Not to be that nerd, but a couple other changes they made was make the Popcush insole thinner on the heel and more firm, and added a plastic plate in the sole on the heel/arch area. Glad to see you like them! "The more I talk, the less I skate" I feel you on this sentiment 😄

Ben's content are really top tier

I am a cabinetry carpenter and just started skating again at 31 years old. I feel like I maybe have 5 or 6 years of skating before I start breaking down physically too much. The fact that you shred way harder than me and your a little older gives me the confidence I can keep this up for a while. I found skateboarding again was like getting reacquainted with an old friend. I love it

It's rad to see Vans give love and upgrades to an already popular product. Personally, I REALLY wish Converse would do the same with their more popular models... could do with some tune ups.

That music with the skate clips is really groovyyy

Your an inspiration! Really... Been watching for a while now and I love your content. Thanks and keep it going as long as you possibly can.

Well Ben I think i'll be coming back to this review purely for the skate edit. More of a Etnies guy but that music and skating was a 10/10. Absolutely satisfying piece of art at it's finest.🛹👌

Ben, ya motivated me to start skating again at 35. Love your content brother.

Love how you do what you want when you want. I also just recently watched your chat with Jake Shunt which offered cool insight into your life and how and why you do things 🤘

Look REALLY good for nearly 40 and you can SHREDD !!!

Vans are the Honda’s of skate shoes. Incremental improvements to the classics/Accord with the odd Wayvee/NSX thrown out there every once in a while.

Damn! Nice skating 👏🏻

I’ve been riding deck rails lately and they have been fun, maybe you would enjoy them too.

Was so close to quit wearing vans after 20+ years. Ben...... ya kept vans on my feet brotha✌️🇨🇦👍

Love the lines you're doing. You really popped the nollie heelflip out of that noseslide!

Nice how at ease you ride switch, even when pushing the board around.👍🏻

Love your griptape design Benny!!!

I just got the sk8-hi's. They're slightly narrow for me, but not broken in yet. I really like them. Super grippy outsole. Insoles are nice. Construction is pretty good. I'd recommend them for sure.

Looking comfy Ben.. always killin it.. all I want to do is skate as well!!💯💯

Hey Ben. As a fellow skateboarding carpenter your videos are the best! Keep killing it.

I recently discovered the AVE shoes and they are great. Light,not sweaty,good flick,amazing grip, the soles are a bit stilffer than the normal vans but that helps w/my foot soreness.

Ben my bro. Your vids are top notch. Keep up this review/sesh style

Not to be one of those people popping into the comments to be like "hey you should review this unrelated product" but, hey, you should review the new Ace formulas now that they're out. Honestly you're the only person who's review I know I could trust when it comes to trucks.

I heard from a review that they lowered the footbed, I think that's why they are better for heelflips now. The pro version used to fit different than the classics because they just slapped an insole in there without changing the fitting. But now your foot sits lower in the shoe, probably making heelflips easier.

with the amount of half cabs i do on flat/qp/pyramid etc the collar on these things tend to blow out before i can get through any toe caps or let alone soles...usually the toe area on the sole will blow out on a better designed(durability wise) vans shoe like a sk8-high/mid. Old skools and trujillo sg which has a similar design, for me bc of half cabs are just too easy to blow out the collar on. Or at times the pinky toe knuckle/nib will blow through that canvas upper. As nice as vans are to skate and widdle down the toe caps to be perfect for flip tricks. I usually get that hole right under the vans symbol as it starts curling up...and blow out the collar too fast. Even on suede or stronger uppers on authentics. Add slipping on these vans or folding back the back and trying to curl it over which is pretty common pulling on the collar like that just encourages tearing/blowing out of the collar. Its the main reason i dont skate low top vans. I really thought they were going somewhere a few years back when they did that collab with alex olson and put out the VERSA i had 2 pairs and they were tanks. Some vans just cant pass certain tricks. These newer skate classics seem to make up for a lot of the "CLASSICS" pitfalls, bolstered heel/cap so if you slip them on constantly and wear them with slightly loose laces when not actually skating, the heel will hold up a lot longer than the previous classics. BUT i really liked how flimsy old skools or even eras feel for driving as i do it/drive by trade. These newer sk8-highs with the added rubber/depth, and new duracap toe rubber makes it feel more like a boot IMO esp with the added plastic in the mid sole. Totally different feel when driving/walking BUT TBH its more like when converse/cons were fully absorbed by nike and started changing up the insoles/midsoles etc like lunarlon Allstars etc and so on to the now CTAS and how the various all stars or JP convers have felt inregards to board feel/flick. They definitely seem to be a lot more durable. Old skool pros only lasted me as long as the canvas upper/collar could until it started tearing into the sock/blown out collar/heel and terrible half cab potential. Theyre also a lot better for manuals. The same way it felt switching from old emerica WM tread to the G6 cupsole. That bolstered heel on both design changes was huge for fakie/nollie half cab grip. And if the collar didnt blow out with the old'skool the footbed usually would if you didnt tear through them. IDK they felt like too loose of a shoe, the TNT SG was a fine "uptdate/upgrade' to the oldskool pro at the time, these pro classics look to make up for a lot of the issues the old skool pro had. While coming at a better price than the pro lines. Just that toe rubber needs some breaking in with these vans theres a finite noticable flick to catch ratio with sliding suede and that gap/thick rubber toe when you ride grippy grip like mob that inconsistency is really annoying when it transitions from suede/toe to that thick rubber. Especially after skating some allstars/Jp pros. Sk8-highs and half-cabs are better fans for this ratio/angle for fliptricks imo than this more narrow angled old skool toe shape. I really like busnitz shoes they have a great toe angle for upper material to rubber. From the original to adv that has a good natural flick. Like i said as durable as the vans are unless youre really doing kickflips the old issue with vans was blowing out the collar, or canvas upper at your pinky toe joint. It proves to most skaters that the sk8-high and half-cab are really the only true option from vans to skate. Just with this new re-design they fit more like a boot, and im sure the low top/low profile shoes got a lot of what they needed in these updates. Old skools do rip laces less though bc of their shape

great style Ben!

FINALY SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT THE TOO MUCH RUBBER ON THE TOE. I have to sand down the toe so i can flick my board when they are new.

70k subs bro grats

I just got a pair of the new half cabs loving them with the tongue straps

Great video!

Hi Ben! Never been this early so I gotta tell ya man I’m a big fan keep it up

I had bad heel blisters from the shoes, maybe from the leather on top of the shoe but I do really recommend them

Amazing reviews as always! May i suggest adding sizing advice when doing shoe reviews? Makes it easy to know which to grab (perhaps compare the fit to some very popular shoes)

nose slide collie heel out was crazy!

I’ve been skating for over a year after getting back into it after a 15 year break. I rotate skate shoe’s depending on my mood. I have been favoring the Shane O’Neils a lot because they feel like a slipper. I love the light, thin shoe but board slams really halt my sessions. I want to get the half cabs you reviewed in another video but I keep hearing the flick and bulk is an issue. Currently I’m skating the Vans Rowan’s and love them but they don’t have much time left. Would you recommend the half cabs to someone who likes the Rowan’s? Thanks for any feedback. Love all of your content!

As a Vans worker, skating these were pretty nice. The only issue I really have with Old Skools (same with Sk8-Hi's) is that since I have a wider foot, my baby toe tends to rub inside the shoe and I get blisters after a while. All in all though, solid shoe that works well and looks dope too.

One thing I noticed right out of the box was that the skate classics fits bigger than the older models of the Old Skool. (I usually go with 10, but with the new I’m thinking about going a full size down)

Great review. I've been exclusively skating vans sk8-lows like the last 5 pairs because they suit my wide feet and last a decent amount of time.

Love to see a capsule skateboard review !

I have these and 2 months into them theres a huge hole in the canvas from ollies (got my foot cut too from the griptape) and now theres a hole in the sole too on my front foot thats started hitting the insole too. I snapped the laces 4 times before getting a new one. I loved the rubber though, its not super durable in my experience but nice and soft that grips the board really well. It was a good shoe just be ready to use a lot of shoe goo and buy a lot of laces.

Bro good video i have a pair of vans era skate classics and are the best vulc

I used to never skate vans cause I wanted the most durable & softest shoes. I only skate vans now, they never rip & the ultra cush feel safe

Song and skating have a Tim OConnor Mosaic part vibe 😌

I think the foot sitting lower in the skate vans made your heelflips feel better. Maybe wrong but it seems like that would make the heels more stable. The old skool pros felt like my foot was popping out of the shoe due to insoles sitting so high.

Man I'm just about to start getting back into skating and I'm not much younger than you. I hope I can get at least half my tricks back lol seems like the hardest part is getting your legs conditioned again since I don't really have a manual labor job.

The heelflips feeling better is because they made the taping higher so they feel closer to how cupsoles heelflip

Fuck yeah love authenticats and slip pros can’t wait to try the skate versions

Digging the manual tricks. Any tips on 180ing out of manuals?

Haha atta boy take advantage of that time. I have a couple pairs of vans I got real cheap waiting to test should be great. In some Nike SBs and they are quite nice. Cheers!

thanks for the response!

Good review! I got a pair and because of the bulky front that f*** the kickflip trick a basically don’t skate them. For wathever reason The Rowan was ok and yes the « new » Vans are much more durable than before! Yes! I got it for Carroll!

Have you thought about trying the Vans Vault series of shoes? I’m curious because I wear the comfy Comfy-Cush they definitely escape better than the regular Vans old school.

Where's that skate spot??? It looks awesome!

Whats the sizing like? Great video

I tried on the Skate Sk8 Hi, I didn’t like the heel cup thing. I’ve got big feet so even 13s are tight until I break them in well. I’ll stick to my Rowan Pros for now.

Vans shoe sizing is broken, had a UK size 8 show up and it was like a 10, ordered a size down and the inner wasn't even sewn in. Can't fault their customer service but these "improvements" are minimal. Also what you said about the rubber makimg small flicks harder is probably what's hindering my kickflips. Got some DC plazas on the way. Subbed.

I just got these and some new skate half cabs and yes they skate wayyyyy better

Are these ones better than the Kyle Walker or the Rowan Pros? My skate shoes are completely destroyed and I need some new ones but I can’t decide for which pair get

I found the skate rowans to be a really good heelflippy shoe as well

a friend gave me a pair like that late last year, just a different colorway. & yes i can say theyre much different now, much better.. a year or 2 and that hair will be full on White Ben :)

Just bought the shake junt old school pro for 60% off. Are the minor upgrades not worth paying full price for some tongue straps, and and a little deeper sole tread.

Is the heel cup more stable? Is there a snugger more supportive fit overall, like a contemporary skate shoe by adidas?

that little sewer ollie after the front nose reminds me of everything great about skating

ben you should really try and give a review to the Adidas tyshawn, one of the best skateshoes out there. I think you will love them

Have had mine for a little longer than a month now and the bottom is about to blow out and I have only been doing beginner stuff

You should do a review on the DC Manual, they have a vegan option for it as well as suede.

Please do a review and skate session on a welcome board please! The graphics are something to look at .

You should review the ace af1s

Man, what's with these companies and being reluctant to make their shoes white? It's always a dull grey, cream or off-white mix.

What do you think of the bronson ceramics?

Buena Simón pesutic con 40 años

Have you ever tried footprint insoles/shoes? Curious what you would think of them

Ben please give ur opinion about ace truck af1, I seem thare is major change on construction

Goat shoes

Do you wear a 10.5 in these as well

Review ishod wair setup please! 147s thunder on 8.3 deck,2top bussing and 3 axle washers

Hi ben! could you make a review of footprint insoles?

I def feel you in the fliping a trick lightly, i'm more of a all or nothing type flipper. I see guys like Rick Howard kind of finnese their flips but i'm not that good, i can pop though so its not all bad. If i try and finnese a flip i land primo

Is the fit about the same? Does anyone know if the tongue straps are in all the new Skate Classic models? Curious if they added them to the Half Cabs.

QUESTION : have you tried Spitfire F4 97a already ? 🤔

i’ve got to get a pair of these, they’re making the exact additions i’ve been wanting

Hey Ben, Emerica just came out with a new lineup of vegan shoes. Would love to see you give them a try and hear your thoughts. Been skating some old Romero Laced with coated canvas, and they hold up pretty well.

Video idea: You should see which Vans is more durable

Now onto the sk8 hi and the era!

How do you not get ollie holes? My son doesn't either.

Are those Indy 139 or 149 in the clip? Or perhaps 144? Thanks!

Ben, I'm curious as to whether or not you've had the chance to try the carroll xlk's. not saying do a review, but I'm just curious as to what you think (in a sentence or two)

nice

What wheels are you riding now? F4 classics?

Line at 4:50 was crazy 🔥

I rly liked these shoes but I went through a pair so fast

review Ishod wair set up please! Thunder 147 on 8.3 deck! and two top busing

The old skools don’t allow fast kick flips. But the eras do.

what song are you using in the background

Filming was great on this one! By the way would you consider doing a review of the spitfire OG Classics any time soon Ben?

Hey, can you review ace af1 for us?

What color way is this ?

Please try the Last Resort shoes!

does anyone have tips on trying to regain kickflips after a sprained ankle?

They have gotten better but still not what I would go with given other options out there. If it's all I could get then yes I will skate them.