If there’s one person who never left that mysterious land, it’s Spike Jonze. His expansive career has been built on boyish fantasies of skateboards, bikes, explosions, and pranks. Hell, even his name is make-believe (his birth name was Adam Spiegel). With that said, we think it’s time we take a peek into Jonze’s coloring book and check out the most iconic/interesting of the works that have kept him 39 going on 13…

PHOTOGRAPHER, FREESTYLIN’ MAGAZINE (1980s)
• Before beginning a successful film career in the ’90s, Jonze, who spent much of his youth riding pools and nose-picking ledges as an amateur rider, took rad cover shots of professional BMX bikers for Freestylin’ magazine.

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CO-FOUNDER, GIRL SKATEBOARDS (1993)
• After moving to California straight outta high school, Jonze picked up a skateboard. Obviously, he couldn’t put it down because he eventually started his own company, Girl Skateboards, with his friends and professional skateboarders Rick Howard and Mike Carroll.

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WRITER x DIRECTOR, BEASTIE BOYS “SABOTAGE” (1994)
• No one can forget this classic music video from one of history’s greatest threesomes, the Beastie Boys. It’s only one of several that Spike Jonze directed, and a nod to his close relationship with the Boys. Jonze admitted in an interview for Juxtapoz magazine: “After their first record, they never let anybody get involved in anything they did. No one from outside the three of them had any control whatsoever on the music, art, video, or tour, and when the records came out, they did it all themselves…I think that was a big influence for Girl.”

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DIRECTOR, THE PHARCYDE “DROP” (1996)
• Shot entirely in reverse, this classic video from the Cali crew showcases Jonze’s refreshing ingenuity. In 2003, the director would go on to work with The Pharcyde’s Fatlip again in the rapper’s documentary, What’s Up, Fatlip?.

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DIRECTOR, FAT BOY SLIM “PRAISE YOU” (1998)
• From Adam Spiegel to Spike Jonze to Richard Koufey? Yup! Richard Koufey and the equally fictional Torrance Community Dance Group took three major MTV Video Music Awards in 1999 with this unforgettable guerrilla-style video. One question though: How the hell did it not win Best Dance Video?

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DIRECTOR, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999)
•Spike Jonze got himself an Academy Award nomination for this big-screen debut, a cult hit about a puppeteer (played by John Cusack) who enters a portal into the mind of actor John Malkovich. We’ll “meet you in Malkovich in one hour.” You can’t even pause that.

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CO-CREATOR x PRODUCER, JACKASS (2000)
• It’s true—Jonze is a Jackass. It’s only because he actually helped create the show on which he and his friends do a bunch of hilarious shit you never had the balls to.

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DIRECTOR, ADIDAS COMMERCIAL (2005)
• Calling this a commercial is like calling The Wire a cop show. Jonze creates the kind of mini-masterpieces that make you forget you’re being sold something.

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DIRECTOR, FULLY FLARED (2007)
• Who else can turn a simple skate video into a cinematic event? This Lakai shoes team video, which took over four years to complete, won “Best Video of The Year” at the 2007 Transworld Skateboarding Awards. Well, it’s pretty hard not to see why.

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DIRECTOR, WE WERE ONCE A FAIRYTALE (2009)
• What was supposed to be a music video for the Louis Vuitton Don’s “See You In My Nightmares” turned into this 14-minute film, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and is only available for purchase on iTunes.

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BONUS: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE TRAILER

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In an interview with Retrokid for SOLE Collector back in April of ’08, when he was asked about P-Rod’s deal with Nike, Koston said, “I think they ripped him off…I think a company like Nike, they should be paying out the fucking ass…Somebody of Paul’s ability and marketability, he deserves more. LeBron’s getting a $100 million deal, it’s just not comparable.” If one were to extrapolate off of this quote, he could safely say that Eric Koston is chilling. So, in celebration of one of skateboarding’s greats, and to mark what will undoubtedly be the start of a flood of awesome SBs with his name on it, we’ve compiled Eric Koston’s greatest signature shoes from his start with éS to his move to Lakai. Hit the jump and get schooled about the dude, and his design process.

éS Koston K1 – 1997
• Skate hero Don Brown teamed up with a then soon-to-be skate hero Eric Koston to design Koston’s first signature skate shoe in 1997. It was the first-ever pro model to feature an air system, plus an exposed polyurethane midsole, making it an immediate success. The shoe is such a classic that Lakai released it last year as the Kost-One, and is living proof of how multi-talented and straight up awesome Don Brown is (he is the VP of Marketing at Sole Tech now).

éS Koston K2 – 1998
• Sorry for the shitty “early” pics, there wasn’t a whole lot of Internet going on in 1998, and especially not with skateboarders. The Koston 2 was the first skate shoe with an EVA midsole cushion, allowing you to be more awesome and bruise your heel less (even if you couldn’t feel your board for shit). Imitators rush to cop and copy.

éS Koston K3 – 2000
• In 2000, Eric Koston won the Globe World Contest in Dortmund, Germany; X Games in San Francisco, California and Gravity Games in Providence, Rhode Island. These are all good things, and they’ll get you a re-vamped signature. Also—holy crap this sneaker is awesome. I mean, it might not be pick #1 for skating now, but how cool is this thing! Ball in that sucka.

éS Koston K4 – 2002
• In 2001, Koston got P-Rod on the éS team. We doubt Paul Rodriguez had much to do with convincing Koston to move to Nike this time around, but it’s funny how history repeats. As far as sneakers, the K4 was considered dope, but expensive. But that’s what was cool about éS, they wanted to push the envelope, not just create some crap that kids would get hurt in.

éS Koston K5 – 2003
• éS Footwear introduces the first-ever official éS Game of SKATE at ASR the same year the K5 dropped. Appropriately, éS team riders Eric Koston and Paul Rodriguez battle it out for the top spot, but P-Rod takes home the $10,000 1st place prize. At some point in here, it became Eric Koston’s game of skate, which he re-claimed and continued to destroy for a few years.

éS Koston K6 – 2004
• In 2004, people started talking about a “secret indoor training facility” that Koston was using to get awesome (and to land all of the crazy tricks in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2). Ah, if only there was Twitter back then, there would be 30 Berrics across the country by now.

éS Koston K7 – 2005
• Koston’s final éS sneaker. The Sole Technology crew sheds a tear, and the man moves to Lakai…

Lakai Koston series – late 2007/2008
• It took Lakai a bit to get their Koston’s signature shoes out, but when they did, it was dope. A nice vulc signature, a re-make of the classic ESK-1, and all around good times. The worst part about Koston leaving was that there was a high top version of the ESK-1 coming out for this Fall. It was the most awesome-ugliest thing you’ve ever seen, but oh well, now there are a butload of SBs that we can get psyched on.

Now What?
• Who the eff knows, but we can safely say you’ll see a Kost-Dunk, some Kost-Bruins, a Kost-Blazer, and once Omar’s sneaker drops next year, there will be a Koston signature shoe (just ’cause you have to). We’re going to go with the over/under on Fall 2010 for the Nike SB Eric Koston, but what do we know.

HOWARD SELECT

Sure they're not as classy as some pricy Desert boots, but this leather so soft make up makes for a good “my-first-sneaker-shoe.” Check for them at Lakai retailers this October.
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Go Obama! Go Obama! Word to the little homie Latarian Milton, we're banking on black star power this November, for real.

These all-over printed Telford's bring everyone's favorite Lakai back with a bang for fall. Look for them to drop this October at key accounts. Sick.
$65, www.lakai.com