, I felt I had to do what's right for my skating, to get back to something that I'm used to.

VP: And what was that?

AR: I knew that if I was going to keep jumping down stairs and filming video parts, I needed a specific type of skate shoe. When I get an idea in my head, it's basically an obsession that takes over my entire life. I started getting Tyshawns, Lynx, Tiagos, Nikes, every kind of cupsole looking for what I needed.

A small fraction of the shoes Andrew has sawed in half to examine their construction.

The shoes that I like are built a certain way—cupsoles that have foam built into the soles all the way from the front to the back. A lot of shoes just put it in the heel area. A Dunk has it in the heel area. The New Balance 440 has it in the heel area. The point of doing it that way is that you get some board feel in the front, and you get some cushion in the heel.

On the other hand, if you look at my Emericas, or a pair of Air Forces, or the Tiagos, if you cut them in half, you see there's foam that goes the whole way from the front to the back.

VP: And that’s what you were doing, cutting shoes in half?

AR: Well, I’ve always cut shoes in half to see what they look like.

The New Balance Numeric Tiago Lemos 1010 shoe, bisected.

When you cut a Tiago in half, you see the gray layer is the built-in foam. There’s a softer green foam in the heel area, which nobody else does. And so for me, I know that something like that is what I need to jump down stairs all day long. I don't feel a thing. And I also can skate flat and ledges. It's stiff enough so when you're flicking and pushing, the whole thing is not bending to where you're using your feet muscles as if you're walking barefoot on the beach.

VP: The other day you told us that you hate board feel.

AR: When I hear somebody say “Those have so much board feel”, all that equals for me is so much pain.

Andrew’s illustrated and written specifications for his dream shoe

I'm not a scientist, but my common sense from 35 years of experience skateboarding tells me I need as much cushioning between the bones on my feet and the concrete as I can get. What pain can I take out of my knees and back by what I'm putting on my feet? That's the goal. I know I need really good skate shoes that are going to help me be able to skate for longer. I also made a rule for myself: from now on, if I'm not skating, I'm going to wear nice comfy shoes. I'm not walking around in skate shoes anymore. And New Balance has so many options for that.

Around the time I started cutting Tiago’s shoe in half, I saw your interview with Jeff Mikut. Everything he was saying about the way the shoes are made, how he wants to go with the skater to see how they skate and how they land, all the different foams and technologies New Balance has available to them, it blew me away. I'm like, “This is it! I don't care if I have another shoe sponsor again, I've got to meet this guy. I need to talk to him and tell him what I'm going through.” I was even thinking that I might just try to hire Jeff to help me make my own shoes. I was just asking myself what my options were that could keep me skating.

VP: It’s interesting with Jeff too, because he is really good at skating. It seems like that could help with his understanding of what a skater needs in a shoe. Have you skated with Jeff?

AR: I haven't had a chance yet. I follow him on Instagram. He’s insane. He should be a pro skater.

VP: He absolutely should. Did you reach out and pick Jeff’s brain before you knew New Balance was the direction you wanted to move in?

AP: I just hit him up via DM and said, “Can I ask you some questions about NB shoes.” He said, “Yeah,” so I called him and asked him about the Tiagos and asked about shoes that were going to have built-in foam. I asked a lot about people testing the foam for different kinds of impact and whether it flattens out over time, those sorts of questions.

VP: So you knew you were going to New Balance, or you were just exploring your options?

AR: No, I was set on New Balance, because I had cut all the shoes and saw that the Tiago was what I needed. Also, I love Tiago as a skater —I’m such a fan of his.

With New Balance it feels like there are a lot of opportunities for both of us. I'm not saying I'm the same caliber as any of these people, but Adidas has Gonz, Lucas Puig, and Busenitz. Vans has Rowley and AVE. Nike has Guy, P-Rod and Koston. Cons has Zered. They all have that part covered. New Balance didn’t have a street skater from my generation.

It really comes down to wanting to skate in the shoes and feel like there are things I can bring to the table. I really didn’t want to go into it as an older skater that's desperate for a shoe deal. I had a couple of meetings with them, we talked about shoes, about where I was coming from, my feet and wanting to film. Sebastian Palmer, Ty Romero, Jeff Mikut, Chad Tim Tim, everybody was like, “Dude, we’ve got to make this happen.” I was worried because I knew they were going to go to the team to run it by people.

Some people can be protective over their position or their team. I have a Baker team, so I kind of know how this works. Sebastian hit me back and said, “I sat down with Tom Knox today. We talked about you being part NB.” And I was like, “…Yeah, how'd that go?” Seb just said, “He said, we have to make this happen.” Then Tiago DM’d me telling me that it’s his dream to have me on the team. It made me feel good to know that they wanted me to be a part of it.

VP: Was the team a big draw?

AR: Oh, for sure! The team is super sick. It's smaller, which is good, and also it is a smaller team of people inside too.

And I want to be sure to say Vans makes amazing slimmer classic shoes. They're the best at that. They look so sick. It is all good people over there. When I made a post about moving on from Vans, everybody I work with, Jamie Hart, Steven Van Doren, Justin Regan, they all were in the comments with nothing but love.

I spent a lot of time researching and looking into New Balance. It's still a family-owned company. I talked to Chris Davis, one of the owners of the company, about what I do as a skater. You don’t really think you’re going to be talking to the owners of these big companies. That was like — wow! He took time out to get on a Zoom call, just me and him, to sit and talk. That felt great.

The board is on the wall at the New Balance Numeric office. It is official.

VP: By the time this is out, you’ll have been announced on New Balance. Congratulations, Andrew. What’s next?

AR: I want to skate with Tiago and have him teach me to switch back tail! We were actually going to try to film a clip of me in one of the edits for his new shoe, just giving him a five after a trick as a little teaser.

VP: Oh, wow, that would have been so sick!

AR: Yeah, the timing didn't work out, but it would have been cool. Other than that, I want to finish up this “Welcome to the team”-type edit that I’m working on. I want to help design shoes and keep an eye out for young talent that could fit on the team. I think I have a decent eye for interesting people with talent. Maybe a shoe? Who knows. I’m here to skate. They’re also working on a video with Jamie Foy, Tiago and Brandon Westgate and I really want to have some clips in that. It's exciting to see my newer clips in these new shoes. It gets me really hyped.

Andrew Reynolds Skates For New Balance Numeric