Skate Shoes Got Boring. This Brand Decided to Fix It.

Before the industry’s biggest athletic labels ruled skateboarding, there was a golden era of independent skate shoe brands that offered stylistic, functional, and highly individual products — shoes that set the standard for the sport. Twenty years later, Village PM is bringing back this mindset. While doing so, the Paris-based independent footwear brand has drawn global attention. In less than a year, it has made its way into Europe and Japan’s most demanding doors, skateboarding and fashion alike.

Founded by lifelong skateboarders Basile Lapray and Bram De Cleen, Village PM grew out of a simple realization: skate shoes had started to feel more like pure equipment than something you’d actually want to wear every day. Together, they saw a gap in a market that had gone flat and decided to fill it on their own terms.

The brand’s staple silhouette, the 1PM, was born from the idea of balancing durability and sensitivity — something strong and durable, yet easy to break in, soft and sticky enough to offer the precise board feel they were searching for. Drawing on Lapray’s experience in outdoor footwear, the team looked to climbing shoes for inspiration, studying how they combine precision, grip, and longevity. Rather than relying on traditional vulcanized or cupsole construction, the 1PM, as well as the derivative 1.30PM, features Village PM’s signature patented Rubber Glove Construction, built from premium climbing rubber and developed through repeated lab testing, sample cycles, and countless kickflips on patched-up Nikes and Vans.

Both the 1PM and 1.30PM introduce bespoke materials and colorways that reflect the brand’s clean, sophisticated aesthetic. With a near-perfect product at its core, Basile and Bram remain committed to putting just as much care into building Village PM’s identity as they do into crafting its shoes. Functionally, they take cues from the outdoor industry and the Alps’ performance-minded culture. Culturally and visually, the brand is rooted in Paris and the co-founders’ small-town upbringing, drawing from local scenery, afternoon light, and a network of friends who help translate their ideas into imagery, color palettes, and gradients that feel native to their environment.

In addition to their flagship silhouette, Basile and Bram have made it their mission to share the brand in unique and memorable ways. During this past Paris Men’s Fashion Week, Village PM hosted a mobile showroom from a truck parked between the Margiela and Salomon showrooms, turning a lack of budget into a street-level activation that felt more honest than a rented space. Most recently, they released their new film, THE SECOND I SAW YOU, featuring Thaynan Costa, Nico Gisonno, Oscar Säfström, Logan Da Silva Ortiz, and Joffrey Morel — core riders who serve as the brand’s main characters on board.

We sat down with founders Basile Lapray and Bram De Cleen to learn more about Village PM and the sneaker at the center of their vision.

For readers who may not know you yet, can you introduce yourselves?

Basile: I’m Basile Lapray, skateboarder and co-founder of Village PM. My background is in skateboarding and professional footwear innovation, which naturally led to starting the brand when Bram and I felt something was missing in skate shoes.

Bram: I’m Bram De Cleen. I grew up skating too and met Basile through it. I’ve built skate parks and worked as a UX and digital copywriter, and at Village PM I handle the skateboarding side. We’re a small team, so everything is collaborative.

What was your relationship to skateboarding before Village PM?

Bram: I started skating at twelve, got a bit of support, traveled a lot through skateboarding, and always stayed in it — by skating, by building skate parks and working for skate media.

Basile: Skateboarding shaped everything for me creatively. Actually, skateboarding is what got me interested in footwear in the first place. Growing up skating in a small village in the south of France defined the early moments that inspired the name Village PM.

Why start the brand?

Basile: Skate shoes had gone flat. We grew up in the 2000s when skate footwear was bold and innovative. Recently, shoes started feeling more like gear you wore only to skate. We wanted to create skate shoes we’d wear every day, not just on the board.

Your silhouette pulls from climbing. How did that influence the shoe?

Basile: We focused on durability and sensitivity — great board feel that still lasts. That balance is similar to climbing shoes. My background in outdoor footwear pushed us toward a performance-driven approach, adapting only the functional elements that made sense for skating. Everything is there because it works.

What did the R&D process look like?

Basile: We applied outdoor-level R&D standards. We developed multiple full samples in France before going to factories, building the last, sole, and rubber formula from scratch. We tested so many different rubber patches on old skate shoes — skating them at night, doing 100 kickflips with each one — until the formula was right.

What technologies came out of that?

Bram: Our signature Rubber Glove Construction, a new method outside traditional vulc or cupsole, which gives the shoe its fast break-in, durability, board feel, and grip.

Where does the brand’s visual identity come from?

Bram: Functionally, A-list outdoor footwear influenced our attention to detail. Culturally and visually, though, the brand is rooted in Paris but also in our small-town upbringings — our environment, our friends, the light, the atmosphere. That’s where Village PM’s tone comes from.

Do you plan to expand beyond footwear?

Basile: Not for now. We respect brands that master one category. Competing with Nike, adidas, and Vans already demands total focus.

Bram: We’d love a Village PM tee someday, but footwear is our priority. You can’t push the limits if you’re trying to be all over the place.

How did the Paris Fashion Week truck come together?

Bram: A showroom wasn’t in our budget and didn’t feel right, so we rented a truck, parked it between the Margiela and Salomon showrooms, and showed our first collection directly to buyers. It started as a workaround and became something people really liked.

Who’s on the skate team?

Bram: The team grew naturally out of people we were already close to. Thaynan Costa, Nico Gisonno, Joffrey Morel, Logan Da Silva, and Oscar Säfström are the team right now. They’re at the core of our clips. Supporting them is just as important as creating footwear — regardless of product, a skate brand is about skateboarding first and foremost.

What’s next for Village PM?

Basile: New styles are coming, and we’re expanding geographically. We were Europe-only for the first two seasons, entering Japan this season, and slowly moving toward North America. We were lucky enough to have a lot of global demand from the first season, but we wanted to take things step by step.

Bram: Fashion Week is coming — you’ll have to come and see. And huge thanks to everyone who’s backed us. Footwear is hard to break into, and we wouldn’t be here without them.