Making the New Feel Even Newer: Burton Fall/Winter 2013 Preview and Party

Why do many companies rebrand?  Rebranding expresses a need to stay relevant.  Fact is, many companies fall out of touch with how fast the market or even the day to day interests of people change.  While some companies have chosen, some wisely and some fool-heartedly, to stick to their brand it can prove profitable and beneficial if your targets are rather one-dimensional and stalwart in their choices.  However, what happens when your target may be into a bit of everything and all over the place with their influences and interests.  How does a company consider diversity with its offering while staying true to its aesthetic?  It helps if your company is Burton.

Burton has always been that company that while anchored in snowboarding has seasoned ties to skate and surf culture which has many influences from hip hop to rock n roll to extreme sport to urban mobility.  See how the branches span out.  Diversity arrives from the cultural mash-up surrounding the various sports layered around someone balancing on a piece of fashioned wood atop crests and concrete.

My love of Burton began when I started my sneaker-head habits several years ago and I've come to appreciate the ways in which the company makes technical, sporty and functional look so damn cool, inviting and approachable in and out of a sport setting.  The badass packs, the 'must have' outerwear, the well-crafted boards and all the accompanying accessories all conspire together to rap a song as universally appealing as hip hop, rock and the likes.

For their Fall 2013 preview held in New York City last Thursday at MILK Studios' Penthouse, the brand showed once again how they can provide products that keep the skater, snowboarder, sports aficionado, urban nomad and all the in-betweens loyal supporters.  This fall Burton shows just how strong not only its ties to musical influence can be but also how a collaboration can be a great way to be green, savvy and keenly retro all at once.  Collaborations with Mountain Dew on clothing made from plastics bottles, a sweet collaboration with the unstoppable Pharrell Williams using the dynamic Bio Yarn and boards and clothing featuring images from Jimi Hendrix, Salt n Pepa and Star Wars characters will all be on hand this fall.  

As always, Burton continues to offer those multifunctional packs and cases for the sports maven to take from the slopes to the streets.  The brand gets a bit more playful with its deliveries this season as well offering exciting color pairings along with great finishes and techniques like sublimation printing.  All this goes to show how this is one company that knows when you have a good thing going, you don't mess with the recipe, you just find ways to enhance the flavor.

 www.Burton.com

Read More

Dave White

Share Tweet Pin It +1

0 Comments

A Legacy Cut And Sewn: 140 Years of Levi's and The Iconic 501 Jean

I once heard somewhere that if nuclear disaster were to ravage the world as we know it, there would remain one small constant.  The cockroach!  It seems to be that one pesky, annoying and intrusive insect that seems to survive hell to come back to inhabit kitchens, walls and floor boards the world over.  However, what is with the cockroach that makes it so enduring?  Maybe its genetics understand that if you desire to stick around then you have to appropriately adapt.  That adaptation doesn't have to be radical or extreme but just enough to prove that the form can change little and it's the resilience that proves to be that distinguishing factor.

One hundred and forty years may not be a very long time in the years of the enduring cockroach.  However, considering the fickle world of fashion, clothing and adornment 140 years is quite a time span to spawn discernible change.  What's interesting to note is that while men may no longer don tailed waistcoats nor women padded bustles, one item donned during that time has endured with very little change to fit and construction.  It's the blue jean.  This year Levi's Strauss celebrates 140 years of their cash cow and just like the veritable cockroach, that cow refuses to stop producing milk for a new generation of drinkers.

Since 1873 Levi's has been building upon the stalwart existence of the jean as we know it with their most popular style being the iconic 501.  Much like the cheeky little cockroach Levi's has survived by being there from the start and adapting as it needs to while still remaining true to form.  The rivets offered by one Jacob Davis, a Nevada tailor, in 1873 to the work pant offered by one Levi Strauss patented into the blue jean as we know with the coveted 501 becoming a staple for the embodiment of the jean in 1890.

The Levi Strauss company's 501 has gone from a 'form follows function' workwear piece to become a symbol of American craftsmanship and a signature American hallmark akin to baseball and apple pie.  This year marks another subtle rebranding of the 501 with a campaign to celebrate the unique interpretations of the original icon by famous and not so famous fans from around the world called "501 Interpretation".  Along with this campaign is an offering of the 501 in the same button straight fit in various new colors like mineral, chalk blue, ivy green, true chino and white and unique washes to give it a softer hand.  Peruse the fan submissions of the 501 interpretations in a digital photo gallery at www.LEVIS501.com and see how the effects of one article of clothing has inspired, motivated and stimulated its wearers to probably go on adoring it another 140 years.

www.LEVIS501.com

Read More

Dave White

Share Tweet Pin It +1

0 Comments

Logic Applied to Leather and Lace-ups: Aloha Rag Semi-Annual Sample Sale Event

You don't really need a reason to shop do you?  Spring is in the air, trying its best to rear it lovely head and give frost (and my thermostat) the final kibosh for the season.  However, how do you shop and what should you buy?  Perhaps you behave as a responsible reasonable individual and purchase a new set of basics.  Or maybe you shop like you're headed for that electric chair called 'larger storage unit'.  Personally, I like to shop with equal parts of intellect, adoration and feasibility.  I desire to acquire clothes that fit properly and show that I know how to dress, shapes and silhouettes that speak to my sense of color and design and, as always, clothing that gives me great style and a bang for my buck.

For those reasons,  well actually, those are "the" only reasons.  Anytime you have designer goods at slashed prices, providing all your variables are met, you shop!  You trove the city, plunder, score and peruse until you find what speaks to your heart's checklist.  One of my plundered shops is Aloha Rag, the designer shop the houses the cult cool and appropriately avant.  It's that time again for their semi-annual Sample Sale which is always a nice one repping labels like Lim, Balmain, Margiela, Kimmel and Factotum.  So get up and running since the sale will be up and running starting today through May 19th at 545 Greenwich Street #2A between Vandam and Charlton.

Read More

Dave White

Share Tweet Pin It +1

0 Comments