jordan campus chukka

these are a pretty fresh pair of j's. something you really don't see from the jordan camp.

only 200 shoes to be released globally, this simple shoe is just a simple lifestyle-inspired kick. shoes are available this saturday at undftd. only 28 shoes per store.




credits: hypebeast

air yeezy's

these kicks have been discussed for over a year now. and they finally are about to hit stores. they are only going to be release in house of hoops stores in new york, los angeles, chicago and very few other locations.

kicks probably will run for about two bills.

drop tomorrow.

kanye + lv

courtesy of kanye west...here's another sneaker for louis vuitton. out june 2009.

credits: kanye

air yeezy's announced!

finally, they have arrived.

this has probably been one of the most anticipated pair of nike shoes in a while. with kanye being the only one wearing them for months, and dj a.m. featuring them in a kobe commercial, the shoes have finally been formally announced.

kanye announced on his blog, tuesday, that they will be available this spring. the first colorway, zen grey & light charcoal will be available in april. may will bring the release of a black on black with pink accent color way, and finally, the net on net colorway will be released in june.

here's the press release.

"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."



credits: kanye

air jordan 2009 announced

the jordan brand announced this weekend the official release of the air jordan 2009. these shoes have been seen around this blog a couple months ago, and you're starting to see them more often now. it's in jordan's new commercial debuting on broadcast television during the nba all-star festitivies this weekend.

nba players richard hamilton, ray allen and chris paul are already rocking these as game shoes. a sleek looking pair of basketball sneakers, the air jordan 2009.

shoes are on sale now for a jordan-typical $190.

nike cortez

to honor the nike cortez pack release by nike this week, tokyoplastic, a production company, created an animated short film for promoting the shoes.

nba all-star game this weekend

with the all-star weekend in phoenix arizona this year for the nba...it means only one thing. a whole bunch of special edition sneakers.

check out my post on bso featuring all the sneakers all the nba cats will be rocking this weekend.

all-star sneakers

lead the charge

the jordan brand has a new commercial set for the nba all-star weekend this upcoming weekend. it's unbelievable. that's all i need to say about it. it features carmello anthony, joe johnson, chris paul and rip hamilton.

there's also a cameo of the jordan 2009, can you spot it?

nike air elan pinnacle qs

the nike sportswear division is taking a new refined approach to their most recent sneaker release, the air elan QS. designed specifically for the nike sportswear pinnacle collection, the shoe has a full-grain leather with concise details to make it a simple yet elegant pair of low-top sneakers. the perferated nike swoosh on both the brown and black adds a sleek touch and the shoe is finished off with a crocodile based tongue behind the laces.

the shoes will go on sale february 16 in hong kong. going price for these in us dollars is relatively inexpensive, going for just under $130.

credits: hypebeast

new chucks by undftd

it seems to be the move these days to put out a special edition of chuck taylor/converse all-stars, but these special kicks by undefeated (undftd) is absolutely sick.

these kicks areinspired by the classic military bomber jacket.it has a black nylon shoe with some pretty clean details, and actually a removable velcro converse signature patch that says "war is big business."

pretty fresh kick. no word on how many are being made...but definitely a pair of chucks to appreciate.

kanye & lv - part 5

you've already seen the red...here's two more colorways. they're pretty clean.




credits: selectism

kanye & lv - part 4

this is a more visually based post. here's kanye's first shoe for louis vuitton designed for women. you have two colorways here, a grey suede as well as a pink suede.




but as mentioned in the previous post, here's some shots of the grey and pink sneaker kanye mentioned over the weekend.






credits: kanye

kanye & lv - part 3

last night, kanye put up a pic of his third louis kick on his blog, saying he's about to go clubbing with them. interesting high top, with a huge huge velcro strap, and a pink midsole. yeezy said he'd put up more pics when he gets back, so keep a look out for a few more pics in the next few days.

credits: kanye

kanye & lv - part 2

kanye's second pair of kicks for louis vuitton is up and around the web... it's an all red sneaker, a fresh look...and it comes with a special quilted flap on the back made specifically for your jeans.

“The inspiration came from a jacket with a huge collar in the movie ‘Dune,’ ” West says. “Most sneakers focus on the tongue, so I wanted to do something different.”

the "LV-meets-kanye kicks" collection will feature 5 pairs of shoes designed by kanye. on the topic of shoes, kanye said he has no idea how many pairs he owns, but does find himself sending shipments of shoes off for storage frequently.

look for the monochromatic kicks with no frills to come to lv stores in june.

credits: nytimes

the art of sneaker design

i dedicate this post to the sneakerhead in all of us.

amazing video, on how a sneaker through NikeID's custom design shop is created and rendered through one of cheng kue's sneaker designs. cheng is one of nike's biggest and brilliant shoe designers.





credits: hypebeast

kobe selling ankle insurance

Dear Friend,
Broken ankles can happen at anytime. Don't let your friends, loved ones or opponents suffer from slow game any longer. If your superior quickness has ever broken someone's ankles, don't just laugh at them. Get them the piece of mind they so desperately need. After a lifetime of breaking my opponent's ankles, I'm giving back to those in need. -Kobe

kobe is now selling ankle insurance through a the AIC. kobe, president, CEO, CFO, CMO, owner, and jefe of AIC introduces you to his important policy that is needed.

most likely done by nike's ad agency, weiden+wennedy, check out nike's new promo for kobe's new kicks.

also, check out the promo site, http://www.notmybrokenankles.com

jordan in 2009

looks like mike is changing it up this year. as 2008 brings the close of the jordan number collection (I - XXIII), the airness himself is now going to be dropping kicks with the year associated with it. no word on if that'll mean only a pair a year...but with the amount of detail that mj and his crew put into each pair of kicks... makes it all the worthwhile.

credits: hypebeast

new kobe kicks NIKEid promo

new commercial aired during the lakers-celtics game on dec. 25. nike's got an interesting ad campaign revolved around it. looking forward to the next few scnes.

this one features kobe himself, his beautiful new kicks, mike epps and dj am...let's also point out that dj am is rocking a pair of the new nike air yeezy's...word on the street is those are set to finally release in early 09 after a long long long wait.

Mike Epps D.J. Am Kobe Bryant. The game's called Horse!!! from Bob Smith on Vimeo.