Nike – The Five Video By 13th Witness

In another stunning video for Nike, 13th Witness aka Timothy Mcgurr aka the son of graffiti great Futura2000, shows us glimpse on how Nike products in used in different aspects of life and sports particularly, in an urban environment. This video was released in conjunction with the opening of the Nike Sportswear store in New York City.

Nike has been pushing the Nike Sportswear line aggressively throughout the world for the past few weeks, from big cities such as Tokyo, London and New York to even our own Manila and Asian neighbors Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, among others. This line replaces the Sport Culture line and focuses on products primarily used for an urban casual environment. Some of the products are backpacks, windbreakers and runners such as Air Max 90 model which was initially designed for sport functions, in this case, running, but like most sneakers was adopted by the city culture due to it’s comfort and great design.

As for 13th Witness, I’ve been a fan of his work ever since I came across his site before. He’s a great photographer and is slowly moving towards video as a new medium of work. I’m excited for what else he’s got in store. Glad to see that his work is getting appreciated.

The Perfect Office Chair?!

Last weekend, while strolling along Powerplant Mall, Rockwell, there was a display area that showcased ergonomic chairs and furnitures, particularly for children. The showcase was for the new store than opened on the upper level called Ergrokidz. On one side they also had some office furniture displayed and an office chair caught my eye. It was a chair that resembled the Herman Miller Aeron office chair and even the salesperson on hand agreed with me that there were similarities. This chair was brought in by Contract Design and was selling for around Php 32,000 or US$ 711 while the original Aeron chair, depending on the size, would probably cost from US$ 600 to US$ 1,000 which is equivalent to Php 27,000 to Php 45,000.

I first came across the Aeron chair when I chanced it upon seeing snippets of various design firms’ offices such as Fragment Design and Cubism Inc. I thought the design was cool and the seat is covered by a mesh that looks almost metal-like called Pellicle. It is considered to be good for the back and posture of the user as the seat has an ergonomic shape  and the height and back can be easily adjusted. The side arms can be adjusted as well, including the option of totally hiding the arms.

It has been said that the Aeron chair was the symbol of the IT bubble in the 90s and a status symbol for many offices. I’ve came across many reviews and while some are unhappy with the comfort-ability, most are pretty happy with their chairs.  Or they might just be forcing themselves to be happy because they shelled out a lot of money for the chair, hah!

Maybe someday, I shall try it out(I checked their site and they do have dealers here in Manila). If I have the extra cash to blow and it feels good enough, maybe I’ll invest in one.

PGMA IS REVEALED AS A SKRULL?!

I’m a little late but wow! This explains it all! Look for her in the lower right side.

*edit: here is a cropped image

In the latest issue of the on-going Secret Invasion series, our very own President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is shown joining influential people such as Steve Jobs, John McCain, Barrack Obama, etc. to ask the people of Earth to succumb to the Skrull empire.

Secret Invasion is an on-going Marvel Comics series which is written by Brian Michael Bendis and pencilled by fellow Filipino, Leinil Yu. It is about an alien invasion by shape shifters known as Skrulls, who secretly have been posing as various Marvel characters to throw off the real heroes by having them doubt their own comrades. The issue 5 of Secret Invasion came out last August 13,2008.

Alas, having President GMA revealed as a Skrull is too good to be true, the truth is revealed by Leinil Yu.

“To clarify misconceptions about the double page spread in Issue 5 particularly the inclusion of GMA, the Philippine president:

Filipino bloggers seem to revel in the fact that “she is a skrull”, heck I thought it was fun as well but it may go out of hand. Tho I may share your views on our current government, this particular instance is quite innocent and is merely a shout out to Filipinos. Heck, Stephen Colbert is there. I think she’s in good company.

The skrulls merely used the likeness of influential/recognizable people/characters to convey their message, and is not a revelation of the identities of skrulls in the Marvel Universe. They may or may not be skrulls. Tony Stark and Reed Richards are in the Savage Lands while this broadcast is happening and this should’ve clearly established this.

The list contains people who I find despicable, who I merely view with indifference and ones who I admire. (feel free to guess which is which).
The only criteria Brian Bendis gave was “influential” in different parts of the world and fields.”

Thanks to FilipinoVoices for the picture. Also take note of the FMCC ad drawn below the Colbert ‘08 ad. Sneaky, sneaky Leinil. I also saw the original pencils and it should’ve been a Jollibee ad instead of the Colbert ‘08 ad, not sure why they changed it.

Gig Antic By N Maeda Atelier

It’s increasingly difficult to buy a proper home in the city these days with rising properties prices and a general lack of available property. However, if you are lucky to come across a lot with a nice location and a nice price but has a small area, the Gig Antic might be the perfect model home for you.

WIth just an area of 52.06 square meters, the Gig Antic a 2-floor residential structure located in Yokohama, Japan and is designed by the architectural team of N Maeda Atelier.

Shot from the front

The 2nd floor

The 1st floor with the bathroom

While the design might not be for everybody, I feel that there are many elements here that was borrowed from the condominium concept that can be utilized in designing a compact home. The 2nd floor looks like a typical loft for a condo which with proper mirror placement and use of space helps in making the small space look bigger than it actually is. I’m not too much a fan of the bathroom located on the 1st floor as I feel they still could have used the space behind the kitchen to accommodate a small bathroom and perhaps make the 1st floor another living room space or another extra room or even make it the master bedroom.

The furnished 2nd floor

View from the top

I was trying to figure out where the master bedroom was placed for the home and I reckon it’s behind the working area on the upper part of the loft. If there was still space for a bedroom behind the working area, I don’t see why there can’t be a space for the bathroom behind the kitchen, which is the area below the master bedroom.

Aside from that minor flaw, I really, really love this design. It’s clean, spacious and has lots of light coming in. The overall design might have to be changed for the Manila environment, it might need a little more space around the lot for walls, parking space and a gate. I’m not architect but I guess around 80 square meters should be sufficient enough for those additional details and at 80 square meters, it should be still quite affordable for a 1st time home owner.

This Is Us, Generation Flat.

Allow me to move away from my recent posts on people, products and ideas that I enjoy and post something more critical of our current situation.

We are the new generation. A generation that I have come to term as Generation Flat. Why is that so? Let me use this quote I found which best describes Generation Flat:

Everything is on the surface; there is no deep meaning to anything, including history.

This is the era of consumerism, probably the richest man has ever been in terms of money. We are bombarded left, right, front, center and back with information, with advertisements on a daily basis. Nowhere is safe, not even the sanctity of our own bedrooms. With the internet on hand, we as consumers have been more accessible than ever before. Most households in the world already have TV and radio, soon enough computers as well. And I stress on the “s” in computers, as most homes will have more than 1 computer.

How many of us have more than 20 bookmarks or websites we visit on a daily basis?  What we have here is sensory overload, it’s like you can’t even stay focused on one thing then another comes along. There’s too much things and you can’t take the time to appreciate and understand the context of whatever that thing is better.

Globalization has opened up many things, in terms of economy, travel and cultural exchange. This essentially is a good thing, but like most good things, it needs to come to an end. What we see now in different mediums that we devour on the daily is a bastardization of culture. It’s all mished and mashed without any clear direction. The whole hipster movement best describes that, a subculture that borrows from different eras and subcultures with complete disregard for the history behind it. This is why we are Generation Flat, we have no depth at all, we have nothing and we are moving towards the end of creativity, if it isn’t already over.

Look at the whole retro perspective, sure, critics would say that trends come and go and come again in full circle. Doesn’t that sound like just an excuse? Since the mid-90s, what we have done is to simply re-hash the old without acknowledging the past. We don’t encourage kids to dig into the roots of whatever they are getting into, they are simply jumping on and moving on the next.

That’s what we have become now, simply another face, another market. We are happy to be this way because of the feeling of stability. Face it, who wants to be unstable and unsure? We are this way because we are afraid, we have lived lives that are too comfortable.

And sure, while there are still people out there that are making something new and creative, they just get lost in the information struggle. They don’t stay in people’s radar long enough to make an impact. Maybe another reason is that because there are too many people in this world. I think we sometimes get lost in what is really creative, it’s almost like we have been brainwashed and while we think it’s creative, don’t you doubt yourself sometimes and think to yourself, “is this really creative? or is this just one of those things that the media has done to make you think it’s creative when really it’s not.” How can you discern that?

And yes, yes, I am guilty of this as well. I belong to this generation. Call me a hypocirte, call me whatever, but this is my opinion and you are free to share it as well. Really I’m not even sure if I make sense to you, I hope I did.

The Adidas Consortium aZX Project: Group 2 I-P

The 2nd wave of sneakers from the aZX Project will be coming out this September 20,2008. For this batch, we have letters I to P with the following stores representing each letter: Icon Stores, J-B, Kendo, LiveStock, Major DC, Neighborhood, Adidas Originals, Patta.

Without further ado, here are the pics and details for the 2nd batch:

ZX 700 FOR ADIDAS ICON STORES (LONDON & BERLIN)

Designed for Adidas Icon stores in London and Berlin or simply called No. 6(London) and No. 74(Berlin). These numbers are represented on the tongue of the shoe, which also means that this pair will exclusively be available ONLY in Icon stores.

ZX 500 BY J-B (PORTLAND, USA)

J-B stands for Just Be or JustBeComplex.com which is the website for Compound Gallery. Compound Gallery is located in Portland, Oregon which is the hometown of corporate rival, Nike. The store sells an eclectic mix of sneakers, clothing as well as toys and art. It actually seems that they are a store that sells more art and design stuff and this is clearly reflected on the intricate design found in the heel of the shoe.

AZX 800 BY KENDO (LOS ANGELES, USA)

Kendo is the 1st sneaker store that is dedicated to women. As such, the colorway they have chosen represents their background. From the suede heel area and a selection of different purple shades coupled with gray and just a hint of gold on the 3 stripes, this is a sneaker that both men and women could rock.

ZX 450 BY LIVESTOCK (VANCOUVER, CANADA)

Another one of the pioneer sneaker stores in Canada, Livestock started off with Vancouver and has since open 2 other stores, another one also in Vancouver and the other in Toronto. Taking similar color cues from fellow Canadian store Goodfoot, they also use a green and gray combo albeit with a darker and more militaristic look to it. If the similarities of the colorway was done on purpose, we are not sure as well. Maybe Canadians just love the color green.

ZX 600 BY MAJOR DC (WASHINGTON, USA)

In reworking this shoe, Major DC wanted to put an all-terrain feel to it and chose to use the olive and khaki with hints of orange to make it blend. The digi camo pattern on the heel is also a nice touch to it. It does seem that for military themes, sneaker companies love to put that tinge of orange similar to the Nike SB Dunk Hi for Brian Anderson that came out last year.

ZX 700 BOAT BY NEIGHBORHOOD / NBHD (TOKYO, JAPAN)

I’m actually most excited in writing about this shoe, mostly because it’s Neighborhood or more commonly known as NBHD. I am a big fan of the Japanese street wear industry and NBHD is one of the most respected brands out there. Headed by Shinsuke Takizawa, the brand is heavily influenced by the biker culture. In fact, according to some insider info, there was some difficulty for Adidas to make this collaboration happen due to the fact that NBHD doesn’t really do runner sneakers which is what the ZX models are, however they were able to compromise by offering the ZX 700 which is Adidas’ take on the boat shoe.

This probably will be the most hyped shoe for this batch, if not for the whole project. The tones selected by NBHD is black and white, which is the common color combinations which they use for most of the stuff in their line. It works effectively and gives that simple but striking look. Many people have said that there are similarities to Visvim FBT, I can say that maybe there is an influence to it as NBHD has collaborated with Visvim for quite a number of times now.

ZX 700 FOR ADIDAS ORIGINALS

The shoe that will only be available at Adidas Originals stores. This version has an interesting mix of materials used along with a velcro strap for the heel. Nice and simple, done with my favorite combo of chocolate and pink.

ZX 7000 BY PATTA (AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS)

Patta is Surinamese slang for shoes and is mostly famous due to one of it’s founders, Parra. Parra is an illustrator who have worked on various magazine, CD covers as well as concert posters. He has also done quite a number of collaborations with Nike. Parra and Patta have always worked with vibrant colors and for their sneaker, what they have done is no exception. A good combination of teal against purple, it’s almost pushing the limits for color harmony and yet it is something that you can see people wearing on their feet.

That’s it for the 2nd batch! Wait for the upcoming 3rd and final series of this project. It should be quite promising as we have big name brands such as Alife and Undefeated among the list of collaborators.

Thanks to the following for the pics: HighSnobiety, Hypebeast and Freshnessmag.

The Adidas Consortium aZX Project: Videos

For this project, Adidas flew in the representatives from 22 stores to hang out at the Adidas HQ in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Basically, in what looked like a big brainstorming session for the top players in street retail and design, Adidas put them in a room and worked with designers in developing their shoe. How cool is that?

This is the official description from the aZX channel:

Gathering 22 of the world’s key retailers, from streetwear stores to
high-end boutiques, all with their own individual vision when it comes
to design and style, the aZX project offered classic adidas ZX running
shoe designs alongside an open brief for their own limited edition
release. Covering a complete A to Z of the very best in retail, branding
and innovation it represents one of the largest scale, most intelligent
sneaker collaborations to date.

Using these timeless silhouettes that ranged from the simplicity of the
earlier low profile shapes to highly technical Torsion creations and
contemporary designs as a blank canvas, some kept it simple in line with
the individual shoe’s heritage, others took inspiration from outside the
blue box, but all partners projected a personal vision on their choice
of shoe perfectly.

Launched with a gathering of participating store and brand
representatives at adidas’ Herzo headquarters, over two days they
brainstormed, applied and tweaked their chosen makeups alongside the
design team, resulting in the first fruits of a collaborative collection
that offers something for traditionalists, collectors and fashionistas
alike.
With the cream of the industry working, eating and socializing
side-by-side, this was a unique event that yielded unique results.

Here are the videos from the Adidas aZX channel on Youtube. The 1st video is basically a general introduction to their gathering, while the next 2 videos takes a few of the people from each of the 1st 2 groups, A-H and I-P, to talk about their personal creations:

aZX Intro

Group A-H

Group I-P

The Adidas Consortium aZX Project: Group 1 A-H

The 1st 8 sneakers of the much awaited Consortium aZX Project by Adidas was released last August 08,2008. The Consortium line-up for the aZX Project, includes the following stores from A to Y:

ACU, Bodega, Colette, D-Mop, LimitEDitions, FootPatrol, GoodFoot, Huf, Icon Stores, J-B, Kendo, LiveStock, Major DC, Neighborhood, Adidas Originals, Patta, Daves Quality Meat, Alife Rivington Club, SNS, Crooked Tongues, Undefeated, VA, Wood Wood and You.

Here are the pictures for Group 1:

Here below detailed images of the first part of the project. More to come soon.

ZX 800 BY ACU (SHANGHAI, CHINA)

ACU’s take on the ZX800, clearly reflects the direction and background of ACU. Similar with their past collaboration with Nike and Clot, with designs heavily influenced by their Chinese heritage and surrounding, the Shanghai-based crew is all about combining traditional Chinese culture with modern street culture.

ZX 8000 BY BODEGA (BOSTON, USA)

Aptly named Bodega, the store represents your friendly neighborhood convenient store. The front area is really a convenient store, while the secret trapdoor reveals a backroom designed like a museum for sneakers and other street wear goodies. They also carry Japanese street wear labels such as Visvim and Head Porter Plus.

In my opinion, the design on the shoe reflects their connection to the classic era, with basic colors that is fitting for a shoe that was originally designed for sports.

ZX300 BY COLETTE (PARIS, FRANCE)

Everybody knows Colette as an eclectic store, selling everything from art books to sought-after sneakers and clothing. Another thing about Colette is their quirkiness in everything they do, which helps put them forward in everything the do. The shoe reflects that characteristic, the ZX300 is plastered with words which all start with the letter C. On a boring day, maybe you can count the number of words actually printed.

ZX 500 BY D-MOP (HONG KONG, CHINA)

As one of the premier retail oulets in fashion-hungry Hong Kong, D-Mop puts their twist on the shoe with a hint of the future. The bright future is the new black, as they use silver, scale-like material to bring the shine back into the shoe.

ZX 450 BY LIMITEDITIONS (BARCELONA, SPAIN)

One of Barcelona’s top sneaker and clothing stores, LimitedEditions uses a clean black background to make the colors pop-out, making it simple looking but very striking. A nice touch on the stitching of the LimitedEditions logo on the tongue as well.

ZX 800 BY FOOTPATROL (SOHO, LONDON)

FootPatrol has temporarily closed it’s physical store, but that hasn’t stopped them in collaborating with Adidas. Their take on the shoe is simply spells FootPatrol, which is known for their use of colors similar to their previous collaborations with Nike.  FootPatrol is also part of the Gimme5 crew, which is involved deeply in UK street wear culture, representing Stussy UK and responsible for bring A Bathing Ape or Bape, GoodEnough and other Japanese labels to the UK market.

ZX 8000 BY GOODFOOT (TORONTO, CANADA)

GoodFoot is responsible for bringing sneaker culture to Canada. What started out as a store, is now 5 store strong with branches in other parts of Canada as well as a sister store in Nomad. For their shoe, they stuck to being environmental friendly by using recycled materials. Another shoe which has a clean colorway that works well on the runner.

ZX 500 BY HUF (San Francisco, USA)

Huf is the store of Keith Hufnagel, professional skateboarder. As with his previous sneaker collaboration, his design is heavily influenced by San Francisco, particularly it’s rich history. And this time it’s the patterns on the San Francisco rail-worker’s uniform. It’s a nice touch with a good balance of blue and white, and as my favorite color, I can’t say no to blue!

Some info via NiceKicks, Pics from HighSnobiety

The Adidas Consortium aZX Project Primer: Superstar 35th & Adicolor

In one of the most exciting Adidas promotions since the Adicolor series in 2006. Last August 08, 2008, during the opening day of the Olympics, Adidas released the 1st batch of sneakers for the aZX Project.

What is the aZX Project? The aZX Project is a series of 24 adidas ZX shoes worked by 24 of the top Adidas Consortium stores. Adidas assigned each letter of the alphabet to a corresponding Consortium store, all are represent except for, ZX.

The ZX stands for the ZX series which the stores will use as their canvas for their collaboration with Adidas. There hasn’t been an event with so much hype since 2-3 years ago, first with the Adidas Superstar 35th Anniversary and the year after, the Adicolor series.

For the 35th anniversary of an Adidas classic, they collaborated with different sources of inspiration to form 5 groups of sneakers: the Consortium series, Anniversary series, Music series, Expressions series and Cities series. The Consortium series is similar the aZX project in terms of working with top Consortium stores such as Union, FootPatrol, Undefeated and Neighborhood, which become one of the most sought after shoe of this series.

The Cities series represented the top cities where Adidas has had deep cultural impact, while for the Expressions series, they collaborated artists from different background. The Expressions series also gave us the first glimpse of the Adicolor series and the new campaign branched out from the Adicolor version of the Superstar, where-in included in the package are 5 different colored laces which allows the user to customize the shoe to his favorite colored lace.

The Adicolor series which primarily draws from the shoe customizing culture during the 80’s. Kids wanted their kicks to look fresh and would paint or draw on their sneakers to have that sense of individuality. Since that time, sneaker customizers have taken customizing to another level, using different materials, paints and methods, even selling them at high prices, almost like art pieces.

For the Adicolor series, Adidas used 6 primary colors: white, red, blue, yellow, green, pink and black. And from that selection, took 6 different models and worked with different designed to put their own touch into it, with the limitation being they had to work along their color group. Another series not shown in the chart is the white series, which consisted of jackets, caps and shoes along with painting materials which allows the buyer to customize the item with their own preferred colorway. Other things that are customizable in this series aren’t visible much to the eye, some shoes allow the changing the color of the 3 Adidas stripes, sticking additional buttons/logos to the shoe, or being able to change the color of the tongue and laces.

So for this year, the buzz is around the aZX Consortium Project. The first batch, which consists of letters A-G, has already been released. The chart below shows the preview and I will talk more about this series in the next post.

KAWS ONE

Finally! I have gotten hold of the Kaws One book. Originally published on September 2001 by Little More in Japan, the book contains artwork by Kaws that he did for his show at the Parco Gallery in Tokyo from March to April 2001. Among the notable work he did for the show were his take on The Simpsons aptly named Kimpsons, some of his early work on the ads posted in OOH (out-of-home advertisements) ad spaces such as bus stops as well as his prominent “collaboration” with Kate Moss.