I’m loving the most recent collaboration between Nike Sportswear and New York-based designer Steven Alan. You can dress these sneakers up or wear them in casual situations without thinking twice. Alan’s signature “classic with a twist” aesthetic is applied to 4 classic silhouettes from the Nike archives; the Air Zoom Toki, Air Max Talache Low AC, Air Zoom Lava Dome, and Air Zoom Magma AC.
Alan’s process involved stripping each style down to its basic form, adding premium materials such as suede and canvas, and implementing functional details such as the Dynamic Fit ankle insert found on the Air Zoom Toki model. He finished the collection off by adding urban tones ranging from grey, black and white to caramel, dark cinder, and obsidian.
The Nike Sportswear x Steven Alan collection will be available at Steven Alan locations nationwide and at StevenAlan.com starting January 20, 2011.
I applaud Nike’s openness to allowing designers to redefine classic models in their own aesthetic. Maybe one day they’ll open the vault up to yours truly!
This video recently surfaced from my trip to NY last summer to cover World Basketball Festival. We were on a bus plowing through the streets of NY when we approached a block with 2 UPS trucks parked on both sides of the street. This didn’t daunt our bus driver as he fit through the available space. Inches, people! Inches…
Wine Shack is an upstart wine store located in Huntington, New York. EC took on this project a few month’s back as Ted Ullrich, our lead in NY, brought me on to work on the identity for this brand. Ted worked on an interactive wine-pairing system for the store itself along with other digital elements. Here’s a first look at the logo and business card. There are a lot of brand touchpoints to see and we’ll update as soon as we have more photo-documentation of the work.
On day 2 of the World Basketball Festival events at Rucker Park, Kobe Bryant came out to teach during a Chainlink Fundamentals practice. Chainlink Fundamentals seeks to provide top-notch coaching to any and every kid that comes to their program. And most importantly, free of charge in comparison to other skill camps or clinics that may cost hundreds of dollars that inner-city families just don’t have. Students stopped in their tracks as Kobe made a guest appearance that they were not expecting. Kobe stuck around for the rest of the training session to provide instruction and encouragement to the kids.
The Apollo Theater in Harlem was the venue of choice for the World Premiere of the AF1 documentary. Lot’s of industry names were in the building: Bobbito Garcia, DJ Clark Kent, and Datwon Thomas just to name a few. Read the rest of this entry »
The Jordan Breakfast Club event kicked off 2 days of non-stop basketball events at NY’s most famous outdoor basketball court, Rucker Park. The guests of honor were Jordan Brand representatives Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony, who were on hand to meet and greet the children from local communities. The children were given a chance to shoot hoops with them as well. It’s to be noted that the usual blacktop at Rucker Park was transformed into a hardwood basketball-ready court for World Basketball Festival. To the surprise of many, Michael Jordan made an appearance. Read the rest of this entry »
After the USA Basketball scrimmage, attendees of the World Basketball Festival Kickoff event at Radio City Music Hall were treated to a surprise musical performance from one of NY’s most notable performers, Jay-Z. I delighted to see that he brought his full band with him. Despite only playing for 25 minutes, the performance was well executed and well rehearsed. Read the rest of this entry »
As part of this summer’s inaugural World Basketball Festival in NYC, Jay-Z has teamed up with Nike to design 5 pairs of “All Black Everything” Air Force 1’s to represent each of the 5 countries participating in the event - USA, China, France, Brazil, & Puerto Rico. Nike has donated the custom pairs for auction to benefit the Shawn Carter Scholarshop Foundation. Jay-Z owns a pair of each design, but now you can bid to be the only other person in the world to have these super limited Air Force 1’s. Bid Here!
Tyson Chandler receives and alley-oop and dunks the game winning basket for the Blue team while Stephen Curry cheers him on.
The USA Basketball Men’s National team had an inter-squad scrimmage at Radio City Music Hall. Half of the team was suited in Blues while the other half was dressed in White. Notable players that were in attendance but have chosen to sit out of this summer’s USA squard were Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudomire, Chris Paul, and LeBron James. Read the rest of this entry »
Charlie Denson, Jerry Colangelo, and Mike Kryrzewski field questions about WBF and Team USA.
“They put a basketball court in Radio City?!?” was my first reaction upon walking into the World Basketball Festival Community Dedication at the historic Radio City Music Hall in Rockefeller Center. Basketball names – Rajon Rondo (USA), Kevin Durant (USA), Yi Jianlian (China), Carlos Arroyo (Puerto Rico), along with Coach Mike “K” Kryrzewski, Jerry Colangelo (USA Basketball Chiarman) and Charlie Denson (Nike Basketball President) officially announced the start of WBF. A dedication ceremony from the New York City Mayor’s Office was followed by a light workshop with youths from Chain Link Foundation. Brief interviews with some of the game’s most notable players followed the ceremony. Read the rest of this entry »
During last week’s Team USA showcase at Radio City Music Hall, I asked Coach K, “Which is sweeter: Winning your 1st NCAA College Basketball Championship or winning a Gold Medal at the Olympics?”
His response was, “It’s nice to have a lot of sweet drinks!”
What a joker! It’s nice that he’s humble enough to play off the question in such a humorous way. By spending a few minutes in his presence, you can tell that he loves coaching and really enjoys teaching groups of young men to be successful on and off the court.
Coach K and Team USA are currently preparing for the 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championship in Turkey. Starting August 28th. If anyone wants to get together to watch the USA games, holler!
The sport of basketball & it’s relationships with Nike, Converse, & Jordan brands are brilliantly mapped at The Ball Room pop-up capsule, located on Frederick Douglass Blvd in Harlem, NY. 100 years of basketball innovation are celebrated through memorabilia, unique product, and interactive digital experiences which are placed in exhibits and displays throughout the 1250 square foot space. Check out some highlights of The Ball Room after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
I just returned to ATL from the World Basketball Festival that took place in New York last week/weekend. This was my view from the Trump SoHo, a place that I barely spent any time. The days were booked with activities and experiences that I’ll outline over the next few entries. Thanks to VS for helping me create these opportunities over the past few years.
I’ll be attending the world premier of this movie at the Apollo Theater during World Basketball Festival in New York. Looks like a killer lesson in history!
On a recent trip to New York City, I stopped by Nike Sportswear’s (NSW) 21 Mercer store for a 2-hour appointment to customize my very own Air Force 1 sneakers. The process is officially called NikeiD Bespoke that is an innovative design experience offering customers the opportunity to work one-on-one with Nike design consultants to customize over 31 aspects of the Air Force 1.
I had previously created other pairs of sneakers via the NikeiD program on the web and have always felt rather unimpressed with the finished products because I lacked a design inspiration from the get-go. I knew that this Bespoke experience was going to be more in depth and rewarding, so I needed a rock-solid concept.
I walked into the appointment knowing that I wanted to stick to the “Love & War” concept that fellow graphic designer Georgios Saliaris and I had previously created for our clothing line, We Are The Process (we call it “Process” for short). If you’ve seen the Love & War graphic tee that was part of the collection, perhaps you will see resemblance between that graphic and this pair of kicks. For those who haven’t seen the graphic, it involved criss-crossing graphics of a rose and dagger, which played on the idea of opposites. It is iconic and it utilized a Black/Red/Grey color palette.
With the concept understood, I knew I’d be able to make the design decisions that would result in a great looking pair of kicks that I would want to wear often.
See the rest of NikeiD Bespoke experience and my final sneaker photos after the jump.
The Dirty South Crunkball All-Stars won the Beat Brooklyn International Kickball Tournament last Saturday in Brooklyn, NY. What makes the victory even sweeter is how they are proudly wearing the shirts we designed for them last month. Can we attribute this win to the confidence they felt in their threads? Maybe?
Keep a look out, we might have some DSCA shirts available for sale in the Process online boutique in the coming weeks.
Here’s another look into the Bespoke Air Force 1 session I had at 21 Mercer last month. That’s black waterproof denim I’m holding. It was great to have so many deluxe materials at my fingertips. It made the design process very intense, yet it was also very liberating to know my custom pair will be one of a kind.
If things go according to schedule, it’ll only be a few more weeks until the bad-boys show up!
Today I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon with EC’s “everything guy” in NY, Ted Ullrich. It was great to catch-up, eat at his favorite sandwich shop, talk about upcoming projects, and catch a World Cup game. Good times TU, we’ll do it again soon.
This summer, Nike Inc. will be featuring their 3 basketball brands (Nike, Jordan, and Converse) in the first ever World Basketball Festival taking place in New York City. The festival will be taking international basketball talent and placing it in situations that are iconic to the game. Locations such as Times Square, Rucker Park, and Madison Square Garden will be host to Team USA, China, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and France. This is something that basketball fans across the globe will be paying attention to. I’m not sure how the ticketing situation is working out just yet, but I’ll follow-up as soon as I hear anything.
August 12 - Times Square
Members of Team USA will be featured on an open-air court and a performance by a surprise musical act
August 13 & 14 - Rucker Park
Open-air practices and scrimmages by National Teams from Brazil and Puerto Rico, and training by France, mixed with performances by top international music acts, in addition to a grassroots youth tournament serving as the championships for some of New York’s top summer basketball leagues. Fans will also be invited to participate in clinics here designed to improve training and basketball skills.
August 15 - Madison Square Garden
Double-header featuring the United States taking on France (1 p.m. EDT) and China meeting Puerto Rico (3:30 p.m. EDT)
