Welcome to the Kyle Walker interview. I’m sure you’ve all seen his Propeller part, Kyle has been accountable for some of the gnarliest skating to go down over the last couple of years. So his pro shoe for Vans popping up and onto the skate shop shelves is no wonder. Kyle has earned his stripes with effortless hammers, all while not taking things too serious and staying grounded – a killer-combo! We caught up with him a few days before the launch on a quick visit over in Berlin to hear more about pan-tones of the year, acting all pissed and potential retirement in Europe…
Interview: Jan Kliewer | Photos: Courtesy of Vans
Kingpin: Hey Kyle, hope you’re good. Let me get this right, you’re from the Midwest originally but live in LA now, correct?
Kyle Walker: Yeah, I’m from Oklahoma, but I’m in LA now – Long Beach to be exact. It’s been about 8 years that I left home. I moved out when I was 16. Crazy to think now how my mom must have felt letting me go. At the time I just packed my stuff and left for California together with three friends, kind of crazy, right? – But it all worked out…! I still tell her: “Thank you mum for trusting me.”
KP: Yeah, seems you’ve done everything right: Your pro shoe for Vans just dropped. Congrats. Are you fully satisfied with how it came out or are there any things you would have changed?
KW: I am, fully. I pretty much did everything that I wanted. The only little thing was that I wanted a clean toe with nothing on it first, so no stitches; like on Gilbert’s shoe (Crocket). But then we wanted it to look a little different, too. So maybe I keep the “no-stitches thing” for my next model if I ever get that (laughes). And I’ll get plenty of colourways, ha.
KP: The pink colourway of your model has made the rounds a bit…
KW: Yeah, at first I just wanted them for myself: some pink and some baby blue; I had them make 8 pairs of each. But than it turned out the pan-tones of 2016 were pink and blue… pretty funny. So now you’ll be able to actually get these colourways in the stores in 2017. Really stoked though.
»That was a once-in-a-lifetime thing!«
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