In the late ’90s, skate shoes were approaching their biggest bulky apex. They looked like baked potatoes. Designers of the time would have called it maximalism. Cynics would have called it the physical embodiment of a bloated market. Looking back, it’s just surprising how far skate shoes strayed from functionality.

Over the past few years, there have been teases of a return and now in 2024 it’s happening. Headed by Krauss and former team rider Kenny Reed, IPATH’s reincarnation is hitting the shelves, so we caught up with The Traveler, AKA Kenny, to get the details.

The IPATH logo always kinda looked like a bull to me. You say it’s an “I” though, is there something subliminal going on there?
So Matt [Field] had this dream where there was a bull in a field charging at him and he wasn’t wearing shoes so he had to run into the forest and he came to a tree where he fell asleep and he woke up and looked at his footprints and they had the bull horns.

No, I’m kidding, there isn’t any bull connection. It’s an I. The I in IPATH stands for the creator of all things in this world, who guides our lives in the right direction. In our daily lives, we are always at the crossroads of good and evil. Everyone has a creator inside them who guides their path.

What was your path to getting on IPATH?
I was skating with Matt Field and Nate Jones a lot. We were close friends and skated together all the time. IPATH had just started—it was a little thing at first. Nate had just moved to San Francisco and he just got on Real. I was on Duffs and getting a little money from them at this point. About a year into IPATH they just said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come over here with us?’

At that point in my life, every penny I made was going to rent, so maybe that’s why it took a while for me to go there. It wasn’t a big brand at first but once they could offer a little support, I made the switch immediately.

Are IPATH riders contractually forbidden to wear deodorant or eat animals?
Yes it’s actually forbidden to wear traditional deodorant. We’re coming up with our own formula (on sale to the public soon) which uses deep sea kelp, tundric lichens, and goji berries. [laughs]

On the outside, IPATH looked like a dream sponsor because the team was traveling, it looked tight-knit, and it was more about “vibes” than output.
Yeah, it wasn’t forced. We were just skating. If you needed an ad you skated a spot you liked and got something. Nate Jones… whatever he did looked good, so there was no pressure. We were able to hold a space in skateboarding that didn’t have to compete with other brands. We had the freedom to do what we wanted to and nobody complained about it. It felt pretty easy. We got lucky that way with the whole team. Someone like Jake Rupp got on and it was the same situation, whatever he did it didn’t compare to what people were doing elsewhere.

Over the brand’s long history, who is the most IPATH rider or at least, the most Irie?
Hmm, the most Irie. Let me see. I feel like Adelmo Jr. was one of them for sure. He’s super Irie, peaceful, kind, rasta vibes. Adelmo Jr. and Matt Field are the epitome for sure. We have some new riders in the works.. definitely looking for maximum Ireeness.

“We weren’t sitting there looking at graphic design books figuring out what to do.”

If I look back at the skate shoe space in the ‘90s going into the 2000s, it was about big videos and pro shoes, and it seemed like IPATH was the complete opposite.
The pro shoes happened pretty slowly. It didn’t feel very rushed. I remember when they asked me about what I wanted for a shoe, they said, ‘What would I want a skate shoe to look like if it didn’t look like a skate shoe?’

I said, “Like a pair of Reeboks.” Then that’s what I got back—a simple pair of shoes that looked like Reeboks with an atlas on the side. With Nate, it was similar. He had gotten a pair of shoes at a thrift store and they based his model on those. Then Matt (Field) had a crystal that made reflections like the rays of the sun, so that’s what he put on the side of “The Yogi.” We weren’t sitting there looking at graphic design books figuring out what to do.

As the brand got bigger and changed hands, it felt like it not only got further away from its original core but also that the sort of “IPATH skater” — the brown cords Earth guy—had run its course as well. Is that fair?
That’s completely fair. When it was sold to Timberland some of the riders were let go. At that time, it drifted from what it was originally. Not necessarily in a really bad way yet, but I think it started to stray from the original makeup—the original genetics of it. There were more people involved who had to okay decisions. I guess you could say that more professionals at certain levels working at the brand weren’t skateboarders or didn’t come from skateboarding. That alone definitely changes the makeup of a brand. It may have made things more efficient but it tore at the unique fabric of IPATH.

Once it was sold the second time, it was almost stripped of everything that you knew it was from the beginning and it became something that I couldn’t identify with anymore. I feel like that’s ultimately the reason why it failed. People lost faith in the brand and lost the connection with what they had understood it as.

With the brand going away for a while, does it feel like a clean slate or is there a lot of baggage with expectations?
When I was approached eight months ago about it, I almost couldn’t believe it. I just remember the good times of IPATH and being a part of the creative fabric of the brand, knowing we were able to have fun and freedom.

Then I thought about it more practically. It’s not possible to make it what it was, but I think there’s still space in skateboarding to make it something that fills an area where people can relate to it. I think there’s still room for a brand like that. Look at the landscape of skate shoe brands. There aren’t many actual skater-owned brands anymore. And yet, there are so many talented skateboarders out there. Surely, we can put together a team that is similar in spirit to what we had and that a certain type of person can be excited about that. But we have to show what we stand for and be able to share it with the rest of the community.

What about the weight IPATH holds to people who identified the brand when it first started? You know, the folks that still collect the shoes and have been wanting it to come back for so long…
I’ve taken a long time to think about it in two ways. What do people in their 30s, 40s, and even 50s expect from the brand? Who was part of the brand that’s still relevant? Luckily, I was able to get a hold of Fred Gall and Ben Raybourn. They both made sense to start with. I’ve talked to some other people who used to ride for the brand, but not many of them are actively skating. That’s important to me—to have an active team. We can’t be taken seriously if we’re not taking part in the act of skateboarding.

The second part—as I mentioned earlier—is knowing that I won’t be able to build a brand and have it exactly how it was. I do realize that going out and just filling a roster isn’t the right way to go. We don’t have anyone to announce yet, but there are a few people that I’ve sent shoes to, and I’m honest with them, when I talk to them. There’s no pressure to perform or put out the best tricks. It’s just about being comfortable with your skateboarding but also, pushing yourself to live up to your personal potential and standards. I don’t know what’s happening on the streets in every city and I’m not claiming to know. So I realized I need to follow my instincts and gut feelings about people and do what feels right.

“There’s no magic spell to build the perfect team. It’s more about trusting that we’re doing this for the right reasons.”

We don’t have the budget yet to put a full team together either. We’re just able to make shoes and sell them right now. Hopefully, we can build off that. There’s no magic spell to build the perfect team. It’s more about trusting that we’re doing this for the right reasons and knowing who we are. That took time when IPATH first started and it’s not going to happen overnight.

How did you get involved with the reboot?
Last November Brian [Krauss] reached out and said he was bringing the brand back and asked if I wanted to be involved. I asked him a lot of the same questions you’re asking: what happened, what’s the plan, what’s going on?

The last owners of the brand went bankrupt and lost the trademark to a factory in China. So he researched and searched for two years on how to get the trademark back and eventually was able to secure it. When he first contacted me he said we could do whatever we wanted, so what did we wanna do? We thought about it a lot and the plan is to just go slow as we have—step by step. So Brian, who was one of the founders, is involved.

What about Matt Field?
He’s supporting us right now. He’s been into gardening and doing some other things. He’s skating. I’ve gone skating with him a few times. He’s wearing the shoes. It’s a great asset as well to have him skating the shoes and supporting it. It’s a small design team and sales team right now. Our main focus right now is making quality shoes, and whenever we can using sustainable materials whenever we can.

“We knew the Cats could come back on their own and still be something people identified with.”

How did you feel when you saw that Last Resort had made their version of a Cat?
The timing was a little scary because we had just announced the comeback but I wasn’t worried about it. We knew the Cats could come back on their own and still be something people identified with.

People seem hyped, but how long can you run off past nostalgia?
Yeah, people are really excited to wear the old classics but I also feel like they will translate to younger kids. Kids wanna wear something not only different but different from whatever corporate brands their parents are wearing. I think there is space in skateboarding for a brand that comes from skateboarding. And yeah, we definitely have some new gems in the works.

Are you updating or altering any of the designs of the shoes?
We worked with our designer Reggie Gilbert and made some changes to the shoes to kind of modernize them because they used to be thick and puffy around the tongues and the foam around the heels was a lot bigger than you remember. We thinned things down and we added some more support in different areas.

So far I’ve only been able to skate in samples. Our delivery just arrived by boat and we’re going to start shipping soon. The anticipation has been pretty intense. I think the shoes feel really good. The Grasshoppers and the Cats feel better than I’ve ever remembered them. I was really worried because I was skating in Adidas for the last two or three years. I was scared to put IPATHs back on because I didn’t want to not like them but they’re great.

You mentioned the shoes are shipping soon, but Zumiez has already sold and shipped the product. What happened there?
Zumiez helped us get off the ground. It was their big orders that helped us fund the manufacturing right away. We don’t have any big funding, so those initial orders really helped us make shoes. What happened is that they flew some shoes directly from the factory to their warehouse which is why they were offering them first. The rest of them had to go by boat. We let all the core accounts know and gave them a heads-up. For the most part, everyone was understanding and cool about how the situation went down.

With the entire landscape of not only skating but skate shoes being so different now, what space do you see IPATH occupying? Not trying to sound like some tech bro podcaster, but what does success look like?
[laughs] I know what you’re saying. When IPATH started the landscape was different because you had DC, DVS, Emerica, Osiris, and other skater-owned brands on the same playing field—everyone was generally coming from the same place. Nowadays, these big brands have so much budget they can afford to flow shoes and pay 50 to 100 people on a team, right? A lot of those people aren’t even listed on the website and there are like 20 or 30 other people getting paychecks that you don’t even know about.

“I want to form a network. A group of people that skate together… and make quality shoes.”

I don’t want to say that’s not fair because skateboarders should get paid to skate. The more the merrier but does the identity of those brands get lost having so many riders? Can you look at that brand and say, ‘Yeah! I identify with this because I’m that type of skateboarder.’ What kind of skateboarder are these big brands speaking to?

I think there’s space to have a brand that has an identity that people can look at and say, ‘Those people are having a good time and skating how they want to and it looks good.’ I want to form a network. A group of people that skate together… and make quality shoes. Just start like that—a family-style approach.

Interview by: James Lee
Photos courtesy of IPATH
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