I really hate to post important news on here right now because the site is about to be rebuilt, but I got some news on the T-bones and the Broadsides.

First of all, Soap remade the T-Bones like I had suggested before! The half-sole is now slanted downward so you can get a bit more balance. They sent me a sample pair and I'll be playing with them tonight. Secondly, as I said before, Soap IS making a new pair of Broadsides. They just got their prototypes in last week and I have a pair sitting right here. They are DOPE! The shoe looks sooo good, and the sole plate extends 100% of the shoe. My guess is that they will be ready by next Spring, but if everything goes smoothly with testing, we might see them earlier. Read more for pics and my review!

The Verdict:

T-bones: As you probably know, the T-bones are the Soap shoes that are due to come out this fall that have the half-sole plate on the bottom. At first this seemed totally pointless because the rubber on the front of your sole would catch and make you fall. The only trick you could do was the wheelbarrow. If you've been keeping up with these shoes you would have seen the earlier suggestion that I gave to make the grind plate slant downward toward the center for better balance. (Here is an illustration) Well, Soap took my suggestion seriously and made a prototype of the shoe with suggestion #2. I tested them out and the shoes were automatically 100x better. The lock-in still isn't as good as it could be, but I was actually able to get balance on these shoes and stick some decent grinds! The redesign is so much better and I really think that if you are looking for a shoe gives you more grinds than your standard Soaps but less expensive than the broadsides, these shoes will be great for you.

Broadsides: Whoa... the broadside is finally about to make the comeback! Alright, I tested the new version of the broadside (which is currently still called the broadside). This shoe is amazing! If you had the old broadsides, you will know that they weren't as comfortable as the other Soaps. You will also know that they had a very long/narrow shaping to them... they looked sorta weird. Anyway, the new broadsides have killer styling, they are puffy like skate shoes, and great colors. The extra padding makes the shoes super comfortable.

Alright, now onto the grindplate. First of all, it has a slipknot style plate, duh... (For those of you that don't know what slipknot is, it is the name that Soap gave the plate on the broadsides that grinds both ways). If you owned the broadsides, you'll know that the old grindplate was HUGE. The sole plate was really fat, and the standard plate was really big as well. The big plate was great and all, but it allowed for very rubber to actually touch the ground. The lack of rubber made rough landings a little more "rough" which sucked. Plus you had less support under your foot, which took away from overall comfort. Anyway, the new version has a slightly narrower sole plate and grindplate that is normally sized. The new sole plate actually goes a little deeper into the shoe than the old broadsides. At first this made me nervous, but when I tried it, I was sticking grinds so easily. The deeper sole plate makes you lock on so much better, it is insane! I've never been able to stick acid-soles on my old broadsides due to slipping off, but I was hitting them easily today. Here are the grinds I stuck on my practice rail that used the sole plate: Mizuo, Alley-opp Mizuo, Makio, Mistrial, Acid Soul, and an Alley-opp Makio. I was also able to do transitions between the tricks pretty easily. Summary: The shoes look great, grind great, and are really really comfortable. Here are 2 pictures for you: Side Shot and Grind Plate.

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