Globe shoes take variety to a higher level than most brands, making it possible for urban folks to wear skate shoes without the usual style limitations. While Globe does offer the usual skate style, they also produce leather shoes, slip-on shoes and high-tops. They are all made with the flat rubber grip soles that are necessary for traction while riding a skate board, but the attitude of these shoes is hardly ordinary. The leather is sleek and smooth, and the colours are not outlandishly flashy. With a selection of black, greys and browns, the fabrics used by Globe are subtle and classy – serious shoes for wear by serious skaters.

DC Shoes tends to take a different approach to their skate wear production. DC skate shoes are all about the bold mixtures of colours and patterns and the vibrant contrasts that can be created by combining stark white with varying shades of blue, or green with orange and red, for example. DC shoes usually have a large and easily recognizable DC insignia on the sides and outer soles, making it unmistakable which brand produces them. Anyone wearing DC skate wear is tagged with DC logos – usually several. Skaters wearing DC don’t mind, however, because the shoes are good quality – used by many professional skate boarders – and offer enough style variations that skaters would still feel unique in a crowd full of other DC wearers.

While Converse are not labelled or marketed as “skate” shoes, they have the stability to be worn as such. They also feature thick laces to discourage breakage and rubber grip outer soles to allow for traction on a skate board’s grip tape. Unlike typical skate style shoes, Converse sizing tends to run longer and narrower. The sides and tongue are not thickly padded. On the contrary, most Converse are made from canvas material, although recently the company has released leather Converse. Converse are made in every colour of the rainbow: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, as well as varying shades of these colours, grey and print patterns.