21 mercer

Haze AF1 – 21 Mercer

In a joint effort between Nike & legendary NYC graffiti artist Eric Haze, a new Air Force 1 was created. They were released this past Friday exclusively at NikeLab/21 Mercer and Haze himself was there to sign pairs for any fan. It was super frigid here in New York on Friday, but these AF1’s made it all worth the while.

Tumbled leather on the upper, nylon tongue and an interesting wrapped midsole. Not sure what the exact materials is, but its combo of leather & rubber. The “Air” on the midsole is written in Haze’s distinctive handstyle. The backtabs have his asterisk on each and the insole/liner is blasted with Haze taggings all over. The tongue branding was also redrawn by the artist.

For those who don’t know, Eric Haze was known by his graffiti handle of SE3. He was a legendary NYC bomber in the 70’s & 80’s. His SE3 throwies & fillin’s had the city marked with his name and MTA’s services were sprawled by him.

He was a really nice guy and was kind enough to throw up a SE3 on my box. He was signing shoes, boxes, iPhones, taking pictures.. you name it. It was really cool of him to do all that, smiling the whole time. Much respect.

bobby’s.

These Bobbito’s always find themselves in my weekly rotation.

bespoke: the gift.

The Gift. This was an exclusive Bespoke made by 21 Mercer in 2011. Only 12 pairs or so were made and 4 were given out via a twitter competition that poised some tricky questions. The shoe has some incredible details and its hard to translate them in pictures. Definitely a shoe that must be seen in person to give you the full effect.

The upper is draped with a dark denim with some nice contrast stitching. Cork backtab with a cork midsole sitting on top of a necessary gum outsole. Even some red pivots on the outsole. Suede swooshes and glove leather for the insole. The liner is constructed of an almost foil material that gives you a feel of wrapping paper. “Merry Christmas” is lasered all over the sock liner. There is a “gift” embroidered on the heal of both shoes and “the gift” again is symbolized on the deubre. The top eyelets have a gold color and it really ropes up the holiday themed shoe.

Safe to say, I am extremely pleased to have these in my collection. A true gift.

Bespoke: Off The Cuff

About 5 weeks back I had met up with a friend at 21 Mercer that was in town to make a Bespoke. My only plans were to go there to chill for a couple hours and see my friends design; so much for that. Not sure who I was kidding because by the time my friend was done with his render, I was already holding materials in my hand planning my next move.

So here is my end product.. a Bespoke fittingly named “Off the Cuff”. Grey canvas upper, sail midsole. Binary bottom eyelets, laces and outsole with infrared pivots. Blue vipera swoosh, backtab & heel strip. Leather deubre with gold tipped aglets. Cork insole and alce draping the liner and secondary swoosh.