sak for Converse First String Star Tech

In this new video, Converse showcases the sak for Converse Star Tech, part of the Converse First String line. Ryusaku Hiruma (or ’sak’ as he likes to be known), is a Japanese living in Italy, who pays homage to his adopted homeland by practicing shoemaking as it’s meant to be practiced. Hiruma pays careful attention to detail, handcutting the leather, stamping the heels himself, and creating works of art. Sixty Four Star Tech leather sneakers have been produced by sak, and will be available at select retailers which started last month on November 15th, 2010.

converse - kid cudi

Just what the Doctor ordered

Darren Romanelli aka DRx has been recently one of my favorite designers to see up and coming in the industry

The LA-based fashion designer/artist presented his adhesive bandage concept shoe illustrating the idea of protection and “symbolizing hope for a cure.”On display at M+B Gallery in West Hollywood were the first 50 original designs for the Converse 1HUND(RED) program, a collection of 100 sneakers from 100 artists, musicians and designers.

After collaborating with the likes of Nike, Michael Jordan, Soph, and Jaegger Le-Coultre, Andrew Brandou, Dr Romanelli recently did a collabo with Looney Tunes and this is definitely one of my favorite pieces that I have in my office.

David vs. Goliath

So there has been some comments on this photo and let me see if you can catch it first.

If you notice, Mr. Dwight Howard who is standing 1st in line seems to be standing much different than the rest of his team mates.

Do you see it yet? Can you find the non-Nike Shoes....

Well, if you didn't know he is not signed under NIKE and it seems like either this was photoshoped by someone or they intentionally had to block the NIKE logo.

Chris Paul (Jordan), Dwyane Wade (Converse) and Carmelo Anthony (Jordan), but all those still fall under NIKE.

Everyone else is rocking NIKE, I can tell you that JASK had a similar experience about this with Lebron James for an Al Fatz aka (Ohio they call him Fat Al) video that he did last year. We were able to work with Kesha Mcleod & Rachel Johnson from Thomas Faison and they said that Lebron would rock one of our T-shirts possibly for an artist on his record label in Ohio, low and behold check out this youtube video and click through 4:38 and you'll see he's rocking the Jask "STRUGGLE" T-shirt:



But once they actually launch the video, notice that you only get a glimpse of the T-shirt around 3:57. When you have a multi-million dollar deal, you got trademarks and contracts that you have to abide with and sometimes even if you want to get a shine its a lot harder than you think, but you know what, we're still in the struggle and so is LBJ for his ring.

The Converse Weapon - art or fashion?

A lot of folks have asked me to post this obsession that I have for toys. I'm not talking about the G.I. Joes or Elmo dolls. I'm talking about Vinyl and anything toy that I find interesting and this could range from Kid Robot, Medicom, to a character done by Takashim Murakami.

Out of all my toy moments one has stuck out, its gotta be the Converse Weapon Advance Action Suit Prototype 2.2 By Limited Resource Design. I was in High-Five in Williamsburg Brooklyn one day when Toy tokyo decided to open a new branch in Brooklyn around summer 2006, so I had to check it out. I ran into Camo Feet Pete who managed the shop and I asked him if I can take a look at this artwork.

Within seconds I had to cop it. Never have I seen this before and it was interesting to see the artist who had a vision from a Converse shoe and converting it to a Figure.
I had to find out who the artist was, so I contacted him.
The artist's name is Oscar Lopez from Brooklyn. Oscar at the time was planning to reemphasize the connection between style & hip-hop culture - which is currently becoming a measure for all that is mainstream.
When hip-hop started, there was a strong emphasis on what shoe a person wore on the block.
It was the shoe that measured how mainstream a person was and was able to show an individual their style by what they wore to match the shoes and how fly they could match or clash. It was determined by the street on how cool they were, or how 'whack' they were. Oscar is placing the Weapon back into the hip-hop mainstream culture and since then the sneaker culture has taken on another level where individuals in NYC from Union Square down to Chinatown you see a lot of folks wearing different styles of sneakers to express themselves individually. The sneakers for men have become a form of style just like purses have for women.
While most artists are used to working on their mediums - such as metal, canvas, sculptures, or walls. Using the shoe as a neo-canvas, Oscar was forced then to think outside the box. How many different directions can the art go?
How does an artist interpret its form and layout and use it in conjunction with their own designs to create art? That was the question that came to my mind when I saw this piece. Oscar has tried to push the envelope with the Converse Weapon, Aerosol Warfare hopes to successfully conceive an entirely different form of art that would have otherwise never been born and bring this style to new audience with a higher level of visibility. The last time I spoke to Oscar he was planning making a tank out of a couple of Nike Blazers donated from some of his friends.

He's not the only artist that is doing this, there's also a Vancouver artist named Brian Jungen who had a show in the New Museum back when it was on Broadway and had a show of his collection of Air Jordans. He had completed Prototypes for New Understanding 1998-2005, a series of 23 Northwest Coast Aboroginal masks made from Nike Air Jordans.






So what do you think? Is it art or is it fashion? I'll let you decide.