AVANTS MAGAZINE PROFILE: STEVEN SMITH & STEVE PELLETIER
STORY | Justin Roeser & Ben Abrams
PHOTOGRAPHY | Tommy Kallgren
What do Kanye West and Magnus Walker have in common?
They both have sneakers designed by a guy named Steve who lives in Portland and drives an air-cooled Porsche.
Steven Smith and Steve Pelletier are two rebels of sneaker design who’ve had massive influence on the footwear industry while diligently maintaining their status as outsiders.
Steven Smith (left) and Steve Pelletier (right) share some sneaker stories at The Sentinel hotel in Portland, OR.
Those in the know may not think there’s much in common between the two Steves. Yes, they both worked for Nike. Steven Smith also worked for Reebok, New Balance, Fila, and Adidas. Steve Pelletier put himself through college making snowboards before landing a job designing boots for Burton.
Smith has been in the industry since the days of Phil Knight, over three decades, and was heavily influenced by punk rock music, straight edge lifestyle, and Bauhaus design. Smith had a passion for running from an early age, and as a designer, he has pushed sneaker companies to stretch their technical boundaries, wanting consumers to run faster and jump higher in his shoes. Known for everything from making “dad shoes” cool to creating mind-bending kicks like the Yeezy Foam Runner, Smith has seen and done it all.
Pelletier, “Porsche Pelle” on Instagram, grew up in Maine and was naturally influenced by snowboarding culture. Starting at Nike in 2008, he spent the next decade or so cranking out many trend-setting sneaker designs for Nike SB and even designed the boots that the U.S. Olympic Snowboard Team wore in 2015. Pelletier sees himself as a “culture combiner” and his designs proved that, mashing up sneaker culture with weed, music, and yes, the automobile.
What they also share, apart from their first name, is their love of vintage air-cooled Porsches. For our short time together at the Sentinel Hotel in Downtown Portland, we learned how these two very different guys actually have a lot more in common. It should be noted here that Smith arrived proudly rocking a Sid Vicious t-shirt while Pelletier arrived gleefully sporting Garfield pants.
For Smith, when he’s not driving a vintage Beetle on the race track, he’s daily driving his Meissen Blue 1958 356A. The barren Sunday morning streets were shaken awake by the sound of his car. This is no ordinary vintage car. Lowered, speedster trim, Nardi wheel, leather hood straps, meshed headlights… it’s all in the details.
Steve Pelletier brought the essentials, a black 1986 Carrera sans sound deadening, cloth Recaros, racing harnesses, RS door panels, roll cage, and two pairs of wheels. Silver SSR mesh 16’s on back, blacked out Fuchs in the front. “Because I can,” Pelletier said.
“A lot of people get upset about the mismatched wheels and that makes me laugh. People take this stuff too seriously.”
As we emptied their cars of nearly 40 years of shoe history, we had to make sure that the valet kept an eye on the luggage cart. Thousands of dollars and very recognizable boxes were out in the open on the streets of Portland and we had veritable sneaker gods in our midst. We carefully ushered the many significant pieces of their design careers into the hotel’s second-floor library, a safer place for unboxing and discussion.
“Our personal interests and influences have so much to do with what we do in design,“ says Smith. “When I presented my designs, I always kept in mind the evolution of Porsche, from the 356 to the modern 911. For Porsche, it was incremental improvement. Better, better, better. It was evolution not revolution.” Smith is seemingly done with evolution however and has moved on to revolutionizing the shoe industry as Design Director for Kanye West’s Yeezy Lab.
“Why would I do the shit everyone else can do? Anyone can do that! I do the things that are hard. I’m the ‘hold my beer’ guy.”
One of Smith’s original revolutions was the Reebok Instapump Fury. Penned in 1991 and launched in 1994, it took two years to find all the vendors to be able to create this groundbreaking shoe. “The air pump part came from life vests and blood pressure pumps; the carbon fiber came from aerospace and Formula One cars,” details Smith. “There is no part on this shoe that you can take off and the shoe will still work. We reduced it to its absolute minimum components. Bauhaus. Simple yet everything matters.”
It was this exact shoe that spawned the then 15-year-old Steve Pelletier to work at the Reebok outlet in Kittery, Maine in 1995. “I saw the Fury and I knew I wanted a pair but I realistically couldn’t afford them. So, I applied for a job. I worked there for three months because I got a free pair of shoes each month then I quit,” chuckled Pelletier.
Both designers are no stranger to resistance and challenging corporate environments. “These companies start as rebels, offering something that nobody else did. But, as they mature they forget who they were, they forget the DNA,” says Smith. “Sneakers used to be like NASCAR, what won on the track on Sunday would sell in the stores on Monday. It’s not like that anymore.”
This seems to reverberate in the current car industry with many enthusiasts complaining about too much technology, cars getting bigger, and drivers’ experiences becoming more lackluster. Cars used to be designed for the racetrack, now they’re designed in boardrooms. Perhaps that’s why both Steves prefer vintage?
“My Dunks and my 911, they’re both from the mid-eighties. All you have to do is put a little story telling on them and make it something weird.” This concept has repeatedly worked for Pelletier. For example, his Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Dunks. “Melty swoosh, cow print and Vermont mountains. Life should be fun and there is absolutely an untapped opportunity in automotive to do something fun,” says Pelletier.
“The Harlequin Golf was like a covert Benneton ad” said Smith. These multi-colored VW’s sat on dealership lots with very little public interest. Sometimes the designers are way ahead of the public as the Harlequin now fetches the top premium for this era VW. “All of the designs that I’ve done that become icons have been polarizing at the start.”
“A lot of the art of automotive has been taken away,” explains Pelletier. “But you can still see it in different elements of new cars, and I do still get excited. I can walk around a new 992 Turbo and the way the taillight is designed is gorgeous…. brakes are now a work of art. There’s really fun things to look at in the craftsmanship and design of the way new cars are made.”
Making shoes or making cars, the parallels between the two industries are clear. On the commercial side, when the latest, greatest car or shoe hits the market demand simply outweighs supply. The aftermarket is thriving for both industries, and cars and shoes are selling for massive premiums above their original sticker price. Pelletier’s Reverse Skunk Dunk stickered at $110 new and now on the aftermarket can pull up to $7,000 for a pair. Both Steve’s feel the same about their designs “We are creating limited edition art pieces at accessible price points,” says Smith.
“I think I’m done with shoes though. I want a new adventure in my life, I want to do car shit,” adds Pelletier. “A lot of people that are into cars are also into shoes. A car is the ultimate accessory. It’s why I did the recent collaboration with Magnus Walker and the Porsche shoes.” Pelletier’s latest adventure is “Donuts and Drip.” An “if you know you know” pop-up car show that moves around with lots of hype, little notice, attracting hundreds of rides from all years, makes, and models to surprise locales throughout the Northwest.
Later that morning, after a big breakfast and non-stop chatting about shoes, cars, and the culture surrounding both, we took to the streets of Stumptown for photos in motion. At nearly every light, we saw someone snapping a picture of the Steves in their Porsches.
The 356 barks loudly yet looks so... classic. I don’t think there is a soul in the world that could look at Smith’s car and not see beauty. Its size, color, and intricate custom details are gorgeous. Working with longtime friends, Rod and Gary Emory, Steve’s coupe has been lightened and updated with a Super 90 motor, racing fuel cell, and many other period trick pieces. Smith has been driving the car 25 years now, nine of them as his daily driver. “I even have studs for it in the ice and snow!”
Pelletier’s 911 is a bruiser, a bully, the gun in a knife fight. This car could be spotted on a track, canyon, or in a seedy alley intimidating its surroundings. It’s undeniably raw and tweaked by his unique personalization. “I wanted to hear everything and feel everything. Shooting flames and clipping apexes.”
Smith’s foundation in Bauhaus minimalism, evolved into his using technology to reinvent the shoe time and time again. His angry yet elegant four-cylinder Porsche from 1958 somehow fits with this. With Pelletier’s out of the box imagination, and his cartoon infused soul he’s driving a blacked-out 911 racer with a huge wing and two different sets of wheels. Again, it just works.
Are their cars a way of simplifying their lives? An escape to a meditative state without pen and paper? No pressure to create. No board meetings. No marketing department. It’s punk rock in the ‘70s. Snowboarding in the ‘80s. These are two design rebels and their unique cars are well on the way to their next adventure. We can’t wait to see where they end up.