Palladium Boots brings us a different side of Detroit

It's not often you receive a gift like this from a footwear brand. Sure converse will give us a new Kid Cudi song and Asics will give us a photo shoot of a girl in a bikini but this is way different. Palladium Boots has made a mini documentary on Detroit and what is going on there today. The picture it paints is far different from what I expected. Yes there is urban decay but there is also an emergence of youth moving to the city in order to contribute to rebuilding it. It's actually a very exciting time for this city and not in the the sense that it's going to go back to the glory days. Rather, it has it's own unique future and people are moving there because they care.


This isn't terribly new; it's been out for at least a few weeks. It's also a bit longer than your average 3 minute viral but it is so worth watching. Please do.

Another day another awesome Japanese sneaker video

Someday soon Giraffe Lookout will have its own collaboration with a sneaker brand complete with a sophisticated color palate. When that day comes we'll make a nice video for you to watch while you eat lunch at your desk and maybe post up to your blog. Until then, please enjoy this video that Asics made for a Tiger line. 

Tsuri Collection: Autumn/Winter 2010 by The Savants Collective from Onitsuka Tiger on Vimeo.


Via Hypebeast

What is your perfect typeface?

This has nothing really to do with marketing but it must be shared because I just spent a wonderful couple of minutes with an online therapist that identified my ideal typeface. Now I know and I encourage you to discover yours.

http://pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/

Check us out on Pinterest

I met the founder of pinterest last spring at the Tech Crunch Disrupt conference last spring. He explained to me that the site is basically twitter but just for images. It was just still in a beta phase at that point but now it is open to the public and I've finally got my pinboards up and running.

I wanted to pass on my pinterest page- stevea- and encourage everyone to start their own.

Undercover X Nike video

I check streetwear blogs on the regular and sometimes follow the link check on prices and availability. Inevitably, the stuff I'm, most excited about shows up on some Japanese site with all kinds of characters and crazy rendering. I still check the price and it's always like tens of thousands of yen. I don't bother to do any math.

But this post isn't about crying over the state the dollar, this is a post about how Japan always seems to have the best gear. I'm sure at some point in time, you've seen flocks of Japanese teenagers with astounding outfits. They'll have Nikes in exotic colorways and New Balances in models that you've never seen before. Their jeans actually fit and they make it look effortless. Meanwhile, I'm scratching my head wondering- why are these American companies holding out on us stateside and how come these teenagers dressing so well while American teenagers are still wondering in the wilderness.

So you can imagine my frustration when I see a video like the one below. I run probably 3 to 4 times a week (just to throw that in there.) I usually wear an old t-shirt or some functional polyester top. I figure its that part of my day where I really don't need to stress my look. Meanwhile, these Japanese guys just don't stop. They have a team that's running all weekend in knit beanies and nicely cut windbreakers. They are making collaborations with Nike and filming videos with nice drum beats. Even if we could get our hands one any of this stuff, we wouldn't be able to afford it. Still though, I have the sense not to run in traffic. 

Gyakusou International Running Association from POP Magazine on Vimeo.

More on the collaboration and the line at Pop Magazine

Excuse the late pass...

It's tough on this side of the pond to keep up with British adverts. I wanted to post this up though because it is another example of blue-collar alcoholic beverages going white-collar once they get stateside. I went to London once and saw a three liter bottle (I didn't know about the three liter bottle at that point either) for 1.80 quid in a Safeway. The only people I ever saw drinking it were winos and the occasional Brit with a gluten allergy.

Here's an ad that firmly places Strongbow within the trenches, pun intended, of blue collar folk. Please think of this next time you pay 7 bucks for a pint of Strongbow during happy hour in D.C.

How cute...

The Rolling Stones have made a Monopoly game. This kind of makes sense in a real Phillip Morris kind of way. As your target market gets older and falls off, you need to reach the next generation. I imagine at one point in time the Rolling Stones were the type of thing you wouldn't want around children. But this could well be a product that baby boomers buy their grandchildren for christmas. 

I'm personally going to feel extremely old when I see Justin Beiber working on similar cross-branding efforts.

via Brand Republic