Where skater Shinpei Ueno is headed with Converse Skateboarding.

What I did in Osaka and what I do in Tokyo are the same in terms of making things, so the environment is almost the same, and when I moved to a new base, I just rejoined the people I had been working with for a long time. Kacchan (Katsumi Minami, president of Evisen Skateboards) is at my desk, and Hama-chan (Evisen designer) and Lawrence (Evisen Skateboards rider) are nearby. . It's a great change in that sense, because TIGHTBOOTH, Evisen, and QUCON all move smoothly together.

As for skating, it's not good. . . because the streets in Osaka are really great. The best place to skate is Kobe , where the whole city has been cleaned up after the Great Hanshin Earthquake. The downtown area is also deserted at night, and there are few residences, so it is a lawless area. Osaka has a good amount of people, so it is not as bad as Kobe, but it is much easier to skate compared to Tokyo. Kacchan told me, "It's going to be hard to skateboard, so you'd better be prepared for that. In fact, it is important to skate in a short time, and there are surprisingly few places in Tokyo where you can skate in a short time. There are plenty of spots in Tokyo for serious photo shoots, but if you are working, you can't spend all your time skating at those spots. There are no local spots in Tokyo where you can go and ski without getting in trouble. Well, my ideals for spots are high, too (laughs).

I'm currently working on "LENZ III", a skate video that I've been working on for about 6 years. . a sequel to "LENZ" and "LENZ II". . I'm also working on a biannual apparel collection, plus spot-on collaborations all the time.

It was pretty cute at first. . I was working in a 6-mat room in my parents' house, doing business with a child on the house phone. Orders would come in via fax to the main machine in the living room (laughs). At first, I didn't have any money, so I hand-printed T-shirts and distributed them to skate stores. I didn't know how to make beanies or anything, so I silk-screened them onto things I bought at Home Depot. Gradually, my seniors taught me about vendors, and I was able to dig up more and more things I could make on my own, until now. I started making apparel in 2005, and it wasn't until 2011 that I started making my own original patterns. I was making clothes with the feeling that if I could do an ollie with this, I could do another one with that. I think apparel is similar to skateboarding in the sense that you have to make something, and that's why I've been able to keep going. That's why I've been able to keep doing it. It is a tool to express myself, so I always make what I want to wear, and I want to keep raising my skill level. . And in doing so, my skill level will continue to improve, just like skating. For example, recently I have been making pants that are very thick, but in the past I was told by the sales staff to stop making such pants because they wouldn't sell. But one day, I decided that I wanted to make what I liked regardless of whether it would sell or not, so I made some really big baggy pants and tops with long sleeves, and they were very well received. I made some really big baggy pants and tops with long sleeves, and they were very well received. I began to think that customers liked what I made because I was honest with myself. But this is also thanks to the ease of communicating on social networking sites. Customers nowadays are very serious and watch things very carefully. They ask, "When is the item you wore in the story coming out? What size is it? What size is it? Even if it is a plain cut-and-sew. . In the past, even if you skated and recorded it on film, it would be several years before it reached people's eyes. I think we are now in an age where we can show what we want to show in real time.

. I'm getting back to what I should be as a skater. What I value in skateboarding is originality. Tricks, what kind of spots, what kind of fashion, what kind of background music to use, how many times to push from here to there, etc. It's like the skate gods are testing all of my visuals (laughs). I like skaters who are particular about such things. . I like skaters who score high in all aspects. I like skaters who score high in all aspects. Of course, the criteria for scoring are different for each person, so I don't think my sense is the best, but I am chasing after what I can be satisfied with. . So as a skater, I always want to stay new and change. Fashion is a visual effect, such as the interesting way a shirt flutters, or the way a hand towel inserted into a pair of pants looks three-dimensional when the wind blows. . When I look at the skaters I liked in the video, there is such an element. . I think this is because the denim is an infinitesimally thin stretch, which gives it this tingling sensation. . In the past, you couldn't tell, so even if you bought the same denim, it might be heavy ounce and crispy. I'm like, 'Why is this different?　I'm not a good skateboarder. Fashion and skateboarding are the same, and I am pursuing my ideal form.

. I think the way you think and the way you embody skateboarding changes depending on what you like about skateboarding. My best friend Shintaro Maruyama (a rider of Evisen Skateboards) looks cool in just work pants and a T-shirt. His way of thinking about skating, his way of dealing with skating, and his history are all condensed there. . That's why I feel he is a very stylish skateboarder. I think skaters need diversity, and one day I realized that skaters all look alike. In my opinion, skaters are very fashion-conscious by nature. However, as skating becomes more and more popular, I feel that it is becoming more and more separated from fashion, and I feel that if this trend continues, it will not be good for skating, so I think I may be trying to bring back the fashion element to skating. When I started skating, my seniors were all really cool, and even the way they wore hats had an edge to them. I admired skaters when I saw them. I was like, "Don't worry about fashion, just skate for real! But from my point of view, it is no different from wearing a uniform and playing sports.

Sometimes I skateboard with a coat or something on, but I naturally became an adult, but if I focused only on what was easy to skate, I would stray from my fundamental principles. There was a skater named Shun Hashimoto, and we filmed him dropping from a great height and bombing downhill in a very dangerous way, but he did it in shorts and a T-shirt. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and he was going into a spot that would be terrifying even to imagine if he got off his feet, and he also had a key attached to his belt loop. I told him, "It's in the way and it's dangerous, why don't you take it off? I told him, "No, you don't take the keys off in a spot like this," and he was really irritated (laughs). (Laughs.) But I thought it was cool! He was really irritated. I think he was pretty scared, but there is a style where you dare to take on the situation as it is, and skiing with a coat on is also a kind of style. I think that is a common point with fashion.