Noirfancy hooks up with Union Los Angeles owner Chris Gibbs to talk about his history, background, his starting in the industry and much more. The interview from That’s Not Me Bro is very long and a bit all over the place, yet we cannot remember many interviews with the man that go so far back. Gibbs talks about interviewing with James Jebbia from Supreme, starting to work at Union New York, becoming a buyer and finally taking over many years later Union Los Angeles. They touch on Erik Brunetti and FUCT. Gibbs tells a great story about how Banksy tried to sell t-shirts to Union New York in 1998/99. He speaks about skateboarding, getting to know Supreme, Bape, Stussy and other brands. It is just a great in-depth piece that you should definitely check out. A nice ride through some of the history of streetwear and much, much more. Sit back, listen and learn.
In the latest installment of his 1-2-1 series Jeff Staple sits down with founder and CEO of Karmaloop.com, Greg Selkoe. They talk about the beginnings of Karmaloop and how far they have come, as well as their future plans.
Karmaloop has always attracted as much hate as admiration. Controversy about its business, its founder and of course the impressive size it has reached over the years result in much talk and also much hate. It is funny from our perspective, because we feel like we grew along with Karmaloop over the years. We remember the times when the 10 Deep’s and Crooks & Castle’s of this world would not sell to Karmaloop because they were not ‘cool’ enough as a retailer. As you can imagine, those times have changed – economic crisis, lots of ‘cool’ retailers closing and a massive streetwear retailer that can actually sell numbers, made it hard to say no to. Karmaloop was one of the very first advertisers of this site and actually made it possibly for me in the early days to spend more time on Highsnobiety.com and less time on doing other jobs to pay rent. That I can simply not hate on.
Now check out the interview with Mr. Selkoe here above.
In the first of an on going “High Fives!”series, Jupiter Desphy of Undefeated gives us his top 5 picks for a number of categories pertaining to his hometown of Los Angeles.
Five Shopping Destinations For Gear That’s Not Embarrassing
SLAUSON SWAPMEET
UNION
QUARTERMASTER
SUPPLY SERGEANT
HALL OF FAME
Five Party Spots That Don’t Offer Bottle Service Or Have A Line Out Front
CHA CHA
DARKROOM
SHAKEY’S PIZZA
BURGUNDY ROOM
P AND A
The New York Times explores the current hipster/Millennial Generation, coining it ‘Generation Sell’. Choice excerpts follow:
EVER since I moved three years ago to Portland, Ore., that hotbed of all things hipster, I’ve been trying to get a handle on today’s youth culture. The style is easy enough to describe — the skinny pants, the retro hats, the wall-to-wall tattoos. But style is superficial. The question is, what’s underneath? What idea of life? What stance with respect to the world?
Previous youth cultures — beatniks, hippies, punks, slackers — could be characterized by two related things: the emotion or affect they valorized and the social form they envisioned.
So what’s the affect of today’s youth culture? Not just the hipsters, but the Millennial Generation as a whole, people born between the late ’70s and the mid-’90s, more or less — of whom the hipsters are a lot more representative than most of them care to admit. The thing that strikes me most about them is how nice they are: polite, pleasant, moderate, earnest, friendly. Rock ’n’ rollers once were snarling rebels or chest-beating egomaniacs. Now the presentation is low-key, self-deprecating, post-ironic, eco-friendly.
The millennial affect is the affect of the salesman. Consider the other side of the equation, the Millennials’ characteristic social form. Here’s what I see around me, in the city and the culture: food carts, 20-somethings selling wallets made from recycled plastic bags, boutique pickle companies, techie start-ups, Kickstarter, urban-farming supply stores and bottled water that wants to save the planet.
Bands are still bands, but now they’re little businesses, as well: self-produced, self-published, self-managed. When I hear from young people who want to get off the careerist treadmill and do something meaningful, they talk, most often, about opening a restaurant. Nonprofits are still hip, but students don’t dream about joining one, they dream about starting one.
The small business is the idealized social form of our time. Our culture hero is not the artist or reformer, not the saint or scientist, but the entrepreneur. (Think of Steve Jobs, our new deity.) Autonomy, adventure, imagination: entrepreneurship comprehends all this and more for us. The characteristic art form of our age may be the business plan.
James Van Doren, who co-founded Vans with his brother Paul (and ran the company from 1976 to 1984) died October 12, 2011 at his home in Fullerton, California after a long illness.
“He was a mechanic, a chemist, the brains behind the early shoe,” said his nephew, Steve Van Doren, one of several family members who still work for the company. “In his garage, he made all the molds for the very first soles,” including the trademark waffle design.
The brand gained national recognition when Sean Penn donned a pair of checkerboard slip-on Vans to play the spaced-out Spicoli in the 1982 film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”
“He guided Vans through the checkerboard era, and we were flying,” said Steve Van Doren, son of company co-founder Paul. “We were the hottest thing going.”
In addition to Char, his wife of 15 years, Van Doren is survived by his sons from a previous marriage, James, Mark and Eric; brothers Paul and Robert; sister Bernice; and five grandchildren. (LA Times)
“Over the past 12 months Jackson’s estate brought in $170 million from sales of his music and his stake in the Sony/ATV catalog. That’s a big drop from the $275 million Jackson earned in the previous 12 months but it’s still enough to make him the second highest-earning pop act over the past year, dead or alive, after U2.”
To place on this year’s list a deceased celebrity had to have earned at least $6 million between October 2010 and October 2011. The 15 people on the list earned a combined $366 million in that period.
Last month we spend a couple of days in Tokyo to attend the Asia launch party of the Reebok Reethym of Lite campaign. Along with the campaign launch, Reebok also announced that Verbal, that you guys know best from Ambush and the Teriyaki Boys, has been named creative director of the brand. We wanted to know what that means and how he will exactly be working with Reebok over the next seasons.
Check out our interview with Verbal here below.
Highsnobiety: How did the talks between you and Reebok start and how did the idea of working together arise?
Verbal: Long story short, I was meeting some people from Reebok, we were having some drinks and I talked to them about my history with the brand, having the basketball Pumps during High School and my basketball years. Also it just happened so, that I was writing a paper on Reebok during college… I was a business major. Those things mixed with what I do in music and fashion seemed like a good fit for Reebok.
H: How would you describe your personal history with the Reebok brand. What is the most iconic thing you remember about the brand, when did you start wearing Reebok? What comes to mind?
V: My first connection was with the technology stuff. Right around the time when Nike also had the pump technology, but attached externally to the sneaker, I was wearing the Reebok Pumps. It was a technology renaissance in footwear. It was a great time.
I almost feel sorry for the young kids today, as they did not get to experience the same as we did. This ‘Oh my God Hexilite, oh my god Air, of my god Pump’, there was something new around the corner all the time. Pump Furies, ERS, the way it was designed on the sole, taking aside the comfort for a moment.. it just looked cool and I remember that as if it was yesterday.
Jonas Bevacqua, co-founder and creative director of LRG, was found dead in Los Angeles today. Though we don’t often cover LRG here at Highsnobiety, we have nothing but respect for what Jonas and his team achieved with the brand and the strong influence they hold to this day. A true visionary, Jonas Bevacqua was 34 years old. Rest in peace.
honeyee sat down with both Adam Kimmel and James Jebbia from Supreme to talk about the upcoming collaboration between the two brands. What was the idea behind the collaboration, the inspiration and how was it working with each other. An interesting behind the scenes look at this collaborative project.
