éS Footwear

2003: Eldridge and Nuske!

Justin Eldridge and Cale Nuske join the éS team. Justin’s amazing pop and switch skating abilities blow minds far and wide, while Cale’s hard-charging skills on a board make him known as the Thunder from Down Under.

The entire éS team embarks on a well-received Scandinavia Tour, including stops packed with screaming kids in France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Eric Koston, Rick McCrank, Paul Rodriguez, P.J. Ladd and Alexis Sablone embark on the first-ever Thrasher King of the Road Tour, a fun contest-like trip in which four skate company teams travel from the East Coast to San Francisco, completing special assignments along the way to accumulate points for 1st place.

éS Footwear introduces the first-ever official éS Game of SKATE at the Action Sports Retailer trade show in Long Beach, California. Appropriately, éS team riders Eric Koston and Paul Rodriguez battle it out for the top spot, and P-Rod happily takes home the $10,000 1st place prize.

Eric Koston wins the X Games Global Challenge in San Antonio, Texas, as well as the X Games IX Street event in Los Angeles (good thing, since his image was plastered all over the city on X Games IX billboards), and scores a 21-page “Koston: Box Set” video history article in TransWorld Skateboarding.

P.J. Ladd begins to rack up some long overdue coverage via interviews in Slap and TransWorld Skateboarding.

éS Footwear opens a top-secret, state-of-the-art training facility in Orange County, California, consisting of nothing but flat bars and manual pads made out of pallets and other random scrap wood.

The éS Spring line adds Eric Koston’s fifth pro model skate shoe, the K5, plus the Cicero, the Central, the Crown, the Derby, the Lenox and the Port.

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The Fall line adds Tom Penny’s first-ever pro model skate shoe, the Penny, as well as the Breaker, the Contract and the Rover. The Holiday line adds Rodrigo Tx.’s first-ever pro model skate shoe, the Rodrigo Tx., plus the Accel Plus (featuring a hook and loop strap), the Breaker 2, the Breaker 2 Mid and the Cicero 2. Eric Koston’s first pro model skate shoe, the Koston, is updated with a new technological breakthrough known as the System G2™ cushioning system and renamed the EK-01.

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2003 Headlines

• The new United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
• The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon re-entry, killing all seven astronauts onboard.
• More than 10 million people protest the Iraq War in over 600 cities worldwide, the largest war protest to take place before the war occurred.
• The Iraq War: Land troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invade Iraq.
• The birth of Dewey, the first cloned deer, occurs at Texas A&M University.
• Martha Stewart and her broker are indicted for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation.
• The largest hailstone ever recorded falls in Aurora, Nebraska.
• A roller coaster accident at Disneyland injures 10 and kills one.
• California voters recall Governor Gray Davis from office and elect Arnold Schwarzenegger to succeed him.
• The Concorde makes its last commercial flight, bringing the era of supersonic travel to a close, at least for the time being.
• Former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, is captured in Tikrit by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.

Timeline, Justin Eldridge, Cale Nuske, Eric Koston, PJ Ladd, Rodrigo Tx, Game of SKATE, Accel Plus.