What makes a good skateboarding shoe? that all depends on what kind of skateboarding your trying to achive, mostly low impact or heavy impact. When skating low impact spots you usually are trying tricks much longer or just skating longer all together. Then with heavy impact "jumping off high impact spots" your usually only giving it a couple trys. with this said, as a skateboarder for over 25 years i would say these types of skating require thier own specific type of skate shoe. 

when skating low impact spots you can almost skate in socks if thats what your into. most skateboarders like vulconized soles for this type of skating, less inside the foot bed of the shoe sole. this gives you a lot of good board feel but not so good for impact when jumping off things.  so with low impact skateboarding you dont need anything bulky or heavy duty unless your into that. i would say that a clean open toe cap and high laces are gonna be helpful. reason be is that with less to get scratched from the grip tape less chances you have of tearing them open at the seems. and after all shoes with holes do show the world that your a skateboarder but its also not a good look or feel. and for the high laces this will give you a little more time before they also get shredded up/broke. 

    

 

Now for if you wanna get wild and get to jumping some big sets or just any type of impact that feels heavy you gonna want some shoes that can help you get the job done. Most skateboarders at this type of skating they choose a cup sole type shoe. the cup sole has much thicker foot bedding allowing for more impact protection, a more cushion type feel. this is nice during impact but with the thicker foot bed you have less board feel but that really does matter much if your trying to save your feet from breaking down on you. with high impact cup sole type shoes you can build and layer all kinds of reinforcement on the upper part of the shoe for maximum durability through impact. since you tend to not jump off things very long on a skate session you dont need to worry about tearing the seems so quickly. skateboarding shoes do tear over time while doing tricks and over all wear. theses are just a couple ideas i thought of to try and distinct the two types of skateboard apart. maybe some feel different but thats to be expected because we all have our own unique way of skateboarding and style.