P‑Rod 1, 2005: Paul Rodriguez’s First Must‑Do, 19, Straight Outta Foot Locker. Which One?

In 2004, Paul Rodriguez was 19 and staring at a blank page: his first Nike SB shoe, the future P‑Rod 1. Across from him, designer Michael Hernandez asked what he liked. The kid already had an answer. It didn’t come from a skatepark. It came from a Foot Locker when he was eight.

The P‑Rod 1 dropped in 2005. Nike SB now calls it the first signature shoe of its first athlete. Twenty years later, the brand brought it back unchanged. Between those years: ten numbered models, a video shot across three continents, a New York graffiti artist, and a supermarket logo that lawyers had to pull. We trace the thread. Who drew it, who filmed it, who paid. And that first demand.

2004: Nike SB looking for a face, P‑Rod looking for his name on a box

Nike entered skate in 1997 and got pushed out of shops. In 2002, the SB label released the Dunk Low SB. Average sales. It was missing a face. In 2004, the brand signed Paul Rodriguez as a flagship, alongside Australian Lewis Marnell. The call to Koston and the departure from eS, we detailed in who lost the most in that exit. Here, we focus on the object.

Who pays? Nike, of course. The contract amount has never been made public, and we’re not going to make one up. What we know is what P‑Rod himself says in his video on the P‑Rod 1, posted on his channel in 2023: a signature model with Nike was “beyond what I thought I could do in skate”. He calls it a surprise. At 19, he’d never designed a shoe.

P‑Rod 1: Michael Hernandez, a carbon plate and the “landing primo”

The designer’s name is Michael Hernandez. He sketches the first models with P‑Rod. At first, he “digs into your head,” the skater says. What do you listen to, what do you wear, what gets you hyped.

Three requests come out of those sessions. The first one we’ll save for the end. The second is a protection against the landing primo. Hernandez finds the answer: a small carbon fiber plate in the middle of the sole. “It really helped a ton,” says P‑Rod. The third is a round bit, because it fits his flick style.

The rest is left to Hernandez. P‑Rod admits he spent his time skating, not designing. The designer notices his taste for “fancy” stuff, a bit flashy. He creates the PR logo and turns it into a pattern, a cheeky nod to Gucci prints. Nike SB still uses that logo.

The launch colorway comes in two colors: white leather, black swoosh. Sneaker Freaker magazine summed up the result in 2025: the P‑Rod 1 looked more like a training shoe than a classic skate shoe, “and that was the whole point.” Zoom Air at the heel, leather overlays, breathable mesh. A Nike that owns being a Nike.

Andy Jenkins, Stash and a Jumpman on the Languette

Next up are the quick strikes, those limited runs that don’t hit the big box stores. P‑Rod keeps three in mind. The first would be signed by Andy Jenkins, the Girl graphic designer, the brand of boards P‑Rod rode back then. He himself says he’s not sure. A canvas covered in a collage that’s a mix of a map and an architect’s plan.

The second is handed to Stash, the already‑renowned New York graffiti artist. P‑Rod heads to New York, spends time in his studio. The graffiti artist lasers a New York skyline into leather, a brand‑new technique for Nike at the time. In 2022, for the Nike SB 20‑year video, P‑Rod pulls out exactly that pair.

The third is the J‑Rod. Elephant‑printed, and Michael Jordan’s Jumpman on the tongue. P‑Rod thinks it’s the first non‑Jordan shoe to sport that logo, and he asks commentators to correct him if he’s wrong. When he was at Nike’s HQ, he’d ask to park in Jordan’s spot when it was free.

On that pair, he wanted another logo. Albertsons, the grocery store next door. He’d skate every day after school on their loading dock. That’s where he learned his flips. For legal reasons, the logo drops from the commercial version. It only exists on samples, “three to five pairs,” he estimates. He keeps one. His personal Grail.

The Timeline

Who was filming: Nothing But The Truth - 2007, three years of rushes

A signature shoe sells itself with visuals. Nike SB’s first video is called Nothing But The Truth - 2007. Directed by Lionel Goldstein, premiered in New York. Lewis Marnell opens, P‑Rod closes. The last part is all about the rider the brand bets on.

Behind the camera, day‑to‑day, there’s Nigel, the dude who films him. P‑Rod talks about the part in his comment, posted by Nike SB: back then, you could hold onto footage for two or three years before release. His very first Nike ad, a frontside flip, ends up in the video. He films everywhere: London, Mallorca, Barcelona, Malibu, Australia. The Albertsons ledges too, where he aimed to land a switch tre flip and a noseslide in the same line. He nailed it at the last minute, just before he had to leave.

And the payers were on site. In Australia, Sandy Bodecker, the Nike exec who put SB together, watched the session. That day, a local kid hangs out with Nigel. His name is Stevie Perez. Today, everyone knows him as a pro, says P‑Rod.

For the music, P‑Rod wanted Nirvana, his favorite band. The rights cost a fortune. It ended up being Sonic Youth. One thing was clear for him: no rap, “because that’s what people expected from me.”

Watch his feet during the part. The switch tre flip, the nosegrinds, the Australian gap: that’s where the carbon plate and the air bubble really come alive.

What the P‑Rod 1 sparked: ten models and a club

In 2005, the P‑Rod 1 didn’t make a splash on its own. That same year, Lance Mountain pushed the Blazer SB, a skate‑centric take on a ’70s basketball shoe. Nike SB got the playbook: a story, a name, a model. In 2009, Koston joined Nike. By 2012, he dropped his first signature with the brand. Brian Anderson followed in 2013 with the Project BA.

P‑Rod, on the other hand, kept the momentum. His P‑Rod 5 hit the shelves in 2011 in both low and mid cuts. In July 2012, Nike opened 6th and Mill, its private training hub in downtown Los Angeles, on the day it launched the P‑Rod 6. The 2013 P‑Rod 7 eyed the Jordan 1. The 2014 P‑Rod 8 earned a spot in a Wieden+Kennedy ad, and a leak on the internet months before its release.

In June 2017, the P‑Rod 10 dropped, the last numbered release. Nike launched it with a line that said it all: “Few get one. Fewer get ten.” Not many skaters own a model. Even fewer have ten. And today, Nike SB presents him as its first signature athlete, with more than ten models under his name.

The first requirement: an air bubble, and a Foot Locker

Back to 2004, facing Michael Hernandez. The very first thing P‑Rod demanded, before the carbon plate, before the rounded tip: no matter the shoe, he wanted an air bubble. A visible airbag, like on the Jordans.

The reason goes back to elementary school. P‑Rod was the smallest in his crew. His friends wore Jordans with the bubble, and for him it was “the coolest thing in the world.” His mom took him to Foot Locker. Bad surprise: in his size, the model existed, but without a bubble. They only started offering it from a size up, he remembers. The kid left disappointed.

Close your eyes for two seconds. A Foot Locker aisle, the box open, the sole flipped, and no window under the heel. Eleven years later, the same kid has a Nike designer in front of him. “I really wanted that air bubble, to make up for the moment when I was 8 and couldn’t have one,” he says. That’s the answer: the first requirement for the P‑Rod 1 didn’t come from skate or marketing. It came from a childhood frustration.

Maybe that’s why the line kept ten models. A signature shoe that actually works isn’t a specs sheet. It’s a story you can drop in one line. The kid too short for Jordans who ends up with the Jumpman on the tongue— that’s a tale you can spin.

In May 2025, the re‑issue pulls it all together: white leather, black swoosh, Zoom Air, PR pattern, carbon plate. P‑Rod tests it in a session on his channel. The full rundown is on P‑Rod’s rider page, and the business side is in why he chose Primitive instead of signing elsewhere. The air bubble from his 8‑year‑old ride is still under the heel.