Scoff Skatelace Review

Scoff Skateboarding, founded by Skateboard City’s own Scoffman, is an innovative skateboard company dealing in new and innovative technology for skateboarding and the action sports industry. Established by Jason Huewe in 2004 we have dedicated ourselves to the progression of skateboarding and to the love of our passion. Setting a high standard for ourselves we made a promise to develop the most practical, enduring, and original innovations. You will see no cookie cutter designs released through these doors.
With such promising words quoted from the company’s own about page, you would expect Scoff Skateboarding to be making some pretty impressive products. The first product released from the Scoff laboratories, go by the name of Skatelaces. Now these laces are a revolution in the skateboarding industry, because they claim not only to be 2-3x more resistant to abrasion than regular shoelaces, they are also guaranteed not to fray in the event that the laces to end up breaking, and better yet, they are said to still be able to grip your feet after the laces are broken. This product would be an amazing addition to any skateboarder’s setup, because we have all gone through the issue of having a lace break on us, having to tie them back together, dealing with the unsightly polyester strands shooting out from our laces due to fraying, and overall just being a hassle.
However these are some heavy claims to back up, and with such grand innovations being applied all at once to a shoelace, most people were skeptical, so what Scoffman has done was ask for three volunteers on Skateboard City to receive a free pair of Skatelaces to test out and review. I was one of the lucky members chosen, and after six weeks of putting these Skatelaces through the abuses of skateboarding, I am now able to make an informed review.
Equipment Prior to testing

Here is one of the shoes that I had been skating for about one month prior to testing out Scoff’s Skatelaces. This image is of my left shoe, or my flicking shoe since I ride regular. The flicking foot sustains the most abuse from skateboarding, and as you can see in this picture, the normal shoelaces did not hold up well.

First Impressions
After volunteering to test out these miracle laces, a couple of private messages, and a few days later, I received these in the mail, ready to be tested out.

As you can see I received the thin, flat, style royal blue Skatelaces. Upon unpackaging them I noticed that they had a sort of waxy feel to them. They weren’t slippery, but rather rubbery in a sense. This is due to the coating that the Skatelaces receive in order to give them their unique qualities. I then decided to test their length against an every day normal pair of laces that come with a pair of shoes, since there was talk of Skatelaces being shorter than most normal laces.

Now, since I only have two arms, I wasn’t going to be able to hold out the Skatelaces and normal laces, and take a picture, so I decided to hang them from my door. As you can see, the Skatelaces are a lot shorter than the normal ones, however this is because the Skatelaces are rigid and maintain their shape- the reason for the stiffness being that it grips your shoes better in the event that the Skatelace breaks. After putting the camera down, and stretching the Skatelace out, I found that it was only an inch or two shorter than the other shoelace.

Lacing Up
I grabbed my pair of shoes, quickly unlaced my old shoelaces, and began to lace up my Skatelaces. Right off the bat, I could tell how much these laces were going to grip my shoes. When attempting to even out the lace on both sides of the shoe, it actually took effort to slide the lace around to even it out, compared to how you will usually pull too much, and have to readjust the lace time after time with a normal shoelace. I thought this was pretty interesting, and went on to finish lacing my shoes. However, once again I noticed how much grip these Skatelaces had, because it took a bit of effort to lace up my shoes since they did not have metal eyelets. The process was not unbearable, or even a hassle, it just took a little more time and elbow grease than what you normally put into lacing up shoes. Overall I’d say these Skatelaces were fine when it came to the process of lacing up. It required more muscle than normal, however the grip was a welcome addition because the lace did not slide around and cause uneven sides like what usually will happen with normal shoelaces. Also, the worries of the laces being too short were pointless, because there was enough length to tie my shoes comfortably. I gave these a rating of 8/10.

Grip
After lacing up my shoes I obviously tried them on. Immediately after sliding my foot in, I noticed how much grip you felt on top of your foot, even with the Skatelaces untied. It was feeling I was not accustomed to, and I could only describe it as having the pressure of having your shoes tied extremely tight, without being uncomfortable and choking your feet. I actually preferred this sort of grip over the normal kind you will feel with any other shoelace, because it makes the shoe feel more at one with your foot.
The Skatelaces also excelled in the areas of tying your shoes up, and having them stay tied. One thing that really bothers me with normal shoelaces is that they loosen and tighten with tying, and just from general usage. This results in having your shoes become tight when tying them, and then loosening up after wearing them for a while. The great thing about the Skatelaces are that they stay put exactly where you want them. Also, the laces stay tied just as fine as any other shoelace while skating them. So there is no need to worry about trading off extra grip with having to tie them constantly. I rate the grip factor of these laces at a 9/10.
Abrasion Resistance
The major selling point of these shoelaces is the fact that they will last much longer than normal shoelaces because the coating they have makes them resistant to wearing down from the abrasion from your griptape. In this aspect they performed amazingly, managing to last through two pairs of shoes. The two different shoe styles caused different parts of the laces to come into contact with the grip, yet not a single inch of the Skatelace was worn down enough to even come close to breaking. Also, the Skatelaces lasted through two different decks. One, which I already had been skating, had a fairly small and weak amount of grip left in the griptape, however the new deck had fresh griptape on it, and the Skatelaces manged to last the two weeks I spent skating that deck as well. In this section my decision was easy, and I give the Skatelaces a 9/10.
Fraying
The thing that weakens your laces the most and makes them look unattractive is fraying. Nobody likes to see shredded up laces that look like they are falling apart in five different places. Luckily, the Skatelaces are guaranteed not to fray like normal shoelaces. While skating these shoes I noticed that they did not fray at all. Not only that, but an odd happening managed to give me a chance to test these Skatelaces even more thoroughly. After a month of testing my Skatelaces, my shoes were worn down horribly so I decided to start skating a new pair. I went to transfer my Skatelaces over, however somehow when I was watching tv, browsing SBC, and pulling the laces out from each hole in my shoe, I managed to tear a piece of the Skatelace in half width wise. Now, I instantly became angry with myself when I noticed what I had done, assuming that the lace would break within the next few times skating it, and I wouldn’t be able to give a full review on the Skatelaces. However after two more weeks of skating with the tear, I was amazed. Not only did the lace hold up fine, but the tear did not even grow any bigger at all! Also, there was no fraying at all where the lace did tear, the fibers of the lace held together just like Scoff Skateboarding promised, and you could hardly even tell that there was a tear there. I could not believe this. After lacing up my second pair of shoes, the tear in the lace ended up being where my shoelaces usually end up receiving the most wear, and the Skatelace managed to survive this (scroll down and look at the bottom right lace). The grip remained the same, and there was absolutely no fraying at all. In terms of fraying, the Skatelace is perfect, and it gets a 10/10.

Appearance
When most people think of skate shoes, they think of holes and torn up laces. Now a shoe hasn’t been perfected yet, but luckily for us, Skatelaces have. Skatelaces won’t tear and fray and end up looking horrible after just a couple of weeks of skating, like my old pair of shoelaces did. And this alone makes these laces worth buying. However, the fact that they matched my shoes perfectly only made me love them more. Scoffman has also held a poll and let SBC vote on a special colorway, so he is willing to work with us and let us get the colors we want. The only downfall is that the Skatelaces have a slight plasticy look for the first few sessions of skating, due to there being a bit of white residue on the laces from the coating process (or at least on mine). However it wears off and the laces end up looking great. I give them a 9/10.
Closing Thoughts
I have to say that I have enjoyed these six weeks of testing out my Skatelaces. They have far surpassed my expectations and redefined my idea of a shoelace. Who would of thought that a product so perfect could be made? I skate street and transition, usually for about three to four times a week, for 4-12 hours per session, so my laces definitely got a good trial period. After all that time, most shoelaces would have already been torn up and falling apart, much like the ones I showed a picture of at the start of the article. That happened after only about three weeks of skating. I skated the Skatelaces for twice that amount of time, and they look five times better at the end.

They didn’t break or fray, and managed to provide an amazing new feeling of grip to my shoes. These Skatelaces outperformed every other shoelace I have skated, and I am confident that they will last many more weeks to come. On the day that they finally do break, I’ll be buying more. I’d like to thank Scoffman and the rest of Scoff Skateboarding for giving me the opportunity to try out these laces. It was an experience that I truly enjoyed.
If you want to try out some of these laces for yourself, visit the Scoff Shop, and pick up these Skatelaces for a low price, and maybe buy a shirt or two to help support the company so they can complete the Scoff Project.