God ya'll are dumb as fuck we've been having this conversation since Dunks became a thing. You can talk about how they should have kept x rider but really how would they afford that shit compared to Nike money? Even if they paid one of these dudes to stay I'm sure some other guys would be getting the chop to compensate. I'm not saying they didn't fuck up but at the end of the day, they stood no chance to the budget of a company like Nike anyway.
Nike paid riders well, we saw riders wear the shoes in the ads and videos, and we bought them. That is that. No behind the scenes shade was going to prevent that from happening if better money is on the table and you have the short career expectancy of a pro skater. Even if they kept a few guys it would just be delaying the inevitable. I don't think either brand is evil but complaining that a smaller brand didn't do enough to compete against one of the biggest companies in the world is just a dumb ass thing to do. Just let it go.
Also, it was no shock when eS went under. If you were skating at the time you know their whole identity was not in style at all. Everyone was wearing vulcs and eS was known for more tech cupsoles. In a different world they would probably be popular today with that resurgence but not with Kelly Hart as the face of the company.