Skateboarding in Paris

Before Tom Àdam ever existed, there was skateboarding.

As a teenager, I spent countless afternoons skating through streets, car parks, empty squares, and hidden corners of cities, chasing the feeling of movement, freedom, and discovering places accidentally along the way. Looking back now, I realise it was never only about skating itself. It was about exploration.

About learning a city through motion.

Returning to Paris for our collaboration with SO/ Paris brought that feeling back almost instantly.

Paris has always felt cinematic while moving through it on a skateboard. The city unfolds differently at ground level, bridges, alleyways, stone pavements, hidden passages, the sound of wheels echoing beneath Haussmann buildings while warm evening light stretches across the streets.

You notice everything more closely.

The air against your face.The changing rhythm of neighbourhoods.The feeling of getting slightly lost and not minding at all.

There is something beautifully instinctive about skateboarding. You move without overthinking, guided more by curiosity than destination. In many ways, it reminds me of travelling itself, discovering both a city and yourself simultaneously.

And honestly, loungewear feels surprisingly natural within that world.

Loose cotton trousers catching the wind while crossing the Seine. Soft fabrics moving freely through the city. Pieces relaxed enough to skate in, yet equally at home sitting outside cafés afterwards, sweaty and exhausted, watching Paris continue around you.

Perhaps comfort and movement have always belonged together.

Some of my favourite moments from these days were the simplest ones: carrying the skateboard beneath one arm while walking through quiet streets at sunset, stopping for coffees somewhere near the river, friends laughing after failed tricks, music drifting from passing cars, the city glowing softly before nightfall.

Paris somehow amplifies these small moments.

The freedom feels larger there.

Looking back now, these photographs feel less like a fashion story and more like fragments from another version of youth, one where entire days disappeared between skating, wandering, conversation, and the endless possibility of a city unfolding ahead of you.

And perhaps that feeling never fully leaves you.

Captured in Paris, France

Photography by Clara Berges, in collaboration with SO/ Paris Explore the latest loungewear online. Shop Now Join our newsletter for occasional notes from the world of Tom Àdam.