Nike SB React Leo skate shoes designed and worn by Trans skater Leo Baker
date: label: date made
content: 2023
name: label: user
content: Baker, Leo
label: designer
content: Baker, Leo
label: maker
content: Nike, Inc.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Nike SB React Leo skate shoes designed and worn by Trans skater Leo Baker. The shoes are a gender neutral brown suede with black and tan soles, black shoe laces and a black Nike swoosh. The shoe was designed with triple stitching at the toe for durability and a new hybrid vulcanized-cupsole construction for better response and grip. This pair represent the introduction of the Baker's colorways for their shoe which also include a brown colorway. The two different colorways were both used by Leo Baker during the video shoots for the launch of this first Nike SB shoe designed by a trans skater. Leo Baker is one of the first successful non-binary, trans skateboarders to retain their sponsors through their transition.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Baker began skating at an early age, winning bronze at the 2006 X-Games at 15. It took 8 years to finally win gold but when they did, it was on their own terms, as a queer skater. Baker went on to win the Street League Skateboarding Super Crown World Championship in 2016 but it was 2017 that proved to be a pivotal year for Baker. Earning a spot on the Nike team, creating the first women’s skate shoe for Nike SB, quitting their day job as a graphic designer and moving to New York City whose ‘melting pot of communities feels like the right fit,’ are just a few changes they made once they dedicated themselves, full time, to skate.
label: Description (Brief)
content: In 2017, Baker collaborated with Brian Anderson and his Cave Homo zine which they say, “helped me feel validated and seen for who I am beyond my skateboarding identity. That’s really important for me, because for a long time the industry wanted to shape me in a way that wasn’t me.” Wanting to keep their long blonde hair and be ‘more feminine’ were the stereotypes Baker could not represent as a queer skater, and while leaving sponsors could be devastating to skaters, Baker refused to compromise their integrity and it has paid off immensely. Baker relates, “To be unapologetic about my image and who I am and then to have people acknowledge how important that is in the skate industry… I can’t even describe how that feels. To bring together girls who skate, queers who skate… and let those worlds collide. I’m lucky to be here.”
label: Description (Brief)
content: Skate is still working on its acceptance of gay or queer skaters although many of the girls who Baker skates with are in th LGBTQ Community and feel accepted among their male counterparts. Their hope for inclusion is contagious, “I would love to just carve out a bigger space for women who skate, and queer people who skate and gender non-conforming people… and just like, really open up that space for people like me, and people that understand what it’s like to experience life this way.”
label: Description (Brief)
content: In 2020, Baker made the inaugural Olympic skateboarding team but decided not to compete because they would have been forced to compete in the women’s category which they no longer identified with. Baker quit competitive skateboarding but because of their impact on the LGBTQ+ skate community, they were able to keep their sponsors and are now the first trans skater to have a pro model skate shoe.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: name of sport
content: skateboarding
label: level of sport
content: Professional
label: web subject
content: LGBTQ
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Sports & Leisure
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2023.0148.01
label: accession number
content: 2023.0148
label: catalog number
content: 2023.0148.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: shoes, skateboarding
label: Object Name
content: skate shoes
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: leather (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: suede (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: fabric (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 3/4 in x 3 3/4 in x 10 1/2 in; 12.065 cm x 9.525 cm x 26.67 cm