Paul Rodriguez: Today Was A Good Day | Hypebeast

We’ve noticed that the past couple of designs (P. Rod I & II) have had collaborative designs from selected designers. Do you have anything lined up for this shoe, in regards to a special/quickstrike release?

My main priority is making sure the shoe performs the way I want it to perform as far as skateboarding goes. And then we think of the fashion aspects followed by the collaborative aspects, because to me this shoe is definitely made for skaters. I was passionate about making it skateable. There’s definitely going to be some collabs/limited editions to look out for because we do that every time. Obviously it’s an exciting thing to do, so we’re definitely going to touch down on that.

It seems like this model definitely evolved into a more skate friendly shoe, like you mentioned, compared to prior releases which could be label as more fashion forward. We noticed that also with Janoski and Omars designs, which are more technical and skateable shoes. What are your thoughts about the direction the team (Nike SB) is headed in?

I’m loving it. I’m loving the direction the teams headed in. I thought that to see Stefan (Janoski), who is a great skater who has been putting in work for many years, get a shoe was amazing. For Omar, for him to get a shoe is really amazing as well because his story in skateboarding is a compelling one. He has had a hard road to get to where he is at now. He had sponsors and he lost sponsors, had sponsors and lost sponsors. His career in skateboarding was looking really, really dim up to just a few years ago. So to see him finally be on all stable sponsors and have really persevered with persistence is a testament to his determination.

What were your initial thoughts when you heard Koston was joining Nike SB?

My initial thoughts were that it was amazing. When I first heard he left his prior sponsor I immediately talked to Hunter and Kevin. I knew they had already spoken to him but I was immediately putting in my like 2 cents, “Yea, yea! Lets do it. Lets get Koston!”. He (Koston) is major reason why I am where I am today, whether he knows it or not. I used to sit there and rewind, slow mo, rewind, slow mo every video he had. I used to study it meticulously to the point of insanity. Eric Koston has really molded a lot of the way I skate today and basically directly helped me get to where I am at today.

It seems like Eric has had that effect on a good portion of the skate community for sure. Speaking of Eric, which we’ll get into in a second, how did the concept for the “Today Is a Good Day” video come about?

It was presented to me through Nike. They came up with this idea of doing the Ice Cube song because it really relates to a skater in a lot of ways. Being a street skater you get kicked out a lot, you get harassed by the police a lot. There are tons of days when you go out and try to skate, you can expect to get disappointed. You want to skate a spot, you get kicked out, then you drive in traffic, think of another spot, hopefully you get to skate and maybe you get kicked out or maybe it’s skate proofed. A lot of times street skating can be very disappointing because for instance, if you spend a whole week trying to go skate spots, maybe 3 of those days will actually be successful skate days.

It seems like the commercial relates to skaters on an almost equal level.

Yea, Ice Cube is obviously referencing growing up in the hood and having to come across all types of obstacles whether it be from rival gang members having to deal with police, or just having to deal with all kinds of nonsense. The guys who created the commercial went back to the original video in 1993 for reference. They though about it like this: “If Ice Cube is having the best day of his life, how can we flip it and make it the best day of Paul’s life.” I think that it also relates to skaters life perspective, like when you get that one day where you get to skate the spot you’ve been dreaming about skating and you don’t get kicked out, break a board or don’t get hurt, all the stars line up for you that day. Its definitely a great day and something you treasure which was easily adaptable to a skater lifestyle from what Ice Cube’s original meaning of the song was for.

Up until the last second.

Yup, up until the last second. [laughs]

What were some of your favorite spots growing up?

A lot of skaters out there who have seen my videos, definitely know that Sylmar High School was one of my favorite spots growing up. Some nice hand rails, just super fun to skate, but are now knobbed so you can’t skate them anymore. There’s DWP in Downtown LA as well. I haven’t skated it in such a long time because it’s such a bust. On any given day that you go to the DWP ledges, most of the time you are kicked out in 2 seconds. So DWP Downtown LA, El Camino High School and North High, which had some of the best ledges ever that are no longer skateable also. I can go on and on but those are just some of the spots I grew up loving. We got to recreate the Sylmar High rails at the Pacoima Park, which Nike just recently opened at the Richie Valens Recreational Center, so its good.