af1

Chambray AF1

Made these Chambray NikeID’s from last months material offering. I went with a blue Chambray upper, white midsole on top of a Gum outsole. I added a red chambray backtab and added a polka dot strap to give it some oomph. Finished off the shoe with some waxed sand laces. 

Shoe looks great on foot and pretty comfortable. Almost feels like a denim canvas. 

  

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.

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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.

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AF1 2003 Mark Smith “Laser Pack”

One of my favorite pairs.. 2003 Laser designed by Mark Smith.  A beautiful lasered pattern throughout the brown upper with a sail mid-sole and dark brown out-sole.  A nice added bonus is the fat laces that skirt across the eye-stay.

The upper is made with a plush leather and is included on the tongue.  The insole is so comfortable that it feels like you’re wearing pillows. Definitely in my top 10 AF1’s and a pair I recommend to any aficionado.

Year:   2003

Color:  Medium Brown/Sail-Eldorado

Style #: 308430-221

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