  There are several known constructions of equilibrium states for H\"older
continuous potentials in the context of both subshifts of finite type and
uniformly hyperbolic systems. In this article we present another method of
building such measures, formulated in the unified and more general setting of
Smale spaces. This simultaneously extends the authors' previous work for
hyperbolic attractors (modelled after Sinai's classical approach for
SRB-measures) and gives a new and original construction of equilibrium states
for subshifts of finite type.
