Blog - 1996: éS Footwear Gathers Steam

1996: éS Footwear Gathers Steam

Friday, Jul 29, 2005 · Garry

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

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 Penny and the magical pop of Sharpe all make the éS team a force to be reckoned with in modern skateboarding.

Photos above, top to bottom: Tom Penny, Sal Barbier (left), Chad Muska (right), Ronnie Creager.

Eric Koston is Thrasher’s Skater of the Year.

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).

(Photo enlarges.)

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.

Timeline.

96 Responses to "1996: éS Footwear Gathers Steam"

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gravatar of eS blog commenter, Herbie

Herbie says:

7/29/05 at 08:03

SLB look really nice. they really should remarket them again. I would buy them.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Josh P.

Josh P. says:

7/29/05 at 08:40

Tom Penny at the Santa Rosa Skatepark! That’s what I’m talking about. Yes, he killed it.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, ricky

ricky says:

7/29/05 at 08:45

the koston was the best

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Justin

Justin says:

7/29/05 at 09:06

is the Accel the exact same design today as it was then?

gravatar of eS blog commenter, ricky

ricky says:

7/29/05 at 11:37

it is a liltle different

gravatar of eS blog commenter, froston kostas

froston kostas says:

7/30/05 at 06:09

yeah it looks different…i thot the accel was the first es shoe…

gravatar of eS blog commenter, i wanna be sedated

i wanna be sedated says:

7/30/05 at 06:30

those poor, poor Ramones…

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Neubauer

Neubauer says:

7/30/05 at 08:29

The oringinal kostons look like they had a heel airbag or it might just be a little thingy anyways they should of kept the k1’s the old accels look weird though

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Charlie

Charlie says:

7/30/05 at 09:59

I think the best one on there is the contour. What do you guys think?

gravatar of eS blog commenter, will

will says:

7/30/05 at 10:18

i think the unos look sick and what is in the middle of the stylus thats on the accel

gravatar of eS blog commenter, AzFaz300

AzFaz300 says:

7/30/05 at 01:04

Is it just me or does the Solist look absolutely sweet?!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Charlie

Charlie says:

7/30/05 at 04:20

the solist is my second favorite on there

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Adam Foreal

Adam Foreal says:

7/30/05 at 04:39

slb’s look sick. Tosh Townend said that santa rosa was his home town park and he used to watch penny and reynolds just come and murder that place. if that isnt motivation than i dont know what is

gravatar of eS blog commenter, wat

wat says:

7/30/05 at 04:55

accels are the shit i didnt know that they made them that long ago

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Dave B

Dave B says:

7/30/05 at 05:55

Does that mean my accels could stop bullets because of the kevlar toe cap?
I was 6 years old then and knew squat about skateboarding, it’s cool to look back.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Mikey Dawes

Mikey Dawes says:

7/30/05 at 08:17

Awesomeness…

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Josh P.

Josh P. says:

7/31/05 at 01:32

Adam Foreal - I’ve never seen Tosh at the Santa Rosa park and I’ve been skating there since before it was built. Never seen Andrew there either. So I don’t know where you got that info from.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Tanner

Tanner says:

7/31/05 at 04:29

Yeah, the logo on the side of the stylus is on the front of the accel. My best guess is that they were going to use it as like, the Ã©S logo or something, but then scrapped it. But I don’t know.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, lynx

lynx says:

7/31/05 at 07:35

the accel was the most reponsive shoe the the eS team ever made. now it’s like their 10th ann. and it’s going so strong that they made the accelerate, maccel and some other new shoes that they will soon have for the 2006 line. that what’s up!!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, the dude

the dude says:

7/31/05 at 07:44

alright, correct me if im wrong but i do believe that Arto Saari was going to come out with a second shoe for eS,(the Arto 2) but it never worked out because he went over to etnies. i say this because i noticed him wearing a pair in Really Sorry, when he backside heelflipped and switched heeled into that bank, (check the video for confirmation). they looked kinda white and black, or dark blue. i also noticed him wearing them in a couple of etnies ads, and im pretty sure theyre not his etnies model. either way they looked pretty rad. i dunno i just wanted to see if that was true that there was a second eS Arto shoe that never came out.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, truehead

truehead says:

8/1/05 at 06:47

damn B, didnt know accels were out THAT long. that shits crazy. its fresh to look back n see how things started

gravatar of eS blog commenter, lynx

lynx says:

8/1/05 at 11:12

it’s really been out that long and now they can do anything that they want with thwe accels. it’s genius!!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Free Kayo

Free Kayo says:

8/1/05 at 12:30

I still have the original accel and im skating them[black suede]

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Free Kayo

Free Kayo says:

8/1/05 at 12:32

but i think they changed the original tounge form from the original

gravatar of eS blog commenter, ace

ace says:

8/1/05 at 12:46

why did chad muska leave the team????????????????????????

gravatar of eS blog commenter, lynx

lynx says:

8/1/05 at 01:19

because of the whole Circa project then he left for reebok. just like stevie williams and the rest of the DGK skate kru the ONLY skate team to be fully on REEBOK

gravatar of eS blog commenter, craig

craig says:

8/1/05 at 01:21

There was going to be a Arto 2 but then he went to Etnies. I’ve seen the Arto 2 on ebay from time to time. Muska left Ã©S to start Circa. It’s pretty rad seeing the old joints I must say. The all black/gum SLBs were so banging. The koston 1’s though were the best. That side window was an airbag.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Wizard

Wizard says:

8/1/05 at 01:30

BRING BACK THE CONTOUR! That thing looks dope

gravatar of eS blog commenter, the dude

the dude says:

8/1/05 at 01:59

first i wanna say that i really dig that colorway on the Koston 1 up at the top. it looks like its navy with a little grey on the midsole, and some orange on the tounge, sooo nice. You guys need to definetly bring it back in that specific colorway.
also, you guys need to do away with such models as
“the Murray” and replace it with the Arto. all you have to do is just give it a different name. that would be rad. it would sell like hot cakes. bring back the Arto please.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Mike

Mike says:

8/1/05 at 04:54

i was 15 back then, the solist was my second pair of “real” skate shoes (DC rudy johnson 1 were my first) and i loved those damn shoes
i tried to hang on to them for so long, i even super glued and extra piece of leather on the side so that i could still skate them…
i remember this other kid at my school had the ethalons, those shoes were so hard looking, just awesome…
i think this is the best line eS ever came out with…cause as you will see, they came out with some puffy ass, super thick, almost unskateable shoes soon after(cyber, diode anyone??)…
but this brings back good memories just starting to get really stoked on skating and skating all day and all night, now i’m 25 (still skate though) and i’m still at work
BTW:I was at lallapoolza to see the ramones in irvine and that wasn’t their last show, the played at billboard live (now the key club) a few days later

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Timo

Timo says:

8/1/05 at 05:14

that accel looks different

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Plan_B

Plan_B says:

8/1/05 at 06:29

http://cgi.ebay.com/SUPER-UBER-RARE-eS-ORIGINAL-SAL-BARBIER-NOT-ETNIES_W0QQitemZ7703479576QQcategoryZ63850QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

WHAT!?!?!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Mikey Dawes

Mikey Dawes says:

8/1/05 at 07:27

Holy Shit !!!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, $00p3r d00d

$00p3r d00d says:

8/1/05 at 08:11

those are bangin

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Josh P.

Josh P. says:

8/1/05 at 09:02

Those Sal’s are up to a whole dollar!! Looks like they wont sell.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Wes

Wes says:

8/2/05 at 10:01

The accel was and still is the best.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Kevin

Kevin says:

8/2/05 at 10:09

the accels look the same just tied tighter

gravatar of eS blog commenter, tompenny

tompenny says:

8/2/05 at 12:03

i’ve been skating accels since feb/mar of 1996. i bought the first pair as a replacement to the discontinued etnies sal 23. here are the things that are different from then until now:

1) tongue got fatter/thicker - something i didn’t like but learned to live with.
2) added a nylon heel rub gaurd on the back of the shoe.
3) slight color differences white/gray for the logos.
4) added the nylon lace guide with the stylus logo on the toe of the shoe.
5) slight changes with the sole insert.
6) i think the size label under the tongue used to be nylon and is now vinyl / plastic (not + on that though)

more or less the same shoe.

i bought at least 1 pair of accels every year since that first pair in 96. i tried to switch twice, once to an axion shoe and once to an adio kenny anderson shoe. ditched both pairs within a few days of wearing them and went back to accel. maybe es will read this and ship me a crate of US10.5 black suede/ gum for my small contribution to the market demand for this shoe that keeps them coming out of the factory every year. eh… who am i kidding? i am not tom penny. one can only hope. :)

i’ve done almost everything in/with these shoes and they have never let me down.

THANK YOU ES!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, the dude

the dude says:

8/2/05 at 05:02

man, did i mention that i reallllly dig that colorway of the Koston 1 up at the top. if only you could bring it back, and put some G2 gel in it of course. they’d sell like hot cakes.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, kev

kev says:

8/2/05 at 05:06

i agree with you the dude. i unfortunately never skated a pair of the kostons, jsut the ek01, and from what i heard the ek01s were nothin compared to the old shoes. bummer.

josh- are you gonna have any kind of part in the es video? how about scuba or some other people related to es that arent on the team? sorry to reask another question if it was answered in another blog…just curious.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, moccap333

moccap333 says:

8/2/05 at 07:14

who made eS?

gravatar of eS blog commenter, augusta

augusta says:

8/2/05 at 08:38

bring back the uno’s brohaskis…and the breaker mid tops… and the eos’s

gravatar of eS blog commenter, kev

kev says:

8/2/05 at 08:39

can anyone tell me whats with that accel at activemailorder.com its brown and gum, but it doesnt look like the one that is on this site, it looks like nubuck or something? or whatever the pj accel/accelpluses are made of.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Josh P.

Josh P. says:

8/3/05 at 12:08

kev - No I won’t have a part in the video. Unless I get some good footage of me eating the biggest shit ever. lol. I’m sure Scuba will get some sorta footage. Not like a part or anything. I don’t think they’ve figured out what to do with the flow guys. Craig might know more about that. The brown/gum accel is suede.

moccap333 - Ã©S is a part of Sole Technology. We make Ã©S, Etnies, Emerica and Thirty Two snowboard boots. So I guess Sole Tech made Ã©S.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, kev

kev says:

8/3/05 at 05:49

josh - good idea, the es team should all get together and have a food eating contest, pros versus employees. film it and put it after the credits or in the bonus section. haha

gravatar of eS blog commenter, koston

koston says:

8/3/05 at 06:26

i think p.rod is mad 2 leev es 4 nike and 2 leev girl

gravatar of eS blog commenter, koston

koston says:

8/3/05 at 06:30

i think the color schemes 4 the new accel are cool

gravatar of eS blog commenter, truehead

truehead says:

8/3/05 at 09:57

josh, craig: sorry for driftin off topic here but i was wonderin if this account was created by anyone at the offices at eS, or if someone is simply takin photos off this site n callin em theirs.

http://esphotoprint.deviantart.com/

be safe. peace

gravatar of eS blog commenter, mike

mike says:

8/3/05 at 10:27

koston - p rod left es for nike because they were throwing ridiculus contract offers at him and he accepted so his family would never have to worry about money problems ever again, and just about anyone in the world would leave their board sponsor to skate with danny way, the best vert skater of all time and the rest of plan b which is one of the greatest skateboard companies ever.
i hope the tan accels are brought back soon for i would like to buy another pair

gravatar of eS blog commenter, ace

ace says:

8/3/05 at 10:49

THAT WAS A STUPID MOVE BY P-ROD FOR LEAVING ES BUT HIS STILL FUCKIN GOOD HE WILL COME BACK SOME DAY TO ES!!!!!!!!!!!!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, kneebone

kneebone says:

8/3/05 at 12:02

black/gum SLB’s were the best!!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Sutin

Sutin says:

8/3/05 at 02:33

Man that was a sick ‘eS team, back in the days.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, craig

craig says:

8/3/05 at 02:42

True head- The dude is just taking the pics off the site.

As far as the extras go on he dvd we took a lot of what you dudes asked for and put it in the DVD.

Dudes you know the era of the puffy shoe is going to be gnarly. What was that shoe?…..oh…the “Scheme”, yikes!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Mike

Mike says:

8/3/05 at 03:55

craig…
like i said earlier, eS came out strong with good designs the best team and a good image, you remember right “sophisticated skateboard footwear”…. and then the attack of the stay puff eS shoes, yikes! indeed, what was that “bulletproof” shoe called…talk about no flexibility

oh, and pleas post the grey/white/clear sole koston 1 with the appropriate ad, the half cab crooks half cab out at LA high….timeless

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Josh P.

Josh P. says:

8/3/05 at 04:47

Man that deviantart dude is funny. Copy and Paste the whole eS site while you’re at it.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Charlie

Charlie says:

8/3/05 at 05:54

does anybody on the es team write in the blogs like koston or pj?

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Josh P.

Josh P. says:

8/3/05 at 08:28

nope. not that I know of.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Josh P.

Josh P. says:

8/3/05 at 09:15

I just noticed that dude with the deviantart site had Craig listed and one of his favorite artist’s. I would like to second that. Craig is one of my favorites too.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Charlie

Charlie says:

8/3/05 at 09:19

hey josh p. how can i work for es?

gravatar of eS blog commenter, ToNyXeS

ToNyXeS says:

8/3/05 at 11:43

http://13octobre.free.fr/esphoto/

gravatar of eS blog commenter, truehead

truehead says:

8/4/05 at 06:52

craig gotta link to gallery or anythin?

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Dr. Chud

Dr. Chud says:

8/4/05 at 08:26

When are you bringing out those Penny lows and stuff?

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Charlie

Charlie says:

8/4/05 at 08:54

Hey ToNyXeS, I think i am the only one who rated and comented on your photos.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Mikey Dawes

Mikey Dawes says:

8/4/05 at 09:09

Dude Josh…that deviantart dude is totally killing your shit!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Booyahkah

Booyahkah says:

8/4/05 at 11:29

haha speaking of deviantart. lookie what i found this mornin’:

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Booyahkah

Booyahkah says:

8/4/05 at 11:31

i guess the pix didn’t show so here’s the linkage

gravatar of eS blog commenter, truehead

truehead says:

8/4/05 at 11:49

http://www.deviantart.com/view/20554200/

i really needa learn how to work html.

thatd be some shit if he was really tryina
act like he was a head at es- n he isnt.

its be some other shit if he actually is a dude at es.
i’d feel stupid for a couple of seconds n move
on but it just sounds odd that they’d have an
account there

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Tsunami

Tsunami says:

8/4/05 at 12:34

i’ve been hounding this dude for the past couple of days. i didn’t know that ne1 on here would of mentioned this guy. i was gonna do it but then decided not to since i thought it was kinda stupid. I asked him some ?s about tony evjenth and craig metzger, man didn’t know shit. i don’t think he works for es. he conviently logged out of DA and has been ignoring me lol! but yea i guess i would feel like shit if he was fo real. doubt it though.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Tsunami

Tsunami says:

8/4/05 at 12:53

I see that Craig isn’t 1 of esphotoprint’s favorite artists any more lol!

gravatar of eS blog commenter, craig

craig says:

8/4/05 at 02:42

The only dudes that work here at eS(blog) that lurk in here are: webnerd, cooler, Garry Davis (GSD), Josh P and me. There might be other hotcrew dudes but I’m not sure what they use as their screen names. Some pros stop by here and there. While on tour we checked out this site from time to time.

Tsunami- not sure what or who you guys are talking about.

Mike- I totally forgot about the clear k1’s..holy shit those were craze’. The puffy era was gnarly and some kids still want shoes like that. I think the shoe you are talking about is the Scheme. The thing was gnarly but so many kids rocked that shoe. I like to call that era the “D3 era”. That was that osiris shoe that blew up. Dave Mayhew probably owns a castle now because of that shoe. So gnarly-

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Josh P.

Josh P. says:

8/4/05 at 02:44

lol. oh well. just let him keep faking the funk. you guys know what’s up.

truehead - Craig’s site is under the links section on the top of the page. keep clicking until you find it.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, benny g

benny g says:

8/5/05 at 04:11

accel still kickin it

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Geoffy

Geoffy says:

8/5/05 at 07:40

Hey this is off topic but u guys should do a shop interview on Westside Skateshop just wondering or have u already done it?

gravatar of eS blog commenter, jordanhoffartswaxedeyebrows

jordanhoffartswaxedeyebrows says:

8/6/05 at 02:59

please do one on antisocial the best shop ever…..

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Alex

Alex says:

8/6/05 at 03:36

good job with the grey maroon koston 7

gravatar of eS blog commenter, cobbs

cobbs says:

8/6/05 at 07:21

Latest 720 news
Cobbs moves to arvada, he is sooo pissed
craig sprains his wrist at westminister park
Ben still at home on da computa=RPG games the entire summer
B-dogg still hard at works at B.C.
Johnny still kills rec park
720 on the verge of dying
Sorry no vizzle
Posted by cobbs

gravatar of eS blog commenter, G3

G3 says:

8/6/05 at 11:25

can some one tell me were i can get a pair of arto 2’s?

gravatar of eS blog commenter, Josh P.

Josh P. says:

8/7/05 at 01:25

G3 - The Arto 2 was never released. You might be able to find samples on ebay or something but you probably won’t.

gravatar of eS blog commenter, eric

eric says:

8/7/05 at 06:03

yeah u guys should do a shop interview on westside skateshop
theve been suppotin u guys from the start and the shop owner john montesi would be glad to do it