Despite switching up his kicks from Kobe's to Jordan's, the man once billed as the French Air Jordan Mickael Pietrus and his magical crew could not defeat the evil villain known as the LA Lakers in Game 1 of the 2009 NBA Finals.

It got me thinking. The last team to beat Michael Jordan in the NBA Playoffs was the Orlando Magic led by the dynamic duo of Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway and Lil' Penny powered by Chris Rock. (Well I guess it was a trio with Shaq, but I digress.)

via i.ebayimg.com

Maybe it's time for MP2 to take it back to the mid-90's and roll with a fresh pair of Nike Air Penny's for Game 2 to beat the wannabe-Jordan Kobe Bryant and his version of the Lake Show. Jump like Penny on the cover of Slam magazine for a look at the golden Nike Air Penny sneaker line and Lil' Penny video spots.

Poll

What's your favorite shoe from the Nike Air Penny line?

23%

Nike Air Penny I

71 votes

22%

Nike Air Penny II

69 votes

7%

Nike Air Penny III

22 votes

8%

Nike Air Penny IV

27 votes

23%

Nike Air Foamposite One

72 votes

14%

Nike Air Penny 1/2 Cent

45 votes

306 votes | Poll has closed

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At about a 90-10 clip GSoMers are rooting hard for the 2009 Eastern Conference Champion Orlando Magic and old friends Mickael Pietrus, Adonal Foyle, and Rafer Alston in The Disney Finals.  

But that's not the biggest subplot of the 2009 NBA Finals for true sneaker freaks such as myself. Word out of Orlando [Orlando Sentinel] via BDL is that MP2 won't be wearing the Nike Kobe's (this year's edition are by far the best to date by the way) he's been sporting this season as he faces off against  Kobe Bryant and LA Lakers. Instead he'll be sporting some Air Jordans. Back when Michael Jordan was dominating the league, word had it that he'd talk such smack as "Don't embarrass my shoes" to any opponent wearing his signature kicks. I can imagine Kobe saying something to that effect too, so I applaud Mickael's decision here.

"Is it the shoes?" 

Yes Mickael!

Jump like Mike for my Fav 5 Nike Air Jordans and rock the vote to help Pietrus pick his kicks for Game 1. 

Poll

Which of these fly Nike Air Jordans should Mickael Pietrus sport in Game 1 of the 2009 NBA Finals?

18%

Air Jordan IV

37 votes

18%

Air Jordan V

37 votes

9%

Air Jordan X

18 votes

32%

Air Jordan XI

64 votes

12%

Air Jordan XX3

24 votes

7%

Other (specify in comments)

15 votes

195 votes | Poll has closed

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In 1995, I experienced puberty full swing, I experienced my first 'real' kiss, I experienced running liners after school 4 days a week for basketball practice, and I experienced some horrible Warriors basketball.  I experienced quite a bit at the tender age of 15, but I never experienced these:

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Attention all you ladies!

It's the holiday season and I know a bunch of you are sitting on your butts, wasting time in front of your computer looking at sweaters from Macy's or Nordstroms to give to your boyfriends, husbands, or friends because you're sick of their tired wardrobes of Warrior gear and throwback jerseys.  

But why get a winter sweater with reindeer prints on it?  Get him something he REALLY wants.  You should get him a FOOTBALL PHONE!


Spit game at the ladies using this. You'll be the Joe Montana of pimpin' in no time.

Sports Illustrated made these popular in the 80s and you could get one FREE with a paid subscription.  Yet, my parents weren't convinced that getting the subscription would help me improve my reading skills and no phone for me.  So, they got me a library card instead.  


Perfect for the holidays! click and see!

If you can't get these because they're sold out faster than PS3s, maybe you could get this air-cooled jock strap?


Courtesy of Gizmodo

What do perms, snap bracelets, and the new NBA warm-ups have in common?


The King and Melo look good in classic bboy gear, but isn't it a little boring?

They're trends -- thank goodness -- that came or will come to an end.


The violent threat to suburban youth in schools before guns


My mom tried to give me this look when I was 8

The new NBA warm-ups, as seen above, are pretty generic.  They look as if they came straight out of the section of the Eastbay catalogue where you can get bulk, nondescript gear for high school sports.  Though I recognize that Adidas has a contract with NBA to (exclusively?) produce their gear (now two years in a row), their formula (or really lackthereof) hardly made me want to go out and endorse the NBA beyond going to the game and geting my favorite 6 dollar de-parmesaned garlic fries.  The concession stand is where "amazing happens" or rather the NBA is "where fights between service labor and nba patrons happens."


Fisher: Remember back in the day when the gear looked fly?
Kobe: Fish, you old-skool...

Perhaps I'm romanticing the NBA gear of the past as far more stylish and creative than the homogenizing tendencies of the present, where almost every team (Memphis and Indy as prime examples) has the same exact cut and designs but with different colors.  Perhaps that's why "hardwood classics nights" -- a trend if my memory serves me correctly was revived in large part by hip-hop music's endorsement of throwback gear in the first few years of the new millenium --  was and IS still popular today (another reason to thank hip-hop for the NBA today).  If anything, the throwback gear or gear with the throwback logos are probably the best looking merchandise that exists on the Warrior's teamstore.  


Perhaps reason for the Bulls slow start?

So what gives?  I wish I knew more about the past trends and how those styles were developed in comparison to the monopolistic ways that corporations work together to minimize our tastes (and the potential competitors like Tony.psd) while maximizing their profits.  

Were NBA jerseys and fangear much more stylish before or at least varied?  In the 90s? 80s? 70s???  What does that say when Warrior fans are clamoring to get Tony.psd gear way more than what the Warriors and the NBA currently offer?  Who is the NBA really targetting if this is the case? Are your interested really being represented? Or is Tony.psd just so 4000 with it? (I'd probably say the latter...)

You ever watch Thunder at the games and wonder how he does all those great dance moves?  How he gets the crowd pumped?  How he has so much game?


Thunder less of a dancer than a master of power moves...

Now's your chance to BE Thunder!  Check the Thunder hand puppet at the Warriors team store!!!



The Thunder hand puppet doll offers more control over movement (you're practically inside of him!), allowing you to literally embody Thunder!  Got guests coming over? Entertain family, friends, or even yourself for hours!  Bored at work? Instead of going over to the water cooler or vending machine and wasting valuable minutes asking co-workers about their kids, just bust out Thunder for a minute and get straight back to work! Having trouble meeting the ladies? Accessorize and aestheticize your fit for the clubs with Thunder on your hand, and Mystery of the VH1 show, "Pick-up Artist" will be asking you for help! You can be the life of the party just like Thunder anytime, anyplace no matter what size the crowd!  An upgrade over the classic but stiff Thunder dolls and keychains.

Every Warriors fan should get one!  Will you???

Economics 101 claims that the law of supply and demand dictate market relations.  According to this logic, the price becomes the equilibrium point; it functions to equalize the quantity demanded by consumers and the quantity supplied by producer.  It suggests a harmonious agreement between producer and consumer, a delicate balance, indexing both the willingness and desire of the consumer for the product and how much the producer will produce to continuously make a profit.

But the shoe industry or rather the Nike Empire doesn’t follow this simple abstraction of capitalism.  In the world of limited and special editions colorways and collaborations, the demand for shoes means the prices reach astronomical heights, sometimes 5 to 20 times its original price -- on the box at least.  The purposely driven up price defies the logics of the capitalist contract of exchange (see BAPE for more), which make the equilibrium point a mythology to how capitalism truly works.  

At any rate, as many on here already know of and may have already participated in, there is a subcultural shoe industry to the subcultural shoe industry.  And what I mean is, the lovechild of major corporations and subcultural capital in the form of the illicit world of Fakes and knockoffs.  In the recent issue of Complex: The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide for Men, there is an article titled "Fakin’ the Funk," which Adam Matthews uncovers the multimillion dollar industry of knock-off shoes (namely Nike), how tourist drive the demand for fake Nikes and the illicit economies/factories in China (see Ebay stores and other online sites that sell "copies" or "variations"), and the question over intellectual property.  

Though I won’t use this space to recount the details of the interesting article ($4.99 at your local Border’s bookstore), what I did find a little surprising was when Matthews notes Nike’s statement in regards to the stakes of the knock-off/counterfeiting industry in China:

Does Nike really care if these ugly things are circulating? You think Nike has to worry about people thinking these are real?

Nike doesn’t disclose the amount of losses it suffers from counterfeiting because it probably doesn’t lose anything!  The whole industry of counterfeit, for Nike shoes at least, is based on the lack of accessibility, which is less an issue of price than an issue of actual availability.  Nike can’t lose money it isn’t making if the shoes don’t exist in circulation, am I right?  

For the most part, kids and shoe fanatics aren’t opting to by fakes like people buy fake watches, Prada, Gucci, and Louie Vuitton gear where it’s a matter of price and where the pattern or symbol is enough to perform a certain status level beyond one’s means.  If you check ebay, most everyone selling knock off shoes offers the guarantee that their shoes are a hundred percent authentic and sometimes the additional tag: one hundred percent variations, which seems to be an indication that consumers are searching for the real deal, not that they’re deliberately searching for fakes.

Further, what does Nike have to lose with trademark infringement in the case of the knock off shoes?  Nike probably doesn’t have numbers to provide because, it’s my guess, that bootlegging is practically another form of advertisement or that bootlegging probably HELPS their brand.  The whole desire for fakes is based around the demand and desire for Nikes, Nikes that no longer exist and cannot be purchased.  

The question of intellectual property, I feel, doesn’t apply in this case because it assumes that people are ripping Nike off.  It’s not as if you see people making fakes of generic 40 dollar Nikes sold at JC Pennys, Sears, or Mervyns, which is what you see in the case of Louie Vuitton et al. where everything and anything has their patented, trademark pattern on it.  My guess, and you don’t have to agree with me, is that the intellectual property card is based on the idea that someone is profiting off someone else’s idea and isn’t paying dues.  But in the case of Nike shoes, the circulation of fake Jordans, fake Dunks, or fake Air Max 95s in rare colorways is really consumers enacting and performing their brand loyalty, who wait patiently to purchase the authentic shoes, scouring the internet for that right size and that right price.  

To dispel rumors that the Chinese are just a bunch of people who can’t follow industry rules, Matthews mentions that "no one in Hong Kong would wear fakes."  This isn’t to say people in other parts of China don’t wear them, but rather to emphasize bootlegging is largely a product of "the west" demands for fakes.  So, is the global bootlegging industry to blame for the circulation of fake shoes?  What is really being "compromised" in the bootlegging shoe industry?  Are Nikes really devalued as a result or is their brand even more inflated than it already is?  In this case, isn’t "imitation" really "the sincerest form of flattery"?

This is for all those djs out there...and Air Force 1 fanatics.  



Shoe culture and dj-ing collide and their love child is the 25th Anniversary White on White AF1s x Head Porter x Serato collaboration.  

Included with the all-white AF1s is also the special edition all-white Serato djing equipment and also another dj essential, an all-white dj bag.

Air Force 1s have become the canvas by which shoe culture has become democratized as far as individual style goes.  Serato, also, has drastically transformed the art, technique and technology of djing, similarly allowing djs the possibilities of making and playing their own dj edits, remixes of past and present hits while also changing how we hear music and also react to it on the dancefloor.  It’s not surprising then that these two products have finally hooked up given how they made history in their own respective industries or in their historical cross-pollinations.  

But are we necessarily impressed?  

The Serato logo in the back of the shoe gives the white-on-white some flair, but otherwise seems to hold the integrity of the classic pretty much intact.  And is Serato box technologies old when it’s become integrated in Rane’s recent TTM 57SL Performance Mixer including Scratch Serato LIVE?  In my opinion, if you’re serious about gigging, you would go for the integrated mixer.  If you’re serious about kicks, then you wouldn't take these kicks anywhere near dirty clubs with drink spilling, shoe-stepping on people.  

My vote?  Not Hot