It takes something unique for us to depart from the strict edict to cover only sneakers, but from time to time something catches our eye and makes us sit up and take notice. For this rare departure, it helps that the item is made for one of the biggest shoe companies in the world--Adidas.
In honor of the launch of their new brand center in Beijing, Adidas has commissioned new customized furniture from designer Dorothy Tang and the result is pretty astounding. One can only hope that they put some of these items up for charity auction on eBay--or make them on demand for their loyal fanss who assuredly would decorate their home with pieces like these.
Thanks to our friends at High Snobiety for the photo.
Colette, the stellar French boutique and the force behind the online retail outlet We Sold Out has announced two new collaborations that are sure to be snapped up by sneaker fans around the world.
First up is the Adidas AZX X Colette ZX 300, part of the A-Z collection that offers Collete fans a clean black and white shoe with words starting with the letter "C" and their definitions encircling the shoe.
Next comes the Colette X Onitsuka Tiger with the trademark Colette blue all over--laces, stars, and Tiger branding gives this hi-top an instantly recognizable flair.
Coming on the heels of two previous successful collaborations, Reebok and MIT Media Center design guru John Maeda are at it again. This time his color palatte is bold--a perfect match to the wicked stylings of the Insta Pump Fury, dubbed "Struccess".
Starting July 2, only 300 pair will be available for $200, with some being sold through the site at http://www.clickthat2006.com/rbk/maeda.asp. Given that his last two efforts sold out in less than 24 hours [I bought the Timetanium, so I can vouch for both the quality of the shoe and design as well as the speed with which they were sold out], be quick on the trigger to snag one of these masterpieces before they are gone.
To check out more photos of the Struccess shoe, check out the Flickr photo stream here.
One of the most recognizable materials is that which comprises the Mexican blanket, favorite of tourists and residents of our neighbor to the south alike. Made popular recently by the P-Rod version for Nike SB, New Balance brings their own version to market to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the popular 576 model.
Available in limited release now in Japan, look for them stateside--or on eBay--soon. Photo courtesy of Hypebeast.
Occasionally at work, while waiting for my daily caffeine injection, I watch in amazement at some of my fellow colleagues who take charge of the table tennis table [aka ping pong for the backyard BBQ players] and wonder at their abailties.
Fellow blogger Jeff Staple, the genius behind Staple Design, posted some wicked pictures on his blog showing the new Nike Star Classics that have an obvious nod to the table tennis culture on the back heel. No word on availablity, but will keep a keen eye out--and one on the ball.
Often times, companies develop technology for athletes that eventually makes it into the hands of athleteas that aren't competing for a gold medal. You see it in NASCAR, on the PGA Tour, and with Nike's latest release now you can see it on your feet with the new Lunaracer and Lunartrainer kicks.
The new technology, developed for Olympic athletes, includes a revolutionary new cushioning system, Lunarlite foam and the Flywire filaments. The shoes are sure to be among the lightest on the track in Beijing this summer. And now if you live in Europe, a few stores now have them in stock, including We Sold Out. Word on the street is that they will drop in the US later this summer, following the Olympics...
Some of you may have seen these kicks earlier this year--and some of you may have even been lucky enough to snag a pair of the hot collaboration between industry bible Sneaker Freaker and Puma. For those of you that missed out, they are dropping a new colorway--black with aquamarine laces and accents. These shoes are on fire, and will cost you a pretty penny on eBay if you sleep. Photos courtesy of Hanon Shop, who will also be selling them--check out the link HERE.
Available now at Hanon Shop and Overkill is the Nike Dunk Hi X St. Pauli shoe, limited to 500 pairs globally.
While not known for their prowess on the pitch, the football club IS known for their rebellious nature, and the shoe carries a skull and crossbones to reflect this. Very clean design and limited quantities ensure this sneaker to sell out quickly.
If you have not visited the site "Stuff White People Like", take the time NOW to check it out. If you are white, odds are that you will find yourself saying "Hey, that's not true...wait a minute, maybe it is..." If you know white people, odds are there are at least a few things on the site's growing list of things white people like
like that are part of their daily routine. Ivy Leage grad perhaps? Bumper stickers? Dinner parties?
So you might be asking what "Stuff White People Like" has to do with sneakers, the sole focus of this here blog. Well, it so happens that one recent post was about "New Balance Shoes", so I thought I'd share a few choice quotes from the post.
"All white people own a pair! Seriously, next time you are at a casual party where guests are encouraged to take off their shoes take a look by the door at the veritable rainbow of New Balance sneakers."
"When you meet a person wearing New Balance shoes it is a good idea to ask them about the marathon for which they are inevitably training. If they say 'I’m not training for a marathon,' this is a good opportunity to raise your status by saying 'oh, I thought only runners wore those.'"
The mock-ups of the Nike Lobster kicks have been floating around for a long time, but it looks like they are finally coming to market. In conjunction with Boston sneaker boutique Concepts, Nike SB is dropping the Lobster, which will have a number of cool details that East-coast lobster-noshers will savor: paper wrapped like NE lobster sellers use, a box that looks like a lobster holding tank, and general stylings that will make you want to break out the bib and butter.
As a bonus, the first 200 pair will come with a t shirt, a condiments pack that has a lobster cracker, fork, bib, wet nap and extra set of laces. If you are lucky enough to be in the Boston area when they drop on May 31st, stop by Concepts to have some good eats by East Coast staple Legal Seafood.
Following a successful lunchtime event at our company HQ, I can now share that David Filo, co-founder and Chief Yahoo! is now one pair of Adidas shell-toes poorer and I, your humble scribe, am one richer.
Check out the gently worn kicks in the photo...along with my sincere gratitude and lolcatz inspired humor (thanks to the folks at ICanHasCheezeburger for their photo editing help).
You may have seen them on t-shirts...or in the lobby of Yahoo! HQ in Sunnyvale. These, my friends, are the shoes off of David Filo's feet. While I will be conducting an interview with Filo sometime in the next few days, if luck is on my side these might be in my possession before the post is up.
How, you ask? Today is a great event at Yahoo! called the "Free is Good Fair", where Yahoo! is working with Freecycle to have employees bring in stuff they don't want or need, and in turn they can take stuff they want from what has been brought in by others. Think of it as Craigslist without money...or "one man's junk is another man's treasure".
I brought in several things, including sneakers and some snazzy soccer cleats--all in great shape. My guess is that you too have some sneakers you can part with--donate them to Freecycle and let someone else get some use out of them...
If you happen to have sneakers that are beyond passing along to others, I offer the following suggestion--Nike's "Reuse a Shoe" program, where they take the materials from any brand of shoes and make them into baskbetball courts, tennis courts and other surfaces for kids to play on...Check out their website here or send them to:
Nike Recycling Center
c/o Reuse-A-Shoe
26755 SW 95th Ave.
Wilsonville, OR 97070
Fabulous photo courtesy of the charming and omnipresent shutterbug Nicki Dugan
With woven tweed, a translucent swoosh, black and white color palette, and cool embroidery on the heel, it almost makes me wish I was a father--although it will not stop me from picking these up if I can.
With the success of the Opening Day pack, this is sure to be a success--so grab a pair for yourself and for dear old dad...Thanks to our friends at High Snobiety for the image.
Reading Kanye West's blog is often like seeing where style and fashion is going to be several months from now. A voyeuristic trip down super expensive luxury items that very few people can rock--unless you have Kanye cash. The sort of money that says, "I will pay for them, I will wear them and I don't care what you think." And you will probably be jocking them six months later.
Exhibit A: Ato Matsumoto cow hide boots in metallic silver, black patent and white. You may not have West's wealth, but with a little bit of cash and some luck, you too can walk a mile in his shoes.
Courtesy of our friends over at Slam X Hype is a sneak peek at the simple, yet striking interpretation of the Nike Tennis Classic shoe in red, grey and blue by Fragment's Hiroshi Fujiwara.
The APC version of this shoe that dropped last year portrayed the same simple elegance in solid leather with the APC tennis/guitar logo. Odds are that people will pay the same big bucks for these clean lines this time around.
For anyone who grew up skating in the 80's with stickers, clothing and boards proclaiming your allegiance to the Bones Brigade, Vision Street Wear, and reading Thrasher, odds are that your life today is not just half pipes and tailgrabs.
Sometime, for posterity's sake, we might break out the old Powell & Peralta board and see if we still have what it takes. But for a few rare people, life has taken a different path--like the one that has allowed skater Tommy Guerrero to follow his passion, expand on other intrerests and continue to be a relevant cultural force yeards after he started skating for fun.
Between his skating, music and job at DLX, Tommy was kind enough to take some time to speak with SneakerBlogger:
So what are you working on right now? I just dropped a new album, Return of the Bastard in February and my other project is called jet black crayon. we have a new
record dropping next month..
it has a dvd with 7 films that accompany the music..good stuff....
For those new to the game, can you give a quick history of Tommy G
and shoes? (And do you still have any of your '84 P&P pro models lying around?...)
hmmm...it would be difficult to edit my life into a sentence...i'm old
ya know..lots has happened...
as far as shoes go i have never had a pro model..adidas made 100
samples a couple years ago for promo..nothing ever became of it..oh
well...
i mainly sport adidas...been skating in shell toes for at least 10
years if not several more.
What do you get when you pair a new brand of soccer boots with one of the most creative acts in music? The answer is an amazing new video that cuts across the intersection of shoes and music, one of the longest standing relationships within sneaker/sports culture. LCD Soundsystem, famous for the track "Daft Punk is Playing At My House" and one of the best live shows around, created a track to coincide with the launch of Nomis's new line of football boots [soccer shoes for those of you stateside]. Sit back, relax and enjoy some fresh tunes from LCD Soundsystem--and figuer out how to start playing soccer just to be able to wear these flashy kicks...
Usually, working at a faced-paced technology startup leaves little time for anything else. But when you have a desire to build a better sneaker, you find time. And that is exactly what Neil Cueto [above, in the foreground] and Mark Gamab [above, sitting] did. Working for Danger [the company that created the Sidekick for T-Mobile and was recently snapped up by Microsoft] by day, they spent their freee time on their other passion : designing innovative kicks under their brand PLSTK.
The duo has caused a stir among sneakerheads with their fresh designs and a diverse lineup of kicks, so we were excited when Neil took some time out of his crazy schedule to chat with us about working two jobs, going head to head with the majors and why he jumped head-first into the wild world of sneakers.
How did you get started--and how have things been so far?
Personally, I got started as a kid not being able to afford Jordans. I
always bought the jordans the season after. I remember laceing up my
Jordan 3's ready to go to school and when I got to school the kids
asked "why I got the old ones?" They were all wearing 4's. Ever since
then, I've been hooked.
As for PLSTK, we were looking through fashion blogs and magazines at
work and we would send each other links on different types of shoes
etc. Then one day we realized that "thats what we'd like to be doing.
Just designing shoes".
Granted both Mark and I have pretty good paying
jobs. But as far as satisfaction goes, theres nothing better than
seeing a product become physical from start to finish. An even better
reward is seeing someone you don't know wearing your shoes.
Its sort
of the same feeling we get when we see a kid using a Sidekick. I want
to tell them that I did this or that on it.
For avid readers of blogs like Hypebeast, SlamXHype, or High Snobiety, 24 Kilates [store info and website here] will be a familiar name. In fact, just recently it was announced that they are doing a stellar collaboration with New Balance, which has sneakerheads keeping an eye on their site.
On my last day in town and prior to meeting a friend for dinner, I ventured into Conti 24 Kilates, and was immediately greeted by a mural painted by SF's David Flores, instantly reminding me of home--and my early morning flight. The crew was super helpful and the store is stocked with rare kicks [including a lot of Alife's and the first ever "formed" Voltron I had laid eyes on from the Rebook colab], a huge selection of imported toys, and impressive selection of graf books and DVDs, and lots of clothing.
I'm not sure where my travels will take me next, but I highly suggest dropping by 24 Kilates if you happen to be in Barcelona's neck of the woods...
One of the perks of my day job is that I get to travel to some pretty cool places--like Barcelona, Spain. Once my work duties were done, I dusted off my Spanish and made a beeline with one of my colleagues for some of Barcelona's coolest sneaker shops. First stop, the world famous Trust Nobody [website and contact info here]--2 levels of sneaker, toy and skateboarding heaven.
While I am always reminded how sneaker-stocked we are in SF, it was amazing to see the breadth and depth the store possessed. From limited edition and super hard-to-find kicks, to toys from Kaws and Bearbrick, to a full floor dedicated to skateboarding, reminding me of Huf and other similarly situated stores stateside.
Their prices and selection were great, but I was instantly reminded of how week the dollar was when I picked up a pair of shoes, but that is the price you pay to be in the game. Big thanks to Julio, who hooked me up and was gracious host. Next stop: 24 Kilates...
There is a great cover story in a recent issue [should still be on many newsstands as of this writing] on the new direction of Nike under their CEO, long time employee Mark Parker. Instead of breaking things up into products [shoes, apparel, etc.], Parker has broken things down into divisions by sports. The article shows that Nike is laser-focused on global domination and serves as a great case study for any global business.
Sorry for the long overdue posts--personal matters have caused me to be a bit more distanced from the blog than I would normally like, so I shall make it up with a number of posts for those of you hungry for news on new kicks.
In keeping with their tradition of celebrating Chinese New Year by creating a shoe [or shoes, in some cases], Nike has dropped the Nike Year of the Rat Willdwood 90 Free Trail. Free Trails are super comfortable, and this year's shoe is a bit more subtle than last year's Year of the Pig pink woven 360's...If you are lucky enough to live in Asia, you should be able to pick these up now. Thanks to our friends at Hypebeastfor the images.
What do you get when you take a classic comic strip [Spy vs. Spy], a top sneaker brand [Puma] and one of the hottest sneaker stores in the country [Bodega]? Easy--one of the most anticipated releases in a while.
Marketing folks are getting pretty slick by merging audiences together across platforms and will surely see these sell out lightening fast and have steep prices on eBay. Get them while you can, because if you sleep on these you will be sorry. Image via SneakerFreaker.
Like concept cars at auto shows, many sneaker designs never make it out of the lab--or at least into the market. Jeff Staple happens to be one of those lucky guys who is both talented AND connected, and shares his finds, gifts and information on his blogs [personal one, Honeyee blog]. As the head of Staple Design, his place is forever cemented in sneaker history for his creation of the storied Pigeon Dunk [real ones still command close to $2,000 on eBay]. [End Jeff Staple hero-worship here...for now.]
As a faithful reader of all things Staple, I was both amused and amazed at him dropping information on the "Lobster" SB designed by Rob from Weekly Drop in conjunction with Concepts in Boston. Notice the incredible detailing, including the rubber bands that usually go around fresh lobster claws and the picnic basket design. If these do come out, I will rock these when I head to Martha's Vineyard next summer for sure.
Still available via their online store, these kicks from retailer David Z. are must-haves for Asics fans. With metallic colors in silver/red [Stainless Steel] and gold/black [Solid Gold], these Gel Lyte III limited edition sneakers come with a matching backpack and retail for a cool $130.
Cop these, and odds are that you will be the talk of the club all night long. Now if you could only find an outfit to match the sneaker bling.
