eye candy:

Magic: Kurtis Carl Jackson

I found some magic in NZ.  4:15 pm in the afternoon.  The Billabong BROdown contest had just finished.  It had been a cloudy, icy day for the most part.  Everyone is leaving the mountain.  Luckily, as a SnowPark Volunteer, my man Lewis left the lift on for 'one more' run.  The sun was peaking through, light becoming orange, shadows turning blue.  As I am riding up the lift, a photographer named David Peacock was randomly near the big jump. I shouted, and begged for him to take a photo of this final lap through the jump line.  After being shut down by every other photographer there on previous days, I had hope but no expectations. I hit the jump, ride away and later gave him my e-mail, "no guarantees."  A few days later I get this picture in my e-mail...  like magic.

BRAND VS BRAND

With the recent release of 3, yes 3, new frogskin collabs in the last two weeks I feel a bit disheartened. First obviously some career envy for not being able to pull strings to get oakley to make our TRANSIT edition shades. Though relatively unknown, I still feel aesthetically, we definitely have something to offer. We(the individuals that make up this collective) have had our finger on the pulse of this culture before it was a culture. Even at times when the industry flattened and considered a fading light in a radical world, we marched on with our grand ideas. Ideas that have kept a shop afloat, Ideas that kept the old young, Ideas that have let out a tremendous roar. But back to the point of this. Collaborations by nature should share knowledge and search for a common goal. I feel collaborations these days in streetwear have become so watered down. Eye-catching yes, but have little to captivate for any period of time. They simply become brand recognition tools. Tools that highlight brands that want to sell you other products in their line. It's a lighter with a cigarette brand name on it. Rarely about the actual product, but more about the names that brought you that product. Names that were built by other products. So all & all, I'm satisfied we never got a chance to go to oakley & have them build our shades. Instead I spent countless hours painting them by hand. Sometimes finishing a pair all the way to just before clear coat and starting all over again. It's me in those strokes. It's US in those strokes. Even the people that surround me that aren't are part of TRANSIT are in those strokes. That being said here is one collab I am a fan of. This is when a product transforms.

COLETTE x TIMBERLAND