MARITIME

When I teach classes at Parsons and NYU, one lesson I always instill is to treat everyone you meet in life with equal respect. That's something i learned very early on. It doesn't matter if you're the CEO of a million dollar corporation or the janitor. I will deal with you in the same respect. A perfect case example of this is my good friend Mari Koda (who just stopped by after shopping at Reed.) I met Mari while I was attending NYU. There's a little Japanese restaurant on campus called Marumi. She used to wait tables there and when I'd go there for lunch, we would just chit chat. Man....that was like...11 years ago! (fuck, again. I am old.) Anyway, she was an aspiring dancer and if you ever talk to a waitress, they typically are an anspiring "something". Anyway, I just liked her energy and spirit so we just always kept in touch over the years. Fast forward to 2005 and now this aspiring dancer has been in motion pictures, music videos, was the opening act on the MTV VMA's, is a VIP Charter member of the Rocksteady Crew, does commercials for national TV ads and travels to Japan on the reg to teach and showcase her boogie. But we treat each other the same now as when she was a waitress and I was a student. Before I even had an inkling of what Staple Design was...we was cool. And we're still cool. People like that priceless. Look out for Mari in the latest Best Buy commercials.

NEW YEAR'S SNOW.

Brunch this morning at Lapalapa with Miguel and Marlene. In the middle of our brunch, a beautiful heavy snow fell. It was nice, but it also foiled my plans for the day. Mattress shopping and Duane Reade will have to wait...Thanks for brunch Miguel.

NEW YEAR'S PRE-EVE.

Apparently, my stress tension levels are very high.

My friend & business partner Riko Sakurai put together a nice gathering of friends and associates for a little pre New Year's Eve dinner. This is a great idea who's time has come. You avoid the madness of New Year's Eve and are able to enjoy everything much more. We converged on the main table at Nam in Tribeca and chowed down on some really dope Vietnamese food. Suzanne Kennedy was looking lovely in her Diane Von Furstenberg custom dress. She is Barry Diller's assistant and used to work at Def Jam with Riko. John Paul was an editor at Vitals Magazine and is now working freelance. Ben, his wife Zarah and their 12 year old cool ass daughter Ava (happy birthday girl!) was also on hand. They run LTB. If I tried to describe what LTB does, it would crash my server, so just peep the link. Tim is a personal trainer in London and an all around cool dude. Ishino just came in 4 hrs prior from Tokyo. He does business stuff...like finance. All I know is he has a phat crib in Tokyo and I'm gonna crash there when i go in 2 weeks. (Thanks Ishino! Don't worry about the housekeeper!) Horacio Silva is an editor at New York Times. It's no use dressing nice when you hang with him cuz he will crush you like a fly in that department.
I'm not usually a big fan of large gatherings like this, but Riko really knows how to put the right minds together and make it a chill time. I had a great night, and no, the back rub from Suzanne had no bearing!

COMPLETE TECHNIQUE.

Osa dropped by (as he so often does) to show us the new shit he is up to. He is the founder of a custom jewelry line called Complete Technique. We've been supporting it at Reed Space. since day 1. So it's definitely good to see how far he has advanced. Osa also has a pretty good gade away jumper.

CONSUMED.

One my favorite weekly readings is the New York Times Magazine. Both from an editorial and design standpoint, it's just dope. And one of my favorite columns in the Mag is CONSUMED. (A close 2nd is The Ethicist by Randy Cohen.)
CONSUMED is a 1 pg short feature on just about anything people buy...but don't really need. Everything from Stop Snitchin' t-shirts to Planned Obsolescence in Retail to Espo. The author of the weekly column is Rob Walker. So when I had the opportunity to sit down and break bread with Mr. Walker, I was greatly looking forward to it.
We met at Inoteca and had an excellent 2 hour conversation about payola, bribes, consumerism, exclusivity, paying rent, corporate marketing fools, "The Tipping Point", and why Jersey City is better than New York City. Rob is cool. From the outside, he looks like a complete alien in the realm of downtown-skate-hipster-thugs. But after hearing him speak for 5 minutes, you know he's on top of the game. It's probably better that he's not a "groupie" of the culture. It provides him with an outside viewpoint that you simply cannot have if you live within it. I'm looking forward to his upcoming book...

OH.....CANADA.

Best Buy, eh? Picked up my new Canon across the border. Out of boredom mostly...How come our Best Buy uniforms don't have US flags on the sleeve? I thought we were supposed to be patriotic.

I've been in Toronto, Canada for the last few days. Most of my friends have pretty negative connotations of Canada and Canucks. I personally, have never had beef with them. In fact, all my experiences with Canada has been pretty good. It's a beautiful country with a lot of variety in their landscapes. (But y'all are missing, like, a warm place.) And the people are really nice and hard working. I work with a lot of different vendors in Canada with pretty good results. Anyway, the main purpose of the trip was to visit my grandparents who retired in Scarborough, a mainly Asian-Indian populated suburb 30 mins outside of downtown Toronto.
My grandfather has Parkinson's and is being looked after by my Grandmother alone so its pretty rough. We try and go up as often as possible to help out. My gramps is in a really good senior citizen home. You spend 4 days with people who are dying and it really changes your perspective on life. You start asking yourself grandiose questions like "what are you working for?"..."what's the point of all this?"...shit like that. And you wonder how you yourself will go. Or want to go. In a senior citizen home, you get to see every single possibility. Its a tough choice that probably for the better, we don't have a say in.
Other than that, I learned how to play Mah Jong from my grandmother. Nothing like the age old ritual of passing a vice from one generation to the next. Its really addictive. Like Poker, but WAY more complicated. The challenge is now finding people in NY that play also. I snagged one of my gramps extra sets of Mah Jong tiles so if you're game let me know. Also got a new digital camera to replace my Sony. Sony digital cameras really really suck. Mostly in the ease-of-use department. I used to have a Canon that I loved back when 3 megapixels was the shit....so I went back to Canon and I immediately fell in love all over again. Sony's are like the Windows of the camera world while Canon's are like Macs. (Funny thing is, Sony execs are reading that and not realizing it is in fact, an insult.) I came across another grandiose conundrum when trying to figure out how to shoot my digital camera for the blog. My mind got all MC Eschered out and I decided to forget it. So here, I got this one. I highly recommend it.

My gramps. (He strong. It's where I get my confidence from.)

Like Poker...but...thicker. And considerably harder to read.

These helped to kill the time. World Series of Poker on the PSP is like cocaine...along with the Crackberry, I was pretty jacked up.

Oh and one more weird thing. We did this ad for one our clients, Starter, (a division of Nike) a while back. It was a ridiculous rush job...like ONE day to shoot, retouch, layout and upload a billboard ad. I just remember being so glad it was over and done with. Lo and behold as I'm driving in from Toronto Airport, I see it! I must say, even though the billboard is pretty remedial in design, it's kinda cool to know some shit you had your hand is being witnessed by millions of hockey fans everyday.

Sometimes, design doesn't have to be great. It just has to be done. (But for real, Jiffy Storage even looks OK in comparision. Damn...)

HKNY

Mr. Tucker, as F.O.B. Fresh Off the Boat! He knows more Cantonese than me now!

The turnover rate at Staple is pretty low. But the rare times that someone does leave the firm, they usually go onto big things.
Take Sean for example. He was at Staple for almost 2 years. Now he's the H.N.I.C. of the P.R.O.C. He left NY and took the 16 hr leap to Hong Kong and now he runs everything that's dope coming out of Nike AP. (that's Asia Pacific for you rookies.)
He handles and pretty much conceived the entire Nike [co]+lab concept, which Staple was also asked to be a part of. He brought some samples of last season's collaborations. Ours drops next and I should have photos shortly. After kickin it for a bit and catchin up, we went to grab some dinner with our mutual friend, Damany. "D" runs a very cool shop called Flight Club. We headed to Typhoon, one of my favorite low-key japanese restaurants in the city. Really good homestyle japanese cooking. It was a good time and interesting conversation about the sneaker game. It was interesting because, the three of us literally represent every facet of the industry. The Conglomerate/Manufacturer. The Designer/Consultant/Boutique. The Deadstock Internet/Ebay/Reseller. I'm sure if I had taped our conversation, I could have sold it to some trend forecasting company for a pretty penny. (Damn...gotta think faster about these things...)

Some press about the Staple x Nike [co]+lab's. I'll have better photos up soon.

[co]+lab Season 1 featuring Phunk Studio and Tenmyouya Hisashi. Courtesy of Sean.

Sean, Me, Damany, Saikoro Steak, Miso Kalbi, Kirin and Agedashi Tofu.

The next day, I went over to Flight Club to pick up some shoes I've had my eye on for a while. The Nike Air Goatek. One of my favorites of all time, and interestingly enough, a great basketball shoe! Must be the goat hoof outsole or something, but i love playing ball in these. I think it would be dope if Staple could remix the Goats somehow. They have a very underground niche following. Yah!

DOLLY CAME IN.

No, not that Dolly from Steel Magnolias (why do I know that?). It's the Kartell Dolly! We really needed to step up our chair game for the conference table (slash ping pong table). After all, at Staple, it's only the best for our client's asses. So those Ikea joints had to go. I was looking for a chair that is lightweight and comfortable (but not TOO comfortable. Don't need people hangin out here all day! We gots work to do!) It also has to be foldable and stackable. The Dolly fit the bill perfectly. Its design is inspired by scissors and those old school folding measuring sticks. It's very ergonomic and stashes away very nicely for when table tennis tournaments take center stage. They also come in sick colors. I opted for tennis ball yellow. It looks cool when sitting next to the deep green ping pong table. Very Wimbeldon if I do say so myself.

See Dolly Fold. See Dolly Stack. Italians are so good at this sort of thing.

1 MO 1 EIGHTY

I treated myself to these Air 180s and they just came in today. I had to get these from Nort Berlin I'm not quite sure the story on these, but i am pretty sure they were a European exclusive. Not sure if it's part of some pack or somethin. (But they sure match my desk real nice!) Sometimes, people ask me why I even bother to buy kicks since its obvious I can get them for free. While I truly appreciate the free gifts from everyone, at the heart of it, I'm still a fan. And I like to support things I'm into. There's a certain satisfaction in hunting, looking for and then buying something you really have your eye on. It's the addict in me talking I guess. When you get something for free from someone, it's a different sort of satisfaction. You appreciate what you got but more so, you appreciate the relationship that lies behind the gift. When you go and buy something, it's a satisfaction that is completely innate and carnal...
1. WANT. 2. NEED. 3. ACQUIRE. Never lose sight of what makes you happy.

PUSHAMAN

To be honest, I wasn't really into the Pushead Dunks when i first heard about them. They're a lil too craze for me. But since my friend James offered to hold a pair aside for me, it was almost a no-brainer. They're a lot better than I expected. The box is dope and makes this a really special piece. But the shoes themselves ain't bad either. There's a super padded quilted inside lining (reminiscent of the Hunter) and the exterior pattern is pretty interesting. Glad I got these...

FITTY-9-FITTY YO.

Me, Matty-Ho, and his colleague from New Era Japan. Why don't they have hats on?

I had a meeting today with my old friend Matty-Ho. Me and Matty go way, way, WAAAAY back.
We talkin like '93-'94 days. He used to hang out (I say 'hang out' cuz I'm not sure if he was actually working. lol.) in the back of Triple Five Soul on Ludlow Street. (I'm not even gonna bother linking 555, cuz today's version of 555 is so different than what it was in '93, I don't want you to get it twisted.) We never spoke then but I used to always see him when I came checking for Camella's designs.
Fast forward about 4 years. I'm a hungry designer looking to do anything I can get my mousepad on. This magazine called Trace from the UK just made a move to the US. I was a big fan of Trace so when they moved to NYC, I got kinda excited about the prospect. So one day after class, I just walked up in the office with my portfolio unannounced, hoping to land a job. I was kinda nervous cuz I didn't have any idea how big their operation was. So I walk in, and it's this huge loft in SoHo. And the only person in the whole freakin' place is Matty-Ho! I'm like, "What the......" So anyway, Matt and I are talkin and I walk out of there with some freelance design work for Trace! I learned a valuable lesson that day. Its all about PRESENTATION. It doesn't matter how small or "startup" you are. If you have your look straight and you present yourself properly, you can look a lot bigger than you really are. It's very important.
Anyway, fast forward ANOTHER 7 years (fuck I am old) and now Matty-Ho is the head dude at New Era Cap Co. making things happen. I think it's dope that he was able to take all his street knowledge and connections and make use of it at a legendary and culturally relevant brand. It was long overdue for us to link up again. Good things to come down the line I hope. I get a lot of satisfaction in working with brands that are at the forefront of their respective industries. And no one comes close to New Era in the hat game.

X-BOX 360: DAY 1

Last night, I went to my friend, Miguel's apt to check out his new X-Box 360. I took a cab which ended up costing $10 bucks from Houston St to 14th St. WTF?! You know these cabbies PRAY this strike continues forever. Some bastard thought of this contingency plan whereby the city is cut into 3 zones. So even if you travel 2 blocks, it still costs $10 bucks! It's crazy... But anyway, I paid of course because it's cold as shit at night and I ain't walking.
After some Gray's Papaya and cheese fries, I settled in to see what this machine was all about and whether I should get one or not. All in all, it is very dope. The graphics are simply amazing! Madden was great. PGR was unreal. This driving game takes place in your choice of city: NY, Tokyo, Las Vegas, etc...and the accuracy is crazy. They rendered every block, every store front, every little bodega! I wasn't even racing. I was driving like 3mph, and just looking around, amazed at the accuracy. Even my favorite chinese bakery was there! (Do they get legal clearance for all this shit?) Then we played Condemned, which is a game where you play a detective mixed up in a plot that resembles a cross section of C.S.I., 24, X-Files and Seven. Put it this way...I was more scared playing this game than I have ever been watching a horror flick. Goes to show how advanced this gaming shit has become. And since I paid $20 bucks to get and back home, it might as well have been as good as a movie.

GREETINGS FROM BEAVERTON

WOW...Christmas came early from Nike. I got a double wammy today.
(Shouts to GT!)
The best part is that one came via bike messenger, which was already dope...Then the second one came via Fedex!
Sweeeet.
The Nike on the right is the Nike Air 180 done up for Parisian hot shop, OPIUM. It features premium black leather, desert camo detail, and a sick lime green bottom. The box label is also very interesting. It reads "AIR 180 PREMIUM PRIORITY/QK". Something I've never seen before. (I assume the "QK" means Quickstrike and not QuarkXPress...nyuk nyuk, designer joke.)
The Nike on the left is something I can't show at this time. As you can probably guess, it's extremely difficult to get your hands on these. And exposing it online would jeopardize lives! LIVES I TELL YOU! Needless to say, if you see me walking on the street with these on, I might need to kill you.
Thanks again! Y'all know who you are...

NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A...

...well probably mad rats were stirring down there.
So it happened. For the first time in 25 years, trains & buses are not running because of a transit strike.
Apparently, Uptown Manhattan and the outer boros have turned into a parking lot of cars. But down here in Lower Manhattan, it's a serene picture of tranquility...couldn't be better. If I ever needed a reminder of why I don't live and work in the outer boros, this is it.

NYC HOTELS

I find people constantly asking me for good, affordable places to stay while visiting NYC. (I believe it's a cunning attempt to invite themselves to crash at my apt....um....keep tryin.) The New York Times recently listed the best places to stay in Manhattan for under $250 a night. While that's pretty ridiculous for any other part of the world, it's actually considered "affordable" here. Well, here's the list. Enjoy:

(alphabetical order)
1. Affinia Dumont
2. Chelsea Hotel
3. Doubletree Metropolitan
4. Excelsior Hotel
5. Gershwin Hotel
6. Hotel QT
7. Hotel Stanford
8. Hudson Hotel
9. Off SoHo Suites Hotel
10. The Time

*Pretty obvious one way these hotels save money is by not paying a web designer. I guess you can't judge a hotel by its home page?*

IZ IS SPORTSCENTER.

How can you concentrate when she waves at you like this? So unfair...

Ping Pong is a tough game. When you're playing a trash talker, it's even harder. When your opponent is half a foot taller than you, it's even tougher. When she's a Victoria Secret's "Angel" Model...that's a whole other story. Well, that's my excuse for getting my ass whooped by Izabel Goulart. She dropped by the Staple Fitness + Recreation Center for a little 1-on-1 table tennis action. But honestly, you can't feel bad losing to someone like this. REMATCH!

Iz haz the skillz to pay the billz.

Iz and the GFV. Two angels fer real.

ALSO KNOWN AS...

I must say...Nike put together an almost unprecedented private party last night at their 255 space. It was billed as AKA's Holiday Party. But it was a very tight and private gathering. I believe 25 people were on hand and each guest was allowed to create one AKA Special Edition Dunk. I was extremely honored to just be there in the shadow of all that darn talent. It was literally a hall of fame of street art/graphics/graf. (Not to mention getting 1 of these 25 joints! That's a nice bonus also.) A big shout out to Gavin for making this happen...and for having it go as smoothly as it did. And whoever thought of having White Castle cater is a genius!

1 of 25! Let's see how these babies come out. Check back in a few...

Stash seen here contemplating a gift for the lady. I asked Stash if he remembers the first time we ever met cuz i was sure he wouldn't remember. But I have to hand it to him...he called it. He was working in a silkscreen shop and i was interning for PNB Nation. I had to go drop off a disk to the printer and the dude I gave it to was Stash himself. We prob met for a full 5 minutes but he still remembered! After all the private jets and celebrity signings, he's still that same dude. Don't forget that kids...never forget where you came from cuz you never know when you'll end up back there one day.

The ever lovely host, Vashti in the house.

Gavin askin KAWS why he be fuckin' with Nigo so much. Sheesh! But in all seriousness, KAWS is one of the nicest dudes anywhere. Very humble. Yet very aware of who he is and what he does. A consummate professional. Gavin on the other hand? Straight up punkass!

Futura documenting his own creation with George on hand to help out. You can tell Futura is still a kid at heart. He's as excited to be here as anyone else even though he's the first headline on the book's cover. That's what is dope about Fut...he still loves what he does and you can tell. He's just havin' a good time, almost oblivous to all the BS that surrounds it. Lesson #2 kids...always stay a fan. When I'm around these types of guys, I always feel like a student cuz I still have mad shit to learn.

Earsnot about to rush me cuz i stole his seat at the ID Station. Sorry son! That's what happens when you keep going back over to the White Castle counter!

JEST and KAWS having a pow-wow. JEST is the Beanie Siegel of this game. No matter who he collaborates with or what companies he works with, he is still gangsta at heart. He even wore Tims to this Nike event! See? Gangsta!

The inspiration for this evening's exclusive ID color palette.

STPL x MAS

Last couple of years, the Staple Holiday Party was a pretty big shindig. In '03 we rented out Nike's 255 Elizabeth Space for our soul food themed party. In '04, we rented out Apizz, our favorite Italian spot in all of NYC. This year, I decided to make it a more private affair... I invited the Staple Crew and their beloved to a Brazilian meat-explosion. The location: Plataforma Tribeca. Even though I made reservations, we were seated 30 minutes late, but it was well worth it. I think we ate 7 cows, 4 pigs, 3 lambs and 2 chickens worth of meat. Not to mention the shrimp cocktail! It was great to reward my team with a hearty year-end meal. They deserved it...

Drew after his 8th sirloin.

The crew.

Sugaism + 12 ribs = COMA.

Wait your turn Nico! Aya called dibs on that hunk of flesh.

Nico goes for some ruffage.

Jemanda slowly puts away half a cow.

Question is, does Yasi want that sirloin? Or Nico's face?

NRF - WEEK 2

Week 2 is in the books and it was like a chapter out the NCAA Sweet 16!
We had ourselves 2 overtime games and a buzzer beater.

The first game saw SHOX vs the surging FOAMPOSITE team. This needed an OT to settle the score and it was FOAM's balanced attack that was the deciding factor. M. Tumbarello (30 pts), D. Tobiason (13 pts), and E. Waterman (10 pts) is an impressive front line. SHOX needs their big man D. Chino back in the line up as he sits out with back problems.
FOAM takes sole possession of 1st place in the Uptown Conference.

Game Two was a Downtown Conference matchup between DELTA FORCE and TERMINATORS, both tied for 1st place. The winner would take sole possession. The TERMS came out aggressive and was up by as many as 11 points. DELTA came back strong in the 2nd half and took the lead back. Some key drives from B. Callahan (19pts) brought the TERMS back up by 2 in addition to a key technical foul called on DELTA. With 0:00 showing on the clock, DELTA had a chance to tie it up with 2 free throws. Only 1 dropped for E. Felix (13 pts) and it was a wrap. 33-32. TERMS take sole possession of 1st place being 1 of only 2 undefeated teams left in NRF.

Game Three was the only blow out of the evening with HUARACHE notching the first "W" under their belts. They handled expansion TEAM HYPERFLIGHT which is still learning how to gel. P. Cassidy dropped 11 pts for HUA.

Game 4 was another OT thriller. Expansion TEAM UPTEMPO showed some mettle coming thru in OT 22-21 over TEAM AF1. AF1 looks much improved but is still searching for their first W. They get a bye next week to regroup and think things over.


*******************************************************
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
M. Tumbarello (FOAM) 30 pts / 8 rebs / 1 stl / 2 asst
*******************************************************

"I Live For Tuesday's!"®

MAXIMUS AIRNESS

Nike is celebrating their AIR technology in preparation for the AIR MAX 360 that will drop in January. Leading up to this, they are releasing each Air Max shoe since day one. Check out www.nike.com/nikeair to see the amazing website they put together.

They interviewed me along with others like John McEnroe, Charles Barkley, Stash/Recon, Dave/DQM, Wil/NDG to talk about what AIR means to us...it's put together quite well. Check it out...they have me talking specifically about the Nike Air Max 90 and the Navigation joints we did.

COMING SOON...

I think everyone had a "Darrin Hudson" in their lives. Darrin Hudson was in my middle school and high school, back in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Marlboro High to be specific. You know, that person that you had to one-up and he or she would have to one-up you. Didn't matter what it was. But everyday you went to school, it was a competition. Whether it was gear, your hair, your grades, sports, whatever...it was ON. Well for Darrin and I...it was kicks. Plain and simple. Darrin and I battled our kicks each and everyday, trying to out do each other. Oddly enough, in a school with over 1000 kids, me and him were the only 2 really into sneakers back then. Well, this is my blog dedicated to Darrin. This is to tell Darrin that I'm still out there, and if he wants to battle, here it is son!! Bring it!!

I've since lost touch with Darrin, but thanks to him, you all get to check out the kicks I have amassed over the years. (not including the 80 or so I trashed back in 2000. Doh!)

My name is Jeff Ng aka jeffstaple. I am the founder and creative director of Staple Design Studio, Staple Clothing and the Reed Space store and art gallery. I've managed to turn my passions as a young sneakerhead into a full time profession. I've traveled to places and met people I would have never experienced, quite possibly, if it weren't for Darrin Hudson.

So it is here, that I will archive every pair of shoes I own. It will include detailed photos, a grading system, a little tidbit behind each one and every single one will be available for purchase. (Simply POST A COMMENT with your offer). Along with that, there will be some other little goodies sprinkled throughout. Even if I stopped obtaining shoes today and I updated a different shoe every week, it would take me about 3 years to complete this project. So sit back and enjoy the ride! The project begins January 1st, 2006...