These crossword vans came out in mid or late 2004, maybe 2005? Along with the rest of the first series of MJ vans, they were the best of their models. This one came out along with graffito vans, and a bunch of monotone sk8 highs. No sk8 lows to my recollection, and the highs were bright green, blue (royal), red, and white. I myself own the greens, which are great. The rest of the line were just as strong, sounder than the collections that followed. They were all simple, yes, but the first line were bright and clear, bold without being loud or garish. These particular slipons were a little more muted than their monochrome brethren - and why wouldn’t they be, they’re slip-ons - but the metallic tinge gave them a nice touch when they dropped.Iller than a corduroy chukka.

Happy Chinese New Year!These are not the new forces for this year, but are the 2005 Year of the Rooster model. As with the rest of the years - especially the monkeys - the roosters are great. The Rooster, Monkey, and my personal favorite the Horse are fine alternatives to those who want to wear all white air force low tops, but aren’t fly enough to rock jewels, or patent, or are too poor to buy taiwans. The little things make these forces: the odd choice of leathers, the colors - never exactly white, the script on the back of the tab on the Horse ones. The Monkeys’ swoosh goes from tan to nut, and is patent, there’s a little monkey in the corner. Great shoes, great new, great as beaters.The year of the rat is represented by free wildwoods, as well as vandals (with a cute lil beb rat) and court forces (of all things), for girls. Nike might just be giving up on this year for that part of the world, what with Yao’s presence at the Beijing Olympics and everything.

Here is a pair of vintage, OG - for our purposes - Nike Air Force One High’s, in purple and white, from 1992. This shoe is excellent for several reasons. First, it is monochrome. Only purple, purple stitching. There is some white, a swoosh, and the outsole is white. Most air forces with white outsoles can look fake; indeed, most are*. This instance is pretty real though: the quality of leather on this shoe is unbeatable. Nothing on a $700 Italian shoe I don’t mess with, but for a basketball shoe, it’s pretty damn good. These were made in China, yes, but the MIC Nikes are a little better than wherever they’re made now. This concept is nothing new, though. $2 Levi’s from Sears were sounder than any Swedish jean today, just like these dusty leathers spank a Lux out of the park like that.

You have to hand it to this shoe. It’s purple, it’s a high top, but it looks harder and tougher than a Timberland. I, myself am impressed. It should be noted that AF1s are very high, true high tops along with the AF2 and 3 High. I know my man Jay Bil has this exact pair. Reason enough to buy it, to be sure.I suggest adding this seller to your favorites. He always has some serious heat, and those photos remind me of random stores in Delaware or Connecticut. Kind of a slip through the crack powerseller. One offs of not so much quikstrikes, but random small run shoes from the last few years you might have missed out on. I tend to have at least one of his auctions, active or otherwise, on my list at all times.*One notable exception to this is the very fine Nike Hong Kong Air Force from, I believe, five years ago. I personally do not own a pair, but it is on my fairly short list of shoes I wish to buy, and maybe look at for twenty minutes when they come in the mail.

The Air Bakin was a pretty wacky shoe. If you ask me, they’re almost unwearable. They’re high, about a foot off the ground, and are either burgundy (I think they’re burgundy) or puce. They’re air, but they’re an old model, so they won’t feel resilient or anything. This was the shoe, or one of them, that got recalled because of the Arabic script on the “Air”. Fair enough I say, send these shits back to the stone age. The only dogs who can pull this off are either packing trail mix or a gun.
Otherwise, it just doesn’t click. I have to hand it to this pair, though. They are quite spanking, clean and fresh. I haven’t seen many with this gum rubber outsole, or even in yellow. Stay away from those reds, they are played out, man. This shoe, at its best, is a waterproof, sturdy, high top air max 97? Up to you if you think you can pull it off.

PS peep this guy’s other auctions, esp. his prices. $2K for a pair of IIIs? $250 for a rookie Garnett jersey? All right. If I was wealthy beyond my means I would definitely buy only overpriced stuff on the bay, from guys like this, just to ruin it for everyone.

PPS Gasol looked good last night. Kobe’s points dropped down real low… Is this a sign of things to come? How are they going to handle those weird twin towers come late March? I’m sure the triangle offense contains some sort of answer, even if it is just kick-out. There are onions in this sauce though…

220198380670 One of the stranger shifts in perspective in the sneaker game has been Nike’s complete shift to helping out sneakerheads, throwing them bones where they didn’t used to. In 2003 pining for rare airs and developing taste on Niketalk would mean something, but not yield much in the way of results. Like a wildwood? Too bad; only two will drop this year, and in colors you wouldn’t predict (what’s up, rhino). Now though it seems Nike is meeting her minions halfway, throwing out orange and paisley Joy Division Trainer IIs for all the college kids out there.. and it’s been five years since I was fucking with it for a year. The mask at Nike seems to be down, at least for the casual, sneakerhead division. You bark loud enough, ask for bright shoes, she’ll give them to you. I sort of miss the days when the old girl was an opaque monolith, giant, incalculable. What got pimped and why was never apparent, though sometimes she’d throw you a bone. Why did she drop those Mowabbs (scroll way down for AJ’s take)? Why did she make Mids, and then dead ‘em?  

These tech challenges fall with the latter. The originals were great shoes, with a great ad campaign, to be sure, and could hold their own on the quality of concept scale with any Jordan, Force, Flight, or Trainer, depending who you ask. But, forgotten to the sands of time, their image languished on the shelf. Rightly so: Andre Agassi, their face, cut his hair, copped a long term girl, and eventually fell off. As for the clothes.. weren’t no doggs wearing these like they did Jordan wear. So leave it to a handful of bums to bid up mislisted auctions, right around the New Hampshire primaries. Leave it to doggs making threads, nerds buying cred, bored men filling their nights with the rest of their paychecks.. So Nike hollered, and hooked some doggs up with a great shoe, one some have been bumping in the corner for a minute. But by this point it was too late…