12ozProphet

The AKA dunk project is fresh/ AKA always comes correct.

I think Nike’s presence in the graffiti world is ridiculous and idiotic. They’ve watered down this culture and made graffiti a NIKE culture?! The power of Nike’s brainwashing continue, influence kids around with the brand new choice of cool. Thanks everyone for selling out and giving this culture away to Nike. Let’s all make and design our worlds based on Nike, once a company whose image depended on laboring young asian kids in sweatshops to a huge clean up in their public image. But fuck Nike’s image. What about the image of graffiti that Nike solely represents. What happened to the trains. The tunnels. The rats, the dirt, the grime, the police. This graffiti world is now a venue for advertising companies to plunder. The sellouts continue to protect their pocketbooks telling everyone how graffiti Nike is. If you think about it, why the fuck is this post here? Oh I forgot, Nike is the new graffiti.

Check out the new Nike Graffiti Court Force: http://hypebeast.com/image/2006/09/nike-graffiti-court-force-1.jpg (where the fuck is the graffiti here?) The style? Wait, do we play basketball before we go out bombing? Psssh! The soles look like they were made for a gay guy to go camo.

These new dunks: http://www.hoopsvibe.com/IMG/crop-580x580/nike_dunk_low_eric_hazew.jpg look more like my uncle and his bad spraypainting skills went to town. No offense to the artists of the sneaker. But the design clearly says that I’m representing the graffiti world and I’m gonna use the basic element of spraypaint and swoosh it around the sneaker.

Never fails… You always get at least one crybaby to come out of the woodwork and complain that so-and-so isn’t keeping it real or that whatever-company is ruining the culture rather then acknowledge the fact that in the case of the Wet Look Dunks and the Haze Dunks you linked to were both dope and both created by significant contributors to the culture. Rather then pay respects to the fact that Nike is savvy enough to know who to collaborate with and have the ends to make a little legitimate noise for a few people that no doubt deserve it, you gotta take the low road and cry about it. If these kicks aren’t for you, then cool, every asshole is entitled to an opinion about what to put on their feet. The fact that at least two out of the three sneakers you’re calling out sold for thousands of dollars to people that literally lined up with the hopes of scoring a pair shows how relevant your opinions are.

Time to sop up that spilled milk and move on kid…

i’d kill for a set of those aka’s. (^^and count me as one of the people that would wait in line for those haze dunks too^^) keep up the good work and good posts!

ha, consumerist. Your name explains everything.

The idea of consumerism is the idea of ignorance. Nike is keeping it real. Really fake. I don’t think Nike and their loyalists care to listen to reason because all they care about are the charts and how much money they make. Bravo, you’ve sold some shoes. Good for you. Pay respect to NIKE?!!! What are you out of yer fucking selling out mind?. That’s fine, you have kids to feed right? You’d like everyone to believe that all opinions that contradict the Nike domination of this culture is from people who are assholes, rather than people who grew up in this culture and watched it fall apart to toys and wannabes who think Nike represents cool. Lets create a few graffiti celebrities and that should be enough to tell the world how down Nike is. Mostly pussies in disguises…. bring all the bullshit charts that says what sells. Just because you can sell a million more ugly shoes than the next doesn’t make it better shoe. If you believe that, your ass should just go straight to the marketing department, take your paycheck and run. These kicks aren’t for me and that is cool. Every big asshole has to deal with a little asshole with dreams of being super cool like everyone else in the crowd. Hey here’s a tip, when yer done cleaning my sneakers, you can move on to kiss the next man’s ass. Dunk that.

Somehow I doubt Fit for kids even bothered to read the interview. AKA picked those colors based off some pictures of vintage paint that appeared in the AKA book. He clearly states that he digs colors from that era and clearly these shoes are something he designed to tie back to the book. Really the fact that it was cans of paint or a graffiti book is kind of irrelevant. People can say all they want, but I’ve seen the both AKA books and they crush just about every other book I’ve seen whether it’s graffiti, art, or design related. Seems to me that these really have zero to do with graffiti and are more about the colors themselves. Regardless, I can’t see how anyone can complain about Nike watering down anything just because they chose to work with an artist, designer or writer that clearly has a ton of talent. I’m with !@#$ in the fact that I’d kill for a pair of those AKA dunks. If there’s anything to criticize about Nike, its the fact that they don’t do more of these sort of projects or at least make more pairs of these types of sneakers so us regular kids can get them too.

Waaaaaaa!

You also draw anarchy signs on your beat up chucks and throw rocks through the windows of the local starbucks? I’m curious what it is you write or what you’ve managed to accomplish in your life that you can put yourself up on that anonymous pedestal your preaching from and mention “Nike”, “graffiti celebrity” and “pussies in disguise” when it’s Haze (SE3) or “ugly shoes” when the wet look pairs above got over 100 bids and sold for $14,900. Funny thing about kids like you that like to think your bucking the system with all that teenage angst is that you usually end up earning minimum wage serving the very same people you hated on before. Why don’t you come back when you actually got something noteworthy under your own belt and then maybe a few of the kids on here might give a shit about your opinion.

“Consumerist” basically says it all.  You wanna talk about bastardizing graffiti and all this nonsense. Where were you in the train era? Where were you when graffiti was taking its baby steps into growing and blossoming into this worldwide sub-culture thats so powerful multi-billion dollar companies like Nike cant help but notice its impact? Oh that’s right… You’re probably some mid-west indie rap listening jock who’s presence in graffiti is just as “idiotic” as Nike’s. If you really wanna get into who has a right to be in graffiti and who doesn’t you should probably re-check your roll in our scene. But I mean I’m sure you do a lot of real meaningful wheat pasting right? Lemme guess how many times you’ve written “DUMP BUSH!” next to one of your fillins in the middle of nowhere, 83?

You wanna talk about sell out? You buy your paint? You buy your supplies? Sorry b, dont point fingers if that $7 Belton sprayback is on your hands.

Hey Fit for kids… sorry to be the one to have to delete your last rant and maybe dent your personal crusade here, but this is already getting ridiculous and way off topic. If you have some personal agenda against capitalism, corporate America, or whatever else, then maybe you should go off and start your own blog about it instead of cluttering mine up with nonsense that only you seem to agree with. Cases like this transcend opinion to become trolling. People love their kicks, and respect it or not, Nike happens to be putting out the freshest pairs so move it along…

dope post!

It would seem that a couple kids have their facts twisted and as a result, seem determined to ruin the fun. Though most of the people viewing this site have the privilege of living in a country that allows for the freedom of thought and speech, those inalienable rights don’t bring guarantees requiring that the rest of us need to put up with habitual assholes. Though this country may be run as a democracy, there’s no provisions in there that demand we run this website as one. I’m all for open dialogue and critical discussion, but I’m not going to sit around and let my blog’s comment section turn into a soap box for someone else’s misinformed ideologies. Lucky for those retarded few that this is America and everyone, including nobody’s like them, are free to try and build their own platform to sound off from. That same freedom also allows them the chance to go off and pursue their own accomplishments, though we all know that won’t ever happen. Sad thing is that the same kids that come on here and expect to be handed the spotlight to hate from, tend to be the very same kids that have absolutely zero to show for themselves. Sorry, but until you can step up having done something worth respecting yourself, I’m not inclined to sit back so you can jump on my blog and start hating on people that are actually out there making things happen.

Also Known As is really dope. I have both books and the KR and Desa books and together, they’re the best books I own or have seen. These sneakers are amazing also. When did they release?

I’m going to chime in real quick. The AKA dunks have nothing to do with the writing except that it draws inspiration from old cans. That’s it. A writer didn’t sell out to do it. There is no tour featuring anyone with their launch. Nike basically collaborated with AKA do get cool points and do AKA a favor. At least that’s how I see it. However…
There are plenty of companies that appropriate the lifestyle and the movement. They should be checked because they do not usually do it right and try and get over. Also…
what you buy don’t make you who you are, it just shows what you consume. Everyone consumes. Some are just more socially and environmentally responsible when they do.

What a dunk!