To Darrin Hudson

The Complete Works of jeffstaple.

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Name: jeffstaple
Location: New York, New York, United States

I think everyone had a "Darrin Hudson" in their lives. Darrin Hudson was in my high school, back in Marlboro, NJ. You know, that person that you had to one-up all the time. Didn't matter what it was: Gear, hair, grades, sports, whatever...it was ON. Well for Darrin and I...it was kicks. Plain and simple. Oddly enough, in a school with over 1000 kids, me and him were the only 2 really into sneakers back then. 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. So it is here, that I will archive every pair of shoes I own. It’ll 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). Some other little goodies sprinkled throughout also. Even if I updated a different shoe every week, it would take me about 3 years to complete this project. So sit back and enjoy! The project begins January 1st, 2006...

Friday, June 29, 2007

OMG.

Its dope. I'm speechless. OK, just a quick update before I go back under the covers with my new iPhone.

My strategy for getting the iPhone. Head into New Jersey, to my old stomping ground at Menlo Park Mall and wait there. It worked but later found it was unneccesary as stock was plentiful almost everywhere.

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The entrance.

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The line up.

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The final countdown!!!!!!

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The moment of truth!!! (Check it out, HF, I got you!)

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Finally....after years and years....SALVATION!
Ok good night. Need to get Kleenex for my drool.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

JEFF SIMPSON.

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Sup dude.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

THE WEEK OF...

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...the iPhone has finally arrived. We're only a mere 5 days away.
To celebrate, I present this link of the 10 Worst iPhone Designs ever. Its funny to look at now, but I bet before Apple showed us the actual iPhone, we were pretty stoked on some of these concepts.

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Today I went to check out the "MR." exhibition at Lehmann Maupin. Mr. is from Saitama Japan and is a core member of Takeshi Murakami's Kaikai Kiki art collective. His work in interesting (to say the least) in concept; and at the same time, flawless in execution. It was funny to see out-of-town families running into the gallery cuz they thought this was something fun for the kids...only to be horrified.

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What happens when Japan faces Japan in Table Tennis? Check out this funny clip.

Monday, June 18, 2007

HONESTLY.

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One of my favorite drinks is from the teamaker's Honest Tea. I can't recall when they began doing this but they started putting little facts under their bottlecaps. This one was particularly interesting. It reads: "Last year, Honest Tea sold 7,998,654 bottles of tea. This is the same amount of Coke sold in 9 minutes." It's funny. As a corporation and a business, you want to be successful. And in the beverage industry, I assume being successful somehow correlates to selling more and more bottles of your product. I see what they were trying to get across with this fact but I find it funny that "street" tactics (i.e., staying small, being underground, et al) are being used now in business sectors you wouldn't think it would make sense in. I should do a Staple shirt that says we sold the same amount of t-shirts in year that Rocawear sells in 36 minutes.

Just finished another week of fasting and it was great! My friends think I have joined a cult. hahaha. Well, in true cult fashion, I enlisted 4 friends into the fasting club this past week and I thought it would insightful to share their thoughts on it. Their names are being withheld to protect them from ridicule when they enter their usual 5 star eateries; but i listed their professions so you know not every person who fasts is a hemp wearing, dreadlocked hippie with Birkenstocks on their feet and a hackeysack in their hand.

"I hate the constant thought of really delicious solid food.... But if this will fix my #2's, I think its totally worth it."
— Asssitant Buyer, The Pedder Group

"Many thoughts run through my head. So here are my top 10 (1- 4 initial impressions, 5-10 as of Wednesday):
1. The food is extremely healthy and clean. I'm very impressed with the quality.
2. The portions are more than enough—which caught me by surprise as I love to eat a lot of food, especially for dinner.
3. I realize how much of my eating is habit driven and not productive as in satisfying hunger.
4. Nutrition is now going to be more of a focus for me.
5. On Wednesday night all I could think of was: Nobu, Nobu, Nobu. Miso Cod, Yellowtail Jalapeno, Rock Shrimp Tempura, Mochi Ice Cream.....
6. Hunger subsides if you allow it to - especially if you just go to sleep, you wake up feeling much better than if you ate late at night.
7. The days are easy to get through. Between work and drinking every 2 hours. It's 8 pm to 1 am that's tough.
8. Doing a lot of thinking about my upcoming Saturday meal.
9. Thursday morning and I feel great. The nights were tough but now in the home stretch no problem getting through this.
10. Bring on the L.O.V.E.deep!!!!
10a. Thanks Staple for putting me up on it..."
— Founding Editor of The Fader Magazine

"I think my experience was kinda special. Not so interesting in the beginning. Was scary to start, but also exciting. It's always exciting to test yourself. Its like peeking into a whole other side of existence, a place where people actually thrive without coffee, pizza, pasta and burgers.
Its really eye-opening. You really get perspective on how much you over eat at every meal."
— Design Director, MTV URGE

"I'd say one of the best things about this is that while you're doing it, you really begin to think about your stomach and body as a plumbing system. If your home plumbing system is clogged you'd want that cleaned up right? Well when you're on this fast, you literally feel yourself getting cleansed from the inside out. You don't feel lighter because you shed fat. You feel lighter from all the poison that has left your body. Its crazy when u think about the amount of crap we put into our bodies. A week of this definitely isn't enough. But the difference just 5 days makes is huge."
— Creative Director, Staple Design

"It's getting easier as it goes along and i thought it would get harder. This made me realize the normal portions I eat are way too much, with this i'm slowing down and enjoying every last bite and appreciating what I eat a lot more than normal. Eating on a schedule really helps keep my energy level higher than normal and more consistent throughout the day. It's been a great experience."
— Chief Operations Officer, Cornerstone Promotions

Again, if you're interested in trying this out, I suggest Organic Avenue in the LES of Manhattan. Tell them Staple sent ya!

Friday, June 15, 2007

10-10 WINS.

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We weren't the only company to celebrate a decade of beingness. Colette; one the best stores in the entire world also celebrated their 10th year anniversary. They had a big bash in Paris that i missed out on but luckily, I was able to partake in the intimate luncheon Paper Magazine and Colette hosted at Indochine in New York. It was on a weekday at 12 in the afternoon. It was nice to not have a "night thing" to go to. Lots of interesting people in the house as one might imagine...Jest from alife, Leah from MOB (congrats on the newborn!), Kaws, James from Supreme, John Jay, Benjamin Cho...and on and on.

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Speaking of gifts, one of New York's finest, Harry Jumanji blessed me with this SICK skateboard. A literal artifact of NYC. Take a close look at all the tags on it and the personal message. I'm honored and my prayers are with him.

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Wow...Even more freebies! This time courtesy of Bobbito Garcia. He's giving y'all an opportunity to make a pair of AF1/25s with him in the 255 Nike iD Studio! On HIM! Well, more likely on Nike. But you get the idea. Click here for more info. And remember to congratulate his Team Shox on advancing to the Semi Finals in the NRF.

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I have a secret love for interviews that don't ask me questions about sneakers and street culture. Check out this short little story from the guys at Behance. Its a site dedicated to "exceptionally productive people and teams working in the creative fields. We document the methods and resources that productive creative professionals use to push their ideas forward." They also have a system of great stationary to help you keep on top of things. Check em out online or at Reed Space.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

WEEK ENDS.

This coming week, I'm gonna WILLINGLY get back on the liquid fast that I was on a few months ago. While it was somewhat torturous the first time, I really appreciated what it felt like to be "cleansed" from within. So I'm hittin it again this week. No food. All liquids. I have no fewer than 5 friends who are joining me on this life changing voyage this week. While the thought of not eating solid food for a week seems ridiculous, I really highly recommend it. Its not only a physical rejuvination, but also a mental one. There are many places that offer the service but Organic Avenue located in the LES is the best in my opinion and they deliver to you as well. They make it super easy, because to be quite honest, anything that makes this even slightly inconvenient will make it impossible for you to get thru the entire week. So for this weekend of "last suppers", I tried to get out as much as possible.

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Microsoft Surface held a little demonstration at the Sheraton Hotel on Saturday. I got to play with it first hand. My opinion? Don't believe the hype. From the videos I saw, I thought this was the equivalent to a table sized iPhone. No, no, and no. This is some hokey, sideshow trick. Its basically 5 cameras tucked under a table "looking" and "reacting" to your movements. That ain't dope. You might as well put a little person in there and have him do the same thing. Because of the cameras, they can never do this as a flat screen. The iPhone screen is true finger sensitive technology. Not a bunch of cameras looking at your movements. Also, if this takes off, chronic back fatigue will be the new carpal tunnel syndrome. You have to be constantly hunched over when using this. This will never replace the mouse and keyboard. Who the fuck wants to wave their arms around at work for 8 hrs a day? Everyone in the future is gonna have huge biceps and triceps.

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Earlier I was given the opportunity to sit down with Maze from Kix And The City.com and talk about some of the finer points in this sneaker game—both from a consumer mindset, and as a business owner. It was pretty cool. You can peep the video play by play. Maze is also the offical reporter for the NRF Basketball League. You should read his insightful reports week after week. The NRF Playoffs have just begun and I am happy to say my team, (Team Terminators) have the best record in the league and just advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Oh and did I mention that the NRF finals will be played at Madison Square Garden? We do not mess around. (holla at Parks and JU! We're ready when y'all are.)

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My old childhood friend from New Jersey, Navin, had his 30th birthday. His big brother Neal just had a baby and #2 is already on the way. I build brands. He builds humans. Go figure.

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I also just rec'd a pair of these Tretorn Sailing Shoes. They are very nice and have some great details (the entire outer is made from recycled sailing masts)...but I have to give the comfort factor a thumbs down. I'll wear some pretty uncomfortable shoes if it looks tight, but these almost go beyond the call of duty.

Monday, June 11, 2007

SUMMERTIME.

Summertime in the city.
What does it mean to me?

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Late night runs to nowhere in particular on the Honda Zoomer (aka Ruckus)

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Art openings galore. This is from Faile's soldout show. Congrats to Pat and Pat.

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And road trips to places I will visit only once in my lifetime. (I highly recommend AGAINST going to City Island, NY.)

Friday, June 08, 2007

THE PIGEON HAS LANDED...

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...again! This time, in the form of a dope pair of socks. As part of our 10th Anniversary, Nike SB helped us to revisit that fateful day that changed the history of the sneakergame forever. Now you CAN put your feet up on the couch with Pigeons ! The original sneaker version was supposed to have a splat of bird poop on it, but because of production limitations in replicating fecal matter, we left it off. I am happy to report that the sock features the shit. It's the shit! For a limited time...only at one spot in the world: Reed Space.

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Ladies! Check out Delia rocking the Pigeon socks with her Christian Louboutin's! HOT COLLAB.

POST PARRA.

Parra opening exhibition went down tonight. Keep a look out on Riottt.com for the wrap up report.

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...we worked hard...

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...and a few friends came thru. It was a blast. And thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.

RECENTS.

These are not neccesarily THAT recent actually, but since the servers were down I was not able to properly post them as I would have liked. So this is more or less of a flashback of the last 2-3 weeks in New York. As the song goes...people make the world go round.

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Alist by way of Canada / Sugar Cafe

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Stina Persson by way of Sweden/ Hanahou Gallery (Her solo exhibition which was amazing.)

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Davena (by way of HK) and Jean / Noho Star

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Jurg by way of Switzerland / Staple HQ

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Paul Mittleman by way of LA / Mercer Hotel

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Jose Parla (by way of Miami) and Rostarr (by way of BK) / Lower East Side

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Dorothy Hong by way of Long Island / Reed Space

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...And finally, as seen only in a city like New York...see anything wrong with this picture?

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

PARRA T.

Another reason to come to the Parra opening this Thursday at Reed Space.
Reed Space x Staple x Parra tee. 72 pieces only. Parra can even sign one if you can track him down!

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Also peep the video that Riottt put together...you get a rare glimpse of Parra in action at the studio.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

PARRA NORMAL.

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And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...good to be back online.
I have lots of stuff to post but will start very quickly with a reminder for this Thursday's exhibition opening of PARRA. Many New Yorker's have been waiting to see his work in the flesh (no pun intended). Now is your chance. Word has it Parra will be making an appearance as well.
RSVP required for this one as it will surely be an event not to miss.
Thursday June 7th, 2007. 8pm-10pm
RSVP: mrreed@stapledesign.com
Space is limited.
Reed Space
151 Orchard Street b/w Rivington and Stanton
212-253-0588
Brought to you in association with Complex Magazine, Riottt, Staple and Tiger Beer.