Signature Touch: A Look Into the Nike Zoom Stefan Janoski SB | Hypebeast

Interview with Stefan Janoski

Stefan! How did you get your start as a professional skateboarder?

I was at a demo once and this guy, Justin Williams, who worked at Venture at the time, asked “Hey man, you want some free trucks?”. That’s how it all began. He started sending me Think boards which eventually lead me on a Think Skateboards trip. Brandon Biebel and myself would just travel wherever we needed to go, we went down south all the time (San Francisco). We would scrounge up money together and just go for it, go where we needed to be, where everyone was at during the time. San Diego, Encinitas, and even SF (San Francisco) were the hottest places in the world, even Barcelona. I really wanted it badly, so we just went wherever we needed to go and hang out with who we needed, basically just try our hardest. We really worked for it and it kinda just fell into place.

Did you have any major influencers (skateboarding wise), in your early days?

Friends were definitely influential because you skate with people better then you, which is how you end up getting better. I definitely have to say Mike Carrol and Ryan Howard. Girl Skateboarding. Those were the guys I followed and looked up to.

How was the skate scene in Vacaville (California) growing up?

The Vacaville skate scene was pretty much me and just a couple of my friends, maybe even less. Most of them were from Fairfield (neighboring city) and they were all older then me. I was in 9th grade and everyone had already graduated. When I moved onto High School there was no skate scene at all, it was just me and one other kid. Skateboarding was the most uncool thing you could possibly do in high school.

Fashion has definitely taken off within Skateboarding in the past few years, was it ever something of relevance back in your High School days?

I was never a good dresser, I would basically just wear whatever. Shelltoes were a favorite when I was young because I thought they were good for skating, but at a certain point I had to get whatever was at Ross, such as Filas, because my mom would get sick of me coming home with holes in my shoes. I could never get into the whole cool guy shoe thing.

Did any of those early “skate shoes” you wore have an influence on the design of your signature Nike sneakers?

Before people started making shoes specifically for skating, everyone was wearing tennis shoes such as Nike Dunks, Shelltoes, Converse, Jordans, basically whatever people could get a hold of. Before there were sponsors, you would watch a video and everyone had a different shoe on. They were all really minimal and there was nothing really to em. At the time everyone had 38mm wheels, skating curbs and were just really technical with their boards.