Sole Searching

Be A Legendary Designer

CHN — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:33:46 -0700

by Chris O’Leary
It’s the dream that everyone has had at some point in their sneaker-loving lives. Whether it’s in admiration of a something that makes the leap from footwear to art, or if it’s scowl-inducing disgust at something that actually made it out of the planning stages, we’ve all wanted to be a sneaker designer. If you’re a high school student with the dream, Jordan Brand has opened up a window for you.
JB recently announced the launch of Future Sole—a nationwide footwear design contest for American high school aged (14–19) kids who have hopes of a career in footwear design. Hopefuls can log onto the Future Sole site and download a template to design a Jordan Brand or NikeWomen sportswear shoe. The contest is open through till July 1, or when 1000 entries are received, whichever comes first.
A team of Jordan Brand and Nike designers will choose six semi-finalists in each category. The designs then go to the Future Sole site, where you can visit and vote for your favorite designs to pick the top-two finalists in each category. The panel of JB/Nike judges will reconvene in October to select a winner from each category. Both winners will win a trip to Nike’s world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. They’ll get their custom sneaks, $5000 in computer equipment and a $500 Nike Employee Store shopping spree.
Check the Future Sole site for full details. In the meantime, you can fine-tune your designing skills on NikeID. I’ve been meaning to plug the hell out of the ID Hyperdunks for a minute, so this is the perfect opportunity to do that. Good luck to everyone who’s eligible to enter.
I’ve included the pics of the winning entries from the 2008 Future Sole contest (thanks Nike!) below so you can get a feel of what you’ll be up against this year.

Air Yeezy Drops Saturday

CHN — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:26:56 -0700

by Chris O’Leary
After a solid year’s buildup, Kanye West’s Nike Air Yeezy is hitting stores in a limited capacity on Saturday April 4. All three House of Hoops locations (New York, Chicago and Los Angeles) plus the Foot Locker and Foot Action on 34th ave. in NYC will be stocked with the much maligned and hyped sneak.
Normally when a limited-release sneaker drops, you get your HOH releases and you call it a day. Living ridiculously far from any of these stores, a shoe like the Air Yeezy wouldn’t remotely be an option for myself or other sneakerheads north of the U.S. border.
That all changes tomorrow, my Canadian friends.
The Air Yeezy will be available at Livestock locations in Toronto and Vancouver (West 4th), as well as at Foosh in my hometown of Edmonton and at NORML in Ottawa.
Regardless of which side of the border you’re on, the campouts are well in effect for the shoe. I spoke with someone at Livestock in Toronto at 1 p.m. ET and they said that they’ve got more people outside waiting for the shoes than they have shoes in the store. Foosh and NORML have extremely limited quantities, so a lot of campers/early risers will be disappointed tomorrow morning. I’d say the same could be said for a lot of U.S. campers as well.

BB4, In The MF’ing House (Of Hoops)

CHN — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:44:57 -0700

by Chris O’Leary
Great news this morning from Footlocker, who’s announcing that the BB4, the shoe that Vince Carter made famous, will be retroed as a House of Hoops exclusive on April 18.

A little Sole Searching fun-fact: when these shoes originally dropped in 2000, I picked up the white/black patent models for a whopping 250 Cdn bucks. And I went half a size up, based solely on the fear that if I didn’t buy the shoes right then and there at that moment, they’d pass me by. It’d be the white/concord Jordan XI all over again. Six months later I saw the shoes on sale for under $150. Broke. My. Heart.
You know the significance of this shoe, and so does Fred Weiss.
The original boing dunk got me thinking about some of the great ads that the Swoosh put together for VC and the BB4 back in the day. Check those out here.
And just for good measure, this VC Hooptown ad that I’d somehow never seen:

KG Contest Winner

CHN — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:03:54 -0700

by Chris O’Leary
With the Madness and going down all around us, I want to start things off today with an apology to all of you who entered last week’s Kevin Garnett UCLA jersey/sneaker giveaway. I’ve kept you waiting too long on announcing a winner. A crashed laptop (RIP iBook G4) and a chaotic week have me playing catchup. So let’s get to our winner.
We had lots of great entries for this thing that dug up a lot of great memories from the tourney. We got mentions aplenty for Illinois in ‘05, a few for Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, the ‘85 Villanova squad, and a lot others. In the end, it came down to these three entries, from TADone, Clark 13 and the entrant with the strangest/funniest name in here, KobeWearsAPurpleThong, respectively. I’ve pasted my finalists below. If you’re anxious, skip past the entrants to catch our winner.
Tad:
My brotherhood moment would have to be Loyola Marymount and Bo Kimble after Hank Gathers passed away during their conference tourney. Playing on the emotion of Gathers memory, the team made it all the way to the Elite Eight before succumbing to eventual champs UNLV. I especially loved Kimble shooting freethrows left handed in honor of Hank.
Clark 13:
March 19, 1966. It was the day the brotherhood was born. It was a day before public relations and marketing campaigns. It was a day before color TVs and a colored president. It was a day before racial equality. It was a day when a movement began. Not only a basketball revolution, but an entire social outcry was observed. On paper it looks like any other game. Texas Western. Kentucky. 72. 65. What paper cannot capture are the ramifications of that liberating contest. In 40 minutes an entire nation was changed within a gymnasium. Through the looming masses of hecklers and infinite mounds of hate mail, the Miners dug deep into America’s unjust core. Many attribute them with blazing a trail for Los Angeles’ Showtime and Michigan’s Fab Five, but to simply credit them with changing a sport is blatant disrespect. From biographies to a feature film, the El Paso emancipators will forever be remembered for their unified opposition of irrefutable racism throughout the country, on and off the court. Much like adidas’ new sales pitch, Michael Jordan to the Tar Heels and Tubby Smith’s championship with the Wildcats would have only been a dream. Without their courage, Cinderella stories like Loyola-Marymount and George Mason would have struck midnight long before the game ever began. Hill. Lattin. Artis. Worsley. Fluornoy. Shed. Cager. Haskins. This brotherhood not only saw past prejudice to ignite the hopes of athletes from young to old and black to white, they also wrote history with one lineup. One lineup inspired a society. One lineup served as a beacon for civil rights. One lineup reminded everyone in a country’s promise that all men are created equal. One lineup defied the death threats, defeated the doubters, and triumphed over Goliath. That lineup became the precedent of all brotherhoods to follow. And it all started on March 19, 1966.
KobeWearsAPurpleThong:
My favorite NCAA Brotherhood moment I remember watching took place in 1992. I (and everyone else) thought Duke was finally going to lose. Kentucky was going to knock them off the pedestal. Then came “The Shot.” Grant Hill throws a beautiful baseball pass to Christian Laetnner and the rest is history. Remember Thomas Hill crying because he was so shocked..? Now those guys were brothers-and Coach K was Dad. That team had such a bond between players/players and players/coach it was ridiculous. You had the “little brother” Hurley, the “older wiser brother”, Laettner the never shakeable “rock of a big brother” G.Hill, and the list goes on. But don’t forget “Dad”, Coach K. As much as I disliked that team because they were just so damn good, they had an unbreakable bond. They always knew what each other was going to do next, and would do anything for each other-true “Brotherhood”….
I kind of feel like Michael Buffer standing in the ring at the end of some weird sort of triple-threat boxing match that went the distance, with the duty of announcing a winner. Ladies and gentlemen, your winner via judges’ decision…
Clark 13
Before anyone with a good memory gets their stuff up in knots, I want to address something. Clark won the KG giveaway we had back in November. I spent a good part of the weekend going over the three finalists and weighed out a few different options. Let me take you through my judging process:
First off, Clark killed it in his reasoning for the 1966 Texas Western Miners team. To me, out of all of the moments in the tournament listed here, the Miners’ win was the most culturally and socially important out of any other tourney winner. The ‘92 Duke team may have been the best team night-in night-out out of the three finalists’ topics, and the Hank Gathers/Bo Kimble connection runs deep, no doubt. But the Western Texas team transcended like no other team in college basketball. That starting five was a brotherhood within a brotherhood of that team and it was impossible for me to look past that.
At the risk of stuffing one person’s closet full of exclusive merch in the future, I’m gonna institute a one-time winner policy on all future giveaways that we run on this blog. Just to give some props to Tad and Mr. PurpleThong, we’re gonna set you two up with a little something for your efforts as well. If I haven’t thanked everyone who entered yet, let me put that out there now. I loved reading over everyone’s entries and remembering some remarkable stuff from the last 40-plus years back with college ball.

KryptoNates Hit House of Hoops

CHN — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:05:00 -0700

by Chris O’Leary
Just got word from Foot Locker that Nate Robinson will make a special St. Patrick’s Day appearance at the House of Hoops in Harlem (268 W 125th St) this afternoon from 4–5:30 to debut his green KryptoNate shoe’s retail release. For anyone in NYC who’s reading this and is physically capable of travel, considering what day it is, I hope you get down to House of Hoops to take part in this. As far removed as I am from the event, I’m hyped about it!
Also, anyone around 34th St. and 7th Ave in NYC can check out the Swoosh’s Nate-themed 80-foot billboard.
Press release is below.
BASKETBALL STAR NATE ROBINSON GREETS NEW YORK CITY WITH GREEN-THEMED ST. PATRICK’S DAY SURPRISE
“Nate the Great” Releases Coveted Nike Foamposite Lite Slam Dunk Shoe
WHAT: The David versus Goliath 2009 slam dunk showdown has become legendary. When Nate Robinson surprised the Phoenix crowd and international TV audience with a pair of neon green Nike Foamposite Lites to defeat Goliath the crowd was stunned. The hysteria over the shoe began immediately.
The luck of the Irish will shine in Harlem on St. Patty’s Day, March 17. For everyday basketball fans and sneaker heads alike the demand for the green Nike Foamposite Lite has grown to a fever pitch. The shoes have not been available in retail stores up to this point. The wait is finally over.
Nate Robinson will join forces with Nike and Foot Locker’s Harlem House of Hoops for an exclusive release event on St. Patty’s Day. The Nike Foamposite Lite established itself as one of the most memorable basketball centerpieces in recent memory and now fans can join in the action. To further support Robinson and his heroic victory, Nike recently unveiled an 80-foot billboard on 34th Street and 7th Avenue in New York City. The billboard, which displays an image of Robinson, reads “Leaps Tall Centers.”
WHO: Nate Robinson, 2009 Slam Dunk Champion
Nate’s Co-Star: Nike Foamposite Lite
The original Nike Foamposite was introduced in the late ‘90s. This classic has been updated and remains in line with Nike basketball’s drive for superior, lightweight innovation. The Nike Foamposite Lite features 5mm of total foam thickness, polyurethane upper and a Nike Zoom unit midsole. Top players such as Caron Butler, Carlos Boozer and Andre Iguodala also wear the Nike Foamposite Lite.
WHERE: House of Hoops by Foot Locker
268 W 125th St
New York, NY 10027
WHEN: Tuesday, March 17, 2009; 4:00 – 5:30 PM ET

A KG Giveaway To Take You Into The Madness

CHN — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:31:09 -0700

by Chris O’Leary
With March Madness looming, adidas has gone an interesting route on their college campaign this year. The stripes took four of their players who went to the NBA straight out of high school (Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Tracy McGrady and Josh Smith) and had them each do something with a different NCAA program.
You can check out the videos below and wonder about what might have been, like KG playing at UCLA, T-Mac (who’s looking out of shape in the ad) with Louisville, Dwight Howard at Kansas or Josh Smith at Pitt.
Adidas is also breaking out a new shoe for March Madness, called the Mad Clima. Quickly, some specs on the shoe from adidas:
• ClimaCool upper and midsole for 360 degree cooling and ventilation
• Inserted mesh lining provides enhanced breathability
• Custom colors and logo styles for UCLA, Kansas, Louisville
• Additional non-logo Mad Clima footwear available in multiple colors
• Full patent uppers
In addition to the sneakers, team related product is hitting stores as well in replica jerseys and t-shirts. You can also pick all of this stuff up at adi’s online store.
Finally, the giveaway. We’ve got a UCLA package for you, with shoes and a jersey signed by Kevin Garnett. Since adidas is big on the brotherhood angle, I want to hear about your all-time favorite brotherhood moment from the NCAA tourney. Leave your answers in the comments below, and we’ll leave it open through the weekend, with the post closing at midnight, Eastern time Sunday night (or Monday morning, technically).
Enjoy the vids.