Cover: PJ Ladds used Accel from the filming of PJ Ladd's Wonderful Horrible Life.
Photo: Joe Brook
In 2002, skateboarding experienced a seismic shift that didn’t come from a major brand or a global contest—but from a quiet, oddly titled shop video out of Boston: PJ Ladd’s Wonderful Horrible Life. Released by Coliseum Skate Shop.
This wasn’t just a local video with surprisingly good skating—it was a kick to the head in terms of what professional skateboarding looked like. The cover joked, “Over One Million Copies Sold,” but the joke became a truth. This was the video every skater—across all continents—had to peep.
PJ Ladd
At the center of it all was PJ Ladd, a soft-spoken skater with an unassuming presence and a bag of tricks that didn’t just feel ahead of its time—it was. His part (arguably two parts, if you count the post-credits section that’s often overlooked but just as heavy) was a masterclass in consistency, creativity, and raw technical control. Endless lines. Flatground mastery. A trick selection that danced between the absurd and the poetic.
Ladd wasn’t just good.
He was something else entirely.
The éS Accel
By the time Wonderful Horrible Life dropped, the eS Accel was already a staple in skate shops. But PJ’s skating—and more importantly, how he looked in that shoe—pushed it into something else: myth.
The black suede, the simple silhouette, the chunkiness without going full marshmallow - that all became synonymous with PJ’s skating. The way the Accels flexed and stuck during ledge combos and tech lines wasn’t just performance—it was aesthetic.
Because the part was so forward-thinking, the shoe became a kind of vessel for that energy. British indie rock on the speakers, endless flat—people didn’t just want to skate like PJ, they wanted to look like him, too. Which meant tracking down those Accels. Because wearing them said: you know.
Skating in a Time Capsule
What’s wild is how timeless it all feels. You can rewatch that part today and it still holds up—the tricks, the flow, the control. And there, padding through every line, is that unmistakable eS Accel. The Accel became a time capsule for the era: pre-YouTube, pre-content culture, pure skateboarding. A Boston shop video that accidentally rewrote the playbook.
The beauty of the PJ/Accel combo is that it was so unforced. But the impact stuck harder than any planned product drop. One of the most enduring moments from the part isn’t a trick—it’s that quiet shot of PJ showing just how annihilated his shoes were. No brand wants their product to look that cooked. I guess from a product upsell angle, we could play in on the durability but lets call it what it really is - Its a moment which worked. Because it was real.
It’s PJ needing what is comfortable whilst he pushes his skateboarding into the uncomfortable. The fringes of what might be possible.
This is a moment éS is deeply proud of.
These moments aren’t regular. That’s why, 23 years later, we’re still talking about it.
éS is a part of PJ’s story—a player in that quiet, world-shaking moment. And the Accel? It’s part of that story too—a shoe that got him exactly where he needed to go.