Beast to the Extreme

Obsessing over Nike is bad enough. Obsessing over the people that work on Nike ads is pathetic. Hypebeasting to the extreme.  Please don’t take that the wrong way.   I understand and respect that level of dedication.  Honeyee, interviewed a handful of W+K’ers. This will prove to be completely irrelevant to anyone reading my blog, since the interviews are in Japanese.   Fortunately, John C. Jay’s portion has been translated to English and how beastly is it of me to say that it is a pretty good read?

I had a great sneaker conversation Ryan at Primary Wave this week and it occurred to me that I have not bought a pair of Nikes in over 3 years. Of course, I will always love Nike, and I will no doubt pounce on some black Jordan IIIs in a second. Anyone have them in size 11?

Adidas Flow Team?

Look what the postman brought by the house the other day. Shoes showing up is nothing unusual, but I did not purchase these shoes!  I do own this same pair of shoes – perhaps the subject of a future Road Test – but it seems adidas felt the need to send me another pair. Obviously, it was a mistake of some sort, but you gotta love pleasant surprises like this. Believe it or not… this was not the first time it has happened and the first time was faaaaar more interesting.

Since karma management is always top of mind for me, I will walk these back to the Originals Store by my office. I am sure they’ll be shocked, but as they say, karma is a bitch, and I am not messing with it. What would you do?

Road Tested: Bapesta

Let me answer your first question. Yes, these are for sale. I will give them to you for half price – say $90, shipped I have had tons of Bapes over the years, in many shapes, styles, colors, and – ahem – even sizes, since Pondon’s 10.5s are typically way cheaper than 11s. I ain’t to proud to squeeze my toes to save a few bucks. With all the colorways that I have had over the years, this pair was subjected to the most wear and tear. The colorway is subtle enough to sneak into conservative client meeting without setting off alarms, yet still get you the occasional streetwise complement. When I entered my dark phase, these kept getting play. The rest of my rainbow colored Bapes have done nothing but gather dust over the last year, or served as my rain shoes.

Couple of features worth noting… Despite the super ragged appearance, the toe did not start peeling back until I got these things thoroughly soaked in an NYC slushee storm. The inner heal is destroyed because I have yet to adopt the practice of lacing up my shoes tightly. When people aren’t hating on Bape, you may hear references to the company’s extreme attention to detail and quality. Although that is not as obvious in their shoes as with their apparel, I have to admit, these will hold us as good as any. The obvious test would be stack them up to some GR uptowns to see if they are really higher quality. Who knows… I took these to the moon and back and I will still break them out every now and then. Well worth the money.

Gigot DVD

An old favorite, finally available on DVD. Always very hard to find, apparently until now. Pick up a copy of the Gigot DVD for your grandparents. Stand close by when you give it to them, because they’ll likely faint when they see how thoughtful you can be.

from http://gigotdvd.blogspot.com/

Watch This: “Once”

Ringtone rap getting you down? Fall Out Boy not your pace? Take a break from the onslaught of commercial garbage currently failing you and watch “Once” – now OnDemand, via NetFlix, your video store, and hell, even some torrent site that hasn’t been shut down yet. It really is an incredibly beautiful, simple ‘musical’ even though there is nothing about it that resembles any others riding the musical wave. All of the warmhearted goodness, with none of the cliches.

Enjoy!

N.E.R.D – Everyone Nose

New track… it must take a few listens, because I have not fallen in love with it just yet. Sounds like classic N.E.R.D. though, which is good and bad. Something off-the-charts different would have been nice.

N.E.R.D. – Everyone Nose (via Nah Right, via BBC Blog)

UDPATE:  A month in… I am LOVING it.  It’s got a little ‘Juice’ flava.  Sip it!

Road Tested: Clae Russell

Sung Choi is my new hero. He somehow resurrected Clae and in the process hit me with one of the most pleasant surprises from a sneaker company in a long time. Perhaps I set my expectations too low? Actually, I did not have much in the way of expectations, but from the second I held these in my hands (at Vinnie’s Styles in Brooklyn) I knew that the quality was far beyond most of the hyped stuff out there these days.

I am by no means a sneaker collector. Hell no! I wear all of my stuff, and I wear it into the ground. That’s why with my ‘Road Tested‘ posts, I feature shoes that I have worn for a while now. I wear them on the streets of NYC, through nasty subway stations, and even during my business travels. I am all about aesthetics, but it is functionality and quality that will separate the one-hit hype wonders from those that are here to stay (assuming those in charge know how to operate a business ).

Despite a few pain in the ass pitbull claw scrathes from my eager-to-go-for-a-walk dog, these look brand spanking new. I GoJo the shit out of the white sole every week or so, each time restoring the white completely. If I am meeting with a rather conservative client, the Russells are my go-to shoes. If I was one of those dudes that were sneakers with a suit, these would be the sneakers to wear.

My mom always told me “You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes. You can go cheap on clothes, but make sure you have nice shoes.” I will let Clae speak for me all day long.

Steve Aoki Commercial

Along the lines of the video flier from a previous post, now companies that would never typically never produce a :30 second commercial are doing so purely for online distribution.   I know companies have been doing this for a while, but I would imagine we’ll see the trend explode in the coming year.   I have begged clients to create a special online-only version of their regular commercials for years (all of which can be done after the fact on a Mac for pennies) but big, clueless, insecure traditional agencies always put the brakes on any momentum.   Here is Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak version:

Melbourne Party Kid – Real or Fake?

What do you think?

Lil’ Wayne’s Life Expectancy

Blender has the results:

Estimated Life Expectancy: 44 years

Projected Year of Death: 2026

Here is their very scientific rationale.