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Natural progression.
Feb 1, 2006 by dunk

Soap shoes. That word, to me, evokes so many fond memories. The long summer days we spent with UKFSW, filming and photographing, travelling the country in search of that perfect rail. Man, we had some awesome times; times that defined great chunks of my adolescence, nontheless.
And back in the day it was, for us, the internet that played such a big role in the whole Soap shoe buzz. I grew up on DetroitFSW.com, Dave's videos inspired us all. Soapshoe.com was where it was at though, BrooksFSW.com following in it's footsteps; heck, I used to log onto that site every other hour. Relate Videos, DEOS, RSC, AthensFSW, Tallahassee Soap Shoes. Names that will strike a familiar chord with many soapers out there. Names that will now go down in history.
Thank you Greg, Derek, Alexei; faces I never actually met, but knew. And Tanner, who we met during his visit to London. Thank you Mart, Fordy, Louis, Jim and all the rest of the UKFSW crew that came and went throughout the years. Thank you Chris Morris, inventor. Thanks for all the memories.

What am I saying exactly? Although I'm not brave enough to admit it outright, the Soap shoe buzz is all but over. SolidGrind.com has bitten the dust. UKFSW hasn't met for over a year. We've all moved on to other things, but that's life. Natural progression and all that.

Just one thing though. UKFSW was always about the 'media'. Over the years we amassed innumerable hours worth of video footage (the DV tapes create an impressive stack on my desk, even today) which was going towards our ambitious untitled video project. The project that, despite good intentions, never happened, leaving many people wondering if UKFSW would ever resurface.
Well, we put in too much effort, spent too much money, racked ourselves too damn hard for this video not to be seen by anyone. So this is a formal announcement from myself, UKFSW and Soapshoes.info, that the project is back on. Maybe once this video is finished, I can finally leave my Soap shoes in the closet.
Before you ask, there's no release date as of yet. Let me stress that we haven't even begun trawling through the hours of video footage, so be patient. Suggestions, comments, help is all welcome. You can reach us at grind@soapshoes.info. Further news will be posted here and on Soapshoes.info.
Comments

Feb 2, 2006 Louis

"heck, I used to log onto that site every other hour"

haha, yeah trust i know that one only too well. It was like there was only 2 websites on the internet or something. ahhhhh the good days. UKFSW fo ever!

Feb 2, 2006 Wesker

Sorry to see you giving up after your video, but the time it's taken for this video to come out maybe you'll be "soaping" for a few more years. ;)

Whether you guys know it or not, I am still active in Soap shoes, more in the advertising end though. Look out for some good stuff (Sometime late February) as well as some pet projects of mine that I am trying to get off the ground with Soaps (These things take time).

The company isn't dead and shoes are still being sold/requested.

I look foward to the video dunk, just hope you don't give up soapin' due to the buzz dying on solidgrind.

Feb 4, 2006 dunk

Yeah, I hear you. But Soap Shoes aren't the strong market force that they once were. We've worked with the UK Soap Shoe distributor over the last few years and I've seen how demand has dropped off and advertising has been cut.
The very fact that Solid Grind has paled into insignificance is a huge indicator as to public demand and opinion. The internet echoes socio-economic trends and search engine queries for Soap Shoes are almost non-existent these days, just over 300 requests for 'soap shoes' in January on the Yahoo!/MSN network... which is really, really nothing.
Having said that, I'm sure there are still kids out there who're loving the whole soaping thing albeit in much smaller numbers. Soap shoes will always have a presence, but success will always depend on current trends.
I'd never give up Soaping. It's just rare I do it anymore.

Feb 4, 2006 Wesker

I know what you're saying, Soap shoes will probably never be as popular as Heely's (Especially since they're essentially the same now)or as popular as they once were in early 2000, but it'll always have it's place.

I got a soap shoe ad (Definate, not just in the works)for late february early march (More on that later). So maybe we'll see resurgance from that?

It's good to see that you're not completely giving up on soaping though. Maybe our video will be done around the same time as yours :D

Feb 4, 2006 humain

Good to know news about you guys!

In my case, i was in the SSCFSW, a team (www.sscfsw.8m.com) that didn't update their stuff since a long time . We're all now in different field of study now. Some of us study in chemical science, other in musical field, some in engineering, administration...

we are still keeping in touch... We met ourself once in a while to FSW'ing by doing urban climbing and "Yamakasi" stuff ;) Always funny to remember the time we past in FSW and soapshoeing.

So what happened with you the others?

Sam & David (RSC)
Mikro phov tu jte pin sherbrooke
aaron Mc Donald
...

Gab

Feb 4, 2006 dunk

Last I heard Sam was out in Australia. And Aaron's still bumming around in Canada, haha. Mikro I speak to occasionally on MSN.

Feb 8, 2006 aaron

it's true, it's what i do... haha, it seems like i move every few weeks... travelling around is fun shit though.

how unusual that i check up on the site and there is actually news...

Feb 12, 2006 Mart

'Soap shoes. That word, to me, evokes so many fond memories. The long summer days we spent with UKFSW, filming and photographing, travelling the country in search of that perfect rail. Man, we had some awesome times; times that defined great chunks of my adolescence, nontheless'

Word to that; UKFSW fo' life. Always has and always will be some of the best moments of my life

Feb 13, 2006 Louis

yeah man i grew up on ukfsw, along with the other sites, it'll never disappear. it definatly helped sway the course of my teenage years. It was all worth rackin my bollocks for.
It'd be cool to see what all the old regulars have moved onto.

Feb 14, 2006 Louis

...ooooooh matron

Feb 14, 2006 Mart

Ah man, that was a good day. April 15th, 2003; I'll never forget it

Feb 15, 2006 derek

man, i havent even checked this site in forever. i just dropped in and found out that yall are still alive! weeee! that said - i've obviously been crazy busy on a huge amount of things. life is insane for me - i love it.

one of the things i recently started working on is a solidgrind revamp focusing more on soapshoes as an informative, media, and history opp.

there will be info on all shoes released/unreleased, all media that has been released (that i can get my hands on), all the soap videos/photos i can conjur up, history on every big name/company in the soap shoe scene, etc. there probably won't be much news. but all old news will still be available. i'm still not exactly sure what route i'm gonna take on the other sports featured here... but the roots are soap for sure - that's the most important part.

also - i still wear my soap shoes all the time. in fact everytime i have a party the first thing i do is clean out the garage and set out all the practice rails for peeps to play around on. i'm also still working for HSL on the side doing demos for heelys here and there - fun times.

so yeah - new solidgrind stuff coming soon, hurrah! keep in mind i'm still working on a billion other projects so the design probably won't happen fast. but it will happen.

Feb 17, 2006 fordy

cheers for letting me know! i found this post by searching my name on google, i was that bored.

going to prague tomorrow, shall i take my soaps for a laugh?

Feb 17, 2006 fordy

ps it's all about jumping on that inflatable thing in jims garden. just release that and repeat it like, 60 times and you've got yourself a corker

Feb 17, 2006 Smokey

Very well said dunk.

I havn't worn my soaps in over a year. I pretty much stopped once I started rollerblading, but even after all this time I can't forget about how cool soaping was. As a matter of fact, I just smoked a bowl and watched oNe. Oh the memories... It makes me want to lace up the old shoes and slide down some rails again.

Good luck with the video dunk. It sounds like a a sweet project.

Mar 8, 2006 broox

also: "Soap shoes. That word, to me" ...that's 2 words, haha. dork!

i forgot to really say what i'm up to. well, i'm married, haha, weird. i graduated college and now i work for a dupont company writing computer software for the scientists. i travel a lot. go out a lot. rock out a lot. still look at girls a lot. and love tuning cars a lot.

oh yeah, i skate/snowboard/soap/heel/play with all fun toys too.

lastly, i feel everything you said. we were all a HUGE part of something awesome. it was fun... shit, it still is fun. frustrating at times, but definitely fun.

Feb 10, 2007 AnthoFlex

When a chapter ends, a new one begins.....

And this new chapter is about the rebirth and next Generation of Soaping

Mar 25, 2007 AnthoFlex

Soap is back.....and its here to stay

Mar 25, 2007 SonicSoaper

Hell yeah...

Jul 6, 2007 RamenRadio

Has there been any updates about this by any chance?

Jul 10, 2007 RamenRadio

Have you guys had progress with that video yet?
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