Stefan Janoski surrounded by his namesake sneakers. Image credit: Supplied

If the name Janoski sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve seen it stitched into one of the most iconic Nike shoes of all time.

Designed in 2009, the Janoski is proving to be one of the most timeless footwear silhouettes in recent history. And yet, without the famous tick embroidered on the side, you wouldn’t even know that it was a Nike shoe. The low-profile silhouette resembles more of a casual boat shoe than anything else in Nike’s typically athletic assemblage.

Though this classic shoe didn’t emerge out of thin air; it was designed by Stefan Janoski, a prolific professional skateboarder from California. Best known for his smooth, ambidextrous style, Janoski has dominated the skate scene for over two decades, and he fought tooth and nail to have his signature shoe look exactly how he wanted.

But let’s start at the beginning.

Janoski skating in a pair of his signature shoes. Image credit: Supplied

The genesis

After several failed attempts at breaking into the skateboarding market, the skateboarding division of Nike, Nike SB, successfully launched in the early 2000s. The brand kicked off with some repurposed Dunks that were given a thicker tongue and triple stitching to help the shoes withstand the destruction that skateboarding causes to footwear.

Then, in 2005, professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez became the first skater to get his own signature shoe with Nike SB, known as the Nike SB Paul Rodriguez Zoom Air Low. Rodriguez would remain the only skateboarder to be given a signature model shoe for Nike for the next four years—until Stefan Janoski.

We’ll let him tell it.

“When I first started riding for Nike, the deal was that they weren't going to give people signature shoes, except for Paul [Rodriguez]. At the time, I rode for other skateboard shoe companies and was pretty close to having a shoe multiple times, but I ended up leaving those companies before I got a pro shoe.

So when I got on Nike, I was fine with not having a shoe. Then a couple of years in, I was skating a lot and released a bunch of video parts. Nike saw my output and approached me and they said, “Hey, we want you to be the second signature athlete in our skate program.”

The now iconic silhouette. 

The inspiration

Janoski wasn’t like other athletes on Nike’s roster. With long hair, baggy clothes, and a penchant for artistic endeavours, Janoski brought a unique flavour to the footwear brand—one that he sought to embody in his signature Nike model.

While many athletes simply co-sign having their name put on an existing shoe or agree to a model that is designed for them, Janoski wanted to have complete involvement in the design process to ensure that his signature shoe was to his liking.

“At the time, you’d wear your skate shoes when you were skating, and then you’d switch into your chilling shoes if you were going to go to dinner or if you were going to do anything else, because frankly, skate shoes weren't very good looking. They weren’t very fashionable.

My whole thing was like, I don't want to have to change my shoes. I want to be able to skate in my shoes, and then go to dinner, or a wedding or a funeral, all in the same shoes. I wanted my shoes to skate well, but also look good enough to wear when you weren’t skating. I wanted the best of both worlds.

So I took a lot of inspiration from shoes that were outside of skateboarding. I took a little boat shoe inspiration, some inspiration from loafers and moccasins, and one of my main specifications was that I really wanted slim shoes with a flat toe. I didn't like looking down at bulging toe caps on my shoes.”

The design process

And so, Janoski began his tug-of-war with the design team at Nike SB. The Nike team fought to ensure that the shoe resembled what Nike had done before with shoes prior, and Janoski fought to break the mould.

“I wanted to make a shoe that was unlike anything else Nike had to offer at the time. This led to a fair amount of back and forth between me and the guys at Nike because they were not used to that style. They wanted to add more; add more materials, add more technology, add new soles and materials that had recently been released.

I wanted less though. When we were in the design process, I’d always use the word ‘timeless’. I wanted a minimal silhouette that was very stylish and very timeless. I didn’t want my shoe to be a trend or a seasonal thing. I wanted it to last.

Skateboarding shoes all had these puffy, padded tongues. But they never helped with anything other than making your pants look bad. I didn’t want a pillow on the top of my foot, I wanted something lower profile. And I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, my shoe has the best tongue in the business. It’s just a piece of leather. There's no padding, there's no stuffing. It's just a piece of leather. And yeah, sure, I mean skateboards are flying around, they hit you in the feet. But I was willing to suffer the pain to get the look I wanted. I chose performance over protection.

I made the shoe pretty selfishly. I made what I wanted. If we sold a lot of them, then great, but if it’s going to have my name on it, the shoe has to be the way I want.

James Arizumi was the designer at the time and we really went back and forth. He was really cool and open. It was always when we’d have to bring it to the guys at Nike who would say, ‘Hey, this doesn't look like Nike.’ Or, ‘What is going on here with this crazy skateboarder guy?’

Now it’s a good story, because they admit that they were wrong, and I was right.”

Janoski with Dylan Rieder in Spain, both wearing their recently released signature shoes. Image credit: Javier Mendizabal

The friendly rival

Meanwhile, as Janoski battled to realise his vision, one of Janoski’s longtime friends and fellow professional skateboarder, Dylan Rieder, was making waves with his own signature shoe with Gravis Footwear.

After Rieder’s unorthodox shoe became the talk of the skate industry, Janoski grew more adamant about ensuring that Nike would make the shoe he had envisioned.

“Dylan was designing these wild fashion shoes that were 10 times slimmer than mine. The soles were super thin, they were a type of leather that would scratch away with different colours, and he was only like 18 years old or something. Meanwhile, I’d be in these Nike meetings and fighting with these guys. And so at one point, I did say, ‘Hey, why does this 18-year-old kid get to make whatever he wants, while I'm at this huge company and I’ve had to fight for two years to get a sample?’

At the time, we were travelling the world together. Throughout that time, Dylan and I were definitely nerding out about fashion shoes. That was all we were talking about. We had a bit of friendly competition too, like, who’s gonna make the better shoe?”

Janoski in 2009 after the launch party for his signature shoe. Image credit: Jessica Janoski

The first sample

Typically, shoes change a lot from their original samples. They go through rounds of testing, iterations and think tank-like design interrogations. This wasn’t the case for the Janoskis though.

“When I got the first sample of the shoe, I loved it. So I personally was like, ‘Alright, cool, this is amazing. I can't wait.’ If nothing came of it after that, I would have still been happy. It just so happened that everybody else liked it, too, and the shoe looked good on everyone.

You could pick all different kinds of people, whether they were hesh or punk or whatever their personal style was, and the shoe could become part of their style. It’s a very adaptive shoe. Eventually, we started really seeing it on just like every type of person—even people that didn't skate. That’s when I realised that, okay, everyone can really wear this.

After the sample was done, that was it. After that, we just kept changing the materials and colours and seeing what we could do. The shoe became a really cool blank canvas for colours and materials that we could really mess around with. We’ve since had so many iterations, the Janoski Air and Air Max, mid-tops, slip ons and alternative closures. There have been so many different versions that have all turned out really cool.”

A small part of Janoski’s personal collection. Image credit: Stefan Janoski

The legacy

Shortly after being released to the public, the Janoski found its way onto the feet of every skateboarder—and Nike became truly embedded into the culture that it had fought so long to break into.

Not only did the Janoski successfully lodge itself into the fairly exclusionary skate community, but it wasn’t long before the shoe broke out into the mainstream—proving that Stefan Janoski’s vision was correct.

Fast-forward 14 years later, and the Janoski has become a mainstay in Nike’s footwear fleet, making it onto the wall of their top 100 most successful shoes. A big legacy for an unlikely shoe.

“I don't know if [life] did change that much. I mean, I don’t have to think about what shoes to put on each morning.

As far as skateboarding goes though, people become pro skaters so they can keep skating. You want to skate so much that you don’t have time to get a job because that will take you away from skating. Becoming a sponsored skater is a way to support yourself through skateboarding, in order to skate more. In that sense, the shoe just helped me to keep skateboarding.

I’ll be at the grocery store and see someone wearing my shoes, which is still pretty awesome. Sometimes they won’t know who I am too. Then it’s my choice to speak to them, and maybe say, ‘Hey, nice Janoskis!’ They might say, ‘Hey, you too!’ and have no idea that I am, in fact, Janoski.”

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