Stefan Janoski: From Underground Hero to Skate Icon | Epicly Later'd

-Wasn't there. That serial killer around here that looked like you? -Looked like me?

Yeah. -The one that made a T-shirt of. And it said, like -- it was like, "I want to have you guys for dinner.

" And everyone thought it was you. -But the photo looks like me. -Like it really does look like you.

But look at this curve. It's made of granite. That was a trick.

-It's like the best curve in the world. -Yeah. Sorry.

-Who are you? -Stefan. -Stefan?

-Yeah. -Pro skater? -Yeah.

-Stefan what? -Janoski. I paid him to do that.

-You watch him skateboard. You're watching the tricks he does, his trick selection, it's all about flow. -It's always been very, like, smooth and effortless.

But it became also really difficult tricks. And he would do them with, like, such a casual and such an easy style. It's kind of like his personality, too.

It's pretty like at times, super casual and super easy. -The most I think I've ever seen from Stefan was he was like slightly cranky one day. -It just seems like he's just smiling all the time.

He seems like a fucking like something out of Pac-Man or something. -I think he figured out early on how to live. [ Wheels grinding ] -Want to try it out?

-What's up? Welcome back to "Epicly Later'd". I'm on the cruci-float.

So, you know, this episode is Stefan Janoski. I mean, the name Janoski is bigger than -- I mean, bigger than the skater. The shoe blew up to one of the best selling shoes of all time ever in skateboarding.

But we're fans of his actual skateboarding. And the thing I like about Stefan is he really is your favorite skater's favorite skater. He kind of makes things look a little too easy in his parts.

You don't know you're watching something hard because he's so smooth, so stylish, effortless. We're over here at Stefan's house, just floating in the pool, and we're going to learn more. Stefan Janoski episode.

I hope you enjoy it. -How do you pronounce your name? -Stefan Janoski.

-And what pronunciations do you usually hear? -Oh, Steff-an, Steven, Steph-on, Steph-on. -What do you say for the last name?

Janikowski? -Janoski. -Yeah.

There's no "W" yet. Janoski. -Janoski.

-I'm a stickler with the names. -I mean, even sometimes, I swear, when I'm introducing myself, I'm like "Stefon. " And it's a hard name to pronounce.

-I remember so many people would call him Stefan. Stefan! It's his parents fault for giving him a weird Euro name.

-Crook, nose slide, 180 nose grind, whatever. Like crook, back to nose, back to crook. That's what everyone did in Vacaville.

I'm from Vacaville. It's not too far from Sacramento. It's like, um, on the freeway.

The 80 is one straight line. It goes Sacramento, Vacaville, San Francisco. So it's like right in the middle basically between the two cities.

But in, you know, 1992, it might as well have been like a deserted island. As a kid starting to get into skateboarding, you start looking at the magazines and videos and seeing this like big world. And I guess skateboarding really started my vow to leave Vacaville as soon as possible.

Me and my friends, we'd go to San Francisco every weekend. So like, something my parents would do is drive me to EMB, drop me off, and then they would go eat in San Francisco, and then I would just skate there all day, and then pick me up and go home. -During the the tail end of the Embarcadero days, like, I remember seeing just this little kid down there from time to time, and, like, back then, like, there wasn't, like, a lot of little, you know, whatever, 11-year-old, 12-year-old skaters.

So it kind of like would stick out. And he would just be off in the corner. I think his board got stolen there on his birthday.

-15 stairs. And I'm gonna slide them. -When I was younger, I was like, of course, going to move to San Francisco as soon as this high school thing was done, you know?

But San Francisco's really expensive and difficult to live in. And Sacramento is really cheap and easy. So when I moved to Sacramento, um, like when I got my first apartment, I worked at, like, a -- whatever, stupid bagel place and, like, prepping house painting and stuff.

And then, like, I started skating with Brandon and Mike Rafter and these guys. Brandon was already sponsored. Mike Rafter was a pro skater, and I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna do what these guys are doing.

So I quit my job, moved out of the place, and then I moved in with Brandon. And my first video part was Digital Number 3. It's a funny part, you know.

It's like, still very like young. -I had moved up to Sacramento. I moved up there, we got a spot together, and we had a filmer staying at our house, and he sent Stefan's footage down to Expedition just to kind of check in, here's what I've been up to.

And my footage was on there, too. And they said, "Whoa what's up? What's up with your buddy?

" And they wanted to put me on, too. -Can I see? -Ready?

-Yeah. -Exhibition was great because it was just like we were all really good friends, like Richard, Kyle, Shani, Chris Lambert, Karl Watson. Yeah, that was a really good time.

-People were starting to recognize like, hey, dude has got some special skills here. So the phone was ringing like crazy. You know, everyone was hitting him up.

He's like, "Oh, I got to go meet with this dude, that dude, this dude, that dude. " -I got on Savier. Savier was a shoe company that Brad and Brian started.

Brad asked me, and I did it because Brian was on the team, because I loved Brian Anderson He was like so cool. -We really liked his style and his skating. So of course we thought about him for Savier.

-And then Tim O'Connor was the next person on. And basically from the moment I met him, he just was trying to get me to quit and ride for Habitat. -So Stefan and I rode for Savier Shoes together, and he rode for Expedition, and I would, like, pretty soon after, I was like, "Get off the team.

" I'd call him up constantly leaving messages on, like, his answering machine. You know, it's like that old, actual answering machine. And I'm like, "Get off, quit the team.

" Like, come on with us. -So I was riding for expedition, and I get a call, and it's from somebody. I think his name was Nino.

And he says, "Hey, you know, this is somebody at Alien Workshop, and, like, we really like your skating, blah, blah. We were, like, wondering if you wanted to ride for Alien Workshop. " And I'm like, "Yeah.

Oh, man, I can't do that right now. Like, I just like, got an expedition. Like, we're really good friends.

" Whatever. And he was like, "All right, your career. " And he hung up.

And I was cracking up. I'm like, "Oh, my gosh. " And this was before I'd met Tim.

So then I meet Tim, and he's like, "You idiot, you said no to Alien Workshop? " And I'm like, "Yeah, but I would ride for Habitat, you know? " And that is what -- that's what put the bug in Tim, who then was pretty relentless on every Savier trip until I rode for Habitat.

-I was bummed. But yeah, I was happy for him. You know, we thought Habitat was the shit.

You know, we loved it. -He was so unique and Habitat was like building. So it was just like a perfect dude to get on there.

-So I was working for the workshop, doing, like, graphic design and video stuff, and Dyrdek and I started talking about it like starting an offshoot brand, because there wasn't any offshoot brand from the workshop. -Alien was really successful, and we had a lot of skaters that were interested in riding for Alien. We didn't have room for all of them.

Joe was working for us. He had all this creative ability, and he kind of kept talking about maybe doing a brand. He wanted to do a brand.

-Joe has a vision, and they gave him a platform to, like, pursue it. And, you know, a lot of people don't do that, which sucks. But when you do and you try something, you could end up having something really great.

And I mean, Habitat, you know, was on a fucking roll. -So, like, my first trip was like in this van, like packed full capacity, like Kalis and Dyrdek and Dill and everyone from Habitat and like just going all over, like traveling around the country. -They got a ton of footage, and it was all good.

And we ended up using it in Mosaic. -That was definitely my first video part, where it was less like me trying to be a pro skater, and it was more of like here's me going on trips, pro skating in a way. -I mean, he was in his prime, and it was like, you know, when somebody's at that point where they're right before they're pro or right when they go pro, and they're just out of the van, like, immediately you're filming everything, you know.

But I remember, like, we would get chunks of footage or, you know, like DV tapes. Every time, I was like, "Dude, this dude is getting like better and better like every tape. " And just doing tricks that I'd never seen him do.

-When I first met Stefan, he was good, but I would say he got even better like in his like like from when he was like 23 and on. I feel like he was like really good, and then got exceptionally good. [ Cheering ] -He's done so many incredible things.

And he's had like a trillion parts. There was an era there where he was just dropping, you know, part after part, and he would just stay on the road. If I felt like he would never be at home at some point.

He was just always on some trip. And a part would drop every, felt like every couple of months, you know. -The going on trips and the going skating was actually I paid more attention to that than video parts.

Like I was never a big like over the shoulder, editing my part. Or like I'd film it and just go on with my day and either see it on the video or never see it again. Like, I just was more of like, "We're going to Australia, we're going to Barcelona.

" And then I'd be excited to skate these new places that are places that were different, and I just wanted to skate everything. -What draws me to skaters a lot of the time, or maybe keeps me calling him back, is when it is easy, because usually it's kind of like hard because you're trying to do all this shit to make them good tricks. With him, he's like, he's really mellow.

He's not like, "Oh, there's someone over there. " Like, "These people are talking. They're in my line of sight.

" He's not that person. He's just very kind of like, you know, kind of spacey-ish, very mellow to film with. -Stefan also has this other skill, that he's so relaxed in his own skin.

He would try stuff for the first time and be so relaxed about it that he should have been eating shit, but, like, would just step out, like, didn't know he should have fallen or something like that and still be on his board. Like, I think some other people would agree that that was maybe his best skill, was just being the most comfortable in his own skin out of anybody I've ever met in my life. -You recognize, like, how difficult what he's doing is only after you realize, like, oh, he just makes it look like so easy, and it's so graceful, and it's almost like he doesn't even care about what he's doing.

It's sort of like the defining feature of his skating. It kind of looks like he's not trying that hard, but it's like really hard, and it looks really good. -He's switch flip this double set in Australia.

I went to that double set, and it was like twice as big as I thought that it was just from how he did it. And I feel like that's like kind of how he did a lot of his shit. -Aaah!

-Yes! Yes! That was so fucking insane.

Fuck yeah, dude. That was so sick. -How are you feeling?

-Like getting a beer. -When I started getting on the shoe companies, like even on Savier, I had a sample for a pro shoe. But everyone else quit before me.

I'm like, "What? Where is everyone all of a sudden? " And Savier was like, "Hey.

" After Savier, got on Etnies had a sample with Etnies. Got cold feet. -He quit right before it came out.

So they changed the name to The Faction, and I rode for Etnies shortly after he quit. So when I got on Etnies and I saw The Faction, I was like, "Holy shit, this shoe is amazing. " And everybody at Sole Tech, they're like, "Yeah, Stefan's such an idiot.

He would have made so much money off this shoe. Like it's selling like crazy. Like he blew it.

He should have never left. " -Hunter Muraira, he worked at Savier, and he became the team manager of Nike. Brian rode for Nike.

Omar was on Nike. Reece was on Nike. Like all my friends.

And they're just like traveling all around, having a great time. And Omar is like basically like living with me sometimes. So like he would come back from all these, like, really fun trips and, that was it.

I was just like, "Hey, I want to get on Nike, too. " So when I got on Nike, they said, you know, "Hey, uh, you know, you can get on the team, but Paul Rodriguez is the only signature athlete. We're not doing other signature shoes.

" And I just said, "Yeah, sure, fine. That doesn't -- That's not a big deal. " So fast forward, I had the Nothing But the Truth part and the Inhabitants part.

And a couple of years later, they just approached me and said, "We're going to do shoes, and you're the next one. " I said, "Great," and then we have some meetings, and they have their ideas of what my shoe is going to be. And then I have my ideas, and they were very different.

-There was a model that was, hey, this what do you think about this? Not necessarily, hey, this is your shoe, but, like, "Yeah, what do you think about it? " And then, "Hunter, you know, why don't you go and talk about how great it is.

" -It was never going to be the shoe. Like, I didn't -- I said, "Okay, that's nice, but no, um, these are the specifications that I will be needing. " -I would always sit with the shoe designers.

They would ask me if I wanted to do anything, and I would just be like, "Hey, Nike hired you guys to be designers, they hired me to skate. So I'm not going to step on your toes. Like, I'm down for whatever.

" And Stefan was totally different in that way. You know, he was really hands on with his shoe. Really adamant about what he wanted.

-Stefan said this. He goes, "I want my shoe to be so thin and so low that my ankles bleed when I'm doing switch flips. -I was saying that because they weren't getting how slim I wanted it.

-But it goes against all the innovation, performance first aspects of what Nike SB was building upon with the E-Cue, URL, and then P-Rod, it was the antithesis of that. -There'll be certain things and technology that Nike is working on that they'll really like, we need to implement this in this shoe, this time, you know? And I don't think Stefan was going for it.

-For skating, I didn't need any technology. So I wanted to go backwards in a way, take away all the technology, but still its performance. But it's just performance over protection, because a lot of the things that people put in skate shoes is because they think they're protecting your feet from your skateboard and the ground, but they're compromising your style, and they're compromising the performance, because with a giant shoe, it's harder for me to do tricks than with a slim shoe.

When I put my shoes on, I need them to be my foot. Me and James Arizumi, who was designer, I would talk to him. He would bring things to a group of people who would then tell Hunter or him to tell me to agree or whatever, and then I would say, "No, you tell them no.

" -He was really angry and frustrated. Really angry is a big statement. He was super frustrated, and really wanted what he wanted.

-Nike, when I finally said, "This is the rendering, make the sample," they were at a point where they were just like, "Ah, just whatever. Yeah, sure. " -Leadership on the Nike side at the time were like, "Can we sell this thing for X amount of money?

Like there as that doubt. I don't think Stefan had that fear. He knew what he built was insane.

And it was, again, what exactly what he wanted. -I don't think his shoe took off, you know, like hotcakes. But when it did, it fucking hit.

-I first saw, like, all the kids at the skate park with them. And then, you know, we started to see then just the people walking by the skate park, and then people at the airport, people in grocery store, you know, backpackers in Barcelona, and it's just everywhere. But it took a few years until it had its tipping point.

-He just ended up making a shoe that was kind of the right thing for -- you know, literally everyone was wearing that shoe. -For me, when I would think about designing shoes, like skate shoes at Adidas Skateboarding, I would think, I want to design a sneaker that's scalable versus a skate shoe and pigeonhole it. You know, it's an easy shoe for everyone.

That's the win. You know, that's what you want to do. -I did hear that he supposedly has -- him and Michael Jordan are the only people in like China who have, like, their own, like, wing of a building.

-Jordan, Janoski. Uh, yeah. That's true.

-And you said you only wear your shoe. -Yeah. -I sometimes get sick of shoes.

-Well, that's how good mine are. I don't even have any other shoes. -Would you get married in your shoe?

-Yeah, I work out, I get married in them, go to funerals in them, go to skating. I just wear my shoe. -It was designed incredibly well with such a simple shape, you know?

But shape is everything. The whole interior design of it was just seamless with, like, synthetic suedes. And there's like all the joining seams were like super clean, so it was an experience.

Something that's so simple and easy was just done so well. -It's crazy because his skating is so legendary, and it's crazy how, like, his shoe transcended even beyond that. -A lot of times people will be asking me questions about the shoe, and then I have to explain to them that I'm a skateboarder.

Like, I'm not a shoe designer. Well, I am, but I didn't get to design the shoe because of my shoe designing. It's because of my skateboarding, is the reason why I got to do the shoe.

-I did an article called, in the last two years, called "My Life as a Shoe: The Stefan Janoski Story. " But it was basically just like all the funny shit about people not knowing that Janoski is a person. They had a fucking symposium at Nike where they, like, "Just so you guys know, here he is.

" They thought it was a made up word like like a "shlerkt", like the name of an Ikea item. -You know, there's a lot of people out there that don't know who Stefan Janoski is, but, like, you're going to see that shoe and most likely say, "That's the Stefan Janoski", but you don't even know what he looks like. -Stefan is the new Chuck Taylor, right?

-He said that -- "I want this to be the Chuck Taylor of skateboarding. " And I don't even know if Chuck Taylor was a real person. I think he was a rep or something like that.

And that's exactly what he did. That name, the Janoski, or whatever other people call it, it's going to be known beyond him, and it will be a legacy within skateboarding for Nike. It was really part of Stefan's plan to make that thing bigger than maybe what people saw in skateboarding ever before.

-It was like a perfect moment of his skating, of his personality, and the design he wanted, and a shoe like that being needed. You know, oh, he hit the jackpot with that design. It's him.

It's not luck. He's a professional skater that put out a ton of footage, sick ass parts. -And he went in there and pushed for that design, you know what I mean?

So if he would have just been, like, let them take advantage and been like, "No, do whatever you want", then he wouldn't be in the position he's in. -I think that's the way the story should go. -I feel like there's always been some sort of, like, weird kind of drama with it, like, as far as, you know, people thinking he's a billionaire, you know, or something, you know, something crazy.

-The gossip was like, he's got the best selling shoe in skateboarding. They're making 19 different colors of it. He's rich.

-So there was a rumor that Nike bought my name off me. And it's not true. I don't know where that came from.

Um, I've actually looked into selling my name since learning about it, and so far, no takers. -It wasn't like he went about his skate career trying to make the most money as possible, but now he has like probably made the most money out of skating of everybody, which I think is hilarious and amazing at the same time. -Not a lot of things changed with him because of the success of that shoe.

You didn't see some sort of transformation of this whole new person. No, he's just -- he stayed the same, you know? -I know Stefan wouldn't ever allow, like, him to be compromised, like himself, because of money or this and that.

Like, that's just how that dude is. -He just was still the sweetest. And now he does stuff to look more like he's rich, like, gets fucking manicures all the time and shit.

I asked him the other day, I'm like, "When was the last time you clipped your own fingernails? " He's like, "That's a good question. " And he's like, "Yeah, it's been a long time.

Been a long time. " What is those things made out of? Rare fucking -- -Porcelain.

-Yeah. -Longevity is like hard and skateboarding. There's not tons of people who have these long careers that are like still going, and definitely the shoe has helped with that.

But I think just skateboarding in general, just being a pro skateboarder and making a living off that has given me the freedom to explore all the other things I'm interested in -- art and painting and sculpting and like stop motion films, and, yeah, like making music and stuff like that. -The way he is with his painting, and the way he plays music and all this stuff, he's just -- he's super, super talented at all these different things. I mean, even to the point of like his sculptures that he's doing now, these brass sculptures where he starts making clay and molding little things with clay, and then next thing you know, he's got brass sculptures that are insane.

-You need financial independence in a lot of cases to have the freedom to experiment and to noodle around. And what I love about Stefan's art is that it's like, yeah, he's playing around, he's doing whatever he wants. Like, what would you do with a shoe deal?

I'd buy a bunch of shit that I don't need. He, like, taught himself how to do bronze casting. -Randomly one day he's like, "I made a pool floatie.

" I'm like, "Oh, yeah? What is it? He's like, "Cruci-float.

" Like, float your sins away, something like that. I think he was doing stuff because he was like just bored. Like, "I can make that.

I can do that. I can do this. I can do that.

" -I think there's a minute where he kind of, like, disappeared from -- not from skating, but just kind of like he didn't need to skate. He probably made so much money that he's, like, doing way less. I don't know, it seems like he's just having fun with skating right now.

-How often do you skate? -Four or five times a week, probably. Like, you know, depending, sometimes I get -- like take a day off, like get sore.

-Who do you skate with? -I skate with Guy Mariano. -That was a good grind.

-Oh, and some sand! I should have been wearing the journals on that, man. Come on.

-We go out and film each other with our phones. Kind of like back to, you know, when you're, like, the young group of kids and everyone skates, but whoever's doing a trick, the other person stops to film, and then, like, you take turns being the filmer, and it's just kind of, like, really fun and light. -Stefan has become even a better filmer than me.

Not only is he a better skateboarder, but a better filmer, and it really breaks my heart. -I had to get good quick because he's always trying the hardest fucking tricks. -It is cool in this day and age where people go to places like Instagram to see your skateboarding, that he's out with Guy and, you know, their selfie stick, and that's awesome.

-Lately, clearly, he's been skating. Like, you're seeing clips, and he's like legit skating. Anything above 40 is fucking crazy.

-People say like, "Yeah, you don't even have to skate anymore. " But it's like, I want to, I know he wants to. He wouldn't be out doing it if he didn't want to skate.

-It just seems like he happens to be skating because he's having fun. And he wouldn't push himself to skate if he didn't feel like it. -I would say he's like one of those dudes that really still enjoys it and gets excited.

You know, like when other people are skating and getting tricks or whatever, like, he's genuinely excited for himself and other people. Like he's happy. He's a happy dude.

-That one was sick! That was the best one for sure! Dude, I think I killed it on the filming, too.

-He's such a good dude, and he's got such a good morale. And just his attitude in general is just like super, super good. -Everybody still just is like so attracted to him.

And he's just got such a welcoming, welcoming personality. And he's always got something weird that he's thinking about. -There was nothing ever bad that, you know, that Stefan did, or it's just nothing sticks out.

Like, I don't know, maybe that he played guitar too much, like everyone else on Habitat picked up that shit. -He's never really had any substance issues. Didn't seem to ever, from what I can tell, go through any serious dark depression.

Like, everything's pretty steady. -I think you're gonna have a hard time with this episode because you might have just found that one guy that seems like things are not necessarily very -- I'm sure things are hard, but the way he deals with life and deals with things, it seems like he's got it figured out. -He really seems to be enjoying himself.

So I think whatever decision he made was the right one. Hot babe wife. Traveling around, smiling.

It's nice to think that money could bring you happiness. I'm not saying that's what happened. But it's nice to think that it sometimes could because you meet all these completely miserable rich dudes all the time.

You're like, "You're rich, you're married to a movie star, and you're miserable all the time. What is wrong with you, sir? " -That's not Stefan.

That's somebody else. -Here's what I need. I'm just going to tell you what I need.

-Okay. -Everyone has nice things to say about Stefan. -Uh, okay.

Yeah, yeah. -Charmed life. -It's hard.

It's hard because he is -- Because he's that guy. -But you kind of have, like, an edge. -Okay.

-You know, like -- -I like coaching me up till I say something negative about Stefan. -Give me some -- -I'll give you -- He's not circumcised.