Last Resort AB

Last Resort AB makes shoes, not decks. It’s Swedish, it started because a pro was fed up with his shoe sponsor, and it is one of the very few skate footwear brands that answers to nobody: “we are 100% independent,” they keep saying. The line stamped across everything they make is “Break Free”. If you want context on the rest of the European labels, this is one of the youngest and one of the loudest.

History

The story has two layers and they’re worth separating. The company Last Resort AB has existed since 2018: Sami Tolppi and his partner Daniel set it up after more than a decade in apparel design and creative direction, and what they made back then were high-end cupsole fashion sneakers produced in Portugal under the “3-3-20 by Last Resort AB” label, sold mostly in Japan. In 2019 Pontus Alv — of Polar Skate Co. — was unhappy with the shoes his sponsor was sending him and called Sami, an old Stockholm friend he’d skated with in the nineties. His brief, as told to Jenkem, was brutally simple: vulcanised, really good design, under $100. Sami found a contact making vulc shoes in Vietnam with low minimums, and within a few weeks they had the first sample. In September 2020 the company relaunched as a skate footwear brand, with Pontus Alv and Mike Halls on board as co-founders. The first pre-book closed about a week before the pandemic hit.

The team

The current official roster: Chris Milic, Aaron Loreth, Frankie Decker, Cruise Mosberg, Indy Jones, David Stenström, Jesse Alba, Kiki Kakitani, Paul Grund and Pontus Alv himself. In May 2024 they released their first full-length, “Doomed from the Jump”.

The shoes

The founding model is the VM001, made in low, mid and high, in canvas, suede and mesh. Since then have come the VM002, the VM003, the VM005 (a loafer) and the VM006 moc, plus the CM002, CM003, GM001 and PM001 lines. The VM004 is Chris Milic’s pro model. The design philosophy is stated out loud: vulcanised sole, no cupsoles, and a clean side profile — the logo goes on the tongue, the heel tab and the sole, never on the sidewall. Alv put it bluntly: “Everyone’s forcing things on the side of the shoe and it doesn’t have any function. It just looks kind of ugly.” The fit is built to sit tight around the arch, and the sole and insole thickness is tuned to keep board feel without leaving you unprotected.

Who it’s for

If you want a plain vulc with no visible logos, good board feel and a sane price, the VM001 is one of the smarter buys on the European market. If you need serious cushioning for big drops, you won’t find it here: this brand plays thin-profile all the way through. Line it up against the rest in the shoe catalog.