Daewon Song: The Route One Interview

We met up with Daewon Song and adidas Skateboarding in Los Angeles to talk about everything from getting on World Industries, being unc, and the new adidas' Glenburn silhouette, and a whole lot more.

Over the course of the interview, Daewon got into 10 years with adidas, the early days of getting noticed by Rodney Mullen, sticking with World Industries when things got shaky, why vulcs still feel right under his feet, and what skating at 50 looks like now.

When the subject turned to adidas, it was clear straight away how much the last decade has meant to him. “It’s been the best thing ever”, he says, calling it “the best choice of my life to be connected with Adidas.” In his words, it has never felt pushy, always positive, and always like a place where good ideas can keep moving.

That same energy runs into the way he talks about skate shoes. In an era where there is no shortage of padded, technical options, Daewon still sounds most at home in a classic vulcanised silhouette. For him, it comes down to feel. He wants the shoe to break in, mould to his foot, and let him feel every bit of the board underneath. “I’ve just been full vulcanized,” he says. He likes being able to feel the board through the sole, to curl his toes and stay connected to what is going on beneath him. Cupsoles are not completely off the table, though, and later in the interview he gives a nod to the adidas Glenburn as the pair he would pick right now for skating and wearing day to day.

The conversation also goes all the way back to 1989, when Daewon first got into skating during a time he describes as a downturn for skateboarding. He remembers being the only skateboarder at his high school, while people around him were already looking at skating like it had run its course. Still, he never really entertained the idea of stopping. His first board, bought by his parents, was stolen after just two weeks outside a doughnut shop. He talks about picking flowers from random yards, knocking on doors to sell them, and saving lunch money bit by bit just to buy another setup.

From there, the interview moves into Rodney Mullen, Steve Rocco and the road to World Industries. Daewon remembers seeing Rodney skate from a distance before they ever really spoke, then hearing that Rodney had clocked what he was doing. Not long after, boards started showing up and a trip to the office followed, where he met Steve and immediately felt a connection. Daewon talks about how his skating was a mix of technical and aggressive, and how not everyone knew what to make of that at first. Rodney, though, was the one who believed in letting him be himself.

That loyalty becomes one of the strongest threads in the whole interview. When Girl Skateboard launched and a lot of riders left World Industries, Daewon admits he was not fully present in skating at the time. He was distracted, making money lowering cars, and had lost touch a bit with where his own skating was headed. But when Rodney called and explained that the company felt like it might be done, something clicked. Rather than leave, he stayed. It is one of the most telling moments in the interview, because it shows how much Daewon values the people who backed him early, and how seriously he takes that kind of bond.

He also gets into the years that followed: Deca, Artifact and Almost. Editing late, skating deep into the night, making stuff, burning stuff, living on that kind of energy that only really makes sense when everyone involved is fully obsessed. But he is also honest about the pressure that came with trying to build brands with close friends, and how that eventually led to one chapter ending and another beginning. By the time Almost came around, it felt like the pieces landed in a way that worked.

When the talk turns to video parts, Daewon gives a great insight into how his skating evolved over time. Round Three represented a more expected version of him, technical, controlled, rooted in the kind of skating people already knew him for. But Skate More opened the door to something else. He talks about filming with Colin Kennedy and being pushed to think differently, not just in terms of trick selection, but in how the terrain itself could make something harder, stranger or more interesting. That shift ends up feeding into the direction he took later on, especially in parts where the spot itself became half the trick.

That is probably clearest when he gets into 5-Incher. By then, he sounds properly burnt out on the standard formula: wax the ledge, skate the bench, flip in, flip out, do it again. So instead, he started looking at things that were not really skate spots at all. Trees, rocks, awkward textures, weird bits of ground; anything that could be rolled on was suddenly fair game. The whole idea was to push outside the usual boundaries and remind people that skateboarding does not always need a purpose-built obstacle to get interesting.

Even with a career like his, there are still tricks he would rather not be tested on. Asked which flatground tricks still give him trouble, Daewon is refreshingly honest. Switch hardflips are high on the list, along with switch backside flips, switch backside 360 ollies and varial heels. It is one of the best bits in the interview because it strips everything right back. For all the impossible-looking stuff he has done over the years, there are still tricks that feel cursed.

And then there is the question of where skating goes next at 50. Daewon is realistic about it. Healing takes longer now. The body does not bounce back the same. But the key thing is that the fun has not gone anywhere. “Skateboarding is fun and I love it,” he says, and that line really sums up the whole conversation. There is no grand speech in it, no overthinking, just a very clear sense that if you still care about something and still enjoy doing it, you keep going. Stay motivated, stay humble, and keep rolling.

Before the interview wrapped, Daewon was asked to pick one adidas skate shoe and one colourway to do everything in, from skating to walking around town. His answer: the Glenburn. He likes the sleeker look, the way it skates, and the fact it is easier to keep clean than a vulc. For someone so associated with stripped-back boardfeel, it was a fitting way to close things out: a nod to where he has been, without sounding stuck there.

And as for what is next, Daewon leaves us with one target firmly in mind: that switch hardflip.