vrijdag 14 maart 2008
The Sneaker Bible

“I would say that pound for pound, Melbourne has the best scene in the world.” says Simon Wood. A textbook sneakophile, Simon - also known as Woody, also known as the founder and editor of the world’s favorite shoe bible, Sneaker Freaker – is one of the few people with the chops to make such a claim. An Aussie to the heart, Woody has no qualms running his big time magazine from his (comparably) small time city – and if his words on Melbourne are true, then there might be no better place for a sneakerhead to call home.

We chatted with Woody about the magazine, the city in which it’s produced, and how it is that he came to be more fashion-forward than a Hilton sister.

Oh… and we also talked about shoes. A lot of shoes.

Freshest Kidz: What made you decide to turn your sneaker obsession into a print magazine?
Woody: Well it was simple really; I really thought I could just get a load of free shoes! There was no business plan, no grand scheme, and no idea that I could see into the future or imagine that I’d still be doing it five years later on a global scale. I’ve done a lot of projects and jobs over the years and the mag was a good idea at the right time! You never know how true that is until you’ve already done it.

Freshest Kidz: Why have you kept Sneaker Freaker bi-annual as opposed to quarterly or monthly?
Woody: I just didn’t have the resources in the first few years. I actually did nearly everything on those first five issues, and I didn’t have the ability to hire any staff until a couple of years ago. We made money, but I always had other jobs and there was no way or time to go out, sell ads, and get the money rolling in to fund the expansion - so it just evolved slowly. In 2008 we’ll be doing three issues. Quality is the most important consideration; I don’t ever wanna be accused of doing a shitty, lazy issue with a bunch of rewritten press releases. I think three magazines per annum will cover everything and not leave us scratching to come up with enough to keep the fans happy.

Freshest Kidz: You’ve seen thousands of sneakers over the years. What developments, or consistencies, in the sneaker scene have kept you so interested year after year?
Woody: I relate shoes to music; just when you think you’ve heard it all before, along comes some nutty new shit that just pops off into a new realm. I’m keeping my peepers on Alife this year; I think they’re about to take it to a new level. I’ve only heard gossip, but their colabs sound insane. It’s no secret, there’s so much product about right now. The biggest problem is that the bar is set pretty high, so you have to have some pretty fucking fly shit to rise to the top. I remember when Nike put a NYC embroidery on an Air Force back in the late nineties and we went bananas! So you gotta put things into their historical perspective. I loved the Nike vintage story last year - that was a breath of fresh air - and we had the scoop on that project with Junya Watanabe in Issue 9. People find it hard to hand out compliments and say something is good - human nature I suppose - but all the negativity gets boring and stale after a while.

VIST ;



Labels:

woensdag 12 maart 2008
NEW BALANCE A09 BK
New Balance go from strength to strength with their Japanese line of shoes, and nothing beats this A09 one piece construction. Slashed with Japanese style paint graphics and awesome red beads at the tips of the shoelaces, the Japanese A0 series has stitching similar to the 574ILL and is also available in a white version. With the whites already available in Europe

We think this is a Fresh New One from new Balance. So can you DIG IT ?
dinsdag 11 maart 2008
T-FLIRT
So For All the Online Shoppers Among Us .. I decided to post some dope t-shirts wich are for sale at KarmaLoop .. So enjoy the Tee's And Mail Freshest Kidz About your Purchases ! ..

16

€20

€20

€20

€26

Labels:

Lloyd & Luda


LLOYD & LUDACRIS - HOW WE DO IT IN THE A


Lloyd has just released a new track with Ludacris named ' How we do it in the A '. I'm diggin the whole retro kinda fibe behind it. But i hope that he releases better songs than this cause if you look at his past hits, this just won't cut it. But still this song is something nice to listen to. So enjoy

Labels:

Teyana Taylor

Pharrel's newest protege has been creating a buzz ever since her appeareance on MTV's Super Sweet Sixteen. But Teyana really is a fly girl and a trendsetter when it comes to fashion. So Freshest Kidz decided to take a closer look into her Style ..



Teyana was born and raised in Harlem NYC where she became looked upon as a prodigy... At the age 4, was the 1st time she picked up a microphone in front of a crowd and performed. Due to the crowd's reaction she realized she wanted to be a singer/entertainer.

Soon Teyana was enrolled in many different talent competitions such as the world famous Apollo Theater, National all-stars talent search, etc. Her skill level was so far above her age group that she was forced to compete against adults. She is also an aspiring songwriter... This musical seed was planted by strong influences such as Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Lauren Hill.


As years go pass Teyana has learned to cultivate her talents to form her own original style. Her focus is to be the next young lady since Lauren Hill to shift the game in a whole new direction for others to follow. Be on the look out for this rising star.... Because TEYANA is coming!


maandag 10 maart 2008
SUPRA / NEW
Supra has moved into a new category, one which they have virtually rule themselves – smart casual meets after dinner sports with a dash of bondage, or something like that. Here’s a bevy of their new models, mids and hitops in straight up black and white with varied leather textures and more buckles than a Wrestlemania convention. If that’s not risque enough, peep the gold skytops in 24kt gold! Only 120 pairs of these are bound for OZ and should be out in time for the weekend. Supra has a loyal following amongst dress up kids, and from the tight looks of these new models, they’re right on the money. Nice to see a brand forge its own path rather than incessantly look to others for their inspiration.

Available in select stores and from Carhartt at Melbourne Central.
+61 3 9639 6870 / info@carhartt-melbourne.com





REEBOK FREESTYLE REIGN-BOW
The Reebok Freestyle Hi Reign-Bow is a iconic shoe of the 80´s that changed the face of women´s fitness, revolutionized the industry and ignited the women´s aerobics dance craze. Twenty-five years later, the Reebok Freestyle remains one of the best selling shoes of all time, worn by female fashion icons and everyday fashionistas across the world. The celebration of the Freestyle continues with fresh colorways!

But there has been allot of talking about these shoes becayse ,, 25 % of the people love them ,, and the other 75 % procent hates them ! ,, but ahwel ,, Check em out for yourself !





Mickey Rockz
I've been gone for a while ! i was sick as hell nd sh*t but now i'm back ! ..
As usual i was browsing the web in search of the dopest stuff to post on the blog for all the readers
and thats when i found an interview with Mickey frm the cool kids ! ..
This man has alot of intresting things to say ! so check it out !

THE INTERVIEW

What’s up Mickey? What’s going down?
What it is…

Is what it does! So how has Australia been treating ya?
It’s been cool so far, we’re out here in the summer time and I would normally be in the blizzard of a lifetime if I was at home, so I’m chilling man! I’m enjoying it!

How do you deal with the heat here? It’s not that bad actually
It’s not that bad, our heat is a lot worse cos we got that sticky – cant breathe outside – heat, so this is perfect man, it’s wonderful.

What’s been your favourite part so far? What have you enjoyed the most?
Well, the Laneway Festival was tight man, that was really cool, we went to a beach in Perth, that was dope too.

You don’t have beaches in Chicago?
We do, we have the lake but it’s dirty, it’s not that clean though. That beach had crystal clear water, you guys have parrots walking on the beach and stuff, I was like “what the….”, it was tight man

Alright, well let’s take you back and give us the low-down for the people who don’t really know about how you guys met up and how it all started.
It was about 2 years ago, a friend of mine had pointed me in Chuck’s direction, like “yo man you should check out this dudes beats and stuff, man I think you’d like them” because I was kind of like on my own tip when it came to my own style of production and just music in general and he was like “I think you two would be cool, so check out his stuff”


So what were you doing before this?
I was just producing at the time when I met Chuck. I’d been rapping since I was 9 but I stopped rapping for like probably 2 years at that point and I was just working on production stuff cos I kind of got bored with rapping and it was uninspiring right at that point. A lot of stuff that was coming out wasn’t that interesting to listen to and so I was just relying on my own joints that I was listening to. So I kind of put rap on the shelf for a minute and was just working on production and I went to Chuck’s MySpace page and was listening to his joints on there and as soon as I heard them I was like “these are dope man!”. He was on the same page I was when it came to style and influences and stuff like that, so I listened to all the stuff he had up and I was like “let me talk to this dude, and see what’s going on”. He lived in Chicago so I thought why not, so I hit him up and was asking him how much he charged for his beats, to get a gauge of where he was at. I forgot what number he hit me with, it was like 200 or something, something crazy, but I was like, “word, I wanna buy one” and he was like “oh ok, cool” and then one day we decided to just meet up at his house and go over some tracks and stuff and see where each others heads were at in terms of producing. I was just trying to meet people and kind of just meet like minded individuals because the circle of people I was dealing with were stagnant and stuck in the same old rigmarole and they were about the same stuff that was popular then.

At the time you were saying it was totally uninspiring, so is that why you decided to go back, to go forward, as you say “bringing ’88 back"? What was the sensibility of ’88 that was hitting it to you, that excited you to bring that forward to 2008?
It was the stuff I grew up on. As soon as I was born I was listening to Hip Hop because I wasn’t one of those kids that got sheltered like “you can’t listen to that!” My parents would put in anything when I was little, man, they would play any tape in the car. We were riding places and in the house they would just play anything and I heard it and I listened to it and I liked it, since I was little and luckily it was a lot of good stuff. My parents had good taste in music so I grew up listening to the good stuff. People say “well how do you know about all that, you weren’t even born, you can’t possibly know about any of that stuff”. I probably know everything because I was born into it, that’s all I knew.

It seems like this huge phase now, where a lot of people are going back – you've got the Retro Kids, you've got Fruition, that are bringing back that style from the late ‘80s to the early ‘90s and we are seeing it in clothing and shoes more and more. On the style side of it, you guys are hitting it on the old school tip but you’re also using current labels, you’re not just rocking vintage wear. I’ve seen you guys rock Mishka, Rocksmith, Nike.
Yeah yeah, it’s just all based on how we are feeling basically. When it comes to current labels we are picky with that stuff because there’s millions of them, everybody has got a line. I only try to rock lines where I think their designs are dope and they represent something cool. If you have a wack design, I don’t care what your label is; I’m not wearing it. If you’re the most basic up starting kid, this is your first t-shirt ever and you have no name, if it’s a dope design I will wear that any day over the most popular designers in the world. I’m all about what looks cool to me, I don’t really care about what name it is. And it’s weird cos a lot of street wear lines have got beef and all this crazy stuff with each other and they’ll get mad sometimes because maybe I’ll have on something from somebody they don’t like but I don’t care man, it’s all about what looks good to me.

Well you’re not getting paid to wear it.
I know, I’m not getting paid so who gives a shit. It’s all about what looks good to me basically!

On the sneaker tip, growing up in Chicago the Jordan is HUUUUUGE there...
HUUUUGE, it’s another world man that people don’t know about. Jordans in Chicago are so serious that I mean, mad. I remember for the VIII’s, the Concord VIII’s people were getting shot over those. My mum wouldn’t let me get them for a while. I did end up getting them but she was like “you better not wear those when you go over your cousin's house” cos my cousins lived in the "HOOD" hood, so she was like “you can’t wear them when you go out there”. It was on the news like mad peoples was getting robbed and shot over those.

How long ago was this?
This was probably, ah, like ’94 ish when the VIII’s were first coming out, so around then I don’t remember the exact date…

I’m just asking because we are so far removed from any of that over here, we are sheltered from all of that
You guys are a long way away, the other side of the world, its nuts

Do you always rock Nike? Is that where it’s at for you?
Mostly I rock a lot of Jordan, a lot of Nike. The only thing I haven’t really got is, or brand of shoe I’ve rocked, well…I’ll just say the ones I rock consistently. Jordan, Nike, dope Reeboks, Vans, Puma. Basically just lines that have got classic designs, really dope classic designs that I can roll with because I don’t like really technical looking sneakers with watches and flash lights and all that stuff

No L.A. Gears for you then? No L.A. Lights?
Oh, Ill rock L.A. Gear, I just like classic designs, so yeah it’s all about the mould of the shoe, the whole design of it, is what will get me into it. I guess all the shoes I have are classics, like Vandals, all the old Jordans, I haven’t bought any Jordans past XVI, those are the last new Jordans I bought.

So it seems natural then that you guys may have something in the pipeline with a collab, it seems the thing to do?
We’re friends with Brand Jordan right now, and we’re going to get something rolling hopefully, we’re going to get some stuff moving. We got some stuff popping with Nike too. Nike and Brand Jordan have been really interested in what we are doing and they’re pretty eager to get something working.

What do you think the attraction is with these brands approaching you? Peter Fahey booked you guys for the Sneaker Pimps show in Chi-Town to perform with Slick Rick and Jeru Tha Damaga and then you get these people that are so into your style and sound, do you think it’s because it’s so new and refreshing in a retro way or is it because it seems authentic to them, it’s not something that is forced for you guys.
I think maybe it’s a combination of both. I think you can definitely tell we love this stuff and it’s pretty much we’re doing this strictly for the love of it and we love doing it, it’s not for the money or anything, because we don’t make any money. I’ll get on the recording right now and say we don’t really make any money, so it’s all about how much fun we have with it and I think that attracts a lot of people to us, the fact that they see that this is fun to us, we love doing this…

ou’re hanging out too with, I hate to say fans, but the people that come to your shows. You hang out afterwards and chill out, you’re pretty approachable
Yeah, we’re just regular dudes you know. I was living in the dorms in college last year. You’ll never see us get to that superstar kind of attitude. It sucks and that was kills a lot of peoples careers man, you get that whole vibe about yourself and you elevate yourself to all other people, that sucks man. Nobody digs that shit.

Have you encountered that with some artists that you may have looked up to and when you meet them they are a bit like that…
A little bit, it depends on who you meet. Most of the people I really respect, that I’m really into, they are people like me. They don’t have that aura about them and that’s why I respect them and look up to them. If they do have that attitude about themselves I don’t really like them anyway, so I don’t ever really meet them. Everybody I like, has pretty much been how I’d expect them to be.

So what’s coming up next for Cool Kids?

We got a bunch of new music about to come out. I’m not going speak on the exact format as to what it will be bought out as, but there’s new music.

And you signed with Cake.

Cake is our joint, our label, and our brand

So, totally independent?

Yeah, all independent for us. We’re pretty much doing it on our own right now. If anybody’s got any good ideas and wants to pitch in and help, that’s always cool to, but right now it’s independent now and we’re pretty happy.

Thanks Mikey

www.myspace.com/gocoolkids


Labels: