Thursday, March 5, 2009
The boat shoe jawns
I first saw the shits on hypebeast, then Im watchin VH1 Storytellers and they just had to make sure they got him wearin them shits on camera. Shits is cold.
Grandiose!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Im fallin back into my sneakerhead ways
Here’s the official copy and pasted press release from Nikepedia. But if you’re too lazy to read, scroll to the very bottom for release info.
Nike Sportswear and Grammy award winning recording artist Kanye West present the highly anticipated Nike Air Yeezy sneaker in Spring 2009.
The shoe, which takes West’s nickname Yeezy, draws upon the innovations from Nike’s rich sporting history and fuses them with original lines, materials, and design elements that reflect West’s unique style.
The Air Yeezy was developed from a strong relationship between West and Nike. Partnering with Nike Creative Director, Mark Smith, Kanye was taken through the product creation process, the same way athletes have with Nike Design for the past 37 years. This creative partnership of Smith and West’s talents as designers yielded a unique Nike Sportswear sneaker worth the wait. “Kanye is a truly creative talent,” said Smith. “He’s a natural designer—partnerships like this always enhance the creative experience and the end product.” West agrees that the partnership with Nike has been exciting. “Nike is such an important brand to me,” said West. “Whether you are on the court, in the street, in the club, at school, Nike represents excellence, the standard in design. Growing up, we looked forward to the release of new Nike’s the way we would an album by our favorite artist. So the opportunity to collaborate on a design with Mark Smith and Nike Design has been a dream come true, and a great experience.”
From the start, West and Nike’s shared vision was clear: to create a modern classic. An original Nike footwear style, that reflects elements of Nike’s sporting past, and remixes them with Nike innovation to deliver a unique shoe.
The creative process of the Air Yeezy began with the discussion around ideas and inspirations. The shoe began to take shape through a series of drawings and samples, each pulling inspiration and reference from some of Nike’s iconic innovations and rich design history, across both Basketball and Sportswear styles.
A careful balance was sought, each time new elements were added, with existing elements being taken away - a design process Smith refers to as “reductionism”. “Nike shoes need to function and always be innovative,” said Smith. “So the first thing we did was to make sure the design process that Kanye and Nike Design went through, mirrored that of our athletes.” “I’ve been designing Nike’s in my sketch pad since the fourth grade,” said West. “So to say I’ve been prepared for this would be an understatement. The really fun and challenging part for me was learning about Nike’s design process, learning more about fabrics and functions and colorways, and all of the details that go into designing a shoe of this quality.”
Following the fabled tradition of Nike’s design process, West and Smith went through a series of one-on-one design sessions. At Nike the ultimate test is one of performance, where the design meets the athlete’s movements. “Kanye could wear and perform in these shoes and really identify how we could make the shoes perform better.” Supplanting center court with center stage, West provided critical feedback on how the shoe performed throughout the course of his 2-3 hour performance sets, where the first prototypes of the Nike Air Yeezy were seen outside of Nike’s World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR.
*THE NIKE AIR YEEZY: NEW SCHOOL OF COMFORT.*
Born from Kanye West’s creative passion, built with Nike design and performance innovation, The Air Yeezy was fine-tuned on stages around the globe, challenging convention by remixing the past to create something uniquely new, as only Nike Sportswear can.
West is known for his non-stop energy both on the stage and off so the Air Yeezy had to support and sustain West from start to finish. An almost obsessive focus was put on delivering supreme comfort throughout the development of the shoe. Equipped with debossed ankle collar pods for added support and protection, extra-thick sock liners, a forefoot support strap, original functional tension lace loops, and Phylon tooling taken from the 1987 Nike Air Assault for added performance and comfort—all developed and integrated with one goal in mind: to keep Kanye on lock down in cushioned comfort during his performances during his many notoriously strenuous artistic live performances.
These performance attributes have been meticulously wrapped in premium full grain leather uppers and adorned with original design details that are uniquely Kanye and identifiably Nike. The remastered Nike Air Assault outsole is treated to glow-in-the-dark properties and will illuminate when the light is low. The forefoot support strap is premium grade patent leather and is of no-stitch construction. Clean seams are used throughout except for a premium suede toe wrap feature with visible stitch detail. Emblazoned across the Air Yeezy is an exclusive “Y” repeat pattern, as either a debossed or lasered detail, which takes inspiration from the Jordan brands iconic Elephant print material. This graphic treatment was developed by West and Smith to pay tribute not only to the name of the shoe and it’s co-creator, but also to the various moments in history that spurred West’s initial inspiration for the Nike Air Yeezy.
The Nike Air Yeezy will release in Spring 2009. Three colorways will be available. The first in April 2009 will be the Zen Grey/LT Charcoal color way, followed this will be followed in May by a Black/Black version, and in June with the final Net/Net color way.
Fuxs wit' em
Stamp’d LA 2009 Spring/Summer Sneakers
A minimalistic take on footwear creation, Chris Stamp’s self-titled Stamp’d LA label has seen its 2009 spring/summer collection hit select retailers. The premise of this season is simple, nice clean silhouettes with a numberd theme. The white canvas upper is marked with numbers ranging from 0-9 and make for an easy to wear sneaker. The toe-cap is constructed of calfskin with molded footbeds and metal aglets. Available now at Roden Gray with a suggested retail price of $168 CAD (approximately $130 USD).
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Naima's 21
Wikipedia says: March 2 is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 304 days remaining until the end of the year.
- 986 - Louis V becomes King of the Franks.
- 1127 - Assassination of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders.
- 1717 - The Loves of Mars and Venus becomes the first ballet performed in England.
- 1791 - Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.
- 1807 - The U.S. Congress passes an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of theUnited States... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country."
- 1808 - The inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh.
- 1815 - Signing of Kandyan treaty by British invaders and Sri Lankan King.
- 1836 - Texas Revolution: Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico.
- 1842 - The Grand National steeplechase at Aintree near Liverpool England is won by Gaylad, ridden by Tom Olliver.
- 1855 - Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.
- 1861 - The Nevada Territory and Dakota Territory are organized as political divisions of the United States.
- 1861 - Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia: Tsar Alexander II signs the emancipation reform into law, abolishing Russian serfdom.
- 1863 - The U.S. Congress authorizes track width of 4 ft 8½ in (1,435 mm) for Union Pacific Railroad
- 1865 - East Cape War: The Volkner Incident in New Zealand.
- 1867 - The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act
- 1877 - U.S. presidential election, 1876: Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
- 1888 - The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.
- 1896 - Ethiopia defeats Italy in the Battle of Adwa, marking the first victory of an African nation over a colonial power.
- 1899 - In the state of Washington, USA, Mount Rainier National Park is established.
- 1901 - The U.S. Congress passes the Platt amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops.
- 1903 - In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.
- 1917 - The enactment of the Jones-Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
- 1917 - (Old Style) - Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Michael II of Russia.
- 1919 - The first Communist International meets in Moscow.
- 1933 - The film King Kong opens at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
- 1937 - The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a surprise collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry.
- 1939 - Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII.
- 1941 - World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joined the Axis Pact.
- 1943 - World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea - United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
- 1943 - 173 people die in the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster, London, the worst British civilian disaster of World War 2.
- 1946 - Ho Chi Minh is elected the President of North Vietnam.
- 1949 - Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-worldairplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.
- 1949 - The first automatic street light is installed in New Milford, Conn..
- 1953 - The Academy Awards are first broadcast on television by NBC.
- 1955 - King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates the throne in favor of his father, King Norodom Suramarit.
- 1956 - Morocco declares its independence from France.
- 1962 - In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d’état.
- 1962 - Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
- 1969 - In Toulouse, France the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
- 1969 - Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.
- 1970 - Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown.
- 1972 - The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.
- 1978 - Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.
- 1989 - Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
- 1990 - Nelson Mandela elected deputy President of the African National Congress.
- 1991 - Battle at Rumaila Oil Field brings an end to the 1991 Gulf War.
- 1992 - Moldova joins the United Nations.
- 1998 - Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
- 2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities).
- 2003 - The first International Symposium on Taiwan Sign Language Linguistics is held at Chung Cheng University.
- 2004 - Voters in the U.S. state of Georgia vote on a referendum concerning its Confederacy-derived flag.
- 2004 - War in Iraq: Al Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.
- 2008 - Riots in Yerevan, Armenia concerning the Armenian presidential election, 2008 come to a fatal end, with police forces clashing with civilians in their peaceful protest, resulting in 8 deaths.