HUB Footwear presents
The city as seen from above Featuring Vadim&Vitaliy
HUB Footwear creates shoes that we like to call ‘sophisticated sneakers’. We are inspired by city life and the passion we have for style and tennis. As a brand, we like to take our own path. We feel that life is about the surprising moments, not about going by the book. It’s when you step out of your daily routine, the most original ideas are born. Inspired by this thought, we are proud to present the fourth episode in a series of documentaries about the beautiful minds who ‘Challenge the Obvious’ every day. In this episode, we dig deeper in the lives of Vadim & Vitaliy, the roofer’s we’ve documented for the third Challenge The Obvious documentary. After finishing this film, in which we invited them for a roofing adventure in Berlin, we couldn’t resist the temptation of traveling to Russia to see where they are from and, equally important, find out where they are heading next. Making these documentaries is our way of celebrating unconventional city life and the individuals who characterize it every day.They truly inspire us to continue doing what we love so much: making shoes!
Roofers point of view
Roofers point of view
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Last season we documented the outstanding work of our Russian friends Vadim & Vitaliy. In the documentary ‘Roofer’s Point of View’, we invited them to Berlin to capture the city from its heights. If you haven’t seen it yet, we obviously invite you to watch it on HUBfootwear.com, but to accompany the film, here’s a small introduction to the world of Vadim & Vitaliy and their unique perspective of looking at the city.
The city as seen from above
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Rusty cranes and slippery rooftops
Rusty cranes and slippery rooftops
As long as it’s high enough
As long as it’s high enough
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Before becoming a roofer, Vadim Makhorov roamed his industrial hometown of Novosibirsk for weeks, searching for that hidden gem to immortalise on camera. His search yielded nothing but disappointment until one day he looked up and had the idea to shoot the city from its rusty cranes and slippery rooftops.
The city as seen from above
Roofers take pictures from structures that are hundreds of metres tall, structures with the kind of view that can make a grown man cry. Bridges, cranes and skyscrapers—anything will do, as long as it’s high enough to make the average person’s stomach churn with terror.
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Serenity up in the air
Serenity up in the air
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But Vadim is no average man; he insists that he doesn’t experience fear.“I feel as safe sitting on the edge of a roof as I do sitting at this café table,” he says, calling from a roadside pit stop in Siberia.“I wanted to see cities from a perspective no one ever sees; I wanted to see my own city in a way I’d never seen it before,” says Vadim.“You see the city’s limits, its volume, its expanse. You see things people don’t see down on the ground. I don’t know about other people, but for me my life would be boring without it. It’s my passion.”
The city as seen from above
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Russia’s cities are known for their chaotic traffic and unconquerable Soviet sprawl. Vadim’s photographs—taken from the skyscrapers of the city’s new age financial hub, and from the top of the towering Moscow State University building, where he was almost foiled by FSB officers and code-locked doors— give the observer a rare view of Russia’s urban landscape. Up in the air, all Vadim sees is serenity.
Conquering buildings together
Conquering buildings together
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“We found out later that apparently they can put you in jail for that, but by then we were already back in Russia,” Vadim tells us laughing. He wasn’t worried about the consequences on his home turf—“there wasn’t a call from the Foreign Ministry or anything”—although he did try to calm the waters with a sincere written apology to CNN, in which he said: “We didn’t want to insult anyone. We were just following the dream.”
His favourite climbing companion is Vitaliy. They met at a roofer meeting in St Petersburg and soon became good friends. Their friendship creates a certain unity while climbing, which makes it easier for them to rely on each other. So far the two Russians have conquered buildings and structures all across the globe.
The city as seen from above
They even climbed the pyramids of Egypt, hiding at the foot of the ancient structures, waiting for the sun to go down and the kiosks to close, before they began their dangerous ascent. The stunning photographs they took from the pyramids catapulted them to international fame. Now they were known as the crazy Russians who dared to climb Giza.
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No choice but to climb
No choice but to climb
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Vadim shows us that in order to give the people sitting safely behind their computers the perspective of a roofer, he has no choice but to climb. He insists he never damages the buildings he climbs; the only law he breaks is the one for trespassing.“In Russia, there’s a negative association with the word ‘roofer’,” he says, shunning the title.“There are a lot of inadequate people, just hooligans really, who call themselves roofers, and go around breaking locks and doors.” Vadim doesn’t break anything, he’s more like a ghost.
The city as seen from above
New roofing adventures
New roofing adventures
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The acts and situations featured in this paper have been performed under the strict supervision of professionals. HUB Footwear insists that no one attempts to recreate any of the activities performed on these pictures. Credits: Photography by Dim Balsem, Vadim Mahorov & Vitaliy Yakhnenko
The city as seen from above
The next roofing adventure of Vadim & Vitaliy will take place in Europe. It may be followed by a trip to Japan, but they don’t want to share any other details with us—they prefer to keep us guessing.
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But there’s another reason for their secrecy: they haven’t figured everything out yet. “My goals are spontaneous… I’m searching for them as we speak.” Vadim doesn’t have a bucket list of things he wants to climb. But he’s sure he’ll know them when he sees them.
Watch the documentary and view our full collection on hubfootwear.com