Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

I have now skated roughly 10 pairs of this shoe and consider it an all time favorite. The review below was from the first pair I got, although I updated it a little.

It isn’t a mystery that I’m one of the biggest PJ Ladd nerds out there so when the opportunity came to wear a shoe that he rocks I didn’t hesitate. This contradicts pretty much any anti-corporate shoe policy I’ve had in the past and completely makes me a hypocrite. To my credit I did get them at one of the raddest shops in Colorado history (303) and these shoes are only available in skate shops. I guess the line is getting fuzzy as to who to support anymore. Do you support skater owned brands that are available at Ross? Or mega corporations that don’t really care about skateboarding, but are only available at skateshops? I don’t know anymore, it’s up to you. I can tell you that PJ Ladd has been my favorite skater ever since PJLWHL so supporting a brand that’s supporting him felt ok to me. It’s a little weird though. When I go to the gym at work every old retired man is wearing New Balance. I’m not that old yet. Ha. Okay, back to the review. These shoes are really good. They are very comfortable. Extremely comfortable. The sole probably would have lasted forever although it does go bald somewhat quickly. I gave up on this pair because I got sick of shoe goo’ing the top and it was starting to form a weird bubble. The top wasn’t so durable. Probably about what an average shoe looks like after a few weeks with me. The board feel is decent, the grip a little sub par. They felt great in the streets, but on tranny there was some board feel to be desired. As far as style it’s kind of a weird one. I guess the fact that PJ Ladd wears them trumps the fact that they look like old man retired gym clothes. Maybe? With all that said I would consider wearing the Stratford again in the future, it’s a good shoe. I hope to see an actual PJ pro model soon though!

Ollie had some friends sleep over the night before and they wanted to go swimming. In my head I was thinking I would go skate Lafayette park while they went swimming at the louisville rec center. But Neil had some plans going on with a fun crew in Louisville and things worked out perfectly. I dropped the boys off at the pool then met up with Jake, Neil, Lazer and Blake at the little mini park by Neil’s house. Street Lazer was in effect when I showed. Kickflip, back 180 and nollie back 180 the gap. So sick! Blake surprised me with nollie front 180 down it. Jake was trying halfcab front 50, but almost landing halfcab front 5-0s. It was mostly a warm up session there. I was just starting to get into the groove when it was called out that we should move on to a new spot. I ollied the low part of the flat bar on the way out. Lazer and Neil ollied the tall part.

Somehow carless Neil saw a new spot in the Louisville Tech Center. He didn’t even know there was a perfect angle iron ledge sitting there propped up against a fence. Seriously? What’s the purpose of that thing other then to skate? We put it out of the bump to skate like a bump to ledge. It was great frontside. Well, it took me awhile to even get it a front 50 and I was a little drama bitch about it for a few minutes, but it worked out and I got into it. Street Lazer was killing it. Front 50 first try, front tail, a lot of tries for a front nosegrind and even ollied the whole thing the long way. Jake got front 50, front 5-0, front tail and front 50 to front board. Blake is goofy footed which is a problem in itself, and it was hard for him to hit the ledge. Ha, but it didn’t stop him from doing back nosegrind, back crooks front 50s and more. Neil struggled with front tails for awhile and let it be known that he was frustrated. He did front 50s easy and more. After a slow start I ended up having a great session. Front 50 in a line where I went behind the ledge, kickflipped up a curb and ollied a tiny, but really weird gap and then came back for crooks into the bank which I landed, but not in the line. Also got front 5-0, front 50 shove and front 5-0 shove.

Then we turned the ledge so the long size was parallel with the bank and skated it like a bank to ledge. Street Lazer did front 50 first try and front 5-0 super good. Blake did a bunch of willy grinds and crooks or two. Neil found a good line to front 50 stalls and had the sickest half-assed no comply to tail ever. Followed by a legit one. The half-assed one was seriously so awesome in an old guy skater kind of way. He put his foot back on as he was riding down the bank all steezy. Jake was the second to last man standing with front 50, almost back blunt and a sick front nosepick. I slammed on a front 50 stall, got a front 50 stall, front rock, back crook grind, noseslide, front smith stall. I started trying kick back 50 stalls and after accidentally getting into kick back smith I got the back 50. It was sloppy and I went for another and instead got kick back smith. Tight! It must have not been very good though because no one seemed to care. I probably Bachinsky’d the lunch break or something, but either way I was really hyped. Then I had to go pick up the kids. What an awesome session considering I was just supposed to be giving the kids a ride to the pool and back.