Skateboarding Starts With éS Timeline

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1996

éS Footwear Gathers Steam

Elantro

éS innovates on simplicity with the Elantro

Elantro

1996 Year in Review:

Sal Barbier, Bob Burnquist, Ronnie Creager, Eric Koston, Chad Muska, Tom Penny and Paul Sharpe form the original éS team.

A Muska WallrideChad Muska enjoys a minimal wall ride.

Tom Penny’s controversial TransWorld cover. Did he land it? frontside bluntslide, Huntington Beach, 1996.Bigger please!

The timeless stylings of Sal, the mind-blowing technical vert skills of Burnquist, the incomprehensible trickery of Creager, the comical antics and unmatched ability of Koston, a new kid named Muska, the elusive brilliance of Tom Penny and the magical pop of Sharpe all make the éS team a force to be reckoned with in modern skateboarding.

The unbelievable brilliance of a young Tom Penny.

Tom Penny, éS Commercial 1996.

Sal Barbier- Frontside Noseslide, 1996Sal Barbier shadows himself with a frontside noseslide.

Chad Muska tames a huge hubba, noseslide, 1996.Bigger please!

Bob Burnquist - Switch Backside Air, 1996A blinding white Bob Burnquist tweaks a switch Indy.

Eric Koston is Thrasher's Skater of the Year.

Eric Koston, 50-50 1996Bigger please!

Eric Koston’s part in Girl’s Mouse video.

Ronnie Creager, 1996Ronnie Creager gets inspired by a wide, minimal wall.

Chad Muska, 1996Bigger please!

1996 Headlines
  • The Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, is arrested at his Montana cabin.
  • Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born.
  • TWA Flight 800 explodes off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 on board.
  • The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics kills one and injures 111.
  • The Ramones play their last show ever at Lollapalooza.
  • Rapper Tupac Shakur dies from a gunshot wound.
  • Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found murdered in her family's basement in Boulder, Colorado.
1996 Ad archive
1996 éS Coverage
Paul Sharpe, éS Timeline Interview

List the five most memorable things that happened to you during any éS tours, demos, filming missions, photo shoots, etc. Steve Black, the acting éS Team Manager at the time, came up to San Jose and I showed him a pinnacle time. We ate, drank and made merry. He spent all his per diem in two days and had to hustle throughout the rest of his trip. That's the extent of any tour I was ever involved in. I'm going to try to make up for this by going on tour with them in the near future.

Which was your favorite part in Menikmati? Why? Koston, because he was the cornerstone.

How did you manage to skate in those super-thick running shoes that éS used to make around 1999-2000? Did they have any board feel? I strictly wore the SLB shoes and Accel. No reason to wear a running shoe while skating. Believe me, my friends were wearing some harsh stuff, though.

Name your five favorite éS shoes ever from over the years.

  1. Accel
  2. SLB 23
  3. Koston 1

Which was the ugliest éS shoe of all time? Duuuuude. Loaded question, but I would say every one of the shoes in my ads.

Which was the worst-skating éS shoe of all time? No idea. I only rocked the ones that looked good and rode well.

Which annual éS ad campaign was your favorite? Why? The one's with the solid-colored walls as the backdrop, because I got to be in them. :)

Why did you leave éS? Because I got an offer to get paid and design a shoe somewhere else, and at the time, I wasn't going to make from éS close to what I was offered, nor get a signature shoe.

In general, how does éS seem different now in 2010 compared to the year 2000? I think éS is a broader group of individuals now, they cater to a different audience. At the time I was there (in the late '90s), it was a fairly streamline group of heavies with similar styles and taste.

In what direction should éS head in the future? Onward and upward, I would say. A thoughtful, solid video project would be a good thing.

Read Paul's 1996 Transworld Interview »

New shoes: 1996

éS introduces tongue-centering straps on all models, including Spring newbies like the Elantro and the Ethalon (the first-ever skate shoe with nylon lace loops), plus Fall shoes like the Solist and the Stylus (the first-ever skate shoe with quadruple stitching).

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