Cleveland's Van Monroe has built up a high powered following for his painted sneakers that often feature African-American themes:
"The wearable art, which Monroe sells through his MySpace page, has caught the attention of actors, musicians and up-to-the-minute fashion seekers. Hip-hop artists Will.I.Am, Fat Joe, T.I., Nelly and Diddy have pairs. So do actors Hill Harper, Bridget Monyahan and Oprah's best friend, Gayle King. Some celebs have exclusive pairs, and more celebs are on a waiting list to have Monroe paint them a pair of shoes."
Van Monroe's sneakers will be featured next month in an "exhibit titled "Beyond the Walls of Intelligence" in Los Angeles' historic Leimert Park."
Be sure to check Van Monroe's MySpace page for a wide range of pics including his Obama and Darfur designs.
Philly's Channel 6 has a surprisingly nice video news report on the Philadelphia release of Questlove's Air Questo, a customized Nike Air Force 1 in two editions.
FILA has appointed Nas the "sole ambassador" for their current Fila Italia Footwear Collection and it sounds like they'll also be collaborating with Nas on a new line:
"FILA will incorporate NAS into the marketing campaign of the Fila Italia Collection that will be available at athletic specialty and trend accounts nationwide in July. FILA and NAS will collaborate on the design of an 80s era vintage footwear and apparel collection which will be released beginning with the Holiday 2008 season."
More on the marketing campaign:
"To coincide with the release of the artist's 10th album...FILA created a print campaign featuring NAS that will be seen in Vibe, XXL, Giant and Fader. Print ads will also tout his upcoming tour and album. FILA's broadcast advertising incorporates NAS speaking about his experience with the FILA brand and will run on July 15 exclusively on BET nationwide. FILA developed in-store displays for top national and regional trend retailers to create a tie-in with NAS and the Fila Italia Collection."
Josh Sims speaks with Steve Van Doren about Vans' successful focus on the basics and "just being a cool, native southern Californian youth-culture brand".
Van Doren describes their positioning:
"Some brands are just associated with certain lifestyles. We're more West Coast than East Coast, which has tended to be strong for Converse. We're more solo sports than we are team sports, which the big athletics brands like Nike tap in to. We're more rock and punk than we are hip-hop, which other brands, again, tap in to. But what we certainly are is skateboarding."
Of course, folks like The Pack and Lupe Fiasco are making hip hop a bit friendlier to skateboarding and to Vans.
News emerged earlier this month that Stephon Marbury was in Seattle making a deal with Amazon that will make Starburys available via Amazon and Starbury.com, though at a higher price point, beginning with the Christmas shopping season.
Way back in time, like two weeks ago, Soulja Boy and Yums Shoes announced a deal in which Soulja Boy:
"in conjunction with Yums' designer Tex...[would] design his own signature shoe within the Yums' Block Star line of sneakers, which uniquely emblazon the soles of each colorfully crafted shoe with graffiti art. Soulja Boy Tell'em and Tex will also design street-oriented apparel for Yums Shoes."
Oddly enough Soulja Boy previously claimed to have a shoe deal with Yums when he actually seemed to have only some kind of endorsement status.
This story is about a year old but who could pass up a top 10 sneakers used by criminals in the UK [actually 5 police forces] starring Nike with Reebok as the loyal sidekick:
Top 10 Getaway Shoes
1 Nike Air Max 95 2 Reebok Classic (Leather) 3 Nike Air Max Limited 4 Nike Air Max Plus 1 5 Nike Air Classic BW 6 Nike Air Max 90 7 Reebok Classic Workout Plus 8 Reebok Classic Ripple 3 9 Nike Tennis Classic/Court Tradition 10 adidas Superstar
A "police source", clearly a seasoned criminal observer, stated that "criminals overwhelmingly use trainers, probably because they allow them to run fast."
To be perfectly frank, I'm still not convinced that this wasn't a humor column misfiled in crime but it was just too good to pass up.
Nike announced today that Kanye West will headline the Los Angeles concert following the August 31st, twenty-five city Nike+ Human Race.
Other artists and locations include:
"In London, runners will be treated to an exclusive performance by...Moby in the city's famed Wembley Stadium...All-American Rejects in NY...Fall Out Boy in Chicago...Kelly Rowland in Paris; dance-electro-pop duo The Pinker Tones in Madrid, Turkish pop sensation Kenan Dogulu in Istanbul; the Fantastic Four in Munich; Beijing-based singing duo Yu Quan in Shanghai and American rock band Boy Likes Girl in Singapore."
In yet another example of corporate patronage of music, Converse kicks off Three Artists, One Song by sponsoring and freely distributing at converse.com a collaborative single by Pharrell Williams, N.E.R.D., Santogold and Julian Casablancas.
Ok, that sounds like at least 4 artists, sorry Chad. In any case, a video's on the way and "Converse print, outdoor and online advertising...[will feature] the three artists as well as a range of emerging musical talent from across the globe, including Kid Sister, YACHT, Bradford Cox and members of Gallows, Fiery Furnaces, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, and Care Bears on Fire."
The above photo extends the Converse Connectivity pic with Common and M.I.A. that was also part of the larger Converse Century Celebration.
"Kevin Garnett, the Boston Celtics and adidas announced today the launch of a rare version of Garnett's 2008-09 adidas Team Signature Commander shoe. This footwear release was designed to commemorate the Celtics' historic run at an NBA Championship. adidas will produce only eight pairs per game of this exciting shoe to be sold at retail, starting at 10:00am on June 5, 2008 (as few as 28 pairs or as many as 56 pairs will be available depending on the number of games The Finals goes to). One special pair of shoes autographed by KG will be auctioned off on NBA.com after The Finals. All profits from the sale of these shoes will go to NBA Cares community partners in the Boston area."
"The adidas Team Signature KG Commander is scheduled to launch in October 2008, but for this year's NBA Finals, Kevin Garnett will wear a special version that will be highlighted by the inclusion of the coveted Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy on the medial side, and an embroidered callout to games 1 thru 7 on the lateral side. The number of that night's game will be in green while the others remain white. The numbers 1 thru 7 also get larger as each game grows in significance..."
"Another key attribute that has adorned KG's shoes throughout the years are his tributes to two of his good friends and mentors: Malik Sealy (former Timberwolves teammate) and Kirby Puckett (former Minnesota Twins Superstar Centerfielder). Malik's tribute is located under the strap and says "2 Malik", while Kirby's call out, "KP 34" is located on the back of the shoe, just below the adidas logo..."
"The limited edition adidas Team Signature Commander will only be available at Celtics.com, the TD Banknorth Garden Pro Shop and NBA Store in New York City. Each pair of adidas Team Signature KG Commanders will retail for $1017 (to commemorate the drive for championship #17)."
Over the next year, Kool-Aid and KaBOOM! will build 24 playgrounds in cities around the country, provide grants toward building 20 more, and work with local communities, parents and children to encourage healthier and more active lifestyles...
Joseph Simmons (a.k.a. Reverend Run)...will serve as the new brand ambassador for the Kool-Aid KaBOOM! initiative. He and his family will don hard hats and wield shovels as they join the brand on local community build sites. Additionally, Kool-Aid will include Reverend Run in POS displays and other promotions, and he will speak directly to consumers about healthy lifestyle choices and the benefits of play.
To be honest, I don't associate the "benefits of play" with Rev Run. I mean, see how happy he is about his new Icon sneaker?
But play is important in young people's live and adults could benefit from rediscovering play themselves.
And maybe getting into a playful spirit explains that whole Pimp Von Dracula routine. It's like Halloween every time he does a show!
Theo Parrish in Sounds of the City by adidas Originals
adidas Originals has been releasing a series of videos including the above featuring DJ Theo Parrish. There's a longer version on the site as well as other videos with at least one more to come.
To be honest, I kind of thought we were at the point where all you could really do with a sneaker is cut and paste variations on what has come before but apparently that's still considered a bad thing when you're a famous cutting edge artiste like Mr. Kanye West.
The Detroit YMCA has announced a very cool looking event called The Sneaker Project: Art from the Street Up happening March 28th and 29th:
"The exhibit--featuring local and national artists whose work has inspired shoe design--kicks off March 28 with a reception featuring athletes, street artists and sneaker designers. The event continues March 29 with artists customizing sneakers, a dunk exchange and celebration party. Public conversations with sneakophiles, artists and DJs are also planned."
The promo art above was created by Thunderdog Studios who've done work for clients ranging from Lupe Fiasco to Disney.
On a related note, ThunderDog Studios founder Tristan Eaton is making art on Ford Flex roofs at the New York International Auto show.
First Look At Converse's Connectivity Campaign including (from left to right) Hunter S. Thompson, Dwyane Wade, Sid Vicious, M.I.A., James Dean, Karen O, Common, Joan Jett and Billie Joe Armstrong
Common and MIA join a motley crew of living and dead icons for the Converse "Connectivity" campaign that celebrates 100 years of Converse history.
"Rolling out around the world from February 2008, 'Connectivity' is a striking artistic showcase of true originals who define the essence of the Converse brand since 1908. The advertising visually 'connects' past and present Converse icons brought together by their optimistic rebellion and homage to the Chuck Taylor All Star shoe..."
"Additional regional icons include Ian Curtis (UK), Jefferson Hack (UK), Carlos Diez Diez (Spain), Jane Birkin (France), Nina Hagen (Germany), Kim, Jung Man (Korea), Cui Jian (China), Darren Cordeux (Australia), Jose Fernando Emilio (Mexico) and Sandro (Argentina)..."
"The global advertising campaign will be unveiled in over 75 countries across the EMEA, Asia Pacific and the Americas via a mix of impactful print and outdoor, digital and integrated brand marketing executions. Regional adaptations of 'Connectivity' will roll out locally throughout Spring 2008 with country specific Converse icons joining the campaign and legendary line-up."
"'Connectivity' is a fully integrated marketing campaign created by New York City based creative agency Anomaly using distinctive and optimistically rebellious creative direction completely shot in monochrome and using hand-painted straplines and logo placement."
I'm sure Hunter S. Thompson and Sid Vicious are puking in their graves and dying again over this one but, hey, the living always feed off the dead. At least until they become zombies but even zombies wear Converse so it's all good.
Reebok's got this Kool-Aid line coming out February 1st with a lot of interesting angles like Kool-Aid scented soles and related merch, some of which you can see in their flickr pics:
"Check out Reebok’s newest collection: the Kool-Aid collection! The first installment will launch on February 1st in three great flavors: Grape, Cherry and Strawberry, each complete with hoodies, T-shirts, hats and sneakers. Plus, Reebok packed each of the kicks with extra flavor by crating scent-infused sockliners!"
As soon as I read this I couldn't stop thinking about Damon Dash sniffing the soles of some Keds he put out and talking about what he considered his ill sneaker game in Just For Kicks. The rest of his appearance was kind of pretentious but it's hard not to appreciate Damon Dash, sneaker freak, when he shows his true colors.
Kool-Aid Reebok Takeover at Nah Right Screenshot 1
I'm especially interested in the total Reebok Kool-Aid promotional takeover at Complex that includes a Lookbook on a promotions page with more pics of the hats and hoodies than I've seen elsewhere.
The high point is the ad takeover of Complex.com and the blogs in the Complex network, the link to which has been giving me a 403 Forbidden message for about a week but you can find them all via the ProHipHop News Center's Complex Network page.
Kool-Aid Reebok Takeover at Nah Right Screenshot 2
Of course I discovered the Kool-Aid Reeboks ad takeover at Nah Right as you can see from the above screenshots..
What knocks me out is the background pattern that pushes the ad takeover to another level. Not sure how long anybody would want to go for that but it's a great burst of attention prior to the February 1st release and there's no way you can ignore it.
Some folks might be annoyed but I'm feeling this campaign and it's starting to awaken this weird desire to acquire one of those hats I saw via the Complex Lookbook. Stop that! Stop it now!
I haven't checked for other sites yet but the full Complex site and all the Complex Network blogs appear to be participating though the background is much less visible on the sites with wider pages.
Blogs Is Watching says: "Horrible commercial and even more horrible shoe."
I guess I'd have to agree except that I can't care enough about the commercial or the shoe to make it all the way to horrible. And that's a bad sign in and of itself!
Here's the poster for the kickoff event for The Brotherhood of Chicago sneaker boutiques, Leaders 1354, PHLI Worldwide, and Self Conscious, previously covered at ProHipHop.
Three Chicago area sneaker boutiques, Leaders 1354, PHLI Worldwide, and Self Conscious, are joining together as The Brotherhood. Enstrumental created the "We need PHLI Self Conscious Leaders" t-shirts to symbolize the partnership and they're all celebrating with a series of events in Chicago on December 19th.
A rough looking dub of an AT&T commercial is released in what appears to be an example of casual viral seeding. In any case, the sets are said to be based on various famous sneaker shops whose names are visible in the commercial so I'm assuming they have made some kind of actual agreement rather than just sneakily biting the sneaker shop style.
Here's the description from the YouTube post: AT&T's new commercial (created by Sanders\Wingo and directed by Chris Robinson) brings sneaker culture to the forefront. Sets were created to mimic actual stores like: ALife, Undefeated, Solebox, and Motive807. Check it out.
Update: Considering what it might mean to have these sneaker shops in a tv commercial caused me to leave out the fact that I basically think it's a pretty darn good commercial. It flows well and, instead of the usual using technology takes me to a nutty fantasy world routine, the commercial actually does communicate a sense of the fact that networked communications have changed how we're connected to the world.
And it's done by simply playing off the shared experience of shopping online, the inevitable move to shopping via cellphone as the mobile web kicks into gear and an actor passing through a series of sets that register "cool" at every turn.
I say simply but that's not to imply that it's easy to do.
I know some people will roll their eyes at this commercial, or whatever they do at such moments, but I give it a thumbs up. It's also a reminder that the biggest sneaker freak watchers are in marketing and that sneaker freaks are practically worshipped by the marketing industry.
I would almost be willing to bet actual money that when marketers sit around discussing the summary they read of The Tipping Point that they keep coming back to sneaker freaks as a magical key of some sort. Once identified, such fetish items can then be used in turn to unlock the pockets of said marketers and the institutions they represent. And you can take that to the bank.
Real Talk NY has video of Nas performing and sneakers showing off plus more pics of sneakers including some unique artistic creations from the recent Sneaker Pimps NYC 2007 event.
Common will be the "face of Converse (PRODUCT) RED" for the Fall 2007 advertising campaign titled Weapon of Change. "The Converse (PRODUCT) RED Weapon [sneaker] will be available nationwide exclusively at Foot Locker, Footaction and Champs Sports and on www.converse.com with a suggested retail price of $75."
Common for Converse (Product) Red(TM)
More on the campaign: The "Weapon of Change" campaign featuring Common was shot on location in Los Angeles by photographer Bryan Adams. The campaign includes black and white photography with an illustrative overlay giving the campaign visual depth playing on the graphic nature of expression on a blank canvas. The print advertising will run in national magazines beginning July running through September in Complex, ESPN, Fader, Rolling Stone, Spin and Vibe. There will also be out-of-home billboards, wild postings and bus shelters in Common's hometown of Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.
Sneaker Freaker has a fun feature on starting your own sneaker store called Are You Game?
Unfortunately the actual business knowledge imparted is a bit meager but the fact that getting a Nike account takes up most of two pages is a reminder of Nike's pre-eminence in this particular game.
Someone from Alife Rivington in NY talks about how they got their Nike account: We befriended a cat that worked at Nike. He’d come by the shop a lot, and at the time there wasn’t much going on in the Lower East Side. One day we all sat down, burned one, and he gave us the low down on Nike. We ended up being a platform for Nike to introduce newer, more innovative designs and our Nike account was on its way. No promotion or advertising was done, yet lines of customers would form at sunrise each and every time we had a new colorway or style.
In a new Paul Hunter directed commercial for Nike that immediately reminded me of an earlier Nike commercial with an Afrika Bambaataa soundtrack (shown below) that also turns out to be directed by Paul Hunter, we see that adding a more complicated set and more athletes in motion leads to a much less interesting commercial.
Nike - Freestyle
The Freestyle commercial not only features music by Afrika Bambaataa and Hydraulic Funk, but has choreography by Savion Glover, one of the greatest dancers of our time. That's hard to beat, so maybe this is really a less is less situation.
Nas Displays a Sample from His Upcoming Footwear Line
Nas and 310 Footwear are cocreating a footwear line called DISCIPLE Footwear Collection by 310. 310 Footwear, associated with 310 Motoring, previously released The Game's Hurricane line.
Actually, I'm just assuming the shoe in the photo is a sample of some sort but the photo did come from a recent 310 Footwear photo shoot and was the only one included with the press release. I have to say, Nas doesn't look very happy about that shoe.
The Second Coming - Nike's Air Force 25 Commercial
Freshness Mag has a music video featuring the Juelz Santana, Just Blaze track and footage from the making of the Second Coming commercial shown above for Nike's new Air Force 25 sneaker.
Kanye West will be joined onstage by Nas, Rakim and KRS-One to perform a track produced by Rick Rubin for One Night Only, Nike's "celebration of the 25th year anniversary of the Air Force 1".
Tobin+Parnes Design Enterprises is currently publicizing their art gallery like design for a high end sneaker shop in St. Louis called R.sole that opened earlier this year with more to follow.
From the press release: Consistent with the overall store aesthetic, Tobin+Parnes' designers covered the front windows in translucent vinyl with geometric cutouts, allowing passer-bys only a glimpse of the interior. "Although it was risky, our team decided to use a non-sell, selling strategy because it would appeal to serious collectors and also act as a lure for other customers," said Vlad Zadneprianski, of Tobin+Parnes.
Also from the press release: Dark gray finishes are used on the millwork, the floor, ceiling and walls, recalling a designer's black box, and imparting the attitude of a hip exclusive nightclub. The checkout station was designed to be easily converted into a DJ station for parties and community events.
I was disappointed to not find a photo of the checkout to DJ station conversion but I'm in touch with these folks and expect to follow up in the future either in relationship to this store or to others that are opening soon.
I'm sure these shoes are really meaningful to fans and freaks alike and I know they're classic designs that have probably been worked to filth but they are so uninspiring.
Big Proof Air Max '90's 1's
On the other hand, I'm sure Proof would be happy to know that his face is on a pair of Nike's.
By the way, these are an early look at the first two designs. There are more to come.
Update: According to various commenters, who probably know, the Proof shoe is an Air Max 1. I took the Air Max 90 label from today's press release that otherwise had no additional info beyond the release to which I linked above.
Though the focus has been on the shoes, the Starbury Collection includes almost fifty "items for men and boys, including jackets, jeans, hoodies, tshirts, athletic tops and shorts, lifestyle and performance sneakers, work boots, hats and other accessories" with most items priced at $10 or less.
But it's the shoes that have caught everyone's attention. Stephon Marbury's claim that he will wear Starbury One's in the upcoming NBA season remains one of the biggest marketing angles that will make a crucial difference in the longevity of the collection.
Speaking of marketing, Erin Patton who's heading up the Starbury One marketing campaign for The Mastermind Group was "director of the Jordan Brand at Nike for five years".
In addition, "Marbury's marketing representatives, Jordan Bazant and Peter Raskin of The Agency Management, and urban marketing agency The Run Group" were involved with developing the collection.
I just got word that when the Steve and Barry’s store in Manhattan Mall opened this morning, there were about 500 people in line outside the store. The people came charging in when the doors opened, and the store completely sold out of Steph’s shoes. Really. They were bringing in shoes from the back, people kept coming in to get their kicks, and even the actual Steve and Barry were having to work the registers to help get people through there.
I can't help but wonder who passed along that glowing report.
In any case, I missed out on all the release day excitement because there are no Steve & Barry's in my neck of the woods. That's a big limit on what the Starbury Collection can do but, then again, it seems like a proposition in which both Stephon Marbury and Steve & Barry's are building together.
I was checking out the press release announcing the launch of the Starbury Collection and started wondering if the low price point would bring out the haters. So I checked the initial comments at Nah Right and was pleasantly surprised to find that even the jokes had a positive edge.
Here are a few excerpted samples with dates and times removed:
cbrizzle Says: A ROUND OF STARBURY 1′S ON ME!!!!!!!!
WestCoast_GetsDown Says: if marbury balls in em hes keepin it real
tyronebiggums71 Says: [responding to WestCoast_GetsDown] THATS WHATS ACTUALLY COOL ABOUT WHAT HE IS DOING, SHAQ HAD REAL CHEAP SHOES TO BUT OF COURSE THATS NOT WHAT HE ROCKS HE ROCKS HIS CUSTOM MADE ONES MARBURY WILL BE ROCKING THE SAME EXACT ONES YOU CAN COP FOR 15 $ ( WELL SUPPOSEDLY, BUT SORRY LANDLORD THIS STILL AINT HELPING THE KNICKS )
spanish jay a.k.a Mr. يشوع Says: 15 bucks for the new Marbury’s couple that with “take (?)back(?) the land movement” and we got something
Obviously you can't take one blog's comments section as a stand-in for the populace at large but these comments made me very happy, not for Starbury, but for those broke ass kids who may finally get a cool cheap pair of sneakers without having assholes give them a hard time for being poor. Not that they won't but you know what I mean.
[Note: I'm not describing the commenters at Nah Right as assholes but they don't hold back if they don't like something.']
I'll be so mad if Stephon Marbury ends up with shoes that simply look like Starbury's while short changing kids. Let's hope he really is keeping it real and that he's also got somebody smart keeping an eye on the shoemakers.
I'll be back with more on the early stages of the Starbury campaign but here's the Starbury site if you're interested.
Last night I finally watched Just For Kicks., a "documentary about sneakers, hip-hop & the corporate game" and found it to be an enjoyable film that could be viewed as a hip hop history flick covering the emergence of the sneaker freak from the growth of b-boy culture, as a context specific study of the power of hip hop marketing or as an example of the fact that real people who really care about something are always more interesting than famous people who can simply buy a lot of merchandise and store it in walk-in closets.
If you're interested in more details regarding the movie, Gil Jewetz provides what could be described as an outsider's view with many accurate depictions of what occurs combined with an honest admission of lack of interest in the subject matter.
As out of the loop as Gil shows himself to be, he still gets some key points spot on: Damon Dash sucked the life out of Paper Chasers and he does it again here, droning on about how he never wears the same pair of sneakers twice and showing off his sneaker closets, which manage to be both extravagant and completely slovenly at the same time.
The reality is, the more famous the figure in the film, except for D.M.C. who drops an animated tale of the origins of My Adidas from the mind of a dusted out Russell Simmons (yes, he was smoking that dust!), the less interesting they are in comparison to the lesser knowns: The last parts of the film only really bristle with energy when an individual interviewee gets excited over a tale of discovering vintage kicks in a dingy basement or far-flung store.
My own experience is that Damon Dash's brief appearances fall flat and make him look bad but that such moments don't undermine the overall film and I, for example, found the 50 Cent section well worth seeing in the context of the film, though it seemed to baffle Gil that anyone could care about G-Unit sneakers.
Highly Edited Clip from the My Adidas Section:
But most of the people in the film talk about stuff they care deeply about, whether the person talking is a hip hop journalist, an obsessive sneaker freak or an old school emcee, it really doesn't matter. These people show their love for and knowledge of the topic and that's the heart of the experience.
Gil does clarify the fact that the DVD includes bonus footage, something that I could not get from the Official Movie Site, from IMDB or from my screener copy.
Gil describes the "EXTRAS": The menus deserve mention since their clean, simple design both mimics classic sneaker styling and just looks great. The extras consist of a series of six additional segments, including an ode to the late Jam Master Jay (DJ and style-originator for Run DMC) as well as additional interviews. There is also a collection of trailers for other hip hop themed DVD releases.
[Note: Wack rant by yours truly, i.e. Clyde the blogger, removed cause it was kind of ridiculous.]
Although the story of Sneaker Freaks as portrayed in mainstream media has a fairly standardized form at this point, Cheryl V. Jackson brings a nice touch to the genre with her brief portrait of Dave Jeff, owner of Chicago sneaker
Recent Comments