MIAMI.

This looks like a postcard doesn't it? But it's not. It's the view from my room. I'm in Miami for my cousin's wedding reception. Nice departure from the weather we're having in NYC. Last night, I wondered around the area looking for a spot to eat and found this amazing Japanese restaurant called Sushi Republic. Extremely fresh and tasty.

6 DEGREES.

How does 6 degrees of separation work? Well, when you interact with very interesting people, you get mixed up into this hurricane of talent that you cannot escape. These 4 people, whom I met on separate occasions in the last 72 hours; may or may not know each other. But now they are intertwined forever. If and when they ever meet, they can say, "Wow, we are cosmically connected. Via Darrin Hudson!"

Gabe Urist (top-left): You may know Gabe as the world famous "sneaker jeweler". He's also a pretty good baller.
Tyler Askew (top-right): President and CEO of rude-nyc. Ill designer and iller disc jockey. Guess that makes him a jockey of both hard discs and compact discs.
Atsuko Tanaka (bottom-left): Atsuko is a dope photographer. Incidentally, she shot the first ever press photo of me for a Japanese magazine WAY back in 1997! We have kept in touch ever since and she's probably one of the oldest friends I have in NYC.
Jeremy Hollister: (bottom-right): Hollister owns Plus Et Plus, a motion, broadcast and graphics firm. Always onto the next level, Jeremy is. He's usually doing some incredible stuff.

So there you go guys. You can thank me for the introductions later.

TRETORN.

Back in my youthful tennis days, (Pre-Agassi) there were three sneakers you wore at summer camp: Prince, Wilson or Tretorn's. In all honestly, Tretorn's were the people's champ trainer. Simple, elegant and classic: What tennis ought to be. Somewhere in between my learner's permit and graduation, they fell off the face of the earth. Only to be reborn in 2006! Someone at Tretorn sent me a box of their new styles. The same classic styling is back in effect. Just in time for my table tennis run.
Check out the site. Peep the SAFETY styles...insane.

JEFFERSON Y HAN.

Watch out for this man's name. I don't know who he is, but I have bets that he will one day rule the entire universe.
While us fuckheads are painting on sneakers, check out what homeboy is doing in his crib...
PS: I know Paul posted this already on Honeyee, so I will refrain from double posting there. Yes, a Darrin Hudson EXCLUSIVE.

NRF - WEEK 9

Wassup Everyone

WEEK 9 is in the books.
In the interest of time, and to keep things short and sweet; I will be writing this week's ENTIRE recap, as a Haiku.
(ahem, clears throat...)

Game 1: Uptempo over Huarache 40-31.
Expansion means what?
Second place at jeopardy.
HUA must beware.

Game 2: Terminator over Generation 31-29.
1st half was a romp.
The opposite for half two.
Buzzer beater win.

Game 3: Delta Force over Foamposite 54-42.
Delta on a roll!
Both teams are now 6 and 2.
Foam must recover.

Game 4: Shox over Dunk 49-46.
Live by the three ball.
This came down to the last shot.
But no win for Dunk.

Player Of The Week:
Evan Baggs of Delta Force (20 pts / 5 rebs / 1 blk / 3 stls / 3 asst)
I Live For Tuesdays!

Thank You.
http://www.nikerecessfederation.com/

AJ MADNESS.

For anyone who is a fan of Mr. Jordan and also a multi-millionaire, you should check this out. It's right up your alley. But before you hastily go clicking that "BID NOW" button, I would suggest you go and test drive the McLaren Mercedes SLR also. They're going for about the same price. But the $500,000 you drop on the Jordans will go towards the Hurricane Katrina Relief effort. So go ahead, continue clicking that "BID NOW" button now...

SALE EXTENDED.

Thanks to the overwhelming demand of the sale we just had, we're extending it for a few more days, so if you weren't able to drop by, you still have a few days to do so. Everything is still 70% off!!! For those bad at math, we're talking jackets for like $18, tees for like $8! Kicks for $40! We've also added some new items into the mix. (And whoever keeps bringing those counterfeit $100 bills, please stop.)

ILLNESS.

This winter has been schizophrenic to say the least. But Ol' Man Winter came back this weekend to show us who's boss. It was 12°F today! I had lunch with Brendon before he headed to Sin City (along with the rest of NYC) to attend the MAGIC tradeshow (and PROJECT/POOL). From there I felt the need to walk home for some reason. I ran into Kenzo Minami on the way, which lead to a 30 minute conversation on the freezing corner. You can't really stand outside with Kenzo cuz he's just too damn popular. Every 3 minutes someone came over to say hello. But it was good to catch up with homeboy. We went to Parsons together and he is definitely doing his thing. Peep his new Reebok Pump Fury and he is also featured in the "I Am What I Am" campaign.
When I finally got home, you guessed it, I was sick. Time to go into drug overload...
Oh yeah, big up to Allan from AKA who dropped off the new KR edition of AKA. Its beautiful.

The Man. The Myth. The Mack. Minami-san.

Need....chicken....soup....

The AKA strikes back. Amazing edition dedicated to KR.

DOUBLE DIP.

It's a good week when you get treated to dinner at your favorite restaurant twice, back to back! It happened this week when some Timberland heads came into town and then the following night, I met up with Yuko from Foundation World and her friend, Pasha. Good company, good food, good times.

Soba strikes twice...best in NYC. (I think the next shit is for companies to NOT have websites anymore. It's like saying "We're such hot shit, we don't need no fucking website. Let others write about us."

CJP and Jeff from Timblerand.

Pasha and Yuko from Foundation World.

OLYMPIC FEVER.

Don't ask me why...but for some inexplicable reason, I have major Winter Olympic Fever. Despite reports of horrific ratings, I am possessed by the Winter Games...staying up to 4am to watch the days events. Hell, some events even brought a tear to my eye. Even figure skating, which is the one sport I NEVER watched...has me totally glued to the screen. Did anyone else catch Team China? This little girl took a bad fall, got up, finished her routine with her partner and won silver. It was heroic. Only to be topped by the Russian pair that took gold after a horrific accident a few years back. Sports is sports man...you can't script something better. and then of course Shani Davis...the first African American to win a gold at the Olympics. And he took it like he had a mad chip on his shoulder. Did you see his post win interview? That boy was on a mission and he accompished it.

Ouch! Check out the expressions on those people's faces. That shows how hard this impact was.

Peep the bandage on homegirl's knee. That's a warrior.

First black man to win a gold in Winter Olympic history: Shani Davis. And he did it mad as hell...

WHY...

Why do the great ones always leave us in three's?

ODB · JD · HH

BOBBY BOBBY BOBBY.

Digi, Digi, Digi.
I met up today with none other than Prince Rakeem aka Bobby Digital aka Zig-Zag-Zigala aka The RZA. Can I just say that this is one of those people that really changed the course of my life...for real. When I was starting Staple, Rza and the Wu were basically my soundtrack. To say he was an influence would be a sore understatement. Finally meeting him and seeing how cool and down to earth he was even better. Hearing him end our conversation with "Bong-Bong": Priceless. RZA projections forthcoming. Stay tuned kids.

VISITATION.

The ping ping table has undoubtely become the focal point of this blog. I just realized it's like in every photo. Is it because it takes up 70% of the office? Or is it because everyone is secretly infatuated with the extreme sport of table tennis? Rickey Kim of Evil Monito dropped by to catch us up on his life. Later that day, John from Cut and Paste came back for a little reminiscing of the last event and seeing what else we could work on for the future.

Mr. Kim in the house. Blog vs. Blog. Who will post first?!

Mr. Cut and Paste himself. Did you know Fiorelli is actually not Japanese. It's Italian! Go Figure...

Finally wrapped up the day with Miguel and Marls at The Orchard. Don't look too excited there Miguel.

APOLOGIES.

Not like anyone has complained yet or anything, but I take full responsibility for slacking on my sneaker archival project. I've just been slammed day after day with shit to do. It is a real bitch to bring shoes from home to the office to shoot, set up the photo studio, shoot them, write about them, etc, etc. But it's something I want to do, so I am determined.
One of the projects that we have been deeply involved in, is with Puma. It's mammoth. Epic, I might say. Still on the DL, but we're giving it the finishing touches now and it should be complete soon. Stay tooned.

Theo heads up Puma Marketing. He's seen here waving the executive hand of approval.

It's a work in progress. Working on what you ask? Progressing towards what you ask? You'll have to wait to see...

XTREME SPORT.

I vote to add a new sport to the X-Games: TABLE TENNIS.
No joke. In my last game with Jun at the Staple Fitness & Recreation Center, we faced off in an intense 21 pt/5 set showdown. It basically ended with me doing a flying leap into the corner of the accountant's table and suffering this gash in my side. No stitiches required but I can safely say this is my first ever injury due to ping-pong. I have feared picking up the paddle ever since.

MAJOR SALE.

We're gonna have a major sale at Reed Space this week. From Feb 16th-19th. We'll be open 1pm-7pm everyday.
Featuring Nike, Nike SB, Nike White Label, Staple, 10 Deep, Mighty Healthy, Umbro by Kim Jones, Tokion, Nike Considered, Cream Pie, Proper and more!

This is how its gonna work:
Feb 16th Thurs - Everything on sale is 40% off.
Feb 17th Fri - Everything on sale is 50% off.
Feb 18th Sat - Everything on sale is 60% off.
Feb 19th Sun - Everything on sale is 70% off!

Pace yaself!

INSATIABLY HIP.

New Yorkers are a funny breed. No matter what. Thru rain, sleet, snow, nuclear winter, whatever....we simply MUST be hip at all times! Check out how much snow fell. In fact, it was a new city record. 25-some odd inches in one night. So on my journey out to get some food, I came across the most unprepared mofo's I have ever seen. Women in boots and windbreakers. Check this dude out. Seven Jeans, Quickstrike Air Force 1s and a Chrome Hearts chain for his wallet. Really? Are you serious? It's 10° below, 25" of snow just fell, and you ain't got one pair of Timberlands in your whole closet!? Not even a North Face man?! Check this other one out. He took plastic bags and packing tape to cover his Vans to create a Goretex-like membrane. NOT! Dude...packing tape?

AC & BACK.

Every so often, the Jerz in me comes out and I get a hankerin' for some Atlantic City sleaziness. So for the weekend, me and the GFV rented a Mini Cooper (thru Zipcar, great service!) and headed down to the Taj. Little did we know the Blizzard of 2006 was headed right towards us. And of course with my luck, I rent a car with the smallest wheels legally acceptable. We decide to cut the trip short and head back. But not because of the weather. Because REED SPACE was broken into that night! Jerry came to work on Sat to discovery the crime scene. It was horrible. They smashed right thru the door. But notice in the photos...the front gate is down and LOCKED. Obviously, the handiwork of some midget ninjas. If that weren't fucked up enough, our alarm service, ADT, failed to go off and notify the police...a service we pay hundreds of dollars a month for! WTF?! WTF?! Again...WHAT. THE. FUCK!? To add to the oddity, the slimy crooks only took our iBook and iSight camera. They left the cash, artwork and clothes. They left the Pigeon Dunks! Idiots! BTW, our white 12" iBook has "STPL" engraved in small letters on the bottom. I will pay a very handsome reward if someone can recover the laptop intact and fully operational. I will pay even more for the head of whoever is responsible. Not even cuz you broke into my store...but because you made me cut my poker game short in AC. I was on a roll, (winning over $600 in 2 hrs) bastards!
Anyway, they say there's a silver lining in every cloud...and the snow storm proved to be just that. Of course we had to close Reed due to the theft, but we would have definitely closed regardless due to the storm. So we were able to reopen on Monday without a hiccup.

ALIST RECAP.

The Alist opening night went great! It was a dope turnout with mad cool people showing up to represent.
His art was selling within the first 10 minutes of the door opening. Good lookin out to Tiger Beer for helping us with the refreshments...also Theme Magazine as our media partner.
Peep Staple Design and Reed Space for the full photo recap. Here are some highlights.

Behind the scenes...the set up.

We looped Big Trouble In Little China, and who knew? It's like everyone's favorite flick!

Yuka-ponta, holding down the fort.

Aya and Christian in the house.

Me with ex-Stapler, Mandy and her friend Becky.

Miss Info from Hot 97 buildin' about hip-hop bling with designer extraordinare, Brent Rollins.

Packed house.

A lot of people don't know, but you can see Reed Space live anytime, including gallery openings.

EXPOSE.

One of the people I most respect is Raoul from Exposure. He's just that dude that's making shit happen on a big level but he keeps himself grounded. Staple and Exposure have many similarities...in principal. But in business size, we like the minor leagues in comparision. Since he's based in London, it's rare we get to meet face to face, while most of our "meetings" happen via cyberspace. (Do people still use this word?) We met at Soho House, of which Riko is a member. THE best spot in all of NYC to have a casual/business meeting.

NOT VERY CONVINCING.

On Feb 24th, 2006, the world as I know it will end if this court order goes thru. I might get a Treo on the 23rd just in case (or at least the stock.) T-Mobile sent this mass SMS out trying to console us. For some reason, it only worries me more.

AKA IN.

Well they sure took their time, but the AKA ID Dunk finally came in. The making of this shoe was one of the first posts on this blog. But it was definitely worth the wait. It's COMPLETELY patent leather. And the AKA hit on the back is another nice touch. Very nice...

2 THUMBS UP.

Vincent from Sandinista sent me 3 CDs that have immediately shot up to the top of Staple's heavy rotational office mix. Good lookin out to him for sending these over. One is a disco mix featuring Mr. Supreme. Another is a dub mix by Kevin Lyons at Natural Born and the third is a funk mix by Citizen Kane. Can't really do much better than that...props. The packaging on all 3 is also dope.

ALIST SHOW @ REED.

Tonight is a special night. We will be having the first art opening of the year for Reed Space. It feels like it's been a long time coming. I met Allister Lee in London a few years ago, literally while he was working at the sneaker shop Size?. We connected a bit, broke some bread and he showed me around town and we just kept in touch. He told me about his art but it wasn't till a few years later that the stuff he showed was REALLY progressive. Some people ask me how we choose artists for Reed Space. It's pretty simple. I call it the "jaw drop" factor. If I look and my jaw drops...it's a wrap. The Chinatown World Tour concept did exactly that. It's really difficult to describe verbally how good it is. You should really come down to check it out. Well worth the trip. Doors open at 9pm. It'll be up for about 3 weeks.
Invite

***See the event live via the web!***

CELUX DAY.

First meeting on the agenda was with Dime Magazine and Justin. Justin just made the move from Bounce Magazine to Dime. He obviously is a baller for real.
Most of the rest of the day was spent outside the office. Team Celux (namely Momoko) was in town from Japan to check out New York Fashion Week. So today, I took her around town to meet some interesting people and brands. First stop was the Brand Pimps showroom to see the new collection called The Cockpit. This couple, Jacky and Jeff along with their lead production person, Charlie pretty much started the brand Avirex. They also own the legendary store in lower Manhattan called The Cockpit which, when I was young, was one of the most influential shops around. They have since sold Avirex to Marc Ecko Enterprises and have gone back to their aviation, military and hunting roots to release, The Cockpit. From what I saw of the collection, it was really really good. I already called dibs on some fall pieces. After that we met with Claw Money of TC5 infamy. Keep a lookout for her new book dropping at the end of the year!
From there we headed over to the offices of Earnest Sewn to meet Brendan. The head designer of their Cut and Sew collection. Brendan is probably much better known for starting the brand NOAH which is one of the most sought after labels in recent memory. Problem is, you pretty much can't get Noah anymore, unless you have dude's cell phone #. Pretty exclsuive! He also spent the better part of 5 years designing for Supreme so you know this guy is always on some next shit...even though he doesn't really try to be.
We finally wrapped up the day with a great dinner at Nam in Tribeca. Phew....just another day at the office.

Justin chillin' in the Dolly.

Claw on the left. Minya (BPMW) on the right. Mad clothes in between.

Lookout for this label. It's that new hotness.

Charlie from Cockpit showing off some dope pieces. And um...taxidermy. Of course.

Brendan from Noah. Holdin' down the Earnest Sewn gear.

Caramel Black Pepper Salmon. Cannot be beat.

54 DAYS. LOST + FOUND.

OMG. It happened people. It took 54 days. But THE REAL DARRIN HUDSON has found me! We have reunited! It's dope! Since I've started "To Darrin Hudson" on Dec 13th 2005, the #1 question people have asked was "So did Darrin Hudson reach out yet?" Now I can finally say "Yes" and the battle can continue. Looking forward to it also. Power of the internet people...it's amazing. I even had Darrin send me a recent photo to prove it was really him. I'd say the proof is in the photo, right?

NRF - WEEK 7

http://www.nikerecessfederation.com/

Week 7 is in the books.

Game 1 was a grudge match between last season's power house teams, NRF Champs Generation and Delta Force. Generation jumped out to a huge 1st half lead but could not answer Delta Force's comeback surge. E. Felix leads the charge with 15 pts and 12 boards. Delta is starting to roll with 3 straight wins and only 1 game behind 1st place Terminators. Generation slips to .500% and has next week off to think things over.

Game 2 was no surprise as 1st place Foamposite bowled over winless AF1. The triple threat of Waterman, Tumbarello and Tobiason took over AF1 42-23. Foam sits .5 a game on top of the Uptown Conf.

Game 3 showcased first place Terminators against Bobbito and Co.'s Team Shox. Terms got out to an early lead and never looked back. Bobbito staged a 2nd half comeback but it was too little too late. Terms take it 59-44 and rebound from their only loss of the season last week. Next week, Terms face red hot Huarache (winners of 4 straight). Shox will face expansion team, Uptempo.

Speaking of, Game 4 was the battle of the expansions: Uptempo vs Hyperflight. It looked like for most of the game that Hyperflight might log their first "W", but Uptempo came back late, riding the shoulders of S. Koshimura in the 2nd half to win it 34-29.


***********************************************************
Player of the Week:
B. Callahan (TERMS): 24 pts / 11 rebs / 1 stl / 4 assts
***********************************************************

"I Live for Tuesday!"®

SUPERDEUX.

Imagine you were waiting in line on that fateful day last Feb 22nd. You've been sleeping outside for 4 days in the freezing cold... Waiting for your chance to get the Nike Pigeon Dunks. And then this nutso riot breaks out. But you manage to get a pair. And a matching t-shirt! And imagine as you're walking out, a pigeon takes a crap on your head. Well, you might look like this dude, assuming you were also a bunny rabbit (I'm the year of the Rabbit!) Superdeux and Staple collaborate on this dope 8 inch vinyl figure...limited to 200 pieces so pull out your Visa quick!
Buy it.

LALA LAND.

I went to LA to take care of a little business. It was also better to leave from LAX and take the direct redeye rather than from PSP.
I first had a meeting at the Four Seasons, one of the dopest hotels in Beverly Hills. They have this cool sculpture out front of two tourists reading the New York Times. Obviously, it was made by a sneakerhead. After that, I headed to Paul Mittleman's house. Paul is the Creative Director of Stussy and the newest member of Honeyee.com. See how Honeyee rolls? HF sends me to LA just to show Paul how to upload his posts! I'm playin', but I did give Paul a little lesson and you should see his shit up shortly.
From there, I headed to LAX for my flight. Apparently, the redeye from LAX to JFK is like a nightclub. It was so weird, I've never seen so many people I knew and/or celebs on one flight. The flight was delayed an hour (of course), and at the gate I ran into Kevin I. from Nike SB. Then I run into Claude, the Editor-In-Chief of Trace Magazine. Also, Serena Williams and Tatum O'Neal were sitting next to each other in 1st class. That's LA for ya...

Does Nike pay for this shit?

Honeyee 101 with Paul M.

Claude at LAX. We split the cab ride home. Let's do something in 06!

When I got home, CP from Nike was nice enough to send me some AM 360s with a dope laser treatment. Thanks!

PSP 2 LAX.

Today I made the 2.5 hr drive from Palm Springs to Los Angeles. California is big. Really BIG. It's so different than NYC. When you live in NY, travel time is not somthing you need to factor into your schedule. Nothing really takes more than 20 minutes. But in Cali, it's normal to factor 2-4 hrs of travel time into your everyday schedule. But the flip side is that the scenery is beautiful. So many different environments in one state. Along the way, I decided to stop off at a Nike Factory Outlet. Didn't find anything much in my diggings. The best thing I saw was those Talaria's in brown done with some South American artists. They were going for $39. Also stopped off at Morongo Casino in Cabazan and lost way too much money playing poker.

VICEROY.

The hotel Nike put me up in is doooooope. It's called The Viceroy Spa. I got this amazing villa all to myself. It's like twice the size of an average NYC apartment! The whole complex is laid out like a little village rather a typical hotel. Really beautiful property.
So this morning I woke up at the butt crack of dawn to do this guest lecture for the Nike offsite. What's an offsite? When you work in a large corporation, an offsite is basically a mini vacation with a little work sprinkled in. It allows for some out-of-the-box creative thinking and team spirit (Yay.) So Nike (thanks for the hook up LK) called me to ask if I would guest speak on the topic of the future of retailing (since we do Reed Space and work with Celux/LVMH). It was a good 1 hr session and I think the group was really fascinated. Afterwards, I had lunch with Kobi, who manages special events at the Mondrian Hotel. She was the guest speaker after me. Turns out we know a lot of the same people...damn small world. Come to the deserts of California to meet someone that knows half the people who play in the NRF.

2 PSP.

Nope, not the Playstation Portable. PSP is the airport code of Palm Springs, Cali. which is where I went today. I'm heading there for a "Nike offsite" thing which I'll explain in more detail shortly. There are no direct flights from NYC to PSP so I had to go thru San Fran. So far in 2006, I haven't had very good travel luck. Every flight I've taken has been delayed in some way. Whereby in '05, I had practically none! I guess it's payback this year. It's nice here. You know...Cali steez. Warm. Chill. Laid back. 3 things I am completely not used to.

Friggin Alaska Air from SFO to PSP. Delayed. Figures.

Walking thru the under construction Terminal 2 at SFO, it was strange (but refreshing) to see an airport terminal with absolutely no logos or electronic monitors going off. Kinda creepy. Like some Twilight Zone shit.

Might be hard to make out in this photo, but the PSP Airport is like, outdoors! There's just this mesh tent covering the whole thing! Figures...Cali.