Took a small break but recently found some time (and inspiration) to post a few things and try to keep this site a little more current.  Here’s a few recent updates – mostly Kaws related.

Back in March, Kaws  collaborated with Nike and Air Jordan to released these Kaws AJ4s.  They were pretty nice but like all things, they were really hard to get and were sold out instantly.  I missed out.

Speaking of sneakers and Kaws, I always loved the iconic Stan Smith shoe from Adidas.  Over the past few years, there’s been many copies of the shoe from both high end (Common Projects) and lower end shoe companies.  Regardless, it’s always been a nice clean shoe that I regular have in rotation.  Having struck out on many of the new sneaker releases (read this great article to see why it’s so hard to get anything these days), notably the Kaws Air Jordan 4’s, I put together the only Kaws inspired footwear I could.  I pulled out a clean pair of Roots (Canadian leather and clothing company) sneakers I had on ice that were based on the Stan Smith, and dusted off some OG Kaws Original Fake Starks laces I had from a long long time ago.  It was  really simple but I think they’re unique and came out nice and with some pop.  Here they are:

More Kaws.   Back in October, he had his huge exhibition “Where the End Starts” at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Texas.  From the photos, the exhibition looked incredible with huge sculptures, his toys, graffiti/ad work and original paintings.  Shit looked crazy.  At the exhibition, he released a six figure set of his Companion and Dissected Companion figures.  These were labelled as “open edition” and were smaller than the originals.  These retailed for $200USD per figure at the show.  Shit sold out so fast.  I was on the phone to Texas (no phone orders) on the website (which crashed) and couldn’t land a set.  I collected a few Kaws pieces over the years, but never had a Companion.  The originals were over $1,000 in the aftermarket now (I still remember passing on them when they first released for I think $160) so this was my one opportunity to get these relatively close to retail.  I was obsessed and finally tracked a set down.  At $200USD each, a set of the six would cost about $1,200USD.  Immediately after release, they were going for $3,500 and up on Ebay.  It was a bit too steep for me.  Having missed out in the past before and seeing them sold out from the Museum release, I was desperate and finally tracked down a set.  I’ll say I paid somewhere between the $1,200 release price and the $3,500 after market.  Since then, the sets have been re-released at a few shows and you can even find them at the MOMA store sometimes at cost.  Looking back, it was a bad call to pay over retail.  Despite that, I’m still happy I landed a set of Companions as they were sort of a grail item for me.  I’ll post more images and details in the archive one day but here’s some shots of them.

Even more Kaws (at this point I’m feeling like a sucker).  This April he released a collection with Uniqlo and Peanuts.  There were shirts, tote bags, slippers and plush.  I thought they were only releasing in the States and Asia so I asked my friend Felicia to help me out.  We were able to get a few shirts for me and the kids but the site sold out pretty quickly. I should have gotten the plush as those are reselling quite high now and sold out instantly. Funny thing was the collection also ended up releasing in Canada (less the plush) so I was able to grab a few more shirts for the kids and some slippers.  Here’s the collection:

 

I’ll try to keep posting.