Who is Dennis Busenitz?
I've said it before and I'll certainly say it again, skateboarding is unbelievably fickle, especially when it comes down to footwear. So, whenever a skate shoe manages to keep on selling for more than a few years, it is a clear acknowledgement of not only its quality and timeless aesthetic but also the special something that keeps the shoe being universally deemed 'cool'. This special something can often be a design feature that no other shoes have on the market or an affiliation with a pro-skater who is incredibly loved around the world. The Adidas Busenitz possesses all of these ingredients and then some! Adidas Skateboarding took a real risk on Dennis Busenitz designing his pro shoe, allowing him to design a silhouette that at first glance could easily be labelled as too extreme for commercial success. But before we get into all of that, let's first delve into how Dennis found himself designing a pro-shoe for Adidas...
Dennis Busentiz was born in Newton, Kansas in 1981, but not long after, his family moved to Munich in Germany until he was 15. Dennis' love for skating ignited whilst in Germany turning one of the many toys in his garage into what would be his future career. As we all know, the first time you see someone pop an ollie, your mind not only melts, but initiates an intense desire to learn how to seemingly defy physics. Unsurprisingly, by the time he was around 5/6 years old, Dennis could ollie up curbs too. After a further 10 years of mastering skateboarding in Munich, and I imagine a couple of clicks of his heels, Dennis found himself back in Kansas.
Getting sponsored and his early skateboard career
In 1999 Consolidated Skateboards came to town for a demo which Dennis tagged along for. During this time Scott Bourne, who was obviously very impressed with Dennis' skating, asked which skate shoe company Dennis would like to skate for. Dennis replied Emerica.
After a quick phone call between Scott and the Emerica brand manager at the time, Justin Regan, Dennis began receiving boxes from them. A few months after getting on Emerica, Deluxe Distribution also hooked Dennis up, which of course led to him skating for Real Skateboards, whom he still rides for. So yeah, Dennis went to a Consolidated demo and ended up securing an Emerica deal. I can't quite wrap my head around that, but that is how it went according to the man himself.
It didn't take too long until Dennis found himself fully on the Real Skateboards team, leaving Emerica for DVS and joining the Volcom apparel team. This was when Dennis began to show the world just how good he was, with full parts in "Real to Reel" (2001), "Seeing Double" (2002) and of course both “Roll Forever” (2005) and “Skate More” (2005). He was in at least 3 more videos between the years 2001-2005 too... These videos became cult classics, played over and over again by kids across the planet, cementing Dennis' skateboarding into a whole generation of skaters' brains, especially “Roll Forever” and “Skate More”.
I highly recommend you watch all of these videos if you haven't before, and if you have in the past, watch them again anyway. You can see in these video parts Dennis' unique ability to skate absolutely anything, be it tight transitions, stair sets, manual pads or everything else in between, all whilst going faster than anyone and with one of the most fluid styles you will ever see. I know it's jumping ahead a bit time-wise, but if you want a quick injection of prime Busenitz skating, watch his Tampa Pro winning run from 2011, guaranteed goosebumps every single time I watch it.
All of this obviously caught the attention of Adidas, whose skate programme at the time was, let's say, minimal, having only Mark Gonzales on the team. In 2006 Dennis got the call from Bryce Kanights to join the Adidas ranks, and that he did. By 2009 Dennis had designed his first pro shoe with Adidas, aptly named the Busenitz. Somewhat surprisingly, the Busenitz was Adidas' very first signature model skate shoe, even though Mark Gonzalez and Lance Mountain had ridden for Adidas beforehand.
The Adidas Busenitz skate shoe design concept
So, now you're up to speed on how Dennis Busenitz became the first skater to get a pro shoe from Adidas, let's have a look at the shoe itself. Given the opportunity to design his own shoe, Dennis knew exactly what he wanted to create. In an interview with Free Mag, Dennis states:
“When they gave me a shoe it was just that I wanted to make the Copa Mundial soccer shoe and I had never skated anything like that until they made it ‘cause Copa Mundial has cleats on it and you can’t skate in it.”
When you look at a Copa Mundial football boot and compare it to the Busenitz, you can see that Adidas effectively took the upper from the football boot and added it to the sole unit from another Adidas icon, the Handball Spezial. Not the most complicated thing for a brand like Adidas to do, but to convince them to actually accept the idea as a viable silhouette must have caused some raised eyebrows. Design features such as the elongated tongue and slightly raised heel on the sole unit give the shoe a very individual aesthetic. Luckily for Adidas, and perhaps Dennis, it looks brilliant.
Skate-specific footwear technology
Not only does it look great, but it skates like a dream too! The slightly raised heel allows the shoe to give you genuine board feel towards the front of your foot whilst also protecting the rear of your foot from big impacts, thus reducing the chance of pesky heel bruises. The collar of the shoe uses Adidas' very own GEOFIT® technology, resulting in the shoe fitting perfectly around your foot, giving you plenty of confidence whilst you skate. On the outside of the shoe around your heel sits a stabilising heel counter, which adds support around the base of your heel, reducing the chance of rolling ankles. All of these features alongside recessed lace loops and premium materials result in a truly well-designed skate shoe. Oh, I almost forgot to mention you can also chop the tongue down to 'normal' size if you would like to...
Since the release of the OG Busenitz, there have been other versions introduced to run alongside it over the years that we should quickly discuss. The sadly short-lived Busenitz ADV (personal favourite) was basically a Busentiz on steroids. If you watch any early footage of Mark Suciu on Adidas he wore that shoe a lot and god damn did he make it look good. The Busenitz Vintage is effectively the exact same as the OG but without the tongue, designed, I guess, for those too scared to pull off the true Copa Mundial tongue look. No shame in that by the way, it took me many years to muster up the courage to step outside in the giga-tongued originals.
The Adidas Busenitz Vulc
However, the Busenitz Vulc is hands-down the most popular Busenitz silhouette spin-off, arguably even more so than the OG. At first glance, it appears as though it is a deconstructed Busenitz OG, however, the technology shared between the OG and the Vulc does vary. Obviously, the tongue is shorter and the sole unit is now vulcanised, but features such as the GEOFIT® collar, recessed lace loops and stabilising heel counter remain. In fact, the Vulc has an improved moulded insole due to the decreased impact protection from the sole unit itself, as well as tongue straps for a tighter fit around the top of your foot.
Skateboarders such as Dennis Busenitz are perfect candidates for receiving the chance to design their own skate shoe. Not only do they deserve it due to their commitment to continuously put out unbelievable skate footage, but because they have something unique to offer when it comes to shoe design.
Dennis instantly knew what he wanted and made sure it happened. I'm sure many people would look at that shoe when they first saw it and write it off as a weird gimmicky design that won't sell well, but if companies only ever make the safe, potentially boring decisions, nothing new and exciting will ever be produced. Sometimes you need to take a risk, and the Busenitz was one of those risks that definitely paid off.
