There is a foundation to everything. An inspiration lying somewhere in the thought process of the creator. Foundations are meant to be built upon, and when it comes to shoegaze, the foundation is Creation Records. For the uninitiated, Creation Records was home to bands like Ride, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine, and released most of what you would now consider "classics" of the genre throughout the late 80's and early 90's. In addition, they were also home to one of the most unique, and misinterpreted bands of the era, Swervedriver.
Where shoegaze giants My Bloody Valentine or Lush would shroud themselves in walls of feedback creating an almost dreamlike texture, Swervedriver coupled their guitar haziness with a more traditional structure, having more in common with bands like Dinosaur Jr or Husker Du than their label mates. This uniqueness in style would continue to grow and become increasingly personified over time, especially on songs like "Rave Down" and "Last Train to Satansville". However, despite the dissimilarities sonically, lyrically, and aesthetically from their Creation label contemporaries - the band would remain categorized as "shoegaze".
Swervedriver built something different with their sound, a type of attitude that would forever separate them from the melodramatic, soundscape-y bands of their time. By conventional standards, Swervedriver were never a shoegaze band, and in my opinion they never sought out to be one.