Lions Den Pick-ups

Ayo fam, a combination of my having disposable income (even after a responsible deduction for taxes/savings/living expenses/tithe/etc. 什么的), not being around in the States to dispose of it, and not having many money sinks in Ko Rea, has led to a nice little pile of goods accumulating in avid anticipation of my arrival back home. My parents and sister have been magnanimous enough to curate my little growing collection, and this past Tuesday or Thursday a box arrived from LA... from LA's finest. All photos taken by pa dukes.


我不是共产党员. Staple Design coming through with the heat rox,
representing for all the asian fam.


I have never seen this Staple joint before, in my last few years of
growing increasingly canny regarding the streetwear industry.
That is one thing that I love about Lions Den: they hold on to old
stock. Other stores, especially those particular enough to stock the
brands that I floss with, usually sell through each season's line
before the next season comes up; or simply put stuff in the stock
room or warehouse and forget about it until the next spring
cleaning sale.
Lions Den keeps that ish out front and center.


Staple Design X Base Control polo, for the Staple 10th Anniversary
collection.


A great basic joint with some extra detailing.






Just got to make sure to keep these clean... Only drop em with
particularly fly and/or fresh kicks so as not to get them all track
marked up with the realness.

Maybe something like these:


My first shoebox with that logo. To a kick fiend, that shade of red
is like Tiffany blue to some of the ladies.
Anticipation builds....


Bam!


Awh yeah. My first pair of Alifes. Full-grain leathers, generous use
of 3M materials, and a solid colorway as always.
I chose the Frog Pack Err'body High-tops over pretty much every
other model in the Alife stable as my first pick-up from them, for
several reasons:
1) Most other models heavily utilize patent leather, a meterial that
I respect for its shine but dislike for its tendency to wear in very
obvious ways (largely due to the fact that it's so obvious when
something very shiny wears down).
2) This joint has the legendary ALIFE logo, but it's subtler than
some of their other joints.
3) It is a rule of thumb for me to generally avoid stand shoes that
are all-white or have light mid-/cupsoles. New Haven is a grimy
city and I am a relatively messy dude, so clean white kicks quickly
become dirty off-white beaters. The colorway on these joints should
render them impervious to all but the most insistent scratches, dirt,
beatings, etc.


Post-game debrief: I've yet again been immensely impressed by Raymond Tseng and the Lions Den crew. After extensive communication back-and-forth via email (which made me feel as though I were in-store and not at all a second-class customer from some distant locale), I ordered these items over Paypal last Friday, and they processed, packed, and shipped them within a day; and by the following Thursday it had arrived. Less than a week from purchase to delivery is incredible professionalism. Big ups to my asian fam, doin it right.