The folks over at Nike Labs have teamed up with W+K Tokyo and a52 to create this amazingly simple, but beautiful, commercial that I just can’t stop watching. The idea is simple, a spider crafts a web together that looks like a three dimensional shoe, but there’s just something about it that’s so crisp and fresh. There’s the way the camera shakes, although the footage was sped up and the quality of the light, like it’s a perfect spring day. Even the design of the spider is extremely beautiful, like it would mimic the colors of the shoe itself.
Mark this entry under clever, catchy, and well done. As a part of Converse’s newest campaign, they’ve teamed up with a rather large and eclectic group of musicians to further their cult status among youngins. The most exciting part being the collaboration between Julian Casablancas, Santogold and N.E.R.D. on a song called My Drive Thru, which to me sounds like something Mark Ronson would have put together, but it’s actually Pharrell’s handiwork. The video itself is reallllly fun, featuring animated photo cut-outs of the artists performing. My favorite parts are mostly when Santogold is dancing around, she looks damn adorable, but there’s also the part where Julian Casablancas is falling down through the sheets of paper, that’s really rad. Other then that, I have this song stuck in my head most of the day, it’s totally catchy and fun.
The campaign otherwise is pretty rad as well, someone picked a pretty random group of folks that are actually pretty “hip”. There’s Bradford Cox from Deerhunter, the guys from Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Eleanor from The Fiery Furnaces, the dudes from MGMT, Yacht… you get the picture. The stark black and white images, the cut out paper effect, everything is pretty spot on. Check out the site by clicking here, and be sure to download the song for free as well (that was a good call, Converse).
Here’s another great example of what I was talking about yesterday, simple but awesome shoes. Reading about these over on High Snobiety you definitely get the sense that someone busted their ass on creating these.
First off, the body of the sneaker is pretty much all decked out in selvage denim, from the black denim to the “Gucci” denim that surrounds the bottom. The reason for the selvage denim is that “the edge can’t fray like lower grade denims that have separate wefts which leave an open edge that must be stitched.” See what I mean about someone going nuts on this shoe? Finally the shoe is trimmed out with a snakeskin swoosh, which I think is pretty damn hot. I also love the (real/faux?) snakeskin lace guard thing-y, that’s a nice touch as well.
The images you see above are the pre-production model, it’s a one-of-a-kind, but they are going forward with production on this shoe, hopefully the final model stays true to the original. Supposedly it’s going to be released soon-ish through Royalefam, so keep an eye out.
I’m only 25 but a lot of the time I feel like an old man. Slowly I’ve started to buy fewer graphic tees and have tried to filter in more collared shirts, basic patterns, and thin stripes. These changes also extend to my footwear as well, as I no longer wear the same black slip-on Vans day in and day out. It kind of surprises me that I don’t talk about fashion on here more, considering how I think about it all the time. So I thought I’d share a couple of recent purchases on here that I’ve been in love with.
First off is my pair of graph paper Vans. I actually bought these at this great little boutique in my hometown of Roseville called Heritage (not to be confused with the Forever 21 offshoot). I love that their minimal but still have that wonderful pattern on them. The black lines also takes away some of the irony of it being graph paper pattern, they do come in a traditional blue pattern as well. They’re also only two weeks old, but I really hate bright white shoes, so I’ve been a bit with rough with them so that they look well-loved now. The best part of these is that they were only $45, which is pretty unbeatable. I’m a firm believer in not having to spend a lot of money to look good.
Which brings me to my next purchase, the halftone sandals you see above which I picked up from H&M for a whopping $6! I love these because they’re almost a check pattern, but they’re halftoned as well. So very simple but still really fun. I’m sure the print will rub off by the summer, but for $6, who cares?
I’ve been meaning to buy a pair of TOMS for about a year now, I think they’d make such awesome summer shoes, yet I keep forgetting. Then I got an email yesterday announcing that they have some web exclusive shoes for this summer only, reminding me yet again that I still don’t have. But I really like these new ones they’ve released, the colors are really awesome… if you’re a girl. As a boy I don’t think I could ever try pull off a pair of striped pair of alpargatas, nor would I ever try. I really like the salmon colored ones, the canary ones, and the blue and white striped ones.
As always, when you buy a pair of TOMS, they give a pair away to a child in need, so you’ll look hot this summer and help someone out at the same time.
