Last week the video below went viral on YouTube, showing two guys performing breathtaking parkour and freerunning stunts – wearing our SOURCE Sandals. We got in touch with Alex, one of the two guys responsible for the hugely successful video.

Hi Alex! Congrats, your clip just cracked the 200,000 views mark on YouTube – in only two weeks!

Yes, you never know if people will like a video. And they do love this one. The great landscape of Israel, the roofs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, it is very special … and of course also thanks to Vasiliy, the guy behind the camera.

 

 

Who are you..?

I’m the guy in bright shorts and black cap on the video. I’m 26 years old and lived all my life in Moscow. Parkour is my life for 9 years but I do a lot more. I’m event manager, I produce action videos, I build and design parkour parks, and I’m acting in one of our videos every now and then…

And how did you get to parkour in Israel..?

Wait a second: First of all, this is not a parkour video. It’s a micro-film about a trip. The trip of two guys, just like you and me. We want to show the world from a different angle. To show the real life and culture of the streets, frozen while we fly from roof to roof. We’d love to do that in many other places in the world.

It looks like Israel is a great place to ‘do’ …

I was first in Tel Aviv in 2013, shooting a documentary about Israel. I expected only desert, tanks and synagogues and I was shocked when I saw the real life in one of the most advanced countries in the world. So I fell in love with Tel-Aviv and moved here 4 months ago. Then I had the idea to show Israel from my angle, and my friends came to visit me this January, so … we decided to make it.

And you decided to make it in SOURCE Sandals – actually our Stream model – which made us very happy to see obviously. But didn’t you get in trouble with the police, running across all these roofs?

That was the second reason why we chose Israel. We have never had such a warm welcome in any other country. Of course, we were stopped a couple of times. – So we leave. – It’s a pity to loose the footage, but still, we are not hooligans or vandals.

What about public roofs in the city center?

Hey, nobody paid attention when we climbed the roofs, I swear. It seems to be usual here. “Hm. Two guys climbing the roof. So what, you never seen before?”

Parkour is a very serious and complicated discipline. It has its own values and principles. Do you know the main rules of parkour? “There are no borders, only obstacles”, or “Be strong to be useful”. And they are not only about physical condition, they are about your mind.

 

 

Now, we have to talk about it: We’ve seen a lot of people do a lot of things in SOURCE Sandals. But this … Of course it’s very exciting for us and we’re curious. Tell us the truth about comfort in our sandals.

Are you serious? Look at the picture with my bleeding toe! Ok, I’m joking, It was just a scratch… Sandals are sandals and they have to be open. Don’t try to wear them with socks!

And watching the video: if you walk away from all these stunts with only a scratch, it seems you did very well …

The first day of shooting was at the Red Canyon. The first jump wasn’t easy. Then I realized, I hadn’t tightened the straps properly. After that, the sandals were no issue.

That’s our X-Strap. Glad to hear it works for you.

15 minutes of test, running and breaking-in and we forgot that we were wearing sandals.

 

 

Then we started wearing them all day and people looked at us a bit crazy. Because they wear a “winter” jacket and Ugg boots, and here we are, in shorts, caps and sandals… You know how cold it is in Moscow now?!

Safe to say, all that jumping was a real ‘stress-test’ for durability and strength of our sandals. Any comments on that?

Strength? I think if they would break somewhere, there would be no video and probably not me or not Vasya on this planet anymore. That was crucial for us, of course.

There is not one crack. After all we did, they look like new, except for the dust.

Also: we can’t think about technology when we jump, we need confidence,. It’s like we’re believing in a miracle, and our adventure is to find out, how to bring this miracle to life.

It’s amazing. Thank you for the talk and good luck for future trips … curious where your sandals will take you next. Hope to see you again soon on YouTube!

Thanks!

Here’s the video. We can’t get enough of it …