HOW THE OSIRIS D3 WAS CREATED

Courtesy of Osiris

For better or worse, Dave Mayhew‘s Osiris D3 is one of the most noteworthy skate shoes ever created. Skateboarding abandoned the design, and the puffy shoe craze in general, over a decade ago. But it has received new life and even broader attention in 2017 through appropriations by A$AP Rocky and Louis Vuitton. Given the resurgence, The Hundreds decided to take an in-depth look at the shoe in a new editorial profile. As a part of the piece, they spoke with designer Brian Reid and got the real story on how the shoe was created and where the original inspiration came from.

I wasn’t a typical shoe designer—I was self-taught, so my style was a bit more animated. Not like Eightball and graffiti, but more organic and larger than life. I didn’t didn’t realize [early on] that if you show [a factory] a drawing like that, they’ll make it that way. I’m drawing stuff a little bit more dope with a little more flair in there, so that’s why you saw like the sole get bigger… a little bit higher, larger, and chunkier. Also, at that time, the team were a crew—like hunters. We’d all wake up, grab breakfast together, skate all day, and then go out. You’re wearing baggy pants and they’re hitting the ground and fraying, and if you take a piss at a urinal, you get piss on the bottom of your jeans. You wanna look dope in the club and piss doesn’t look cool. That’s probably why the bigger shoe design took off, because it kept your pants from dragging on the ground. The D3’s older brothers were the Gorgon and the Guru, because they were crazy layered shoes—I was all into Robotech and shit. The side panels just stuck up in the air, the panels were thick. It created a larger than life shoe.

For more on the D3, head over to The Hundreds site and read the entire piece.