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Happy 1st Birthday Jillian!
Jillian is my friend Bianca's little niece. Her birthday is today and she is the big "O-N-E"! The fam-bam calls her "Jilly Bean", so these baby Stan Smith sneakers have a jellybean theme. They have her nickname, jillybeans, her birthdate, and Mr. Jelly Belly with a birthday hat ready to partay!! lol. The sneakers are way colorful and a lot of fun. The hardest part was getting the lettering right because "JillyBean" is a pretty long name and the sneakers are super tiny. I'm happy with how they turned out and it's always cool to do little sneakers for the little homies too :) Saturday is her birthday party, so Jillian will get 'em then.
Tell me that is not the coolest thing EVER! How dope if I had furniture like that!! Jealous! :) So I thought I'd share this with you guys, since you know I'm all about adidas. The pictures looks like it's miniature, but it's super life size. This company had to make a point-of-sale display at a London department store. Thecoolhunter says, "Manchester based True North were given the task to create a 'can't miss it' bespoke display system for adidas Originals within the Offspring concession at the Oxford Street store. Taking inspiration from the product itself where an adidas shoebox becomes a table and the shoebox lid, a chair, they have created a display and "trying on" area where customers can fully immerse themselves in the brand." I want it. Hahaha!
Oh, by the way, the verdict is in! So Tanya, our contest winner, came in to pick up her Batman joints. The shoes were waiting in the display case, and when I pointed to them, I saw her face light up :) Seriously, it really makes me happy when my "client" (weird...) is happy with the final product. She gave me a great compliment in 3 words: "You are good." :) Yea! Thanks!!
So back when I did the adidas event, we had an "Enter to Win" contest for some free customs. We did the drawing and the winner could get anything they wanted on a pair of Superstars. I talked to the winner and she said she wanted a Batman themed shoe. I was originally only going to do the outsides, but I saw an opportunity to add more elements to it.
It has an old school comic feel to it. My cousin Mike has a CRAZY comic book collection and I remember reading them was I was younger, so I definitely have that appreciation. I used the OG blue (haha) to really bring that out along with the old title logo and "sound effect" punch graphic.
Tanya, the winner, hasn't seen them yet. I'm gonna give her a call tomorrow and hopefully she'll dig 'em. I let you know the verdict after the drop!
If I have a blank sheet of paper in front of me, I'm gonna draw on it and if I have a blank canvas, eventually I'm gonna paint on it...I think most people are like that, but when it comes to a pair of all-whites, most people can leave them be. Everyone needs a classic pair of all-white shelltoes! I know this but I can't seem to do it. They call out for me to draw on them. I figured I'd try again with my all-white Pro Models -- to keep them untouched and fresh. Look at them! Sooo clean! Yeah, that lasted about 3 weeks...
These joints are inspired by this company in the Philippines called Graphic Designed Lifestyle Inc. "Limited Edition Merchandise by Team Manila." Their stuff is very cool. Check 'em out here! I was already doing a "Filipino" themed sneaker with the sun, but didn't know what else. I was born in Manila, and I saw a hoodie on their website that was SICK! So I used some of the same elements: the gold color and the words "Manila Royals" on the sneakers. I added stars, which a lot of my sneakers have, a crown (cuz you know we're royalty! - hahaha!) and put "REP PH" on the heel. They came out clean :) I'm happy with them. I remember how loooong the sun took to draw. I was going crazy making sure every ray was lined up and spaced out okay. I wanted to make sure I kept a lot of white still on the shoe with the simple graphic elements and I think it works. Hope you guys like them. They'll be on display at the adidas Store in Irvine in a few days for a little bit, but then they're coming home!
The event was fun! Pretty low key since it was during the day (12-4pm). It was a little nerve-wracking to be in front of everyone, cuz I don't really like when people watch me. I could feel the pressure, but it was ok. I kept the stuff up and running until around 6pm, then packed it up. I think if it were at night, especially with the dj, the event would've been more bustling. It wasn't until right before I left at 8pm, did more and more people come up to me and ask about the sneakers I put in the display case and talk about the event. Overall it was a good day. It was fun being "on display" in the window. When I wasn't customizing a customer's sneakers, "in the meantime, in between time", I brought a pair to do myself. It has pens, a pencil, line designs and my stolen lyric/motto from Da Bush Babees "we run styles, no styles no run we." What I remember most about the event, were the people. As I sat in the window, it was cool to see everyone crowd around, point at the ones they liked and the sign language they'd do to me thru the glass to show approval. 
Back in November, I went back to the Bay for Thanksgiving. Well, Naybeck was sick and it happened to be around Thanksgiving too. It was a chill holiday, and on my way home, I stood behind Bobbito Garcia in the security line at Oakland airport.
For you guys who don't know who he is, you should look him up here and here and here. He customizes, is a dj, hosts tv shows on ESPN, acts, dances, writes a daily blog on BounceMag & Vibe, plays ball, writes books, been on tv and in commercials about sneakers, basketball, dancing...the list goes on.
Anyway, we started talking about sneakers and he snapped a shot of my sneakers for BounceMag. As he said, the meeting "was mad flavors!" It's was cool. For this Originals event coming up, I emailed him for some advice and he gave me the heads up on some things and props on my sneakers, so that's definitely a compliment worth taking!
A month ago, my great aunt passed away. She was like a second mother to me and my brother growing up. "Nay" means "mother" in tagalog, and combining it with her name, Rebecca, we called her "Naybeck." It's still hard to talk about, and it's a long story, but she is definitely loved and missed. I've known her my whole life, and she finally got to go back to the Philippines where she passed. She died April 30, 2008. The sneakers say "04.29.08" because it was the 29th in the states. Naybeck was 7th Day Adventist, so I put a bible verse about "soul sleep", which they believe in. Daniel 12:2 "...and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life..." Naybeck was tha homie for sure. 
The homie Andrenee wanted a pair as a birthday present to herself. She didn't completely know what she wanted so we brainstormed a bit and came up with a icy, winter theme cuz she was born in December. She loves hip hop and is a dj too. These Stan Smiths are pretty clean. Her birthdate is written on the insides of the sneakers with frosted numbers, a snow-capped trefoil, and a snowflake wearing headphones are on the outsides with the plug across both sneakers. I remember Andrenee needing them before her big 21 bash in the Vegas. She liked them a lot and had a great birthday bash. She wore them up and down the Vegas strip, which I couldn't believe, but I'm sure she looked dope.
