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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

This shoe might be the best vulcanized shoe on the market. It’s got a great shape with a wider toebox and lots of durability. There is a rubber internal toecap. The only two negatives I have to say about this shoe are that the sole goes bald kind of quick, however it still retains it’s grip so it doesn’t really matter. The other thing is it’s kind of a clumsy vulc. I think the internal toecap kinda takes away the flex in the front of the shoe. But really, the shoe is a good one. Really comfy, good durability and it breathes well.

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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 thought this shoe would be a dream shoe. Very minimal heel lift, decently wide toe box and very flexible. I have been wearing this shoe without an insole. Normally I wear size 12 in NB, but in this shoe I wear 11.5. I had size 12s of this shoe too, and they were huge so I would say it runs slightly large. Although I’m not wearing the insole so it’s probably true to size. The sole isn’t as durable as other NB# shoes like the 533, but it does flex. The board feel is kind of whatever in this shoe. The flexibility helps the board feel a lot, but the sole construction is some weird compound that kind of kills some board feel. I don’t really care for the sock liner, but it does fit well so whatever.

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

For a few years now this has been one of my favorite shoes. I’ve probably skated a dozen pairs of the 212. My favorite thing about this shoe is the wide toebox. I also love how this is one of the few shoes that can hold up to my annoying razor toe. I rarely have to shoe goo my ollie/kickflip toe area. It’s so great. It’s a very steezy shoe, I like that they are making them now without the rubber toecap. The one negative about this shoe is it’s so incredibly thin that it normally starts to hurt my heel after awhile. So I don’t normally skate multiple pairs in a row. But overall I think this is one of the better shoes on the market. Especially if you rock the stock insole which adds some heel protection (currently I’m using Footprint Gamechangers).

With Fallen Footwear going under the shoe debate has become a hot topic again. I get bummed out on some of the stuff people say that isn’t correct. So for whatever reason I decided to document my current stance on the whole corporate vs skater owned shoe argument.

For years I took a ‘skater owned brands only’ stance. This changed when New Balance Numeric came around and gave PJ Ladd a shoe. Why? Because I’m a huge PJ Ladd fan and because the shoe seemed perfect (note – it is perfect). Lets start by listing a few facts about all skate shoe brands.
1) All skate shoes are made in China by non-skaters. From Vox to Nike, no skaters are manufacturing the shoes.
2) All skate shoe brands have a skate team.
3) All skate shoe brands have skaters involved in running the team and helping with shoe designs.

With that said what makes skater owned brands different from corporate companies? I think there are two main differences which can be broken up as a pro and con. The pro is that the bigger brands have access to better technology which in many cases make better shoes. This isn’t always the case, just a general consensus. The con is that a non-skater bigwig executive type could pull the plug at any point. It’s my believe that a skater owned brand would hold onto their company longer then a major corporation trying to make numbers. Obviously there is a point where even skater owned brands shut down. Both the pro and con are huge though.

Another aspect of the skate shoe world that often gets overlooked is the environmental aspect. I live in Boulder, CO. I am kind of a hippy. So this is probably a bigger deal to me then others, but I want my shoes to last as long as possible. Both for financial reasons and to minimize my waste.

I guess overall to me the biggest thing is that you buy your shoes at your local skateshop. Whatever brand you chose as long as the local shop benefits I’m down. I personally do not like Nike though. Nike continues to steal riders and make way too much of a point of being everywhere. I want variety in skateboarding. I do not think badly of any other company. I am a little upset that the skater owned brands didn’t immediately improve their quality once bigger companies started moving in, but I think there has been more effort for quality lately.

Thanks for listening. Have fun. Go skate.

A couple random notes:
Supposedly the process of vulcanizing a shoe is incredibly bad for the environment. Why isn’t this a big deal?
New Balance isn’t actually a corporation, but a privately owned company. I didn’t know that until this week.

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.

Yeah yeah, no one cares, but here’s my picks.

SOTY: Easy. Wes Kremer. Dude kills.

Best video: Transworld Outliers. Brad Cromer!

Best video part: Chris Joslin welcome to Etnies. Sorry, it was the one part that motivated me more then anything else this year.

The line starting at 2:41 is my second favorite line of the year and the mach 20 treflip down the sidewalk after the credits is pure epic.

Best line of the year: Wes Kremer. The f/s flip at the end going mach 20 is the icing on the cake.

Best trick of the year: Chris Joslin bigspin at MACBA

Most disappointing video: Plan B Lies. Not even just because of the lack of PJ, but the editing is horrible, the music sucks and the skating is made boring. How you only show the bigspin at MACBA once is beyond me. And then slow motion TPuds standing there more then the trick? Whack.

Runner up most disappointing video: Enjoi Oververt. An entire video of 2 minute parts? Come on now.

Best creative part: Scott Stevens

This part definitely had me trying some new no complies for a few weeks.

Maybe actually the best part of the year: Auby Taylor

And why the hell isn’t he pro? And why did Krooked blow it so bad?

Best part that makes me want to go to the east coast and skate ledges: Gavin Nolan welcome to the Zoo.

Best shoe: New Balance Numeric Stratford.

It’s embarrassing to the skate shoe industry how much better this shoe is then anything else. And NB still isn’t happy enough with the quality.

Best cover: Ryan Gallant kick back noseblunt Clipper. So sick!

Thing I am most ashamed of skate wise this year: Even more embarrassing then the fact that I love New Balance shoes is the fact that I don’t watch skate DVDs so much anymore. This is mostly due to my kids basically owning the TV, but still, I mostly watch parts on my computer or phone now and that sucks.

Worst trend in skateboarding: The loose trucks speed check is the hipster tic tac.

Still the best transition skater ever: Grant Taylor

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!