EPIC!

Considering how protected and sought after the majority of Disney’s iconic imagery can be, it’s somewhat surprising that Jeremy Scott’s most recent creation for his work on the adidas Originals brand features the one and only Mickey Mouse, worked into Scott’s signature big tongue stylings. Using the well-known El Dorado basketball shoe as a template and lacing it out in the famous red and gold of Mickey’s overalls, he has constructed quite the monster. This could be a polarizing shoe for some sneakerheads, but realistically, it will probably fetch a pretty penny for anyone who can get their hands on it.

Jeremy Scott has always been known as a very talented and somewhat eccentric designer who has worked with Adidas on various shoe and apparel collections for the past few years. With that being said, this may be his craziest piece of design work to date, the J wing came out earlier in the year in white and black colorways, but this Swarovski crystal encrusted version was rolled out specially for famed Parisian boutique Colette‘s, “White Crystal Christmas” exhibition.

Thanks to Sneaker Freaker for the awesome pictures!

Whether you live and die by the excellence that is the Lakers or sulk in the difficulty of being a Nets fan this season, if you enjoy sneakers, you have to be a bit impressed by the Adidas TS Commander LTs that Tim Duncan has been sporting this season. Considering that the future hall of fame center has never really been known for his flair or flashiness, its amazing that he has stepped up in the style department and thrown on some pretty impressive sneakers. Originally meant as one off kicks for Halloween (custom made to correspond with San Antonio Spurs colors), Duncan seems to be fond of them and has kept them in the rotation.

Thanks to Sole Collector for the sweet pictures!

With the new frontier of 2010 on the horizon, it is amazing to watch a cultural and film phenomena from the 70′s turn into a fashion statement in the new millennium. Adidas recently announced that they will be releasing a “Star Wars” inspired line that will be available by January of next year. The collection is being broken up into three packs – Characters, Vehicles, and the Direct Pack. There will also be a few pieces of apparel to accompany the various shoe models, such as a Darth Vader chest plate T-shirt and some various hooded sweatshirts. Check out what the line has to offer below (I’m partial to the AT-AT kicks!).

Anyone that knows anything about DJ AM knows that aside from DJing, two of his greatest passions were in helping others and collecting sneakers. Throughout the years, he managed to amass a collection of over 800 pairs of kicks. As of last Sunday afternoon (Nov. 15th), these shoes have gone up on Ebay for auction in an effort to raise money and awareness for the DJ AM Memorial Fund, which in turn will use the profit to aid already existing organizations, whose focus lies in substance addiction and recovery. The auction is running until Dec. 14th and 100% of the proceeds will be going to the aforementioned charitable causes.

The collection that is up for grabs includes limited edition and hard to find shoes from Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Converse, and BAPE.

You can check out the collection and bid on shoes HERE.

Los Angeles shoe haven, Undefeated, has partnered up with Adidas and their Originals x Originals line to put together an exclusive pea coat, just in time for the first rainy day in a long time down in So Cal. This item will only be available at their Santa Monica location and I’m sure it will sell out fast.

UNDFTD Santa Monica
2654 Main St.
Santa Monica, CA, 90405

Every week until December, one lucky winner will walk away with a pair of limited edition special collaboration XV/55 sneakers by adidas Originals as well as one of the many exclusive collaborative items created for 55DSL’s 15th anniversary.  To enter the competition, you must upload a picture of yourself at your most uncool state in 1994 (the year 55DSL was born) to the 55DSL Wall of Shame found at 55DSL.com.  You and your readers should enter as soon as possible, the first prize will be awarded on Sept 14th
Go HERE to submit your photo and to check out the full list of prizes.

Battle #1
Nike v. Adidas

If you were to be given the choice to choose between Nike or Adidas, what would be the ultimate decision?  Would Phil Knight’s colossal Nike empire crush its German founder Adi Dassler’s successful Adidas reputation?  Who wins this battle? Both companies are spotlighted immensely and carry the weight of being the two top shoe brands of all time.  The U.S. is Nike and Europe is Adidas.  What are you and why?

VP of Design for Pony International, Kyle Pulli, captured it best when he said, “A paradigm shift is happening now and people are redefining what value is. Great design, where the brand is actually cool and it means something, is more valuable than just the flavor of the month.” And evidently Kyle is not alone in his thinking.

More after the jump!….

This transformation is taking place right before our eyes; as the days of American excess, mass production, and doing things purely motivated by profit are quickly coming to a close. The “younger” generations are at the forefront of this mental alteration—breaking down stereotypes and chipping away at this overindulgent way of thinking and living in the United States. The younger generations (X-ers, Y-ers, Y-Notters, and the like) are more conscious than any generation of recent past; evolving and constantly striving to do things motivated by the “right” reasons. Pony, as a result, will be the like-minded company to outfit these enlightened souls.

Obviously, the goal of any company or business is to make money and achieve success. But this does not mean that businesses, more specifically clothing and footwear manufacturers, must run their organizations with a stale, cookie-cutter mentality focused solely on formulas that, when solved, equate to large profits. Success can also be achieved by doing things properly: with care, intelligence, patience, and above all, flavor. Pony is a company fueled by this philosophy. With this drastic swing in priorities taking place in today’s society, Pony finds itself in a perfect situation, by planning to offer dope, quality goods at lower prices than similarly valued shoes manufactured by the competition.

Pulli explained, “A lot of other footwear companies focus the bulk of their resources on their statement-level (or highest priced) shoe, and neglect the rest of their lower priced models. We feel like if we can innovate in that area, where that hot spot is, and overbuild our footwear, our top-end shoe will definitely shine next to the take-downs from other companies sitting next to it on the shelf.”

Pony, as an organization, is certainly not new. Many probably remember seeing Pony’s cleats in the sporting goods store back during their soccer and little league days. This is because Pony was founded in 1972 and, as a brand, has been very well-known ever since—especially in the arena of performance footwear. Several changes in ownership and staff though, during the late 1990s through the better part of this decade, left the company hidden from public view and not functioning to its fullest potential. Then, in 2007, present ownership bought Pony International, LLC outright. Next, a very carefully chosen team was assembled and put in place to take over the renowned footwear firm that had seemed to have lost its momentum. Finally, Kyle Pulli was wooed from his post at Adidas and brought in as the creative lead and the overhaul was complete.

“Momentum can go both ways,” Kyle elaborated, “and internally, we had negative momentum. It literally took us the better part of six months to stop this negative momentum and to get the momentum started in a positive direction. At this point now, our momentum is headed full-force in the right direction.” As a high school student, growing up in Northern California, Kyle Pulli was both an exceptional artist and outstanding athlete. Those two passions as well as a keen interest in design directed him to Arizona State University.

“I went there for two reasons: one, to play baseball and, two, the university had a phenomenal industrial design program.” Within a year and a half, Kyle’s baseball career concluded. Yet his career as design student continued, and his life as a professional artist was hardly beginning.

Pulli ultimately graduated at the top of his class from ASU and was quickly rewarded with his dream position in Portland as a performance footwear designer with international heavyweight Adidas. Initially, he spent the bulk of his time designing football and baseball cleats for Adidas, but eventually, Pulli became known as the basketball guy for the company. He reflected, “I think the cleated sports are definitely more of a brand builder, and basketball is more of a money-maker.”

During his ten-year tenure at Adidas, Kyle worked closely with the NBA legends like Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Gilbert Arenas, Chauncy Billups and Dwight Howard and elevated Adidas’ credibility and status in the arena of performance basketball shoes. Even though Pulli had a superb situation in the Pacific Northwest and had gained international recognition for his work at Adidas, the allure of moving south to San Diego and taking control of the creative reins of an organization with as much heritage as Pony was too great.

“I was really happy where I was at, but this situation was kind of like a hidden gem. The opportunity to come in and put your thumbprint on a brand and just start from scratch—it doesn’t come around often, if ever, for a designer,” he stated enthusiastically. Although, at the time, he had doubts about leaving a good thing, the chance to work with an all-star staff and resurrect a famed brand like Pony immediately erased any reservations that Pulli had. “If it had been another company with a different name that wasn’t recognizable, I probably wouldn’t have moved down here.”

For the past two years, the group at Pony has had its collective nose to the grindstone in preparation of their official, worldwide re-launch, slated for 2010. They have been redesigning, recreating, rethinking, researching and revising in order to release the tightest lifestyle and performance goods by Pony the world has seen. Not only has the squad at Pony been building internal chemistry in preparation for their global onslaught, they have also reached out and signed a number of big-name athletes to represent their brand as well. Of course, this process was also carefully thought out. Pulli mentioned that any company can throw money at an athlete to represent their brand, but Pony reached out to specific players who really embody the company’s philosophy and message.

MLB’s Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers, the NBA’s Wilson Chandler of the New York Knicks, and the NFL’s Randy Moss of the New England Patriots are the familiar faces of Pony’s revival.

As this paradigm shift in today’s society takes hold, Kyle and company are hard at work preparing to make Pony International a globally recognized brand again. With creativity and flair, the team at Pony plans on rolling out quality footwear that will reestablish Pony as a part of the general public’s consciousness. Pulli explained that his squad’s first priority is to, “grow the brand the right way. Because I think when you focus on the right things and you focus on what’s right for the brand, everything will always work out—it has to. There are always ups and downs and to sustain, you have to have this solid foundation to build on.” Pony has just that. A gifted leader and an exceptional staff mean a solid foundation for Pony International’s future, one rooted in the ideals of a new American and world culture.

Text by: Jesse Shamshoian