In skateboarding, brands rarely disappear without warning.
Usually the clues show up months — sometimes years — before the final announcement. A rider switches shoes, a sponsor logo disappears, a team slowly thins out.
Right now, a lot of those signs seem to be lining up around Cariuma.
The sustainability-focused footwear company recently paused new orders on its website, saying it’s not currently accepting purchases while still honoring existing orders, returns, and exchanges. The company hasn’t released a major public statement explaining the change, but a closer look at the skate team suggests the situation may have been building for a while.
Team Changes That Started Earlier
One of the biggest shifts came at the start of this year.
Luan Oliveira announced on January 1 that he was splitting with Cariuma, ending one of the brand’s most recognizable partnerships in skateboarding. Since then, Luan has been seen skating New Balance in recent clips.
But the changes within the team actually started earlier.
Back in September 2024, Levi Loeffelberger and Tyler Peterson both left Cariuma and joined DVS. Levi publicly announced the move at the time, marking one of the first noticeable shifts in the brand’s skate roster.
More recently, Leandre Sanders (Skategoat) — who had continued riding Cariuma well into August 2025 — has been spotted skating adidas in newer clips.
Taken individually, these moves might not raise many eyebrows. But when you look at the timeline together — riders leaving, others switching shoes, and now the website no longer taking orders — the pattern starts to become clearer.
Photo: Luan Oliveira / @luanoliveira
A Different Approach to the Shoe Game
Cariuma launched in 2018 with a sustainability-first approach to footwear, promoting environmentally conscious materials and initiatives like tree-planting programs tied to product sales.
The brand moved quickly into skateboarding, building a roster that included riders like Luan Oliveira, Mike Vallely, Leandre Sanders, Timmy Johnson, and Matias Dell Olio, while also investing heavily in online marketing and event visibility.
But their strategy always looked a little different from the traditional skate shoe playbook.
Instead of focusing primarily on skate shop distribution, Cariuma leaned heavily into direct-to-consumer sales and online advertising, which helped the brand grow quickly and reach a large audience.
For a while, it worked. Their ads were hard to miss.
The Business Side of It
Without diving too deep into the financial side, the situation may simply come down to the math.
Cariuma’s sustainability-focused materials and environmental initiatives likely mean higher production costs compared to most skate shoes. Add in a large marketing push, sponsored events, and a growing team roster, and the expenses add up fast.
Direct-to-consumer sales can offer higher margins per pair on paper, but they also come with big costs in advertising, shipping, and fulfillment.
If sales growth slows even slightly in that kind of model, things can get complicated quickly.
Some industry watchers have also wondered whether the brand could eventually shift toward larger retailers that move shoes in bulk rather than relying primarily on online sales. But for now, that’s still speculation.
What Happens Next?
Between the paused orders, Luan’s departure, and riders already skating other footwear brands, the future of Cariuma’s presence in skateboarding looks uncertain.
Whether this ends up being a full shutdown, a restructuring, or simply a reset for the brand isn’t clear yet.
But when the team starts thinning out and sales suddenly stop, it usually means something bigger is happening behind the scenes.
Skateboarding has seen this pattern before.
Now everyone’s just waiting to see how this one ends.