It’s a cupsole shoe battle royale! Featuring three shoes from some of my current favorite skateboarders. PJ Ladd, Mark Suciu and Brandon Westgate. I gave up on vulcanized shoes awhile ago because they hurt my legs and back too much. I wore Footprints Gamechanger orthotic insoles in all of these shoes. I love them and highly recommend them. I blow through the left toe of every shoe I’ve skated. So having to duct tape in an extra piece of suede into the toe is normal for me.

New Balance Numeric PJ Straford 533

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: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

The original Blackbox made Stratford 479 had become my favorite shoe ever. The New Balance made 533 had a lot to live up to. I loved how flexible and yet supportive the 479 was. The 479 was not very grippy though and not the most durable shoe. I have skated about 5 pairs of the PJ 533 now. While I was initially hesitant of the thicker and stiffer sole I have become just as big of fan of the PJ 533s. The 533 is way grippier and way more durable then the 479. The 533 toebox doesn’t fit as perfect as the 479 for me, but it’s still a good fit. This shoe lasts forever, over a month of skating everyday. It’s insane. From a hippy standpoint I really like that I’m killing fewer cows and wasting fewer resources when I skate these. And I am a huge PJ Ladd fan so supporting him is a major plus to me. This shoe is great. I do with the sole was slightly more flexible though.

Emerica Westgate CC

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: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

I have had the Leo and I don’t like that shoe. So I was happy to see the new Westgate offer a bit more support then the Leo, but still remain a simple thin cupsole. The long and narrow fit is a little weird and required some breaking in to avoid blisters on the outside of my toes. They are also a little too spongy for me initially. They did break in though and there were a few days where I loved this shoe. I say ‘a few days’ because the shoe didn’t last much longer then that. I wore through to the insole in 9 days. That is not good. For the record I skate Mob grip, but that didn’t stop the PJ shoes from lasting a month. I’m in a position where durability isn’t my biggest concern so I will say I still like this shoe quite a bit. Even if I couldn’t ollie over a car in them.

Adidas Suciu ADV

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: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

Alright this is kind of a weird one to review. I like thin cupsoles so I thought the ADV would be similar to a cupsole. It’s not, it’s insanely thin and skates like a vulcanized shoe. It also comes with an incredibly thick insole which I replaced with my normal Footprints Gamechanger. So I didn’t really skate the shoe the way it’s designed. I only lasted a few days before I gave up on these. My feet hurt in them even just skating flatground. Rating the durability isn’t easy either as I only skated them a few days, but as you can see they already had wear marks. Judging from experience I don’t think they were very durable. With all that said, if you like a super thin shoe and a thick insole, maybe these are for you.

No surprise, but the PJ shoe wins. Never doubt PJ.

Went into my garage not warmed up at all and tried ~20 nollie heelflips. Only one was remotely close.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers venom bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Dave and I pulled into Denver park at the same time. 7:30 am the morning after Halloween. I thought I would be in worse shape, but the extra hour of sleep from the time switch seemed to help out. It was crisp, but warming up quickly. We both did our own thing for awhile. Simon showed up and Dave and Simon played a game of SKATE that went a long time. I was basically just trying three lines over and over. Rock ‘n roll the bank to curb, manual the driveway, wallride. Never got the wallride. Argh. Then I tried a flipper, little b/s ollie the hip, rock fakie on qp and cab over the hip. Never got the cab. Flip tricks were feeling good at least. Last one was front 50 the bump to ledge near the entrance of the park, ollie the curb into the driveway (somehow hard for me) and just did an axle stall because that’s all I can do on tranny. Then Simon and I played a game of SKATE. He’s got moves! I got him with tricks like heelflip and 360 flip, but in the end he won it with tricks like cab and bigspin. It was a fun game.

Earlier this morning. Simon filming Dave. #thestubborns

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 1, 2015 at 12:18pm PST

Then we went to this bank to ledge spot I’ve wanted to skate ever since Chad’s tricks there in the Sunny Daze video. And guess what? It was wayyy harder to skate then it looks. We all took awhile to land anything. Simon was probably first with front 50. Dave with a nose stall. I took the longest and my first trick was a crook jib. It was funny. Simon would go on to land front 5-0 and some solid noseslides. Dave had front 50, a front crook jib, a bunch of backside pivots. I couldn’t get front 50. I got some silly front nosestall 180s out and posed some kick back 50s for awhile.

Simon and @fullertrron ⬆️⬆️⬇️

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 1, 2015 at 8:14pm PST

Then we went to this spot which is way harder to skate then it looks. The runway is uphill so getting the speed is a chore. I did a kickflip on the bank and that was it. Dave and Simon went off. Dave did front 50s, back 50s (I think), back tail front 50 to spin, cab bigspin and more. Simon did the crooks to fakie and switch back 180 off the ledge a couple times. He also did crooks 270, front tail then back 180 off the ledge and more. I was too tired to push that hard so I started messing around with noseslide 270 shoves at the bottom on the ledge. It was fun. I ended up getting a bad one, but it still made me happy.

@fullertrron and I have slowly been filming for some type of old man video. It's going to focus mostly on the extreme sports side of skateboarding. Handrails, gaps and huge hubbas like this. #thestubborns

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 2, 2015 at 7:12am PST

And now for my #thestubborns 'teaser'. 🔨🔨🔨 #oldmanskateboarding #henolliedintothatwow #clipperledge

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 2, 2015 at 8:14am PST

Then we checked out some of the spots around the park and ended up at this huge hubba. We laughed, slammed and filmed us dork around. Simon did a front blunt too which had BA cheering. Fun day.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers venom bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)