SELECTS: Egyptian Skater Ayoub Shebl Shares His Model Off-Duty Style

“Skating saved my life,” says Ayoub Shebl, Egyptian 19-year-old skater and up-and-coming model.

This devotion to skateboarding unfurls in motion. Shebl flashes by, wheels humming over uneven pavement, Playboi Carti blasting through his headphones as the traffic honks fold into the 808s. When he’s locked in, the city stops being ‘streets’ and becomes a map of possibilities. Curbs, stairs, handrails, a sudden clean stretch of concrete turns into a runway that only skaters can see.

“People think I’m a model, but I’m a skater first,” Shebl says. He pauses like he’s replaying a line in his head, takes a slow breath, and exhales. “When I skate, everything else disappears,” he adds. “I relax. I lock in on my next trick and feel free.”

Shebl started skating three years ago in his hometown Helwan after watching older guys skate in his neighborhood. What started out as a curiosity hardened into an obsessive grind, so much so that within a couple of years, he’d won Egypt’s Skater of the Year in 2024 and landed a sponsorship with Amulet Skate Shop.The injuries stack up, breaking his leg four times, so many falls that he’s stopped counting them, but every time he just gets up, hungry for more. That’s the thing about street skating: you’re literally throwing yourself at concrete, learning to make pain secondary to focus.

That mindset bleeds straight into style. Shebl’s look lives in skate culture but pushes into high-fashion silhouette: an “opium” palette, mostly black-on-black, aggression softened by precision. He lists his favourite brands – Balenciaga, Rick Owens, Supreme, but also local labels like Ymree for his nights out, and Fear2FuckUp for when it’s time to skate, a brand built by a skater, for skaters.

As he sharpened his style over the years, modeling showed up almost like a side quest. The grind just shifted lanes, from makeshift skate parks to campaign sets. In just over a year, he has signed with Egypt’s UNN Model Management, stacked up campaigns from all across aesthetics, and even landed a Louis Vuitton shoot photographed in Egypt.

When he’s on sets he prefers “freestyle,” he says, “switching between characters on command: editorial, streetwear, old-money polish.” Like that Triangle of Sadness casting scene – Balenciaga face to H&M grin in a blink – Shebl switches energies on command. He’ll use his body like a tool: one second he’s upside down in a handstand, the next he drops back into frame with this calm, almost bored “cool-boy” stillness, then flips again, snowboarding down a mountain, stance grounded. There is a need to throw himself into a pose the same way he’d throw himself at a rail, trusting he’ll find the landing.

His first runway was this year at Egyptian Fashion Week. Next is a three-month stint in China, his first trip outside Egypt, with Europe and New York in his sights. He’s not a model or a skater, but both at once, someone who sees a curb and doesn’t just see risk, but a line waiting to be rewritten.

Translating this approach to fashion, in this week’s SELECTS Shebl shares his style guide from skating with his friend to attending after parties – mostly in local drip.

Look One | Day skating royal house

“When I’m skating, I always wear Fear2F*ckUp & Skating gotta be cozy, so I keep it comfy in my Grateful Dead SB’s”


Look Two | Hanging out with friends Palm Hills Giza “I love being camouflaged with the loud and messy streets wearing the leopard jersey from SS24 “AVA” - what we call a uniform for our Fear Family, the community that made me feel at home and took me in very early on as a skater, before I even modeled.”


Look Three | Test Shoot O⁠ff-duty Model“Thrifting was always the way to get swagged out early on, but for this fit I feel like the pieces I scouted helped reflect the grit of the streets with the earth tones paired with the classic Timbs.”

Look Four | ⁠After-Party

“On this night out my inner vamp was released with some High-Street garments, the use of various materials from leather to waxed denim with CTL’s signature metal hardware giving me that super fly all black fit”