Adikt Footwear

You're looking at one of my very favorite stores in Dallas: Adikt Footwear located in the West Village shopping center in uptown. They sell sneakers, shirts, caps, toys, skateboards, and sometimes even bikes. They carry some of the best brands in the business like 10 Deep, Benny Gold, Huf, Rogue Status, Crooks & Castles, The Hundreds, Stussy, as well as major name brand sneakers like Nike, Puma, Vans, and even Alife.

I've bought shoes, shirts, and hats from them--I like just about everything they carry; their aesthetic is right in tune with my tastes.

Adikt just celebrated their three year anniversary so they must be doing something right. If you haven't been there yet, you should definitely go check them out.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Adidas Originals - NorthPark

I've already posted about the Adidas Outlet, but somehow I haven't posted about the actual Adidas Originals store located in NorthPark Mall. Being a massive Adidas Originals whore, this store is pretty much shopping heaven for me: I swear it sucks the money straight outta my wallet! LOL

For those that don't know, Adidas Originals is a separate heritage product line that's done up completely different from their athletic performance line. You can instantly tell the difference from the logo; instead of the modern 3-stripe triangle logo, Adidas Originals uses the old pre-1991 Trefoil logo. The products are all retro inspired reissues, everything from Superstars to track suits.

Even if you hate going to the Mall, it's worth making the trip just to check out the Adidas Originals store.

Highly recommended.


EDIT (January 2010) - Adidas has unfortunately closed this store.

Nike Outlet

As I posted last week, I made a trip out to the Allen Premium Outlets to check out the Adidas and Nike outlet stores. I was impressed with the Adidas store (bought eleven pairs of sneakers in two weekends) and had high hopes of the Nike store being just as awesome.

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

The Nike Outlet store is gigantic, but it really seemed focused on apparel and athletic performance shoes. If that's what you're into, then you're golden, but if you are on the hunt for kicks, you might be disappointed. They hardly had any Air Force Ones (what I was on the hunt for) and what they did have were in awful colorways and limited sizes. Their selection of Jordans were weak, too. I guess it shouldn't surprise me since they're popular enough they don't need to clearance them. Hard to believe, but I didn't buy a thing.

Recommended for athletic shoes, but not so much for sneaker heads.

Adidas Outlet

Finally made a trip out WAY NORTH to the Allen Premium Outlets to check out the Adidas and Nike outlet stores. Getting there is easy enough straight up 75, but the parking lot itself is wack! It's only got two entrances for the 3 million people trying to get in, so traffic sucks--and then the individual parking lots don't connect, so you get trapped quick. Piss poor parking lot design. LOL

As for the Adidas store, it's about 60% clothes and 40% shoes, and then the Originals line of shoes in the blue boxes are pushed off into the back corners. Sounds bad, but they actually a ton of different kicks, somewhere around 50 different styles in men's Originals and probably 25 in womens. The best thing is that the prices are cheap--so cheap that my wife and I walked out with five pairs of shoes, 2 cans of water replant and a can of cleaner for about $140--crazy! I got a pair of Stan Smiths, some Campus Vulcans, and a sweet pair of Aditennis. I didn't pick up any more shelltoe Superstars, but they had a ton of those in all kinds of colorways.

Highly recommended for fans of Adidas originals.

EDIT (AUG 8)
Went back to the outlet again today, ended up walking out with six more pairs of sneakers. I'm officially good dealing myself to death.

Middle Eastern Food

So a couple of years ago, my co-worker Abe, who is of middle eastern decent, introduced me to the kind of food he grew up with. Sure, I'd eaten some of this stuff over the years, but usually only at Tapas places and the like--basically just snacking, not full-on eating. Nowadays tho, we go eat a big lunch like this about once a month or so, and I'll eat everything on the buffet/menu/whatever. Nothing scares me anymore because I've learned that everything is awesome. Some of the places we go:

• Ali Baba Cafe
• Afrah Pastries
• DiMassi's

White Rock Coffee

White Rock Coffee is one of my favorite places in Dallas--that's actually where I'm at right now, typing on my netbook using the free WiFi connection. Located near the northeast side of the lake past Flagpole Hill on Northwest Hwy. Here's what I like about the place:

• They roast their beans in-house (pictured @ right center)
• They sell the house espresso beans for a reasonable $13/pound
• They pull shots with a manual espresso machine, not an automatic unit
• The nicely shaded patio is dog-friendly
• They're an independent coffee house, not a national chain

Centre

Centre is a sneaker and streetwear shop in Dallas--more specifically, at Mockingbird Station--that I hit up yesterday afternoon. Very cool little shop, you can tell it's run by some serious heads in the know. Check that single speed hanging from the ceiling, even got the deep V's on it. This place is just dripping with hipness.

www.gotocentre.com

Where I work

I'm a Graphic Designer, and this is my office at work. Since I'm a creative type person, I can kinda do some weird and wild decoration. They expect creatives to be weird. Too bad I'm not allowed to paint the walls.

My Project Studio

My creative sandbox--where I go to play, relax, and just have some fun.

Places I've Lived

Here are some of the places I've lived. Some urban, some suburban, a little bit of country, and even a 6 square mile island in the middle of the ocean. In order:

• Oxnard, California
  
• Yokosuka, Japan
  
• Midway Islands, Pacific Ocean
  
• Stockton, California
  
• Marshall, Texas
  
• Denton, Texas
  
• Carrollton, Texas
  
• Downtown Dallas, Texas
  
• White Rock Lake, East Dallas, Texas