Sneaker Fiends! / Cake for Garrett / RX-7 FB

11/15 - 11/20/2008

Saturday11.15.2008

Saturday morning, after spending the prior night on-
campus, I woke up early and headed into the city for the
second installment of the Sneaker Fiends Unite NYC
Tour.


10:55 MTA commuter to Grand Central = 12:20 ETA.


This time, MC GANJI aka my b-girl homey Soyoon
rolled along to take her first trip through and around
the gritty city a/k/a The Rotten Apple. No better way
to do it than with an OG New Yorker.

Linking up with Dallas and fellow New Haven resident
Encyclopedia Black in Grand Cent, we headed uptown
to Harlem, then over to Fordham Road, BX, where
homeboy Nattiez had parked the whip and was
awaiting our arrival.


Form like Voltron (except not those wack Voltron
Reeboks... truth be told, we were clowning on Reebok
all day. Sorry, rbk).


e^b.


Soyoon a/k/a GANJI b/k/a Zoey.


Dallas and Nattiez, indigenous NYers.

After trekking all day and staying light on the copping, we headed
uptown to Harlem's Vault, where Dallas had a connect.


The store was still decked out from the previous week's winter ACG
launch party. Real talk, Nike is pushing this ACG line hard in the
urban markets this quarter: from Dr. Jays to Vault, nearly every
location we rolled through had ACG gear and kicks on blast, specially
those ACG boots.






Batman FS-001's on display.




Art of the Vault.


After much deliberation, Soyoon copped her first ever
pair of Nikes - a premium looking little pair of Women's
Dunk Lows. With perforated toebox material and
solid color blocking, these were a good call on her part.


Vault - where Harlem stays laced.


GANJI also copped a tee and some other
miscellaneous materials from Vault, leaving her toting
around a satisfyingly weighty bag.


After Vault, we headed down to the L.E.S. to hit up
Richie's on Delancey and also my SoHo regular come-
ups, Staple Design's The Reed Space (Chinese-run and
-owned baby!!).



After Reed Space, we dropped by 169 Bowery, site of Reebok's new pop-
up shop in support of their relaunch of the Reebok Pump. Despite our
crew's general distaste for Reebok, we thought we would give them a
chance to shine and win back our affections.








Despite the colorful interior design, the kicks were a generally
lackluster lot. Nice try, Reebok; maybe next time. But you only get
so many next times.

We finished up the tour at NoLiTa sneaker boutique
Premium Laces, where Dallas got footage interviewing
the manager and we got a chance to see some super-
exclusive kicks in person.


KAWS 1 World AF-1.

Despite their seemingly boundless selection, the prices at
Premium Laces were, fittingly, premium, and so we all
took a pass on that one.

Premium Laces, though, was only a block and a half
away from one of my other key SoHo retailers, the US
Uniqlo flagship store; bidding farewell to the rest of our
retinue, Soyoon and I headed there, where I copped a
down jacket and flannel on the low, in preparation for
the upcoming winter months.


Dinner on the train back. After napping an hour and a
half, we were back in New Haven, leaving only a quick
trek back to campus through the sudden downpour,
and the shuttle back up Prospect St. to my door.

Sunday11.16.2008



Having previously missed a celebration of Mr. Garrett Fiddler's born day,
Joe Oh and David Lee came through with the hand-decorated cake. A
small group of us made it over to BK after dinnertime to present him with
the token of our affections.




Saying some suitable words.




Praise team buddies.




Happy birthday.

Thursday11.20.2008

I saw an early-80s model RX-7 FB on the road and had to stop to
pay respect where respect is due.




For those of you who still don't know, I used to drive
- it's still with my parents, under new ownership - the
late-80s model of this car, the RX-7 FC3S S5.