Everyone knows that the best parties are always at places where they shouldn’t be. Whether it’s your buddy’s house while his parents are away for the weekend, or in some sketchy barn that looks like it’s about to fall down, those are the ones which are actually memorable (unless you’re completely blackout).

Which is why Sage and Cons made an excellent choice by keeping it interesting and renting out an inconspicuous Chinese restaurant for Sage’s shoe release party. Located in the middle of the Financial District, if you ever wanted to eat dim sum, drink vodka and check out a new skate shoe all at once, it was all possible here.

By 11pm cigarettes, perfume and weed smoke permeated the entire restaurant and everything got a little bit sketchier (in the best way possible). The night turned out to be epic, although I would double check your chopsticks before eating there the next day.

German Nieves, a great skateboarder and the founder of Paterson stopped by. I don’t know how big Paterson is internationally yet, but over in NY area it’s in all the “right stores” and he does a great job at carving his own lane, fusing together his love for Tennis, Skateboarding, and of course… Paterson, New Jersey! I’m sure you know already, people from Jersey love talking about Jersey.

Jim Greco has made up a lot of slang we use in skateboarding, and one of my favorites is the term “Darkman” – which is a reference to business / behind the scenes guys working in the skateboard industry. The funny thing is, these types of guys, many times, are literally, dark – they are the dudes at the tradeshows wearing a lot of black and very rarely wearing anything branded. With this shoe being super minimal (and sexy), it should be a Darkman favorite or appeal to anyone who has outgrown wearing logos and branding like a billboard across their chest.

Bill Strobeck, Sage Elsesser and Sean Pablo. I remember talking to my friend and former roommate Richard (also a filmer for Cons) years ago, and he was telling me about this thing he was working on for Converse with these two kids whose names both started with the letter “S”. I didn’t think anything of it and continued on my merry way re-watching old 90s and 00s clips. Now only 2-3 years later, they are some of the most influential dudes in skateboarding. Boy do I feel like an idiot.

Younger dudes might not know this – but Kenny is a great dancer and growing up, he was even in a breakdance crew for fun. The more I talked about it with him, the more I learned that Kenny actually comes from a family of dancers, which makes total sense how he can make the most innocent skateboard tricks seem like the most beautiful moves in the world.

Zered and his lovely lady Jenna. If you didn’t already know, Zered now rides for Alltimers (and they just put out the best “introducing” video in years). On a side note, Zered used to ride for Red Bull and I’d assume contractually he had to have a Red Bull hat or some sort of Red Bull branding around, but now that he no longer does, his headspace is free! Yeah Zered! A free man!

The man of the hour and his sister. If you didn’t already know, Johnny Wilson (of Paych / filming fame) is dating Sage’s sister. Found that one out via the QS interview. Fun read.

Everyone’s favorite indie videographer, Josh Stewart and friends. I’ve had the opportunity to spend a good amount of time talking to Josh and we always end up talking about some pretty weird (and interesting) things. For instance, last time we talked about how early middle school experiences really shape your life and how he remembers sneezing a loogie accidentally during class and hoping no one would notice.

You wouldn’t know it, but the venue of the event is actually a full blown Chinese restaurant by day (with an unsurprisingly mixed yelp review) – but they rent it out for parties / raves / events every couple of weekends. Dim sum by day, weed, cigarettes and sweaty butts by night.

The party happened to fall during New York Fashion Week, so everyone that came was dressed to the nines. It ended up being a super diverse crowd, and apparently Madonna’s daughter even showed up. I think her and Sage went to the same high school?

Alex Raspa was there, who did a video back in 2014 called Bill Murray that we premiered (before every single vid / part started coming out straight to the net). Jamie Thomas once said that 50% of a video part is the song, and in Bill Murray, Raspa really created a magical soundtrack. For some parts, he took ambient tracks, and layered rap acapellas over them, giving off a kind of eerie but aggressive feel that I haven’t really seen done before in a skate video.

Not sure who the dude on the far left is but he’s got HEAVY eyebrows. Kind of reminds me of The Dad from American Pie. Straight up caterpillar joints!

Beast mode activated.

Captions: Ian Michna
Photos: Ray Llanos
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