Village Psychic

You guys are working on a new cupsole shoe. Does it have a name?

Sami Tolppi of Last Resort AB

The name is CM001, as in Cupsole Model 001. It makes it easy for us to keep track of the styles.

VP

This part that just came out with Aaron Loreth, he's wearing the shoes but you couldn't really see them. I thought that was kind of cool, announcing them and not really being able to see them. What's his involvement been like with this shoe so far?

ST

Aaron has been on the team for quite some time now. He’s always expressed that he likes cupsoles better, so we kind of made him the face of our cupsole shoe to initiate the whole thing. He’s been wearing them during the filming of his Limosine part.

VP

How did the initial push to make a cupsole come about?

Aaron Loreth, heelflip in the CM001. Photo by Kris Burkhardt.

ST

We've only been around for a couple of years, since 2020. From the beginning we were thinking we should only stick to vulcanized shoes and that we’d make just two or three styles and you know, these things can change along the way.

I've always liked cupsoles myself, but I don't really have a strict preference when it comes to skate shoes like many people do – a lot of skaters prefer either vulcanized or cupsole shoes. Before now, I think we were maybe not mature enough to do something like this because they’re a little bit more complex than the vulcanized shoes. It's two different production methods, but the cup has had a lot more functionality baked into it, since we make our own molds for the outsole and everything. So when it came down to the question of ‘Should we?’ We determined that we should try to make a cupsole to include the other half of everyone.

VP

Going back to the history of the brand, was it you who initially started it before Pontus became involved?

ST

It was basically me and one of our partners, Daniel. Daniel is kind of the CEO of the company right now, doing all of the business admin etc. We began making shoes in 2018, but they were different from what we’re doing now. They were made in Portugal, were kind of skate inspired, but a lot more expensive. They were made out of Italian leather and in super limited quantities, which bumped up the price to what it was. I think the shoes we make now are a lot better in the sense that we have more control over the designs, and every aspect of the shoes we make is very deliberate.

VP

Do you come from a background where you're working with shoes at all?

ST

Not really, my background is in graphic design and art direction.

Daniel and I were both at this other company together and it was run in a really, really corporate way. We were getting a little bit older and we were just thinking that we're both a bit too experienced to be in that situation, to work for someone else in that way. We both just said that we had to do something on our own, at least to try it, you know. And that it might be our Last Resort. So the company was always called Last Resort AB, AB is the Swedish equivalent of INC or LTD.

I always thought it was a pretty bad company name or brand name, but now it just is what it is. Some people can relate to it.

VP

It definitely doesn’t sound like the name of a shoe brand, especially an athletically oriented one.

ST

The logo with the eyes works in the sense that as humans, we're drawn to a character. We want to have eye contact with something. If you go to a bookshop or somewhere like that, look at the fashion magazines. There's always going to be a person looking straight into the camera. You want to connect with someone, it's in our DNA.

VP

Getting back to the new shoe, did you have to find new factories to produce it? Did you have to source new materials? How did that all work?

ST

Not so much, we've gotten to a level where we’re considering opening up new production facilities, but not yet. All the shoes are made in Vietnam at the moment, and the factory that we're using can do all sorts of shoes. So we're still in the same factory.

VP

What goes into making a cupsole that's different from making a vulcanized shoe?

ST

To put it simply, it doesn't differ that much. It's really just the method of bonding the upper to the to the outsole. That's kind of different, with a vulcanized shoe the foxing goes around the outsole and that bonds everything together. With a cupsole the upper sits more in the sole. It's more like one unit.

VP

We've talked about your direction and the direction from the team pushing for a cupsole, but was there anything from the market or from shops, the places that carry your shoes that was indicating that you should make one?

ST

I mean, we're still just four guys, you know. We don't have any employees or anything. We just got our own office. All decisions thus far, it's really just what we want to do.

Of course, we get requests and all these suggestions from shops and the market or whatever, but that's the beauty of being a small company. You can just sift through that information. We don't have a board of directors or anything like that, those are our decisions.

Dane Brady, backside smith in the CM001. Photo by Kris Burkhardt

VP

Did you look to see what people are saying on the Slap forums?

ST

I've seen it, but I'm not a frequent reader of the message boards and stuff.

VP

That's probably better for your mental health.

ST

We’ve put ourselves in a position where people are going to have a lot of opinions, especially with skate shoes, people are so damn opinionated. We get so many DMs on our Instagram, and I feel that’s a nicer way to have a conversation with someone as opposed to passively reading something on a message board, it’s more direct. It's always either me or one of the other founders replying to people. We can have a long conversation with some kid in Spain, you know, they’ll have questions and we'll be like ‘Oh, okay you should try this.’ At this level we can still do that. In the end we just have to focus and try to do the best we can.

VP

So did anything from that way of doing things, speaking to people via DMs push you to do a cupsole?

ST

Not really, I just wanted to do a cupsole. To be fair, Pontus was a little bit hesitant towards making one. I think he’s warmed up to it…and now it's finished. We made it. I wouldn't say it's perfect, I still want to tweak some things.

VP

There's also the new cushioning, what went into that?

ST

That was decided by popular opinion. Initially, we set out to make a vulcanized shoe with a lot of board feel – maybe not ideal for jumping down stairs. But we got a lot of feedback on the insoles – people wanted something with a little bit more cushioning. Also, we got requests for something that people could swap out to put their own custom insoles in. That’s a big upgrade, and something that we discussed internally and just went like ‘Okay, the people want it. Let's change it.’

VP

Do these new cupsoles have that same technology?

ST

They do. It's not super advanced or anything, but it's an injected PU (polyurethane) insole. We had these foam insoles before with this rubber heel bit, which was alright, but it gradually flattened out a bit too much when you skated the shoe and walked in them. With this new material that we're using, it kind of stays the same shape, and it's a bit more dense and cushioned. It's a little bit different. nicer, I think that was a good upgrade.

Like most things we come up with, it was pretty much on a whim.

VP

That's refreshing to hear.

ST

We still have the opportunity to operate that way. It's so nice. As opposed to any other big corporation out there driven by Excel sheets and shareholders, all these outside parameters influence the way they do things, design wise, production wise. That can lead to tweaks that make a product worse, you know, use a bit thinner suede, cut corners a little bit here and there for a larger profit. We don't have to take those parameters that much into consideration. We just want to make a good product.

VP

You're just enjoying where you are, right now. Is the goal to grow into something different?

ST

I don't know…, we're pretty happy. We've only been around since 2020. And, to be fair, our goal from the get go was to not have to go get another job.

VP

Have you had much feedback from the team at large on the cupsole?

ST

We always ask the team what they think, we send them a lot of pictures and check in with them. They're the ones testing the product. We send out all these weird samples to them. Chris Milic, for example, he likes these kind of extravagant looking shoes. We just created some weird samples and sent them to him, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I'm stoked on this.’ You know, they may never go into production.

VP

What would be something that you saw in a sample that you’d have to correct?

ST

Oh, there's plenty. How certain angles are slanted or how the tread pattern looks underneath. Because they’re skate shoes, we always set out to make soles that don't get filled up with gravel, things like that.

The sole on the CM001 is constructed in a way that we can do them in different colors. There’s a 90 degree angle line along the outside of the sole you can't really get away from unfortunately, but the rest of the pattern is pretty much like the pattern we use on the vulcanized styles, just a little bit tighter. That means there's more material for wear and tear, if you cut these in half you’d see that we've added just one millimeter or so of extra rubber. Because of that, they are a tiny bit heavier, but will also last a bit longer. There are all these small parameters that have to be taken into account.

VP

You guys are doing such a curated product line. Can you speak to that at all, about the advantages being a small team that's just focused on a couple of different products?

ST

It's not a prime motivation to compete with the other brands out there. Our nearest competitors, they're like these mega behemoths, and then there's us – four dudes. It's not easy. I think thus far, we've had the right kind of energy to attract the people that buy our shoes. That independent kind of vibe around it. That could potentially be an advantage.

VP

For someone who hasn't heard of you guys or someone who is brand new to skateboarding or something? What do you think the appeal is to that person?

ST

Like I mentioned, we can't really compete with the other guys on a technological level. What we can do is compete on a vibe level. We're not really selling a shoe, we’re selling a vision or…a dream.

The team is contributing to that, and it's still growing as well. We're trying to find our space within this world, and I think people can relate to that. It’s the energy and the vibe more than any technical aspect. I see what we’re trying to do as similar to making a movie, you know? If it’s well made you’re not distracted by the cuts or the editing, you can just enjoy the story.

We've all been skateboarding for the majority of our lives, so it's special to us. We know the history, we have a lot of reference points that we can refer to or tweak. Another thing is that we don't have to follow the rules as much, we don’t have to be so safe, I think there will always be an attraction in that.

VP

Does making this new shoe unlock anything new for Last Resort? Do you think that it changes anything fundamentally about who you guys are?

ST

Maybe not the cupsole specifically, but I would say that we've always been on the fringes of our culture, and I think that's the way the world looks in general at the moment. Fashion is borrowing stuff from skateboarding and vice versa. We're perhaps going a little bit more into that direction as well. Maybe we'll do more soft goods going forward, maybe we’ll develop some other shoes. I'd like to do something like a winter boot.

But releasing the cupsole is interesting, for sure. It's always a little bit like, ‘Oh shit, how are people going to react?’ To me it’s very similar to music, your favorite album is probably one that you have to listen to a couple of times. Something that grows on you and has these small imperfections that make it perfect.

Last Resort Makes Cupsoles Now