LASER by PROCESS817 #2

Nike SB Gucci Dunk by Bruce @process817

On the final day of the Jordan 23/25 Experience, I was pretty much worn out from the whole weekend and just sat at home while a few of the Krew went to do up some last minute LASER work. Sometime that the afternoon, my phone buzzed and I got an MMS pic of these sneakers from Bruce. I showed the photo to my wife and we both said the same thing:

"WTF? He LASER'd denim?"

Bruce used the HEAT SEEKERS box artwork that I created for my own sneakers on one shoe and put his name on the other in a similar style. But what really makes these cool--I mean you know, besides LASERing a pair of freakin' Quickstrike Gucci Dunks--is how awesome it turned out on the denim material.

The LASER didn't actually cut into the material like it does on suede or leather. Instead, it just charred the surface, turning it a cool burnt brown color. WOW! I dunno if you can really tell just how awesome it looks in these photos; I tried to take close ups so hopefully you can see it pretty well.

The LASER work looks so freakin cool on denim. I totally wanna LASER all sorts of denim shit now. Ha ha!

NEXT WEEK: The final two pair of LASER'd sneakers revealed!

LASER by PROCESS817 #1

Jordan V Raging Bull by Bruce @process817

Okay, okay. I know yesterday I said that I'd be showing 3 more LASER'd sneakers today, but unfortunately I haven't gotten the third pair in my hands to take photos of yet, so I've only got two to show. But hey, the good news tho is that I'll still have it and one additional final one to show next week--so two more, just later. That's cool, right? Riiiight.

So about these joints; you know what they are--the red suede pair out of the Jordan V "Raging Bull" Defining Moments Pack. Heat Seeker Krew member Process817 got these LASER'd on the toe boxes--one with his name and the other with the Krew name--and then much like Tom got the sneakerhead celebrities in attendance to sign them: Mark Smith, Bobbito, and MAYOR.

BTW, here's a funny story: Aston Chambers from Jordan Brand was walking through the crowd when he saw his friend MAYOR signing these shoes; he came over and said "WOW!" because he couldn't believe people would be wanting MAYOR's autograph like some sort of celebrity. Ha ha! C'mon son, we're sneakerheads, these people are our celebrities!

Now check out the NEXT pair of kicks, Bruce's second pair he LASER'd...

NEXT: Nike SB Gucci Duk by process817 [LINK]

LASER by SAMCOLT12

Nike Air Force 1 by Tom @samcolt12

Tom went crazy with these, didn't he? Well lemme tell you, if there's a single pair of sneakers that really captures what the overall All-Star Weekend was like for us, it's these white-on-white Air Forces.

You see first of all, Tom won these FREE at the Sport Sole + Nike Sportswear party on Thursday [link] which had to be some kinda karma or something, because when we got to the Jordan 23/25 Experience on Friday, the folks from Green Demon Laser told us that the "best" sneakers for LASER'ing are white AF1s. Naturally, the next day Tom came back with these stuffed in his backpack to get LASER'd with his Twitter name--and even stranger, with a Jordan Brand logo. Jordan on Nike? Yeah, that's a line neither of those companies will cross anymore...which is exactly why Tom did it. Haha!

But then after he got them LASER'd, he kept them in his backpack the rest of the weekend and anytime a sneaker celebrity popped up, he had them sign em. He got Mark Smith (Jordan designer), Bobbito (legendary sneakerhead), and of course MAYOR, the Air Force I Air-to-the-Throne himself.

TOMORROW: see 3 more LASER'ed sneakers, starting with a Jordan V by process817

LASER by AKUMA471 #2

Jordan Motorsports VI by Stan @akuma471

For his second LASER'd sneaker, Stan choose a Motorsports VI much like Oz1 did, but he went a completely different route.

One the left sneaker he put MOTORSPORT VI to call out the name of the release, and on the right sneaker he put SUZUKI GSXR to call out the namesake of the motorcycles that the Jordan Motorsport Team rides. You know, the white Elephant Print bike that Sole Collector magazine showcased in that pic with the VIs.

I think the type on these came out really clean; the stenciled look works well with them. In my opinion, Stan matched the fonts perfectly with BOTH sneakers he did.

NEXT: Nike Air Force 1 by samcolt12 [LINK]

LASER by AKUMA471 #1

Jordan XX by Stan @akuma471

True story: this is the first LASER'd sneaker I saw when I got to the Jordan 23/25 Experience. Stan had just finished it when I came through the door and as soon as I saw it, I thought two things:

#1 - Wow, that type style fits that shoe perfectly.

#2 - WTF, he LASER'd a Quickstrike XX? DAMN he's got balls!

And the freakin' sneaker is DEAD STOCK, too. Geesh. I don't think I'd have the stones to take a LASER to that sneaker. WOW! Of course, Stan wasn't done yet--he came back the next day and got another sneaker done up...

NEXT: Jordan Motorsports VI by akuma471 [LINK]

LASER by SNEAKERFREEK23

Jordan II by Marcus @sneakerfreeak23

Here's a great example of what Green Demon Laser was letting folks do at the Jordan 23/25 experience. Our crew member Marcus choose to put one of the available pieces of Jordan art--the FLIGHT logo--on one sneaker and text reading "HEAT SEEKERS" on the other. This is really what they were setup to produce in the alloted 15-minute appointment slots. It also really shows in comparison just how much time it took to do all the Elephant Print on the sneakers Oz1 did up.

I think these IIs came out looking clean with this LASER work.

NEXT: Jordan XX by akuma471 [LINK]

LASER by Oz1

Jordan Motorsports VI by Oz1

This is the LASER job that flat out shut down the Jordan 23/25 experience [link]. Oz1 took the relatively plain Motorsports VI an had the Green Demon Laser folks run the Jordan Elephant Print pattern down the zig-zag pattern on side panels, matching the pattern that's inside on the sock liner. Holy shit these kicks are HOT!

It took two long sessions over two days to do all this work, but it was well worth it. These are probably the best looking LASER'd sneakers I saw created all weekend. BIG UP to Dustin and Christina for making this happen.

Oz1 is the freakin' Elephant King!

NEXT: Jordan II by sneakerfreeak23 [LINK]

LASER by DSICLE

Nike Air Force 1 by Duane @dsicle

The Heat Seekers Krew got a whopping 10 sneakers LASER'd at the Jordan 23/25 booth, and as I promised in yesterday's blog post [link] I'm going to show y'all each and every one of them. To start things off, here's the sneaker I did for myself: the always classic white-on-white Nike Air Force 1.

I choose this particular sneaker because Dustin and Christina of Green Demon Laser said the white-on-white AF1 take the LASER etching the best. I actually wanted to do an all-white Air Max 90, but I don't own those and couldn't find one in the stores that morning. I'm actually glad tho, this couldn't have turned out better.

Oh and yeah, I designed that HEAT SEEKERS block type with Dustin on-the-spot. I didn't want to use any of the stock Jordan brand art, and I wanted something more than just plain text. Came out pretty good for being knocked out in just a couple of minutes.

NEXT: the infamous Jordan Motorsports VI by Oz1 [LINK]

Jordan Brand 23/25 LASER machine

In one of my follow up posts on All-Star Sneakend last week, I mentioned the FREE LASER Etching Machine [here] that was setup at the Jordan Brand 23/25 Experience. Me and the rest of the Heat Seekers Krew took serious advantage of the deal, so I'm going to spend this whole week documenting what all we had done up--but first I'm going to start off by telling y'all what the experience was like.

Alright, the first thing you need to know is that the LASER etching machine was brought in by Jordan Brand from Green Demon Laser in Portland, Oregon and was operated practically non-stop for four days by Dustin and Christina. I honestly don't know how those two worked as much as they did; they hardly took any breaks at all and they remained cheerful and professional the whole time (at least, as much as we saw them, which was a lot).

The first thing you had to do was to set up a 15-minute LASER appointment with the Jordan Brand Concierge desk. Then at your appointed time, you rolled up to the iMac with Dustin and knocked a design either using one of the many available Jordan-related images or text of your own choosing. After a few quick measurements, they prepared the shoe by removing laces, taping it down, masking it off, etc, and then lined it up in the machine. Then, after a few minutes of burning leather, your new masterpiece was complete.

During the morning and daytime, appointments were pretty booked up, but in the early evenings things slowed down--and that actually worked to our advantage. Heat Seeker crew member Oz1 wanted to do a large Elephant Print pattern on his Jordan Motorsport VIs, but it was going to be very time consuming--but hey, since there was no one else booked after us, Dustin and Christina went ahead and did it up for him.

I think it took about 30 minutes per side, but WOW the final result was just jaw dropping. I think everyone in the whole place was gathered around the LASER booth waiting to see the results. And seriously, when Christina pulled all the foil masking tape off the first shoe and handed it to Oz, he held it up in the air and it it seemed like a hundred phones and cameras were in the air snapping pictures of it!

Damn, just look at it y'all--it's such a BEAST!

The sneaker caused so much buzz that folks from the back of the VIP room started to come out and see what was going on, and that's when the Marketing Director from Jordan Brand came to see what was up. When he saw the shoe with all the Elephant Print on it, he bugged out! He took some pics with Oz and then hauled him back into the VIP room to get him a drink and show off the shoe to all the Jordan VIPs.

After a few minutes, a Jordan Brand photographer came out and asked for all the Heat Seekers in attendance to line up for a photo with our LASER'd sneakers. I dunno what they're gonna do with the pic, but I gotta admit it felt like a freakin' rock star moment for a minute when the crowd was around us as we got OFFICIAL photos taken by Jordan Brand.

I know that a lot of people got a lot of cool LASER etched sneakers made up, but the Heat Seekers Krew shut it down at the Jordan Brand Green Demon Laser booth.

If you're interested in getting your own sneakers LASER'd, call Dustin or Christina at Green Demon Laser (503) 531-3383 or check them out on FaceBook [link].


NEXT: Check back tomorrow and throughout the rest of this week as I showcase each individual sneaker the Krew got LASER'd up.

Jordan Brand 23/25 Experience

Part 1 of 2

In conjunction with the NBA All-Star weekend, Jordan Brand opened up a special pop-up space in the Victory Park area about two blocks south of the American Airlines Center. Called the "Jordan 23/25 Experience" or the "Jordan Energy Space", it was used to formally release Air Jordan 2010 sneaker as well as showcase the 25th anniversary of the Air Jordan sneaker line.

I ended up going down there 3 times: Friday night, Saturday morning, and Saturday night. Why so often? Simply put, because there was a ton of shit to see and do!

The first thing you saw when you walked through the door was a display showing a completely dissected Air Jordan 2010. A lot of people might hate on the shoe's visual appearance, but there's no denying that the shoe is a thoroughly modern basketball sneaker. Much like the new Nike Kobe V and Lebron VII, the Air Jordan 2010 is lightweight, slimmed down, low to the ground, and really focused on quick on-court performance.

Immediately past the entrance was the centerpiece of the exhibit--at least in my opinion--the Jordan Shoe Gallery. Every Air Jordan sneaker was in the display case in a solid white colorway (I'll be covering the display coming up next in Part 2).

To the left from the gallery was the Jordan Hall of Fame showcasing milestones in his career, including trophys, his UNC college uniform, Bugs Bunny feet sneakers from the movie Space Jam, and an OG Jordan I, the sneaker that started it all.

To the right from the gallery was an Interactive Wall of touchscreen displays that explained the history and influences behind each Air Jordan sneaker.

On the far wall was the interactive Live Social Mosaic which created a giant image of Michael Jordan out of thousands of tiny photos submitted by Jordan sneaker fans. The images constantly moved and shifted so you could watch what the larger image was actually made of. Pretty neat actually.

To the left of the Mosaic past the Concierge booth (where they were giving out free Jordan t-shirts) was a line of iMacs setup to let you create your own ID23 Customized Air Jordan Alpha I. Secretly I was hoping for ID options on the AJ 2010, but sadly that wasn't available.

Immediately past the ID23 setup was the absolutely incredible "Elephant Printer" Laser Etching Machine where you could bring in your own sneakers to be lasered with a variety of Jordan brand images, words, whatever. This was a HUGE deal! Dustin and Christina from Green Demon Laser in Portland, Oregon worked practically non-stop for 4 long days designing and lasering sneakers for anybody that wanted it done--TOTALLY FREE! This was such a huge deal that my entire sneaker crew got in on the action...and I'll be doing a series of blog posts in the near future (maybe next week, or the week after that) just on what all we got lasered up.

Finally, the back of the space was dedicated to the VIP room. This is where the free open bars, dinner buffets, dessert trays, and the wicked cool Microsoft Surface interactive table were located. Naturally, my Heat Seekers crew got access to the VIP room (c'mon son, you know what's up) and we got to meet all sorts of people from Jordan Brand as well as celebrities. Bobbito was there of course, as was Gentry Humphrey and Mark Smith of Jordan Brand, among others. Even our guests from the All-Star Sneakend were there: DJ Greg Street, MAYOR, and Franalations.

The big VIP deal tho was really the Saturday night concert. After MC Lyte, 9th Wonder, and Bobbito warmed up the crowd at the DJ booth all evening, rappers Bun B and Wale performed on the VIP stage. The sets were short, but were crazy intimate; you could literally get within feet of the guys on stage. Big shout out to Bun B for friggin KILLING IT on the mic (after a bit of technical difficulty with the music). Bun B is a real straight dude, very approachable and personable. And I gotta say it: RIP Pimp C, UGK for life y'all.

NEXT! Check out the all-white Jordan sneaker display.

Continue to Part 2 >>

DFW Sneaker & Streetwear shops

Are you planning on being in the DFW area for All-Star weekend? If so, you're probably already making plans to attend All-Star Sneakend, right? Well if you're coming in from out of town, you're probably thinking of hitting up some local sneaker and streetwear shops, huh? Well in case you don't know where all you should go, I've compiled a list of places you should consider hitting up.

Adikt
West Village
3839 McKinney Ave, Suite 140
Dallas, TX 75204
214.559.6154
This is one of my very favorite shops in DFW for both sneakers and streetwear. Very heavy on Nike sneakers, lotsa other brands as well. Adikt regularly gets the most exclusive sneaker releases in DFW, so you know the place is on point. Oh and yeah, they'll have several of the All-Star specific release--they already got em on display in the shop. I highly recommend checking this shop out. Just 1 exit north of Downtown Dallas off Hwy 75 (N. Central Expy).

Sport Sole
3207 W. Northwest Hwy.
Dallas, TX 75220
214.654.9522
This is a HUGE boutique shop that carries just about everything in streetwise footwear: Nike, Jordan, Puma, Adidas, Converse, Supra, ALIFE, you name it. This is the shop that Nike choose to officially release the All-Star Air Force 1s at--in fact there's gonna be an exclusive VIP party there Thursday night. Definitely check out Sport Sole, just 10 minutes north of Downtown Dallas off I-35 and Loop 12.

Shogun
3054 B University Dr.
Ft. Worth, TX 76109
817.923.4700
On the Fort Worth side of the DFW Metroplex, nobody does it up better than Shogun when it comes to premium streetwear. It's a relatively new shop so they're not too heavy in the sneaker game just quite yet, but I don't know if there's anyone else in the area that can match them on apparel. If you're gonna be going to Cowboys Stadium for the game, you owe it to yourself to make the 20 minute drive west over to the TCU campus to check out Shogun.

Centre
Mockingbird Station
5331 E. Mockingbird Lane, Suite 105
Dallas, TX 75206
877.799.0844
Centre is a fantastic sneaker and streetwear boutique located in Mockingbird Station, just 5 minutes north of Downtown Dallas off Hwy 75 (N. Central Expy). Of all the sneaker and streetwear shops in DFW, I think that Centre has the most unique aesthetic, which is most evident in their brand-new line of stupid fresh t-shirts. In addition to their regular store, Centre is going to have a special pop-up Annex store next door setup just for All-Star weekend. If you're into streetwear fashion, you will not want to miss this!

Index Skateboard Supply
Mockingbird Station
5319 E. Mockingbird Lane, Suite 200
Dallas, TX 75206
214.824.9777
-and-
725 Airport Frwy., Suite 201
Hurst, TX 76053
817.282.9777
While you're at Mockingbird Station checking out Centre and their pop-up Annex, you'll also want to hit up Index. This is a bona fide skate shop with a gajillion boards and related items and they're stupid deep in Nike SB. Really, there's no one in DFW who can touch them in the Nike SB game. Naturally they're heavy into all the other major skate style sneakers as well. Also, they have another location in Hurst, just 15 minutes north of Cowboys Stadium. Both locations are equally well equipped to hook you up.

KidRobot
Mockingbird Station
5307 E. Mockingbird Lane, Suite 107
Dallas, TX 75206
214.887.6226
One more stop you should make while at Mockingbird Station is the KidRobot store. It's not very big (about half the size of the NYC SoHo shop I visited) but they've got a killer selection of vinyl toys as well as apparel and fitteds. I was in there this past weekend and they have both the blue and yellow Quasimodo toys--a must for any Madlib fan.

House of Hoops
Town East Mall
1012 Town East Mall
Mesquite, TX 75150
972.279.5614
-and-
Northpark Center Mall
727 Northpark Center
Dallas, TX 75225
214.373.0064
There are only 9 House of Hoops locations in the entire country so far, and Texas has 4 of them (2 in Houston, 2 in Dallas). What's that tell ya? Yeah well, if your hometown don't have one, you'll definitely wanna check one of the Dallas ones out. The Town East location (15 minutes east of Downtown on I-30 and I-635) is big stand-alone spot between Foot Locker and Foot Action while the Northpark location (5 minutes north of Downtown on Hwy 75) is stuffed into the back half of Foot Locker--oh and it won't be open until Saturday the 13th. If you're only gonna hit one, I'd recommend the Town East spot; it's stand alone, more fully developed at this point, and is next door to the best FootAction I've ever seen--which I've been told is the 2nd highest volume store in their chain, and I can see why: it's HUGE and they carry great kicks.


And for a little something extra...
There are two more places you might want to check out in the DFW area: the urban sneaker/fashion chain stores "DK Foot & Casual" (9 locations) and "Big Mikes" (2 locations). Neither have websites, but you can Google them to find location info. Both carry Jordan Brand and Nike urban accounts, they're both known to ignore Nike's release dates, and they're both usually located in very urban areas. They also tend to have a lot of older releases laying around that you can usually pick up at bargain basement prices.

Look who's coming to All-Star Sneakend

Y'all don't understand how crazy this is getting. The list of special invited guests, celebrities, friends, and crews rollin thru All-Star Sneakend just keeps getting bigger and better:

• DJ Greg Street
• MAYOR
• DJ Clark Kent
• All Day
• Franalations
• Bun B
• Erin Patton
• Sole Supreme
• Dave Jeff

Also heard a rumor that Dallas Cowboys running back Marion Barber knows about the event and is planning on swinging through to check things out. Turns out he's into kicks as well.

There's also supposed to be some local cats from the NikeTalk forum showing some kicks as well. I don't know their names tho, so I can't list em, but I've heard they got serious heat. And of course there will be displays from some of the groups helping put on the show, too.

With so many big names and local collectors, you know there's gonna be some heat on display. All-Star Sneakend is gonna be a helluva sneakerhead event. Don't miss it!

Fur Face Boy - Amazing & Black Friday

Warning: this is probably the geekiest post I've ever made on this blog. You see, in a past life, I worked at a comic book store, which was a dream job for a teenager since I'd been into comic books most of my childhood. Growing up in the 80s, my favorite comic book was The Amazing Spider-Man, which was probably due to the fact that he had his own children's TV show in Japan [link] in the late 70s when I was a little kid living over there.

Created in 1962, Spider-Man's red & blue costume was a comic book icon, so it was a HUGE deal when Marvel Comics revealed an all-new, all-black Spider-Man costume in issue #252, May 1984. That summer, during the mega-crossover series Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars [link] the origin of the costume was shown to have come from an alien machine. Unfortunately, it was soon discovered to be a living alien creature, a symbiote that was attempting to bond permanently with Peter Parker. With the help of the Fantastic Four, he was able to get rid of the alien, but continued to wear the black costume for several more years (made of non-threatening fabric, of course).

The alien symbiote continued to attack Spider-Man over the years, notably in Web of Spider-Man #1 in 1985, when Peter was able to kill the alien with a giant church bell (a story which was horribly butchered in the Spider-Man 3 film). Of course the alien didn't die, and eventually it merged with a nasty fellow named Eddie Brock to create "Venom", one of the most popular Spider-Man villains of all time, who we finally learned about in 1988 in issue #300 during Todd McFarlane's fantastic run on the series. Venom appeared several more times during the McFarlane years, solidifying the villains' popularity, and has continued to menace Spider-Man through several hosts.

So okay, enough with the comic book stuff!

As you undoubtedly know if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, one of my favorite apparel brands is Fur Face Boy [link] and this past fall, the FFB introduced his series 2 line of t-shirts, and wouldn't you know it, he made a blue Spider-Man themed shirt! Naturally I cop'd it (and from Shogun, the best streetwear shop in Ft. Worth [link]) and it turned out to be my favorite series 2 FFB design. No surprise considering how personally it connects with my comic book influenced childhood.

But that's not the end of the story. No, you see, Fur Face Boy released a hyper-limited web-only (ha-ha) run of 24 Black "symbiote" t-shirts on Black Friday. FFB's clever tag line? "Forget Eddie Brock, this shirt wants YOU to be it's host!"

That's not true, of course. The shirt is made of non-threatening fabric.

I think.

A Message From MAYOR

Check out this YouTube video where MAYOR gives you a sneak peek of what to expect at ALL STAR SNEAKEND! Friday, February 12th from 3pm-6pm at the House Of Blues Dallas. For more information, check out my post from last week [here] and of course follow @ALLSTARSNEAKEND on Twitter to catch updates and extra info on the event.

All-Star Sneakend - Event Details

Alright y'all, here are details on the upcoming All-Star Sneakend event that my crew, Heatseekers, is helping put together:

ALL-STAR SNEAKEND
Sneaker Show & Expo
Friday, Feb. 12, 2010 from 3pm - 6pm
House of Blues - Dallas
$20 cover; all ages welcome
(Tickets will be available at the HoB box office)
Facebook Page [link]
Twitter Page [link]

Do you understand how epic this is? It's so epic that every major sneaker show organizer in the entire state of Texas is joining together to Form Like Voltron, organizing this event as a single force, a collective. Kixpo, Dead Stock, Heat Seekers, H-Town Sneaker Summit, and San Antonio Sneaks Up acting as one! Our objective wasn't to have the biggest show, but rather to have the BEST show with the BEST HEAT at a level no one has ever seen before.

So how do we plan to accomplish that? By bringing the biggest sneakerheads in the game from all across the country to showcase some of their hottest kicks at the House of Blues in Dallas, Texas!

Listen, I cannot stress enough just how big these special guests are: DJ Clark Kent, MAYOR, and DJ Greg Street (all members of the ATF crew) are probably three of the most important, most well known sneakerheads in the world today. If you were climbing a ladder in the sneaker culture, these are the cats you'd find sitting on the top rung. There are a few other significant sneakerheads near their level, but I really don't think you could put together a better group than these guys. Between them, they own well over 5000 pair of kicks, and they're packing up some of their best, rarest sneakers to bring to Dallas and display for all to see. On top of that, it looks like they might be bringing some of their sneakerhead friends (wink-wink) along for the show as well.

So Lemme say this again:

Arguably the three biggest dudes in the sneaker game--plus some of their friends--are coming to Dallas to display some of their biggest heat. This is an opportunity you don't get to see very often ANYWHERE, much less in Texas.

Do not miss this! If you live anywhere near North Texas, go ahead and put in NOW for that day off of work. The NBA All-Star game is the single biggest stage in the world for this kind of event that can bring out this level of show guests...and the last time we had one in Dallas was 24 years ago. Do you want to wait til the year 2034 for your next opportunity?

All-Star Sneakend - Feb 12, 2010

BREAKING NEWS -- In conjunction with the 2010 NBA All-Star Game and related weekend activities in Dallas-Fort Worth, four different sneaker groups from across Texas are uniting to host the All-Star Sneakend Sneaker Show & Expo, being held Friday February 12, 2010 from 3pm - 6pm at the House of Blues in Downtown Dallas.

The four groups organizing the even are: Dead Stock (Dallas); HeatSeekers (Ft. Worth); Sneaks Up (San Antonio); H-Town Sneaker Summit (Houston). With that many groups coming together, you know it's gonna be a helluva show.

I can't divulge too much right now as there's still some ironing out of contracts and legal documents and what-not, but lemme just say that the sneaker celebrities involved are HUGE--we're talking some of very biggest names in the sneakerhead circle. THE BIGGEST NAMES. And they're gonna be showing heat you can't even imagine. Y'all ain't ready for this!

We will have much more information to come about All-Star Sneakend next week, but for now, just go ahead and mark your calendar, talk to your boss and schedule that day off, WHATEVER you gotta do, just plan on being at All-Star Sneakend in Dallas, Feb 12.

For up-to-the-minute info, follow All-Star Sneakend on twitter @allstarsneakend


Full Disclosure:
I'm a member of HeatSeekers, so yes I'm helping organize the event. In fact, I designed the logo and am working on the flyer/website/ads/t-shirt.

Fur Face Boy - Ft. Worth Exclusive

Happy New Year! In honor of undefeated #4 TCU playing Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, I'm going to wear my Fur Face Boy Fort Worth City Exclusive tee today, which is done up in TCU colors. Why TCU? Because the shirt was originally designed to convince a certain Fort Worth store, Shogun, to carry the Fur Face Boy brand...and Shogun is located on the edge of the TCU campus.

Like other FFB city exclusives, this shirt was limited to just 48 shirts, with only 10 of those available online. I received mine as a gift from the Fur Face Boy himself at an FFB event held at Shogun last year. And hey, don'tcha just love the included collector's card? Reminds me of a Jordan retro card, very cool. Just another one of those details that makes the Fur Face Boy brand so endearing to me.

BTW - go read this post on FFB's "2009 Fan Appreciation" where you'll see a few folks rockin this very same shirt...and oh yeah, pics of me and my wife, too!

Go Horned Frogs!

Shogun + Space Jam

You read yesterday's epic Space Jams post, right? If so, you already know I've officially declared this "Space Jams Week" (and if not, go read that post) so here's the second installment of the week: a Space Jam themed t-shirt from the best streetwear/sneaker shop in Fort Worth, Texas: Shogun.

As you no doubt already know, Space Jam is the 1996 live action + animation movie starring Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny and pretty much the entire pantheon of Warner Bros. cartoon characters: Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, Sylvester, Tazmanian Devil, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew, Granny, Charles the Dog, and of course Marvin Martian. Honestly, the movie itself ain't all that great and Michael Jordan is not a very good actor, but it did introduce something monumentally important to the sneaker world: the Air Jordan 11 (XI) Space Jam.

The Space Jam, which is being released this wednesday, is easily one of if not the most highly anticipated retro Jordan releases of the year. Hell to be honest, it's probably one of the most highly anticipated sneakers PERIOD of the year, not just Jordans. Consequently, there are a ton of Space Jam related t-shirts being made up by a wide number of brands and shops out there. I mean, since everybody's gonna buy Space Jams (you ARE gonna cop some for yourself, right? Right?) it makes sense to have some matching tees out there for people to rock with the sneakers.

Of all the Space Jam related tees I've seen, this one is easily my favorite. When I first saw it, I immediately knew it was Space Jam shirt but unlike most it doesn't rely on a black/varsity-royal colorway. Instead, it cleverly apes the movie's Looney Tunes inspired logo. I mean come on just look at how perfectly "Shogun" replaces "Space Jam". That's what's up! And then to top it off, the art on the back does it up even better: Marvin the Martian and two space guns to mimic the Shogun logo? Fire, absolute FIRE! In fact that design was also available on its own [see it here] and both shirts, along with everything else Shogun-related from what I understand, were designed by John Hoang (follow @johnAtShogun on Twitter).

I'll be wearing this shirt and my Space Jams for the campout tonight/tomorrow morning at Town East Mall. If you want to follow the Space Jam campout live, follow me on Twitter @dsicle should be Tweeting starting around midnight tonight.

If you haven't been to Shogun in Fort Worth, go check em out. Easily one of the best streetwear boutiques around and well worth the trip to Funky Town.

Fur Face Boy + SHOGUN Collab

So I just posted about the SHOGUN store last week (here) and Fur Face Boy twice already (here and here) but now it all comes together in this awesome and highly exclusive FFB+SHOGUN collab tee. Only 36 of these were printed up--and after the FFB hooked up the Sho crew and keept one for himself, only 30 were made available to the public at the Fur Face Boy Series 2 release party held at SHOGUN earlier this month. Needless to say, this was a hot item destined to sell out in just minutes (which is exactly what happened) so I made sure I got to the event early--three hours early in fact, and I was still the third person there. The FFB made it easy for us early birds tho by handing out a special blue ticket, complete with a hand drawing on the back, to people as they arrived to ensure they got the shirts without having to suffer waiting in an actual line.

Some interesting details about the shirt: notice that the tag is from SHOGUN, not FFB, but there's still an official "Inspected by" and logo flag from FFB. Also, on the back, check out the Fur Face Boy and Shogun names. And of course the artwork integrates elements from both; the FFB face is part of the mecha robot's chest, and the robot's head is actually the same as a design that Shogun uses on their website (which looks to be an interpretation of the Japanese anime super robot Mazinger Z). Even the gun in the right hand of the mecha is connected to Shogun, one that's used in some of their other materials. This shirt is a great example of collaboration done right, on every level.

Another cool thing about the shirt is the rest of the robot; the body is a sort of homage to arguably the most important Japanese anime mecha robot, Mobile Suit Gundam. I've actually posted about Gundam before (here) which is really kinda trips me out. I mean, I grew up in Japan with Mazinger Z and Gundam cartoons/toys/models...makes me feel a little like the FFB was reading my mind and reaching directly into my early childhood when designing this shirt. Weird.

So yeah, it's a wicked cool shirt, but no you can't get one. Too exclusive, and basically sold out before they even went on sale. But hey don't cry, you can still buy tons of other awesome--even limited edition--shirts from Fur Face Boy, and of course a wide range of cool streetwear from SHOGUN.

SHOGUN

SHOGUN is a premium streetwear and sneaker boutique in Fort Worth, and in my opinion is easily one of the finest street fashion stores in the DFW Metroplex. Hell for that matter, it's one of the finest in the country. It's actually better than a whole lot of stores I've seen in NYC, and that's really saying something since New York is probably the epicenter of streetwear fashion.

SHOGUN carries sneakers, caps, apparel, and accessories from some of the biggest brands in the business like 10 Deep, Clae, Crooks & Castles, Freshjive, Fur Face Boy, Mishka, Stussy, Undefeated, Undrcrwn, and Upper Playground. That's an impressive lineup for such a new shop--they only been open about six months. They've also got a killer location on University, the main shopping district by TCU.

Dallas has a handful of streetwear fashion boutiques, but SHOGUN is really the first of its kind in Fort Worth. Do yourself a favor and go check out what Keith and the gang are serving up over in FunkyTown, you won't be disappointed.

One final note: does SHOGUN have the best damn logo, or what? So clever, so deep.

Highly recommended.