“LAKAI IN TOKYO” Skate Video Review

At heart LAKAI IN TOKYO is a geyser of hammers on style, a diamond of a needle threaded through world-class skating and production by an industry titan, hitting hard on terrain made to skate in seven of the fastest minutes I’ve seen and fly by on the power, guts, and creative twists turned in by the brand’s second-life roster of Bastien Salabanzi, Jumpei Tsutsumi, Roman Hager, and Gabryel Aguilar.

There are many reasons why this video is significant, but to stay with the talent for now, the footage turned in by these monsters is genuinely remarkable, no filler in sight, with courage and technical prowess kept as top priorities from start to finish.

The editing is tight and without fluff, the soundtrack meets the energy on deck perfectly, and the filming crew is well-staffed by discernment and multiple angles where and when it counts.

Behind the end-product on hand, the video does great at planting what is hopefully a consistent direction under Lakai’s new management under CEO Marc Roca and Luis Mora (who also released this behind-the-scenes commentary edit).

After an eventful journey for a brand that has been as groundbreaking, talent-stacked, and influential as any, its recent downfall was hard to see play out in the industry.

Sitting and writing in 2025, I recall Lakai ads declaring “Since 1999” on marketing and products at a time when it felt too soon to recall “since” anything. The era of the early 2000s rife with plenty of very successful shoe brands, and Lakai was and has been an undeniable podium-placer among them ever since.

To watch the recent sell-off of the brand to new hands from the former-owners, and forever-legends, Rick Howard and Mike Carroll saw me salute an institution as accomplished and bar-setting as any in the world of skateboarding.

As it happened, I heard about new ownership holding altruism and core skateboarding as their guides moving forward. These values will always get my support, but actions would be the determining factor to see what these intentions met in practice.

I was also concerned seeing the many cuts and/or runs-for-the-door that team Lakai was seeing before the sell-off.

As is the case with many sports, footwear contracts mark the high points of income, marketability, and duration that lift or leave careers behind. Without support of this kind, a real, live human is without critical means of livelihood.

The mass exodus was definitely not a good look to start anything from, much less a reboot claiming to support skaters.

My hope is that the skaters who are no longer with Lakai are not forgotten by the team managers with budget for more talent, and that these athletes find new, well-earned support for their talents as soon as possible.

Adding to the uphill battle for the new Lakai, we have the sad example of Adio, another late-90s-early-2000s banger-factory of a shoe brand with an early history that could be called incomparable.

With a starting lineup of Jeremy Wray, Jamie Thomas, and Steve Berra that proceeded to add Tony Hawk, Adio gave us a true classic in “One Step Beyond” that holds up wonderfully, all of which spoke to an institution that would have been great to see become even stronger after changing ownership, but was not the case, at all.

That said, to Lakai's benefit, pulling big brands back from the brink can draft well off of brand-recognition.

As is the up-down-sideways epic that is the story of Adidas and Puma (told brilliantly by Barbara Smit) a resurrection-in-name-only can go very right or wrong.

All of that said, much depended on this first video.

Footage, from VHS to digital, always has and will take precedence over anything else when it comes to game recognizing game in skating.
And with “TOKYO,” the results mark an out-the-gate highpoint for 2025, after 2024 saw the best year in skateboarding parts so far (not an exhaustive list, and 2 x Tiago is by choice, challenges to this one humble opinion are welcome).

Now, the video.

Hager is a true beast, the kickflip he unleashes out and over a tower in the middle of a hefty set throws down a gauntlet Tsutsumi backs up with no shortage of single tricks, lines, and tech skills bold and burly.

Aguilar fits in more than a few big rails with quick-footed “oh damn” follow-up tricks, inviting the rewind button several times, as well as a few NBDs (at least for this viewer, corrections welcome), including a cross-country blunt to boardslide that marked a highlight in my view.

Everyone works together great to keep the unexpected in focus, with one case in point being the gaps between flat rails about 2 minutes in, a real head-scratcher to look at, but these guys proceed to make magic on.

Speaking of magic, of course, more than a little can and has been said about the legend himself, Bastien Salabanzi.

From a brand’s standpoint, the strategy of paying tribute to an aging career can be mutually beneficial, regardless of the performance said athlete can produce.

With that, the Salabanzi we have seen put consistency on talent through social media, turning in a banger of a full part for Cariuma all of a year ago, and judging the incredible King and Queen of MACBA series speaks to a man thoroughly engaged with his passion, a generational standout that continues to take his gifts seriously after arriving and stomping the late-90s scene via Rune Glifberg himself taking notice.

In “TOKYO,” Salabanzi pours on “Flip”-era energy by not only adding pushes between tricks, but really needing to for the size and difficulty of terrain he continues to smash on. In doing so, I don’t see someone competing against age, since the style on hand (still) hits smooth and earnest.

The choices Salabanzi keeps making show no interest in easy, but seek and find a joy in the craft that is front, center, and shared with tag-team sessions with the rest of the crew across and down rails and ledges, manuals and gaps, and find opportunity everywhere.

All of the above is woven together well between quick bits of the skaters’ forever-war against security and peppered with high-5s and homie hugs, none of which leans into digression, an important choice for sticking to the point while still balancing the right amount of nods to the place, time, and people involved.

Doing so puts an undercurrent of celebration on a vibe that dovetails well with the subtext of Lakai’s history and very-promising present.

Coming out this strong is definitely promising, effectively holding the right priority on supporting skating and top tier-talent.

Seeing Tom Asta himself recently speak to the woes of Sole Technology’s new management (another peak among the highest points of the skate scene arriving at hardship recently) and about how éS wouldn't budget for travel and media projects, going as far as having to find free lodging for himself.

This was more than unfortunate to hear. And, naturally, to see Asta respond with positivity and grace is not surprising (one wonders what shoe brand will see the obvious value in putting him on next).

Follow-through will speak to the grace and quality of the pace Lakai can manage after starting off at a full sprint from the starting line. And I will double down on saying that it is problematic how, while the brand is putting solid spotlights on four major talents, the many it used to uplift are left outside.

One hopes, sincerely, that this is a remarkable start to a consistent practice, that innovative talents from a variety of backgrounds and approaches, as Howard and Carroll put into practice in their time, will keep finding a solid and long-lasting home with the flare.