Stuck in Pittsburgh

Btw, my people, I am currently stuck in Pittsburgh. I was trying to go the shoe show in Las Vegas last night and my flight out of New York was canceled thanks to a bunch of rain all up and down the East Coast. After three or four hours in Laguardia, I went back home and then returned to the airport this morning in hopes of getting on a flight on standby. I caught a flight to Pittsburgh, which arrived at 12 or so, but my connecting flight to Las Vegas won't be leaving until 8:30 tonight. Nice, huh? I'm gonna be hustling around that shoe show like a MANIAC tomorrow cause I leave back for New York tomorrow night on the red eye. And I know I've promised it before, but this time I am totally going to take pictures. I swear! The catch is that I will probably post all of them on ChicksWithKicks.

Anyway, this airport features a mall, so I'm going to go explore. Lol, only four hours to kill! Ahh well, at least I got some time to catch up on some blogging, which makes me feel good.

UPDATE (with pictures!!) I'm just about recovered from my evening meal, which started with Ben & Jerry's and ended with ziti from Zbarro's. And that my body has processed that nightmare meal, I'm starting to get that loser feeling, like anyone else would have been in Las Vegas by now. Given all the time on my hands, I took some pictures while I was here:


^^These are my latest footwear acquisition. I adore them. I don't know the real style name, but in my mind I call them my Coco Chanel Jordans. I bought them in one of those shoe boutiques on 14th Street in Manhattan and I might go back and buy the beige pair.

^^Outside of my Jordans, today I am Miss Asics as I am wearing an Asics jacket and carrying an Asics bag. A few months ago, I went to an Asics showcase and received an the jacket and overnight bag for my efforts. A lot of times the samples companies give out suck, but I ran all winter in the Asics jacket because it kicked ass in a million different ways, but mostly because no matter how freezing it got, it kept me warm. But this isn't an image of the jacket, it's the Asics bag that I also received. My son calls it his "Coach bag." I thought he was joking and playing off on the stupidity of designer stuff, but then recently he asked me if it really was a Coach bag. I like the way it looks and feels, but I'm not yet convinced of its durability. If I was walking along one day and the handle just ripped off from its mooring, I wouldn't be shocked.

^^I noticed today and yesterday in the airport that everyone is carrying these quilty bags. I kinda like them, but I kinda think they suck, too. This trend started as an ironic play on the grandmotherly nature of quilted, homespun looking bags, but now they're being carried by people who are not mean and vain fashionistas, but like the bags themselves, are nice and wholesome, which ruins the whole concept and inspires my disdain.

Jay and Jordan: This Means War

I was watching a Yankee game the other night, in which the umpire clearly called a low pitch to A-Rod a strike. A-Rod didn't say anything, but commentator Paul O'Neil pointed out how A-Rod used his body language to make it clear without saying a word that he thought the umps call was bogus. It's the same thing in the world of hip-hop. You have your "Ether" moments when we witness one man use words to publically eviscerate another man, and then you have your more subtle messages that fly under the radar for all except for a handful watching closely.

In this Rocawear ad, witness Jay's footwear. I can't speak for past ads, but even though Dame Dash and Jay have gone their separate ways, there is still a business connection between Rocawear and Pro-Keds. I'm not gonna say what Dash said when I asked him what he thought about Jay selling Rocawear and how he thought it would affect his company (gotta save that for the article), but I'm thinking this image of Jay rockin some sickalicious Jordans says a lot:


^^I got my Jordans on and they look like real sneakers

Note: And on an altogether different note, what kind of message is Jay sending Adidas/Reebok, with whom, as far as I know, he hasn't officially ended his shoe deal. Or maybe he has.

Source of image: Bossip.com

Jay and Jordan

According to the calendar, it's springtime in NYC, which means it's the perfect time to break out a fresh pair of Jordans. However, if you wanna know how very motherfather cold it still is here, look past Bee, who knows she's gonna be photographed and wants to flaunt her bod, and check out Jay. He's got on a quilted jacket AND a vest!

Concrete Magazine

Concrete magazine put out a new issue on Friday. This month's issue features Sleepy Brown, who according to the magazine, is "often featured on Outkast's projects, and he's on the Idelwild album and in the movie. We got with him to talk about his solo moves."



Over the summer, I interviewed Kevin Anderson, one of the magazine's founders, for my column for Footwear Intelligence magazine. The theme this for the summer issue was on urban footwear trends in the South. In the past, the Southern urban customer was viewed not only as a hopelessly behind on fashion trends, but also a follower of trends eminating out of the Northeast, specifically New York City.

Kevin, who lives in Memphis, pointed out to me that now that Southern rap is hot, fans of the music there are becoming faster when it comes to both following and creating trends. A couple of interesting difference he pointed out are that while New Yorker Jay-Z still has the power to set trends, Southerners never really embraced his Rocawear label and the Jordan label has been nowhere near the runaway hit in the South like it is in New York. Cars-of-choice are another difference. In the Northeast, rappers may boast about Bentleys, but in the South, you'll hear more about customized Caprices and Lincolns. The idea, says Kevin, "is to make something old look new and hot."

Southerners are also big into customizing products so that they reflect the flavor of their city or state. Kevin, who in addition to running the magazine, also provides photography and graphic arts servics, sent me this image of some customized Air Force Ones. (And to be honest, he sent me other as well, but I have a cold and lost patience when I ran into ever imagineable roadblock trying to resize them.)


^^Customized Air Force One, photographed by Kevin Anderson

Kevin and I also talked about the ridiculously hostile manner in which many New York rappers have responded to the Southern rap scene. He noted that rap artists from California have been much more willing to collaborate and support the efforts of Southern artists. He added, "A lot of people who don’t like Southern rap don’t have a grip on the people and the experience. To everyone down here we’re right where we need to be."

Top Ten Shoes: Summer 2006

Okay folks, Labor Day has passed, summer is done so I'm going to list what I think were the top ten footwear brands during summer 2006. Please note: There is no factual basis to this list. I did not refer to any data reports or anything like that. This is strictly based on what I’m hearing from my sources and observing while out and about in New York City.

It should also be noted that this list mainly applies to sporty footwear trends. I have a hunch that Manolo is dead these days, but I’m not really sure and what faster way to make an ass of oneself that pontificating on a topic one knows nothing about?

Also note, while sell-through rate (a percentage that indicates how fast a style or brand is selling over a given period of time) of certain styles may still outsell every other style in the store, I’m not including any style whose momentum is on the decline. In other words, I’ll include a super hot shoe that’s blowing out the doors of ten boutiques before I do a style that sells great, but is clearly coughAirForceOnecough in decline.

Finally, for all you readers out there who shop strictly in the boutiques, I'm guessing you're going to read this list and wonder how much CRACK I smoke per day. Listen, I'm aware of how hot certain limited edition styles are, but I'm trying to take a bigger picture outlook. And again, even if a style was hot this summer, if it was hotter last summer, it can't be on my list.

So here goes:

1. Vans slip-ons: When it looked like the canvas trend was dead, Vans arrived on the scene and injected new life into the category. You name the hot celeb and he is probably wearing a pair of Vans.

^^Samuel Jackson has his Vans on.

2. Crocs Cayman: Love them or hate them, everyone is wearing them. A niche opened this past spring for a shoe that took the fun and comfort of flip-flops, but upgraded them to something more closed-up and thus more versatile and appealing to both children and the fellas, and CROCS fit the bill perfectly.

^^Whadya wanna bet this guy, who I recently photographed dispensing change at Coney Island, was wearing sneakers last summer?

3. Reissued 90s Nike Air: I just purchased a pair of Nike Stab so that’s part of the reason Nike is getting the No. 3 slot, but in my recent visits to various and sundry New York sneaker boutiques over the past few days, I’ve asked and have been told that for the trendsetters, it’s the Air—especially Air Max 95--product that’s been the most popular with trendsetters.

^^My new Nike Stabs. I bought them at Jean Stop (511 5th Ave., Brooklyn, 718-499-0159), a great local shop that serves up a great selection of sneakers without a lick of pretension. As you can see, my Stabs already have a smudge on the front part of the right shoe. Bummer.

4. Jordan sandals: I'm told by retailers that these basically blew out of their stores. In addition to the slides linked here, there were also some flip-flop type sandals, which I saw at the beginning of th summer.

5. Sebago boat shoes: The brand has great, updated top-to-bottom designs. And no, boat shoes weren't all that big this summer, but my hunch is that the trend was in simmer mode this summer and will go into full boil next year.

^^Recent Sebago ad featured in Footwear News magazine

6. Under Armour football cleats: They blew out of stores. I have a hunch that by the time this brand’s footwear line is running on all four engines, in will right in synch with a brighter day for athletics.

^^While the World Cup helped perk up soccer cleat sales, it was Under Armour football cleats that scored the most points with retailers.

7. Heelys: I’m hesitant to include this "shoe" (for those not in the know, this is the brand name of those sneakers with the wheels built into the bottoms) because the feedback I’ve received on it has been positive for so long that I have to believe a downside is on the horizon. News to note: this company just announced that it's getting ready to go public.

8. CR8TIVE RECREATION: The darling of the boutiques, the owners of this company are nobody’s fools (both of them once worked for VANS) and they’re as focused on good design as they are on slowly and carefully expanding the brand’s distribution. Make note though, this is more of a boutique brand for the metrosexual guy than it is for the Nike-loving urban guy.

9. NIKE REAX: This shoe is a takedown of Shox and saw a very successful launch in the family/value channel during July. This is the payback shoe for when this channel had to sit and watch mall and performance get rich off of Shox. The question is, does it have legs next spring? I’ll say this, of all the styles listed here, due to the quickness with which the Reax was included in buy-one-get-one-half-off sales, this one was the one I most hesitant to include.

10. Adidas Adicolor: I didn't like this program for the most part because I thought it was a rehash of the 35th Anniversary offerings, but there's no denying that many of the shoes in the Adicolor Group, especially Tron, saw brisk sales.

^Adidas Adicolor Tron