The new Rob Dyrdek signature shoe, the Alias Lite by DC, is most certainly one of the hottest shoes in the skate game right now. The Dyrdek designed and tested shoe expertly applies all the best characteristics of a running shoe to a modern day, all-purpose skate kick.

To get some of the facts about this revolutionary designed shoe, CCS caught up with Wei-En Chang, DC’s VP of Footwear Design and co-creator of the Alias Lite. Wei-En worked side-by-side with Rob Dyrdek to bring the world a shoe that’s so well designed, it’s almost scary.

What’s the significance of the lucky rabbit image on the Alias Lite’s insole? Well, Rob has this thing with “Make your own luck”. We have this little capsule collection that we do with Rob that’s hats and apparel and the branding goes on all of the collection. The whole story is, there’s a rabbit and he gets his foot cut off and turned into a keychain. And then he decides to make his own luck and go out into the world and be successful despite losing his foot. Rob’s always been a sort of self-made guy. He’s never had a job outside of skateboarding. And he’s always had this entrepreneurial hustle. He’s basically become a media kingpin in addition to starting Street League Skateboarding. And it’s all done because of his love of skateboarding. He’s managed to make a pretty good living. It’s weird that he’s on TV with a bunch of shows.

It must be especially weird for you since you’ve been working with him for so long. Yeah, well every time I see him he’s driving a new car. He had a Porsche, then a Bentley and now he has a new Porsche. But he’s never lost his love and dedication to skateboarding.

So how did the Alias Lite come about? A long time ago, Rob had a pro model shoe called the Alias, which was an old school running-inspired shoe. And what we wanted to do was to take the concept of that shoe and update it with modern technology. We had an opportunity to improve that shoe 100% while still having it visually look like the old one. So we’re using the Uni Lite mid-sole, which is super lightweight, but it’s also outsole grade so we don’t have to use a lot of rubber on the bottom. It’s really flexible and it cushions impact so you don’t really need an airbag or anything like that. We improved the fit by basically using a running shoe last. So as soon as you put it on the thing just hugs your foot. It’s not super bulky, there’s not a ton of padding or anything. And we used some really breathable lining for the mesh.

How did you guys go about making the shoe extra light? The shoe is really lightweight and breathable and super flexible. To take additional weight out of it we only put suede where you really need it. So it’s only in the ollie area and then it wraps around the toe. But that’s it. The whole inside of the shoe is all mesh. So it keeps it lightweight and breathable.

What’s special about the shoes appearance? Looks-wise, it looks asymmetrical when you look at it from the top down. But we kind of did it the way I think is pretty tasteful; which is to design around the functionality and put reinforcement where you need it and anywhere you don’t need it, the shoe remains just super breathable and light.

What stands out about the shoes outsole? For the outsole, we took some inspiration from running. It has these waffle-shaped blocks, but we used the DC Pill Pattern as inspiration. We put a herringbone tread inside the blocks which takes out more weight and gives you better grip because there’s a lot more edges on the bottom. They’re super comfortable. I’ve been skating around in them and it’s nice to not have bulky padded shoes on your feet. Rob has always loved running shoes, so this is the perfect hybrid for him. And there’s never been a good combination of the two until now.

Images Courtesy of Wei-En Chang & DC Shoes.

Get the new Rob Dyrdek Alias Lite now at CCS.