Street Wear the book

It hasn't been a year yet since I have discovered the Streetwear world. It started with where all the Urban Vinyl stores were. 360 Toygroup used to be right next door to Recon/Nort and another spot that I can't think of the name of. I guess it started really with kicks. I would go to all the hipster hot spot to get exclusive kicks. The thing that bugged me out was that ALL these dudes would be buying the same kicks from the same spot. LOL. If you ask me thats not exclusive anymore. I tend to go Downtown Newark and see what they have. I've been to SoHo and someone's stopped me and asked where did I get the kicks I was wearing. I would tell them Jersey and they would bug out. It's only because these clones of cool kids just go to the same five spots and see the same "exclusive" kicks. They would probably have a field day if they would walk in a Modell's or Footlocker..lol. Anyway it started with the sneaker thing. Then about 8 months ago I went to Brooklyn Circus in NY. The store was amazingly small and the clothes' sizes matched the size of the store..lol. I went there for a Art event presented by The Sound Of Art. Everybody was wearing Bapes and Evisu jeans with the muskeeter cuffs rocking...lol. But on my jouney to sell toys to stores I saw more and more what street wear was. Going to places like Division East in Montclair, City Allstars in Paterson and Ombe in South Orange I got a pretty good grasp of what streetwear was. Complex magazine and Weekly Drop helped me out a lot. But being a new comer I have no business trying to tell someone- anymore for that matter- what streetwear is. To me it's defined by the pioneers of this genre. All these stores that have been here before me are what streetwear is to me. Skaters, Graph writers, ex- backpackers...lol. That's what I saw when I first got there and that's what I'm sticking with.
But this blog is about a book- Steven Vogel's Street Wear.


Although this is the first book on streetwear I've ever seen he said it's not meant to be a beginning to end bible of what streetwear is but just his story.

-Despite what has been previously blogged about this endeavour it is by all means not a “guide” or another “fashion bible” or a “who’s who” in streetwear / street culture. One thing you will not find in this book is a definition of streetwear. I hate definitions, always have and throughout the process of creating this book a quote from one of my favourite French artists, Robert Delaunay, gave my some guidance:” I am very much afraid of definitions, and yet one is almost forced to make them. One must take care, too, not to be inhibited by them. ”-

I has a great experience reading Bobbito's book "Where'd you get those" but I never just take one persons word for it. I, my friend am a child of the Reading Rainbow generation..lol.

Andy Mouse by 360 Toy Group

Here's a piece I wrote for Sound Of Art (if you dont know about them check them out).

Well the Andy Mouse vinyl is here. A figure done by 360 ToyGroup and with the stamp of approval of The Estate of Keith Haring. 360 Toy Group is responsible for great vinyl collabos' with companies and graffiti greats such as Stussy, Kaws and Futura. So you know this is start fire. It seems as if last year was the year for a Keith Haring renewal. With the AdiColor kicks and clothes that came out last year, what better way for a hipster or streetwear guru to get a complete fix of Keith Haring other then having a great collectable mounted on his desktop. Jakuan of 360 knew all the kids knew who Andy Warhol and Basqiat was but he wanted to bring some shine to a man that deserves just as much light. I wouldn't lie to you, when I first saw the Andy Mouse vinyl and the name Keith Haring I couldn't tell you off the bat who he was. So like I do when I don't know something... I throw the name in a online search engine and waited for the magic. As soon as I saw his classic "stick men figures" as I call it, it took me straight to the 80's and seeing those guys on MTV, tshirts and damnnear anywhere I looked. Looking at his art it seems as if Keith was dying for someone to make some vinyl figures from his paintings. Jakuan must have picked up on it and ran like hell. He approached keith haring's estate to make figures for them around 2003 and after convincing them that it was a good way for the estate to broaden and attract a new fan base for his work it was a go. Now if your asking why not make figures of his better known subject of paintings like the radiant baby, the stick men or dog? Well what better way to spark someone's interest then present them with something they have never seen. The person in charge of the license at the time suggested to make Andy Mouse as the first figure BECAUSE it wasn't as known as his other works. So with the green light and the license to make a Keith Haring as big in the toy art world in hand he started to put that work in. Jakuan is a one man wrecking machine, from sculpting to sales to marketing he got it in. It premiered at The Showroom NYC with a very limited gray color version that was only sold there and later released that year. I'm guessing the response was crazy because I am now hold one of my very own. So much love to Jakuan, 360 TOYGROUP and to the estate of Keith Haring for bringing this great vinyl to use. Joints like these are the reason Im in the business... 1.

My mission with urban vinyl.

Why do you want to open a Urban Vinyl store? Why do you want to open a Designer Toy store? These are questions I've been waiting for someone to ask me... do you know why? Because I have a 12 page essay waiting to answer those very questions.

Being raised in Dirty Jersey there are few options when you have a talent. There are few roads you can go down to get out of the hood with your talents. If you can sing f*ck it and become Whitey Houston. If you can act become Steel (the fat dude) from Juice. You play basketball be Shaq. And if you can rap be ___ (add rapper from jersey name here). But Art.... noone I grew up with knew any artist that came from Newark except the graf and tag writers that hit up all the walls around the way. My brother has talent- he can draw but who's road does he have to follow. Plenty of people don't have the strength to be trailblazers. You might have the talent but not the passion. The only kid from my personal history that got out the hood on his creative talent was this dude that I was in the 8th grade with. The second week of our Sophomore year in high school he gave me a pound and said that he was going to design sneakers for a living and I think he said Nike was going to school him how to do it. Now if I believe it... sure why not? He never lied to me for me not to believe him. He sat in class all day drawing different types of kick designs and he had the talent. But besides all that, as a kid from the hood I was more then happy to see someone leave it for something positive. I wanted to believe that he can make it!

Fastfoward to about 5 years ago. Something crazy happened, I was blessed with a daugther. That had me thinking about my future. Her future. What do I want her future to be and what did I want to teach her. I got heavy into black and latino (i hate that word) history. I started listening to Immortal Techinque and Dead Prez. The t shirts I rocked all have strong meanings, Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey, The Black Planthers, The Young Lords and so on. Man I got my first library card, was the only person under the age of 50 at the town meetings. Wanting to do more for my community and its future what the hell do I have to offer. Today I know the answer. I can be a trailblazer.... Opening an Urban Vinyl store will show kids that around the world (cause most people in the US dont give 2 sh*ts) people are very interested in the hoods of america. Give kids that like design, fashion and urban art a home, a future and a MFing change to see their worth.

I've been collection SOMETHING since I was REALLY young. Baseball cards, comic books, pogs (remember those) and toys. I loved my graphic design class in high school and I liked my marketing and fashion classes in college. Urban Vinyl play to all those likes and loves. When I was first exposed to UV it was great. From the packaging to the toy itself was a creative clusterf*ck.lol.

My first stop was a store called Kidrobot. It's funny how f'ing popular it is now. I went there expecting mecca but it was far from that. Don't get me wrong- I like Kidrobot but for that to be the BIG rep for UV in nyc it was a little bit of a letdown for me. My second try was Toy Toyko. I didn't like that one either. Too cluterred with old figures that didn't sell. It made me like Kidrobot more..lol. My last stop was a store called 360 Toy Group in L.e.s. It was the mecca of the Urban Vinyl world. No not pretty and cute like Kidrobot but it oozed of why I loved Urban Vinyl..... it was Urban. As soon as I walked through that door I felt as I found what I was looking for. JaKuan is one of the coolest down to earth dudes you will ever meet. I became a groupie to the store. With a beautiful figure of himself in the middle of this store by none other then jason siu if my memory serves me correctly. Too bad he shut it down to create figures full time.

So I cut it down to 4 paragraphs from 12 pages. Support me and save the hood...lol. NO REALLY