Earlier in March, we dropped our first Last Resort AB review with a feature on the VM001 High. Since then, Last Resort AB has been focused on product superiority, and released the all new VM002 silhouette and the VM001 in Suede/Canvas and High or Lo models. There’s something to be said, when a company is focused more on curating a genuine product for skateboarding, rather than numbing the audience with continuous half-assed promo materials every week just to hit sales KPI’s. The Last Resort AB team has been getting bigger too; they’ve added style king Aaron Loreth, Frog Skateboard’s Jesse Alba and Billy Trick, and also pulled long time friend David Stenstrom from the Converse Cons team over to Last Resort AB. In only a few months time the roster and the product line are naturally developing to take on a new space in the skate world, a space that’s open for innovation and holds onto a sacred part of skateboarding where art meets sport. We were lucky to get our hands on a pair of the VM002, and put this new silhouette to the test. Read on below to see how it performed during our 10 hour wear test!
The shoe fits lightly bigger so we recommend to go half a size down.
The most dominant features of the new Last Resort AB VM002 model are both the toe cap and the sole’s foxing tape. Both features uphold the clean-cut design of the silhouette, and highlight the shoe’s overall durability. If you take a look at the in the critical-wear areas of the shoe, you can see that the shoe performed excellent after ten hours of skating. The seams connecting the main upper piece with the suede eyelet reinforcement and the seams connecting to the toe piece did not rip during the weartest, which helped prolong the lifespan of the shoe. This is a huge benefit because when seams do rip, the shoes tend to lose their shape and structure. The VM002 also kept its shape and protected the seams due to the very stable vulcanized construction with a high foxing tape. The sole is protecting the upper from abrasion and is actually the most noticeable area with signs of wear. Nevertheless, the height of the sole and the foxing tape helped to withstand all ten hours of skating and the shoe would had plenty of life left in it. The eyelets for the laces are also positioned higher up and closer to each other, minimizing the surface area of contact, which helped protect the laces extremely well. The areas which showed most signs of wear was the sidewall area, where a hole in the suede appeared, and the suede heel collar got some wear. Nevertheless, the overall durability of the VM002 is very good.
The cushioning abilities of the Last Resort AB VM002 model are average. The sole itself is very thin, which decreases its cushioning abilities. The picture of the shoe’s profile shows an insole that is higher in the heel and lower in the toe area. This slightly thicker molded PU insole is made out of two foam hardnesses which creates a nice step-in and walking feeling, however, it cannot keep up with skating big gaps.
Shape is an important design element of the VM002. The shoe is very slim, tight and functionally designed to increase durability and protect the laces. When first worn, the shoe feels flexible right away, and after 2-3 sessions, the construction breaks in more softly and adapts really well to the foot, especially due to the tight lacing. The most impressive characteristic of the shoe was that it kept its shape the whole time due to the high quality material choices. No soggy sidewalls and no rippled suede toe pieces came up. The heel and midfoot area run parallel and the shape starts narrowing in the toe area to end in a nice pointy toebox.
Since the shoe features basic cushioning qualities, the boardfeel is excellent. Last Resort AB emphasized a lot on the sole pattern design, with the pattern is running rather wide to avoid small stones getting stuck in the sole, but also featuring a finer sole pattern in the area where grip is most needed. The sole throughout the whole toebox and frontal area is really thin, which lead to great contact with the board. Grip did not decrease throughout our ten hour weartest and it performed very well with a lot of life left in them for future sessions. Boardfeel of the shoe was good; the thin insole flattens out much more in the first third of the shoe and the midsole itself is fairly thin, which provided for a responsive board feel for the feet.
The VM002 has a solid stability. Since the shoe is slim and high cut, it fits to your foot very well. The shoe doesn’t have too many elements of support, but due to its slim shape and the strength of the materials, it hugs the foot closely and leaves a very secure feeling. Although the shoe becomes softer over time, it does maintain its structural strength throughout the whole time skating as it was designed with a stable construction in mind. The heel is rather soft, but the material choice for the heel construction grips the ankle, preventing the feeling of slippage when skating and walking.
The Last Resort AB VM002 features premium quality materials and stands out with its impressive durability, boardfeel and grip, solidifying its status as one of the top vulcanized skateboard shoes on the market. The only flaw noticed were the shoe’s cushioning features, but then again, who’s really out there skating El Toro every session?
