Our good friends over at Cultureshoq are putting their blog to good use by ebaying a never been released sample pair of Asics Gel Lyte III’s designed by Ronnie Fieg.  100% of the proceeds will go to Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Foundation:

“After the Horrible Earthquake took place in Haiti we decided to help out out. Many are in desperate need of aid and hopefully these Asics will help raise a nice amount. These are a one of a kind and will never be released. Dont sleep on this. It was the first prototype for the Asics X Cultureshoq collabo that dropped last year. This is a size 9 and the only pair that exists. 100% of the proceeds will go to “WYCLEF’S YELE HAITI FOUNDATION“. Shipping cost is $20 in the USA. GOD BLESS HAITI AND LETS RAISE SOME $$!!!”

Even if you’re not a size 9 or not into sneakers, you should try to donate something to the cause.  Skip the second jack and coke when you go out tonight and spend it on people in need.

More pics of the shoes after the jump

Our friends at  Cultureshoq team got together with Ronnie Fieg of David Z. to collaborate on the Asics Gel Lyte iii, a sneaker that has made a major impact on sneaker heads across the globe. Ronnie chose to work with 3 of his favorite blogs including Cultureshoq, Highsnobiety, and Nicekicks which happened to be 3 of our favorite blogs too. The first to be released from the “Trilogy Project” will be the Cultureshoq Gel’s. Check back at cultureshoq for more info.

It’s not often that something can be called classic right off the bat. For something to truly be called classic, it needs to stand the test of time. This applies to everything from cars to clothing to music to movies. Problem is you don’t have a Delorean to go back in time and get bags of classic vintage gear. Thankfully, For All to Envy’s Kirk has got your back. His eBay store has almost a thousand vintage pieces and his blog schools you as it acts like a vintage history book. One of the best things about his blog is that he’ll post current pictures of a vintage piece and vintage pictures of people/athletes rocking that item back in the day. Seriously, check it out and you’ll be hooked: ForAllToEnvy.com.
Read more after the jump!…

How long have you had For All To Envy?

The actual name came to be in 2005 but I’ve been in the vintage business since 2001. I started off by selling only on eBay, then after four years I had accumulated such a vast inventory that I needed another outlet. In 2005 I started the website to give people a chance to shop my entire inventory. The website was an eclectic mix of rare vintage clothing, sneakers and streetwear. When I went live with the website I decided to expand the company and create my own t-shirt line as another creative outlet.

What’s your plan for your next line of t-shirts?

In ‘09 I’m trying to expand the brand…right now I do mostly t-shirts, with a few hats and sweatshirts here and there. My goal in the near future is to create a complete clothing line. It will be much more than just t-shirts, while still sticking with the themes I’ve used in the past which are vintage, sports and music-inspired pieces.

How did you get started with this? Were you always collecting older stuff?

After high school I started going to the thrift stores just to try and find some cool t-shirts and stuff. After going for a while and buying some vintage clothes, people started to ask me where I got my stuff like vintage Lacoste polos, for example. Back then, Lacoste hadn’t made their comeback yet and everyone was going crazy for polos with that little alligator on them. One day I decided to go on eBay and search for Lacoste polo and to my surprise they were selling for $50–$100. I thought to myself, wow, I could make a lot of money selling these on eBay and so that’s exactly what I did. I slowly started selling as a part-time gig but it eventually turned into a fulltime job. One thing lead to another from selling a couple shirts on eBay to creating a website to starting a clothing line and now I’m sitting here talking to you… With all that being said, this snowball effect all came from my love of going to thrift stores and finding cool, unique clothes.

Is it like going digging for records and finding that original that you’re not going to find every day?

To me, it’s a rush. I always say it’s like playing the Megabucks when I go out hunting or digging for vintage. When you buy a Megabucks ticket you instantly start thinking what you would buy if you won. For me it’s the same feeling when I go digging for vintage, I start thinking what if there’s a pair of OG Jordan Is new in box or what if I find a vintage 1986 Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill tour shirt. You never know what you’re going to find and that’s one of the best things about what I do.

You describe your stuff as vintage; compare a piece of clothing that’s just old to a piece of clothing that’s vintage. What would you say the difference is?

When I think about it, vintage has more of a positive connotation and if something is old, it’s just old. The word vintage is thrown around so often these days that it gets confusing. I guess it depends who you ask; some people say vintage is 30-plus years old but I believe it’s anything 10 years or older. The reason I say that is I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s so clothing from those eras are vintage to me. I personally specialize in ’70s–’90s because that’s what I know and what I like. However if you ask the next guy, he might tell you vintage is from the ’30s–’60s because that’s his generation. When you use the word old, you could be referring to an old pair of pants from last year that you don’t wear anymore, so I guess the word old doesn’t really have the same connotation as vintage.

How do you feel about vintage-inspired and all the new clothes that are made to look retro?

Me personally, I really don’t care for retro just because my business is selling authentic vintage. If I have a rare vintage t-shirt that I’m charging a good amount for and then a company comes along and retros it, that just cuts down the value of my tee. These companies just mass produce these shirts and sell them for cheap which in turn makes my product not as sought after as it was before. Another thing about retro tees is their is NO history behind them, which is one of the reasons I love vintage so much. Every vintage t-shirt I come across has a story behind it: How did it get so worn? Who wore it? Why did they give it away? And how did it end up in my possession?

What type of stuff do you find people wanting the most?

Sports. Sports is my biggest market. Because sports will never go out of style; you’ll always like your favorite team. You’ll always be a fan. You don’t just switch teams because you feel like it. Every year, every sport plays. It will always be there. It’s a constant. So that’s the best seller. Always has been, always will be, at least in my opinion.

Do you ever debate between keeping something for yourself and selling it?

Actually, yeah. All the time. And it’s hard because I’m in business first. So it’s hard for me because I want to have a successful company and have rare items for sale. So if I get a piece and I have to sit there and weigh the options. It’s hard for me, but I keep my fair share. I have plenty of vintage wear. I keep it if I really want it.

What’s one of your best finds?

Well, I could probably write a book on this….I would say, it was actually this year. I found a spot that this guy had and it was chock full of sneakers from floor to ceiling. Old sneakers, old vintage Ewings, there was vintage Nikes, Asics, Adidas Streetball, Converse Aero Jams, everything from the the early ’90s—it was stocked with that. And he also had thousands of snapback hats, t-shirts and sweatshirts. It was just like walking into a time warp and I was back in the early ’90s. And that was my biggest and best score that I’ve had to date.

Text by: Bernardo DiGirolamo

On May 1st, the Vapors crew hit SneakerPimps down at the Vanguard on Hollywood, & man did we feel the love!!  For those of you who don’t know, & clearly live under a rock, SneakerPimps is the largest touring sneaker show in the world. Other than showing up with over 1500 pairs of sneakers you’ll only get to see, smell, and attempt to touch once, they also bring some legit music & absolutely everything sneaker related you can imagine.  Best of all, there were tons of brands out there with some pretty sweet graphics, & I gotta send some love their way.

Check out the rest and pics after the jump

Our boys over at Halloway Clothing & Limb x Limb hit us up on Twitter to go visit them, so we made that our first stop (after hitting the bar of course!).  The clothes were dope, & Jawn introduced us to the other brands they work with, including Adapt Clothing, who had some sick shirts!! We picked up some sweet threads from all those boys, including a bright blue shirt with white & hot pink lettering on it that says “Gossip Kills”, & then decided to go visit the rest of the vendors in the building.

Some other people definitely worth mentioning: BBall Junkies, who had a sweet shirt that was a basketball hoop made out of laces!! Another amazing one was Neue Marvel,who had this one shirt called “Love & Alcohol” that you should totally scope out on their page, & Royal Prospects, who hooked us up with some amazing graphics, including their newest one released for SneakerPimps with old school Duck Hunt on it.  Sanz Pareil was representin the West Coast with some sick logo’s, while Chicharon Adventures showed off their amazing fabric, amazing message, & sweet designs. Jay from Diamond Crew was awesome, & had some some cool stuff to show us!  The kicks & hats on his table were sweet (especially the black & pink LA one!), & they gave us a preview of the new stuff coming out, & let me tell ya, it’s sweet.  The boys over at Dilligence Clothing had some sweet threads to show off to us, as did Ghetto Rock LA.  Fully Laced, was also there showing off their shirts & best of all, hats with the solar system under the bill. Villany had some amazing stuff there, & had their shirts folded on the table to say “See Aye Aye Day” (CA All Day.. yeahh you guys get it ). & last, but most certainly not least, SneakTip was out there showing us their jackets full of stash pockets, holes for headphones, & sweet sweet designs.

All in all, it was an amazing night! House of Pain, B-Real & DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill, & some others were on stage all night, the crowd was breakin it down, the XBox 360 crew was there hosting a competition, & the sneaks on display were amazing. Not only were there limited editions there that would make even the most oblivious drool, but, Asics showed up with their Onitsuka Tiger line, C1rca brought some pairs, & even Van Taylor Custom Shoes came out (with their Coraline shoes!!).

If you missed the LA show, I hope we made you jealous. The tour goes on through September, so roadtrip it out to another city if you have to!!

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Why a sneaker blog? Did you see another site and just say, “I can do better?”

Sneakerfreaker isn’t really a sneaker blog as such. We’ve been around since 2002, which I’m pretty sure makes us officially ancient and one of the earliest sites. There was Crooked and Fixins back then, but the online sneaker landscape was pretty much barren at that time, so we didn’t really have anyone else to compare ourselves to. We started off at a pretty unsophisticated level, and it was originally a forum and a blog, I guess, but now we’re a much different beast, and we publish in a totally different way. A lot of the magazine content is cross published, which means we have dozens of excellent features which are all in-depth explorations of brands and genres. I don’t think any site has anywhere near the level of information that we have on tap for our visitors. At the end of the day, everyone in our category shares the same traffic to a large extent, but the best sites have their own spin, and ours is definitely pitched more at a person who likes to read and soak up a decent story.

Are you making a living off the site?

The site is one revenue chunk out of all the things we do. There are also the magazine sales, advertising, marketing, copywriting for brands, creating and designing catalogues for brands like Puma and Nike. We all get our hustle on any way we can.

What were you doing before the blog?

I had my own design firm for about eight years, and most of the clients were in fashion or music. I also used to work on big budget films doing design, things like making money for bank robberies, creating entire police stations and graveyards and all kinds of shit. The film jobs were great, unfortunately all the ones I worked on turned out to be stinkers like Ned Kelly and Queen of the Damned. But we always made some really nice things during the process and I’d love to go back and make another film one day.

What’s the most rewarding part?

I think it all comes down to people and making friends over a long period of time. I know it’s a bit corny, but we’re all in the game, and when we get together like we did in Beijing with Nike recently, it makes for a fun, lively time. The weird thing for many Americans is that we’re not all based in the States—I’m in Melbourne, Australia, David is from Switzerland, Kevin is from Hong Kong, and there’s Chooee from Streething in Malaysia. After six years beavering away on Sneaker Freaker, I can pretty much travel anywhere and look up some great friends. It’s extra hard work if you live down here where I am, it’s 30 hours in a plane to New York and more than 24 to Europe.

What’s been the most popular post?

Our most popular post this year was the Nike horseriding boots for the 2008 Olympics. It was picked up by a lot of people who love horse riding…and hated Nike’s boots for some reason.

What’s your holy grail?

I don’t currently have a grail, but my favorite shoe right now is the black version of the Blaze of Glory that I designed for Puma. I just posted out some pairs to friends and family today, they all got a pair made from real sharkskin and they look amazing! I’m really proud of this one; it’s a weird, rad looking unit that’s quite confronting in many ways. There’s a lot going on, but the colors are dope, the rake is cool, the shoe is mental comfortable and it just looks hot! Aside fom that, I’m looking forward to Solebox’s Gel Lyte; I loved the Tech Pack Safaris from earlier this year in both colors; Bodega did that great Spy Vs. Spy shoe and they have a hot shoe with another brand that I’ve seen.

The silhouettes of shoes have slimmed down a lot in the past couple of years, and the market seems much bigger for simpler, classic, almost retro shoes at the moment. Do you think that’s just nostalgia, or was design better before?

Nostalgia is part of it, but there’s no denying that the ’80s and early ’90s produced the most amazing run of new designs. In the past I have been drawn to chunky good things like the old AF-1, Jordans 2 and 3, the ZX Runners and Reebok Pumps, but right now, as I have written in Sneaker Freaker, I’m only wearing new shoes I have never worn before such as the Asics Bussleton, ACG Wildedge, Free Everyday, Gel Trail… There’s a stack I’m trying out. People actually freak out when you wear some mad modern shit, I highly recommend it. It does take a while to get used to and you have to subtly modify your wardrobe, but once you’re free from the past, it’s incredibly liberating. And it snaps necks like crazy! Perhaps I’m a little bonkers in this regard but I’m doing my best to shine a little light on some new shit even if people think I’m a kook.

Where do you see designs going from here? Are designers just going to increase the height of high tops until they hit your knees?

There’s no doubt the high tops will keep getting higher, the lows will get lower and everything in the middle will get both weirder and blander as various aspects of the market fragment and eat themselves. The biggest concern is the lack of confidence in the economy and the oversupply of styles, brands and sneakers in general. Companies will be forced to play by a more conservative set of rules and fewer chances will be taken with design, which I think is a sad thing. Aside from New Balance, Asics and Nike, most of the brands have given up on performance sneakers, which is a worrying trend. When was the last great idea that really popped off? Crocs probably… I love the new Hyperdunk though, I hope that does well.

Do you own a pair of flip-flops?

Hell, yeah, it gets hot here…you gotta have flip-flops!

Summer time festivities – Tent party at Sportie LA this Thursday, Aug 7 at 9pm. Please be sure to RSVP.

Email rsvp5@gq.com