NYC sneaker purchases

I just spent a week in New York, and naturally I hit up as many sneaker, streetwear, and record shops as I could fit in the trip. I'll be posting about those places for the next few weeks or so, but I thought I'd start off by showing the sneakers we picked up on the trip, plus a couple I got right before the trip that I haven't posted about yet.

• A.R.C. x Nike Dunk Hi Supreme TZ
• Nike Air Prestige II High
• Nike Big Nike Low Katakana
• Air Jordan 1 Retro
• Air Jordan V
• Air Jordan XX3
• Reebok Club DGK Pump
• Adidas Originals ZX 600 4th of July
• Adidas Originals Superstar PT 60 Year Anniversary

A few notes notes:

• The Jordan XX3 and Adidas Superstar PT 60ths are my wife's sneakers.
• The A.R.C. x Nike Dunks are an exclusive collaboration by the famous Alife Rivington Club.
• The Air Jordan Vs came out of the 2008 18/5 Countdown Pack.
• The Big Nike with the Japanese text is actually my second colorway; I've already got the orange/white pair.
• The Reebok Club DGK Pump is made out of rubber basketball material--crazy kicks!
• The Adidas ZX 600s are ugly as sin, but I picked them up because they were only $5 bucks.

Adidas + Def Jam T-shirt

Seriously y'all, this might be the Holy Grail of T-shirts for me. It combines so many of the things I love: Adidas sneakers, vinyl records, Hip Hop, and of course T-shirts.

So now you might be asking yourself, "what's the deal here, how's all this connected?" so lemme tell you the story: back in the day, Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons founded Def Jam, which turned out some of the most important Hip Hop of the 80's and early 90's, including RUN-DMC, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Slick Rick, 3rd Bass, and EPMD. Now at the time, music singles destined for radio airplay came out on 12" vinyl in relatively simple sleeves--as opposed to the more expensive photographic album covers found in retail--and Def Jam had a great iconic logo incorporating a large "DJ" and a turntable tone arm on the sleeve; they was basically screaming, "hey DJ, put me on!"

In 1986, Def Jam artists RUN-DMC put out a song called "My Adidas" extolling the greatness of the Adidas Superstar "shell toe" sneakers--which I've got a closet full of--and thus began a deep connection between Adidas sneakers and hip hop.

This summer, Adidas celebrates their 60th anniversary in collaboration with Def Jam's 25th anniversary, and when they announced the product line I just knew I had to cop this shirt. The 12" single vinyl record design is classic, and then they topped it off with shiny reflective silver ink, silver thread shoulder stitching, and a nice crown logo on the back.

I'm lovin' this shirt.

Shure Record Tote Bag

I'm going to NYC soon and got plans to hit several record stores while I'm there--and Manhattan ain't exactly car friendly, so I'm gonna have to hoof it on foot with whatever records I purchase.

To help me carry records all over town, I picked up this Shure heavy-duty record tote bag a few weeks ago. It's got big heavy handles on top, a shoulder strap, pop-out backpack straps, a bunch of interior pockets, a strong fold down floor, cinch straps, and can hold 50 records. That'll probably be enough space. Maybe. Hopefully? LOL

For those not in the know, Shure is one of the leading brands of record needle cartridges--they're what I use on my turntables.

If you're looking for one, they run around $40 on Amazon.com

Coffee Drinks Illustrated

I found this great coffee infographic the other day created by graphic designer Lokesh Dhakar. Reading the blog comments are interesting; seems he altered the graphic as coffee experts described how the drinks should be made. Cool.

He's set up a Cafe Press store if you wanna buy this design on a t-shirt, or better yet a coffee mug.

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 purchases

Mentioned in my last post that my wife and I went to the Adidas Outlet and bought a total of eleven pairs of sneakers in two trips. A couple were duplicates, but these shown here are all the unique ones.

• I.L. Comp (Ivan Lendi)
• AdiTennis (black leather)
• Stan Smith (white/blue)
• Campus Vulcan (Mark Gonzales)
• Rod Laver Low (red/white double laced)
• Stan Smith (white/green)
• Honey Low Canvas (black)
• Superstar 2 (white/black)
• Superstar 2 (black/white/blue)

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.

Kid Robot Dunny Toys

Since a new Kid Robot store opened in Dallas this week to much hoopla--and don't get me started on how peeved I am that I missed out on the giveaway toy; Grrrr!--I figured I'd post up some pics of my own Kid Robot Dunny toys.

A Dunny is a cool little vinyl bunny customized by a variety of artists and sold in a blind assortment--meaning, you don't know which one you're gonna get till you buy it and open it up. It's a little like buying baseball card packs, or a scratch-off lottery ticket; half the fun is the anticipation of wondering if you got the one you really want.

FYI, the Dallas Kid Robot location is in Mockingbird Station, but if you're interested in checking it out, you might wanna go ahead and do it soon: this isn't a permanent location, it's just a Pop-Up location for marketing purposes. It'll likely be here through the Christmas season, but who knows after that.

Fur Face Boy Shirt

Fur Face Boy is a new brand that I'm falling for; the attention to detail is crazy, and the design is top notch--right in line with my own aesthetic.

This particular shirt of the NIKE Air Jordan III (with an FFB twist) was a KIXPO exclusive and has a cool story behind it. Oh and if you check out this blog post on the FFB website, you'll see a picture of me at KIXPO buying the shirt. Cool.

Keep an eye out on Fur Face Boy. It's getting big here in Dallas, and it really looks like it could take off nationwide in a big way.

San Diego Record Dig

So I've already posted all the record stores I hit on my San Diego vacation, but I haven't posted what I actually bought. I ended up with over a dozen records, here are the best:

• Lee Fields - My World (2009)
• Barry White - Just Another Way To Say I Love You (1975)
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu (1970)
• Diana Ross and The Supremes & The Temptations - On Broadway (1969)
• Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life (1976)
• Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr - I Hope We Get To Love In Time (1976)
• Commodores - Midnight Magic (1979)
• Commodores - Natural High (1978)
• Earth Wind & Fire - Powerlight (1982)

The only non-soul/funk album here is the CSNY album (folk rock) which is a classic of its genre. Oh yeah, and while that Lee Fields joint is brand new, it sounds like it came right out the '70s. All in all, I'd say this is one of my better digging results.

Record City

Record City is the fourth and final record shop I hit on my digging trip in San Diego. The selection here is flat out amazing--especially the dollar bins, which are one of my favorite places to dig in a record store. The dollar bins here are organized alphabetically instead of just randomly tossed in boxes like most other shops, and there's like 20+ crates of 'em. You could spend days just in the dollar bins alone.

The icing on the cake for me was in the very back corner of the store--four creates of records marked "Dollar Soul"...and it was jam packed full of great stuff. I filled my bag up with as much as I could carry.

Record City has great organization, both by genre and alphabetical, and every record (excluding the dollar bins of course) is in a protective poly sleeve. I even found my favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers album, the George Clinton produced Freaky Styley, on vinyl LP.

Recommended for all vinyl enthusiasts and collectors--and highly recommend for those inclined to dig in the dusty dollar bins.

Thirsty Moon Records

Thirsty Moon Records was the third record shop I hit in San Diego. I was actually on my way to a different record shop, but I saw a sign that said "Records & CDs" on it so I followed the arrow to a tiny little record shop--possibly the best record shop I've ever been to.

The shop is tiny and they don't have a ton of records, but it seems like every album they have is awesome. As I dug through the soul section, I literally thought "every single one of these is a classic", which is so unusual--typically at any other record store, you dig through tons of crap in hopes of finding a gem. Granted, a lot of that's due to the fact that they carry a lot of reissues, but for listening purposes that's meaningless--bad for hardcore collectors, but otherwise they're great because they're new and fresh and clean.

Thirsty Moon caters to my vinyl music tastes almost perfectly. I love the place!

Highly recommend for vinyl music fans who like Soul, Funk, Reggae, Jazz, Psychedelic, Punk, Garage, and even some Metal--but not necessarily for hardcore vinyl collectors looking for original pressings.

United Records

United Records is the second record shop I hit in San Diego--and it's gotta be the most diversified record store business I've ever seen. Besides just selling the vinyl, CDs, and t-shirts, they also sell DJ equipment--turntables, mixers, headphones, stylii & cartridges--and also rent out that same kind of equipment. In fact while I was in there, some dudes came in and rented a pair of 1200s and a mixer for a show. On top of that, United also has a DJ booth setup in a little recording studio if you want to make your own professional mixes. Seriously, I can't believe there aren't places here in Dallas that have their business setup like this.

Unfortunately, while their business is diverse, their music selection isn't. They're super heavy into electronica, d&b, and that sort of club music, so if you're into that this place is pretty much heaven. But for me, it was a digging letdown; I really only found 3 or 4 things I'd be willing to buy, and they were all really expensive. That's not unexpected since they don't sell the kind of music I buy tho, so it's not their fault.

I would highly recommend United Records for fans of electronic music, or for anyone in their area needing to rent or buy DJ equipment.