The Real-Life Diet of Evan Mock, Who Doesn’t Have to Microwave His Skate Shoes Anymore

From skating pools on Oahu to walking for Bode at this year’s GQ Bowl to melting television sets on the recent Gossip Girl reboot, pro-skater Evan Mock has been collecting hyphens his whole career.

“I’ve always kept my options open, and I’ve never closed doors or shut things down—even things that I maybe thought I was uncomfortable with,” says Mock, who admits that acting was never on the agenda.

Beyond acting, Mock’s island-inspired lifestyle label, Wahine, debuted a new collection this month, with a second drop coming June 20.

Speaking to GQ via Zoom from Denmark—in between shredding at the Copenhagen Open and DJ’ing the contest’s afterparty—Mock, who is using 2025 as an opportunity to maximize his well-being, spoke about his farm-to-table dining habits, how his inner circle helps him take risks, and his new obsession with hydration powders.

GQ: Skating, obviously, is very physical, and demands a lot from your body, and then you kind of contrast that with modeling and walking shows—also a big body focus, but in a very different way. And now you’ve got acting in the mix as well. Do you think about managing performance in one world with aesthetics in another?

Evan Mock: There is definitely a balance, but I’m not one to be in the gym every day, or on a crazy diet regimen. Growing up in Hawaii, we didn’t really think about that ever—like, at all. Surfing was such a big part of my life growing up, and it still is. I didn’t really think about my physique too much. That comes naturally with the things that I have passions for and I have an appreciation for. It was just a natural thing. Like, you’re just outside being active, surfing, skating, hiking. Walking in the sand is a workout in itself, honestly.

I’m not 18 anymore, though—I’m 28 now—and I’m thinking about it a little bit more. But I haven’t really reached that point where I’m like, Oh my God, I need to get into the gym. My lifestyle requires having to be slender and fit, I guess, but it has just kind of come naturally with the things that I’ve been doing.

It was crazy. If someone random just made a mannequin of you, that’s, like, a bizarre experience. But the fact that we flew to Nice, to the factory that makes all the mannequins, and it was for Louis Vuitton, and it was during Virgil’s era—that whole time was already special. Looking back at it, now that Virgil’s passed, it’s become so much more of a thing that I think about often. But it was a surreal experience, getting to see that and having friends go into the Louis Vuitton store in multiple different places around the world and taking photos next to my mannequin. It’s been cool to see my friends send me photos from different parts of the world, where they were with “me” under their arm.

Was there any part of it that you looked at it and thought, I don’t know if they got that part right?

Honestly, no. It’s a carbon copy. It’s exactly the same. Like, their whole process of doing scans of your whole body for it to be 3D is—I forget exactly how many cameras, but it was upwards of 250 cameras in a circle that all take a photo at the same time. And so you have that 360 view above and below and you’re just standing in the middle of the circle. It was just cool to see how they actually make it come to life.

Speaking of Louis Vuitton, I have to ask you about this. A while back you got your hands on a pre-release sample of the skate shoe that Virgil designed together with Lucien Clarke. The pair you got hadn’t been broken in yet, obviously, and you mentioned it could use a minute or two in the microwave. Is that actually something you’ve done, or that you do?

You know what? Yeah! That’s more of an old trick now, but I was definitely doing it as a kid. Pros back in the day would microwave their shoes, and it would kind of mold them. So, here’s the trick: It’s one minute straight on one side of the shoe—left or right. Then, after the minute, you take it out and put your foot in it. Then you put it back in for another 30 seconds, and then you put your foot back in the shoe, and you just walk around and it kind of molds to your feet as if they’ve already been skated in for a couple of sessions.

Are we on, like, Popcorn setting? Baked Potato?

My microwave didn’t have settings like that at the time.

When was the last time you did that?

Back when I had to buy my shoes, so probably when I was like 14 or 15.

So, for you, really, one measure of success as a pro skater is that you don’t have to microwave your shoes anymore.

Exactly. It’s just one less task.

As you’ve branched out from skating to fashion and, more recently, acting, how have you balanced working in many different exclusive industries?

It goes back to having a great friend group, or circle around you, with people that you know are going to support you in anything that you do. The people who say negative stuff are either jealous or they’re too afraid to do it. But the people who are saying that are the people that don’t necessarily matter in your life.