Bronx Girls Skate

What sparked Bronx Girls Skate?

Kava Vasquez: It all started with a DM.“Yo girl, I got this idea and something tells me I’m not alone.”

Before that, the idea for Bronx Girls Skate came to me while I was living in Brazil. I was reading about Brujas, going to punk shows, and being inspired by skateboarding and the art and culture around it. When I was studying abroad in Brazil, I saw girls supporting each other in a public space. I wanted to have that in my own neighborhood. I wanted a scene in the Bronx where I could do what I love most without having to leave it.

I want to be clear about this: we are not the first-ever women's skate collective from New York. If anything, we're building on the shoulders of giants. We have a legacy of women throughout the boroughs and beyond. It’s a movement we built together through brands, events, and the skate crews before us that challenged the norms around women participating in skateboard culture.

Mel Ramirez: I had a lot of struggles growing up. It was hard for me to get shoes…to get certain things. When I started going hard in skateboarding and eventually got sponsors, I thought, “How can I give back to the community by using my platform?”

I know what it feels like to not have anything. I know what it’s like to not have someone around to pull you up. Then I met Kava. Before she reached out, I was talking to my homie Pedro, who’s really active in the Bronx skate scene. He saw the potential and told me to start something. It wasn’t until Kava reached out that I realized we could do it together. Two is better than one. You both merge your ideas and energy and it makes everything stronger.

Along with being the only borough in NYC that starts with “The,” the Bronx has a lot of culture and history attached to it. As BX natives, what makes the Bronx unique to you?

Kava: Our energy and our work ethic. Most people are unaware that the poorest congressional district in the country is in the Bronx, so a significant portion of our lives here is shaped not only by the need to survive, but also by the desire to thrive. That fuels a lot of creativity in our community, even in how we dress. Sneakers are a huge part of Bronx culture and broader New York City culture. They’re important to our aesthetic as a city.

Mel: We have strong connections with everyone here. Everyone is just family wherever you go. No matter where you’re skating in the city, you can tell if someone’s from the Bronx. We all come in units. It’s really cool to see.

How did you approach using the Dunk Low silhouette as a vehicle for the Bronx Girls Skate message?

Mel: The subway is what you take to get to your next destination. On top of that, the Bronx takes us everywhere. All dreams are possible, no matter what. Honestly, Bronx is full of talented-ass skaters. It’s cool to get noticed and show the community what’s possible.

Kava: The subway is a metaphor and an inspiration. Someone told me once, “Let skateboarding take you places.” There are two of us and we wear the same shoe size. Mel’s goofy. I’m regular-footed. Two different people coming together for one vision. You put the shoes together and they’re the same, but different. We grew up in different parts of the Bronx, we had different challenges and circumstances that we’ve been able to overcome… some that we’re still navigating. The Bronx isn’t necessarily burning anymore, but there’s a fervor people here have. It’s the birthplace of hip-hop, right? People have always wanted to be creative and express themselves. By highlighting the different train lines, you remind people from the Bronx that they can go anywhere. The only limit is our imagination.

What touches did you each bring to the design and details of the Bronx Girls Skate Dunk Low?

Mel: I had to add the bacon, egg, and cheese detail in there. A lot of people thought it was a chopped cheese, but nah, you have to put the “good morning” staple in a Bronx shoe. That’s what we grab for breakfast. That’s New York.

Kava: Shout out to the Nike design team for helping us find a way to tell that story that’s seamless and luxurious, but still street. My biggest concept was around the maps. As someone who traveled the world thanks to skateboarding, I spent so much time looking at maps. At first, our idea was to use maps on the insoles to tell our individual life journeys in the Bronx. We ran into some challenges with that and thought: What if we make it more meta? Instead of having maps on the insoles, what if the piping were an abstraction of the subway maps? That opened the insole/sockliner to be a space to write our personal messages to the community.

As much as the piping details immediately pop, the gold dubraes and heel jewelry add to the personalized theme throughout the shoe. How did you land on those accent pieces?

Mel: The “NY” earrings on the heel and the custom dubraes represent all the girls who get judged for how they look. I’d get judged for looking too “girly,” because I wear makeup and jewelry when I skate. It’s a reminder to show up and be yourself, no matter what people say or think. It represents our royalty and how badass you can be.

Kava: Especially as women of color, we see a push against Bronx aesthetics: big earrings, bright colors, our style. There’s a push towards these clean, and I’ll say it… boring aesthetics. We’re like, nah… eyeliner, big jewelry, loud color, and being fearless in our self-expression. Every woman on Bronx Girls Skate has her own values, goals, aspirations, and style. The earrings connect our individual stories. I used to feel like I had to downplay parts of myself to validate my skateboarding. Then I saw Mel. This girl is gonna do what she does! That takes a lot of courage.

Is there a significance to using Stingray leather as the foundation for the design?

Kava: Originally, the shoe was going to have purple and gold vibes. We took that royalty and map theme together, but it was a lot of purple for a Dunk. So we really leaned hard in the opposite direction. No white. No pink. People were expecting this girly-pop cotton candy shoe. Black is always luxury and always classic.

Mel: We thought about a using handbag-inspired leather mixed with the gems we’d wear… and the look of wet asphalt. The satin lining also represents our bonnets—how we put our hair away at night. It’s basically a bonnet for your shoe. [laughs]

Was there a “north star” you followed throughout the various iterations the shoe took through the design stages?

Mel: The goal was to create a true Bronx staple. We chose black because it’s for anyone to wear, not just us.

Kava: We really worked for this one and became closer in the process. The colorway has surprised a lot of people. People would call it “masculine,” but they also interpret it differently based on who they are.

Seeing your work in the community grow so much since 2020, what keeps Bronx Girls Skate grounded?

Kava: There’s a real energy in New York, especially with creative people and especially in the Bronx. We're a very overlooked borough. People have their stereotypes about the Bronx. They didn’t realize there were skate parks here or even a skate community, much less women in the BX.

I participated in the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, as well as the Davis Peace Prize. From the summer of 2017 to the fall of 2018, I was traveling around the world studying how women are personally and politically empowered through skateboarding. Mel was home finding her community in the Bronx and I was out there in the world representing the Bronx, helping people understand why it means so much to me. When I got back, we were both in this same space of girl skate meet-ups, but it wasn’t until the Pandemic where I felt like it was now or never. This idea was in my body and literally bursting to come out. I would see Mel around and was inspired by her style and what she was accomplishing in skateboarding. I knew that was the person I wanted to build this with.

How do you expand what Bronx Girls Skate represents to include the larger community?

Kava: One of my favorite things about Bronx Girls Skate is that when you come to one of our events, there’s food for everyone, there’s water for everyone. For the first couple of years, guys would be like, “Am I allowed to get a water or is it just for the girls?”

Bro, all of us are from New York and facing social and economic inequality. We’re dealing with mental health challenges. We’re dealing with unequal outcomes. For a lot of us, skateboarding didn’t just save our lives; it made our lives. By creating these spaces, we’re inviting people to the Bronx and helping to decentralize the skate industry in the city. The guys crave that community, too. Why would we go to the park and kick them out? Women being empowered in skateboarding doesn’t take power away from anybody else.

Mel: A lot of people were literally scared to come here until we started doing events and meet-ups. Now they love coming here. Sometimes you even see more guys than girls. We’re welcoming no matter who you are. They [guys] really understand what we’re doing now, and like I said, we’re all family.