Review: Christian Senrud (click picture to zoom!)___________________________________________________________
It’s hard to go wrong with a shoe from Vans. They’ve been in the game the longest of any skate shoe company and they originated most of the designs that are still being emulated to this day. Geoff Rowley, too, has been responsible from some great designs and in keeping with his personal history as well as Vans’, they bring you the newest Rowley pro-model, the SPV.
The SPV’s style is indicative of classic Vans design. It’s simple and sleek with basic black or navy color ways. Rowley puts it bluntly in the advertisement: “It has no fucking gimmicks. It’s the lightest, lowest, grippiest shoe you could possibly make. That’s basically it really.” And that really is it.
(click picture to zoom!)I skated these as my main skate shoes for about a month and had them as my non-hiking shoes on a backpacking trip where I had them packed away and their lightness was both noted and appreciated. From the time I laced them up out of the box, to when I donated them at a skatepark, I found that all Rowley and Vans tout for the SPV was true. They are indeed very light and grippy without yielding quicker wear. The only other thing that stuck out about these shoes was that their soles were even thinner than the standard Vans waffle grip.
Overall, I’d say the Vans Rowley SPVs are worth the $50-$60 you might spend on them at your local skate shop. If you’re looking for a simple, lightweight shoe you can skate right out of the box, these would suit you just fine.
Pros:
Light
Grippy
Affordable
Fairly resilient
Good looking
Laces don’t blow out super fast
Cons:
Not a lot of padding