This time they were showing new colabs with W)taps, a well respected high end clothing label from Japan. Their wall was decorated with metal garage looking signs that were all hand painted with pride... an unbelievable sight on its own. 
Wes Humpston, the original Dogtown Skateboards artist, had pulled some of the original DT boards out of his closet to match his signature shoes. 
One of the highlights was the artwork and colab done with Chaz Bojórquez, who at an early age, in the 1950's he experienced the graffiti tradition of the East Los Angeles Mexican-Americans. 
In 1979 he embarked on a three year round-the-world experience, visiting and living in 35 countries, studying how graphics and letters describes culture. This shows in his shoe design, which was phenomenal on how simple they might look, but how much detail was brought into it. 
As you could not miss 6 well restored old skool BMX bikes, when walking in the show... These bikes represented the retro edition Rad shoes that were developed by the Syndicate team, who made sure they kept their eyes on detail. 
These shoes were done in the 80's BMX colors: Brown/Aqua -SE Racing, Black/Gold Yellow - Mongoose and Red/White/Blue - Skyway/JMC! And every pair comes with a matching pad set and limited edition checkerboard laces. 
The night was made complete by having the Andrew Lee a.k.a. Invisible Man spinning the records and of course free booze was something you didn't hear anyone complaining about. Check out the pictures and be sure to get a hold of a pair of your own Vans Syndicate Rad Edition's when they come out. 
-Michael "Choq" de Wit Links: Www.vanssyndicate.com
*Thanks to Rian Pozzebon, Tom Cooke, Jay Potocar, Jon Warren for letting me be part of this project. Dom at Brooklyn Projects and Rick Rodney for providing the extra bikes. Bart and Paul for providing the magazine covers.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.