Back in December, our trusty videographer Greg Navarro took a trip down South to Louisiana to meet up with Sal Barbier.
If you aren’t familiar with Sal, he’s a pioneer from the 80s and 90s who skated for H-Street and Plan B. He also started brands like Aesthetics and created the “Sal Flip” on transition, and oh yeah, had one of skateboarding’s most popular shoes.
The Etnies Sal 23 became one of the most recognized skate shoe silhouettes, arguably changing the course of pro-model skate shoes. Think of it as the original Janoski. But considering all this rich history, we knew very little about Sal outside of what the old guy at the skateshop has told us and his Wikipedia page.
That meant we had our work cut out for us in the Bayou, but fret not, we got the goods. Follow along as Sal takes us around his hometown, from his first handrail to the local hobby store and go-kart track.





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February 13, 2025 4:57 am
So cool, it motivated me to grab a tee : https://etnies.com/collections/sal-barbier-collection
February 15, 2025 12:56 am
the gear and red etnies in his questionable part, best skate kit of all time.
February 22, 2025 10:57 pm
Sal is one of the coolest dudes ever. That he rips on top of that is just that much better.