FLASHING SIGHTS: January 2009

Sunday

k west in 'pareeeee'

Call him what you may, this guy is still a DON! Beyond rap!

Here is shoe number 2 from Kanye's collaboration with luxury giants Louis Vuitton. The mid/high top shoe is looking quite nice if I do say so myself. Im loving the all red with not any other colour featured at all. The details look very well done however it still has that high back feature which Kanye himself says if for tucking your jeans into? WHY? Other than that I'm very imprssed.

In a rather garish tan colour:

KW has also done a ladies line, to the suprise of many! These to me, look even more dope than the mens. Sick colours, great shape and strong details.

Another ladies line colour. Reminds me slightly of the UENO Air Force 1 that was release a few years ago. Subtle colours with strong detailling. Love the gold lace lock.

The only possible downside I can see to these shoes is going to be the pricing. Its obvious that they are going to be pushing at least £200 if not more. Which is a shame, I mean obviously keep them limited but not stupidly priced.

Tuesday

barack obama's presidential limo.

B.O's new car...

I seriously need one of these....

Beast. Not just in my own words! The Secret Service of America has nicknamed the presidential limo the 'Beast' too. This limo has everything. Several inches of bulletproof glass, more legroom than 20 Maybachs put together and spotlights that shine on the presidential flags at night time. Too fly! I wonder if they will sell it after? I will be the first bidder!

change has come to america.

Barack Obama's Official Inauguration.

Breathtaking...

Monday

rick ross - the boss

Ill track right here, ILL!

Saturday

dolce & gabbana a/w 09

Not sure about the pants but the upper is SLICK!

clot x nike release + interview

So a few days ago I made a post about these shoes. The super dope, super fresh and super original CLOT x NIKE 1WORLD AIR FORCE 1. The shoes which come with a special box package was released today in a Chinese New Year style display. Release pics can be seen below.

Hypebeast have also hooked up with Kevin Poon of CLOT, the designer of the shoe, to give an insight into the shoe and its creation.

Interview with Kevin Poon (Co-Founder of CLOT)

Hey Kevin, what’s new on your end?

Hi, hows it going. Everything is new on my end lately. New Year, New Hopes, New CLOT. Spring Summer 09 Exhibition coming up soon, got the Chinese New Year in the end of January also.

So how did this collaboration between CLOT and Nike come to fruition?

We have always had a great working relationship with Nike and as you guys may or may not know, we (CLOT) have already made a few sneakers with Nike in the past few years, so I guess it was natural and organic collaboration to have us be a part of the Nike One World Project.

Your 1World Air Force One interpretation was nicely executed, how did the concept come about?

The concept actually came from our CLOT Royale Collection, as we Chinese we really like the idea of silk and its always been a idea of Edison to apply that onto shoes. We also wanted to push the envelope to make it next level by applying a special twist to the shoe.

I imagined it must of been difficult to get this shoe the way you wanted. What sort of difficulties did you encounter and how many samples did it take before getting the shoe just right?

Yes, it was difficult to get the shoe from the concept onto an actual shoe, especially as the idea was to create a shoe that has two layers and can be customized. The laser patterns also had to be identical to the silk on top. Since silk is very delicate fabric, it was prone to damage. With the help of Jesse Leyva from Nike and Fraser Cooke, we were able to overcome this process and come up with the final product that you see right now.

CLOT released the Nike Air Max 1 “Kiss of Death” a few years back and was very well received. How does this Air Force 1 compare with the design process of the Kiss of Death Air Max 1?

Nike Air Max 1 was our first shoe, that concept came about from a few friends

(EDC, MC YAN, Myself) coming together to think of the design and what we could do to bring out the concept of Chinese culture. That shoe was based on a design of the pressure points of the foot.

This time around for this Air Force 1, we chose a concept that pays tribute to the themes of luck, happiness, and prosperity .The red upper shoe top layer can actually be peeled, burned, or torn off to reveal a bottom layer. The reason we did this was to inspire people to search for what lies within. We really just wanted to encourage people to see what others see but find what others don’t find. We are really happy with how the shoe looks.

We’ve heard that CLOT will be having special artists customize their own pair of these 1World releases? Can you give us any insight on that project?

We have 3 artists that are doing customization, I don’t want to ruin the surprise.

With a new year upon us, what do you have planned for both CLOT and yourself in the near future?

This year our 5th year at CLOT, and we have many exciting projects lined up for you guys so ride with us. I want to take this opportunity to thank Kevin Ma from Hypebeast, EDC, Mike Jones, Dozen Matters, Jesse, Fraser, Florance, Joe and the whole Nike China Team, Nike Hong Kong Team, CLOT crew, ACU Family, and you guys!

The Release

dover street market x nigo

So my good man the cloth surgeon invited me to join him in a road trip down to London, unfortunately I couldn't make it, but the above images is what was in store. A chance to meet the one and only Nigo. A Bathing Ape's owner and producer was in LDN to sign books and to open his new NOWHERE area within Dover Street Market. Shame I couldn't make it, would have been nice to get the Nigo Signature to match the ones I got from Skateboard P and Shae last year.