Nike SB Tre AD Wear Test Week
Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2008 by Ryan
Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek
Despite the lack of sunshine, we immediately ventured out to check out the town and grab some grub. The vibe there is very progressive and green. The mascot of our hotel, Portland Monaco, happened to be a dog and there were recycling bins in each hotel room. The sidewalks are bigger than the streets and there are bike lanes and even skate lanes in select parts of town.
It seems as if the city is very healthy. I got a feeling of vibrancy. And how can you not when the City has 17 new cement skate parks being built within the city limits in the upcoming year? That’s amazing. Thanks for leading the way, Portland.
If we had an aerial photo of the entranceway, I swear that it’s formed like a swoosh. You don’t realize it though because your eyes are pretty much dialed-in on the manmade waterfalls. We were greeted and then had lunch at Tarheel with the SB crew, one of the many restaurants on campus. The food was delicious, healthy, and inexpensive…just like the Skatepark of Tampa Snack Bar at home. After-lunch-coffee was served at a legit coffee and smoothie shop. That’s how they do.
From there, Michael, a long-time Nike employee and one of the leaders at SB was like, “You guys want to go to The Kitchen?” I was perplexed thinking, “Why would we want to go to the kitchen considering we just ate?” But “The Kitchen” is the term that is used for the top-secret research, design, and development area of campus. It’s an entire section of a building that is off-limits to pretty much everyone.
Apparently entering The Kitchen is a really big deal. There are Nike employees that are “high up” that have never been in there. The sign on the door reads something like “No entry without authorization. Absolutely no tours. No photos.” You get the point. Rob literally wasn’t allowed to take photos, but here are some things I saw in The Kitchen:
Okay, I’m joking, but we did talk about Tampa Pro and maybe doing a Damn Am in South America. It was getting dark and our loyal driver Darren got us through the rain and traffic, safely arriving back at the Monaco to meet the rest of the retailers for dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery.
From there we went to the Tiger Woods Building. Dude has an entire building named after himself, with all kinds of Tiger memorabilia lining the hallways. This is where I had the best meal of the week. They had a quesadilla bar set up with a chef cooking up your custom-created quesadillas. I was stoked.
I’ll tell you though, if I was Tiger I would just chill in the lobby of my own building. If the receptionist asked what I was doing, I would just say, “It’s my building. I’m just hanging out.” That would be sick.
We left the Tiger Woods Building and went into a theater where James, the designer of the new Tre AD, gave us a breakdown presentation on the shoe. It was truly interesting to hear all of the thought, planning, and new technology that went into the design process. His shtick lasted about 30-minutes, but he could have upped it to an hour as far as I was concerned. I’m sure that I’m butchering this, but in a nutshell, they’re trying to create an indestructible shoe that feels like it’s vulcanized, but is not vulcanized.
Now was time for the moment of truth…the wear test at the brand new Nike SB TF, built by Allen Russell and Mean Gene. The session was hot and my feets felt good in the Tre AD’s. My itinerary said that we get to skate with the pros. So I commented to Chet Childress, “I thought that I was going to get to skate with you, not watch you heckle people.” He’s one entertaining guy.
The session lasted a bit over an hour and after Nick Halkias closed down the TF we ventured back to the Monaco, but not before a quick pit-stop at Burnside. It was 90% wet, but I still had to roll around to say that I did. That was pretty epic for me.
Dinner and drinks were served at Kell’s Bar, an apparently historic stop in Downtown Portland. Black and tans were the drink of the evening, and when they’re served at no charge people tend to get drunk pretty quickly. I can’t remember the name of the next bar, but it was really smoky and crowded; however, I did see something I had not seen all weekend: girls. It was no longer dude-fest.
Thanks to everyone at Nike SB that worked so hard to make sure that everything was taken care of. We had rides, meals, booze, and you name it all lined up. You pretty much didn’t even have to think at all, and in the words of Tyler Tufty, “I’m not sure that that’s such a good thing.”
See you in the Pacific Northwest.
Ryan
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Arriving in Portland
The weather was exactly what we expected it to be, cold and raining. And that pretty much set the tone for the weather for the next three days. Honestly though, it wasn’t all that bad. I expected to be frigid and miserable, but it was bearable…and I guess that it just goes with the territory in Portland. Sort of like Tampa…if you visit us during the summer, you’re going to sweat. And if you go to Portland during the winter, it will rain.
Despite the lack of sunshine, we immediately ventured out to check out the town and grab some grub. The vibe there is very progressive and green. The mascot of our hotel, Portland Monaco, happened to be a dog and there were recycling bins in each hotel room. The sidewalks are bigger than the streets and there are bike lanes and even skate lanes in select parts of town.
It seems as if the city is very healthy. I got a feeling of vibrancy. And how can you not when the City has 17 new cement skate parks being built within the city limits in the upcoming year? That’s amazing. Thanks for leading the way, Portland.
Day 1 – Bid’ness Meetin’s
Barak and I were up early and took a trek in the drizzle down to the river and around town. It’s easy to roll up with the sun when you’re on east coast time. Our driver (for real) was waiting promptly at 11am to take us over to “campus.” Campus is what they call Nike Headquarters and after visiting I now know why. It’s enormous, just like a college campus.
If we had an aerial photo of the entranceway, I swear that it’s formed like a swoosh. You don’t realize it though because your eyes are pretty much dialed-in on the manmade waterfalls. We were greeted and then had lunch at Tarheel with the SB crew, one of the many restaurants on campus. The food was delicious, healthy, and inexpensive…just like the Skatepark of Tampa Snack Bar at home. After-lunch-coffee was served at a legit coffee and smoothie shop. That’s how they do.
From there, Michael, a long-time Nike employee and one of the leaders at SB was like, “You guys want to go to The Kitchen?” I was perplexed thinking, “Why would we want to go to the kitchen considering we just ate?” But “The Kitchen” is the term that is used for the top-secret research, design, and development area of campus. It’s an entire section of a building that is off-limits to pretty much everyone.
Apparently entering The Kitchen is a really big deal. There are Nike employees that are “high up” that have never been in there. The sign on the door reads something like “No entry without authorization. Absolutely no tours. No photos.” You get the point. Rob literally wasn’t allowed to take photos, but here are some things I saw in The Kitchen:
- People looking at us like, “What in the hell are these derelicts doing in here?” But everyone was super-cool and figured we must have been in there for some good reason
- Tinker. He’s the cat that designed about 21 of the 23 Michael Jordan shoes. He sits in a messy office lined with trinkets, along with two other people, and is considered the Michael Jordan of shoe design
- “They’re only shoes.” That’s what it says on the chalkboard in front of Tinker’s office. If that were only true
- Nike has its hands in many different baskets. We viewed and handled all of the different footwear of the Chinese Olympic Team
- Some crazy-ass machinery. Barak stepped over the line and immediately got questioned on why we were in there
Okay, I’m joking, but we did talk about Tampa Pro and maybe doing a Damn Am in South America. It was getting dark and our loyal driver Darren got us through the rain and traffic, safely arriving back at the Monaco to meet the rest of the retailers for dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery.
Day 2 – The Wear Test
Our first stop of the day was at the Nike Employee Store. Just getting in the joint is a big deal because you have to be an employee to shop there, and if you’re into shopping then you’ve arrived at the right place. Everything is pretty much half the price of retail and they have everything Nike that you could possibly imagine, with the exception of SB. You have to get that stuff at skateparkoftampa.com. I’m not a shopper, but I got caught in the excitement and purchased things that I will never use.
From there we went to the Tiger Woods Building. Dude has an entire building named after himself, with all kinds of Tiger memorabilia lining the hallways. This is where I had the best meal of the week. They had a quesadilla bar set up with a chef cooking up your custom-created quesadillas. I was stoked.
I’ll tell you though, if I was Tiger I would just chill in the lobby of my own building. If the receptionist asked what I was doing, I would just say, “It’s my building. I’m just hanging out.” That would be sick.
We left the Tiger Woods Building and went into a theater where James, the designer of the new Tre AD, gave us a breakdown presentation on the shoe. It was truly interesting to hear all of the thought, planning, and new technology that went into the design process. His shtick lasted about 30-minutes, but he could have upped it to an hour as far as I was concerned. I’m sure that I’m butchering this, but in a nutshell, they’re trying to create an indestructible shoe that feels like it’s vulcanized, but is not vulcanized.
Now was time for the moment of truth…the wear test at the brand new Nike SB TF, built by Allen Russell and Mean Gene. The session was hot and my feets felt good in the Tre AD’s. My itinerary said that we get to skate with the pros. So I commented to Chet Childress, “I thought that I was going to get to skate with you, not watch you heckle people.” He’s one entertaining guy.
The session lasted a bit over an hour and after Nick Halkias closed down the TF we ventured back to the Monaco, but not before a quick pit-stop at Burnside. It was 90% wet, but I still had to roll around to say that I did. That was pretty epic for me.
Dinner and drinks were served at Kell’s Bar, an apparently historic stop in Downtown Portland. Black and tans were the drink of the evening, and when they’re served at no charge people tend to get drunk pretty quickly. I can’t remember the name of the next bar, but it was really smoky and crowded; however, I did see something I had not seen all weekend: girls. It was no longer dude-fest.
Thanks
The trip came and went very quickly, but was great the entire time. Visiting an exciting, new city is always something to embrace…and I guarantee I will be coming back to Portland sometime soon.
Thanks to everyone at Nike SB that worked so hard to make sure that everything was taken care of. We had rides, meals, booze, and you name it all lined up. You pretty much didn’t even have to think at all, and in the words of Tyler Tufty, “I’m not sure that that’s such a good thing.”
See you in the Pacific Northwest.
Ryan
Comments
Article Archive by Category
- All Ages Contests
- Anniversary Parties
- Art Shows
- Awards Ceremonies
- Boards for Bros
- Booze Cruise
- Celebrity Sightings
- Chill Cam Dumps
- Christmas
- Clash of the Crews
- Coastal Carnage
- Comedy
- Cons Triple C's
- Contest and Event Coverage
- Copenhagen Pro
- Course Construction
- Damn Am
- DC King of Series
- Demos at SPoT
- Digital Product Toss
- EOTM Parties
- Event Schedules and Details
- Franks for Nothing
- Go Skateboarding Day
- Heat Sheets and Skater Lists
- Industry Event Coverage
- Information About SPoT
- Make-A-Wish Contests
- Maloof Money Cup
- Nerdsday Thursday
- News and Press Releases
- Parties
- Product Watch
- Red Bull Events
- Road Trips
- Shoe Releases
- Shop Tours
- Skate Bid'niss
- Skate Missions
- SPoT Skate Shop Ybor
- Tampa Am
- Tampa Pro
- The Bricks
- Throwback Thursday
- Tourist Missions
- Toys for Tatas
- Trade Shows
- Vans Downtown Showdown
- Video Premieres
- Warped Tour
- Zaturdays
Shop
- Accessories
- Backpacks/ Bags
- Beanies
- Bearings
- Belts
- Complete Skateboards
- Decks and Boards
- DVD's
- Girls Gear
- Griptape
- Hardware
- Hats
- Headphones
- Jackets
- Jerseys
- Kids Shoes
- Long Sleeve Shirts
- Magazines/ Books
- Pads and Helmets
- Pants/ Jeans
- Sale/ Closeout
- Shoes
- Shorts
- Socks
- Stickers
- Sunglasses
- Sweaters/ Hoodies
- Tank Tops
- T Shirts
- Trucks
- Wallets
- Watches
- Wheels
- Woven/ Polo/ Knit Shirts