Meet Barry the Beaver.  He wants to be your best friend.  “Bzzz.”  What’s that Barry? “Bzzz.”  Is that right?  “Bzzzz.”  Oh Barry, you’re so funny!  “Bzzzz”.  Why is Barry making a buzzing sound you ask?  He’s so happy to meet a new friend that he’s jumping ecstatically on his tree stump. Barry the Beaver is designed by Jeremy Fish, in conjunction with Upper Playground, SuperFishal, and Ningyoushi. The vibrating-vinyl-figure features a bendy tail, and you turn the tree stump to activate the vibration. Measuring 5.25 inches tall, Barry the “Vibrating Vinyl Friend” Beaver is scheduled for an end-February drop for of US$45. Finally, a “toy” both you and your partner could enjoy together.

Eindelijk een toy waar je ook echt mee kan spelen, met de toepasselijke naam Barry the Beaver…

Gorilli via ToysRevil / Upper Playground

Common Projects Spring/Summer 08 collection is about to arrive at stores around the world, in amongst the collection is this great athletic inspired…
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Fruition LV have enjoyed great success during the early year of existence and following a second collabration with Jeremy Scott come a collection…
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Here’s the cover of the latest issue of Vapors Magazine. It features the Diamond logo constructed from various pictures-definitely one of the nicest covers so far. Go pick up a copy, relax, and read the Nick Diamond interview. [Peep the whole cover after jump].

Info: Up N Up

…My Knife off in Your Foot!

The latest offerings of art school graduate Alex Dakoulas are through his new label called Dance Party Massacre. There are only a few pieces up in it for now, but they are really nice as well. Check by next week when they are doing a giveaway of some sort, and you might get lucky. Shirts are discounted to $20 a go, and I am sure they are of top quality too.

Shop Overkill now has the Puma Rudolf Dassler Standpunkts. They feature a dark grey leather upper with a black velours application on the front, a leather heel and ankle, white, perforated inside leather materials, and gold retro logo prints.

Provider opened the doors of their first sneaker store back in 2004. With the addition of a stunning second location and the imminent release of their debut clothing range, not to mention their awesome first sneaker colab with New Balance, things are on the up and up and up for Melbourne’s finest. We tracked down proprietor Mr Chris Worsley to to find out why Melbourne reigns supreme.

Hey Chris, How’s Melbourne?
Melbourne is good, I love it here. The winter is over and summer is here, again. I can taste the beer already.

What’s your background in the shoe game?
I started working in retail at the age of 17 at one of Melbourne’s oldest, (in fact one of Australia’s oldest) skate stores, Melbourne Surf. Then I travelled to London where I worked at the Size? store on Kings Rd. It was an amazing store to work at when
I was there, as it was a bit before the internet/hype aspect of shoe collecting. I came home and got a job with Nike Australia and then decided to go into business with my partner Mel. One year of planning and begging later, we opened our first store in June 2004.
The new store in the city is as good as we’ve seen anywhere.

Was it hard to resist going with a tricky gimmick?
No, it was easy. Those kind of stores tend to date a little quickly. And most of the good gimmicks or concepts, I think, have already been executed well. We wanted something to complement the existing interior of the space, and showcase the products we would display. It was a dead space when we found it and it hadn’t been occupied for three to four years, there was crap everywhere. It had these brilliant tall ceilings and wooden floorboards. I gained the help of some friends and we took inspiration from modern 1950s designers (like Arne Jakobsen) to turn the space into something practical and clean. I’m really pleased with the result.

Do you get the love as an independent?
I think we get a lot of love from the local community. It’s cool that people prefer to buy from us, I think most people like the environment and the knowledgeable staff. Being independent has its advantages, everyone is involved in the buying and that way we have direct input from the customer coming through to the products we sell. I think people are aware of that. It’s cool though, we work with like-minded people who are our peers. And that’s the real winner. We work hard and then goof off. I mean it has to be fun or I wouldn’t do it.

Have you found the average consumer now knows a lot more about the brands and product?
The internet keeps everyone in the loop, people know a whole lot about what the companies that we deal with are producing, sometimes even before us. That’s why our staff need to be on top of their product knowledge. Product is king and knowledge is key. Most of the staff at our stores I met through collecting shoes and trading sneaks so they all have a pretty good grasp of what’s going on.

How do you see Melbourne in the overall global sneaker scene? Apart from Snkr Frkr being located here, what’s unique about our city in your opinion?
Melbourne is blessed with having access to product from Asia, the US and Europe. There are very few releases that don’t make it to these shores. It’s very rare you’ll see a queue or a line-up for product, which I think is awesome. You shouldn’t have to go through hell just to get a pair of kicks.

So tell us about your NB 1500 you have right there. The colours are fresh and the shoe is grouse! Why New Balance and why the 1500?
We have had a really long relationship with NB Australia and their product is amazing, and for that reason it was easy. It’s something I think every store buyer/owner wants to do at some point – take a shoe you love and put your twist on it. After a development trip to Hong Kong and some discussions with some of the staff there, we were able to get the project up and going, and a year later the shoe will come out. The 1500 is a classic, none better. The concept of the shoe is based around the phrase ‘breakin’ necks’, which is unique to sneaker heads. There are so many things you can do these days with this kind of product – tagging, printed boxes, numbering – but it’s not always needed. I just wanted to keep the idea simple.

Amen to that. The shoe also comes with some matching Wayfarers. How did you settle on the sunnies?
Originally the shoe was to come out in December, the middle of the Australian summer, so it made sense. Unfortunately the shoe has been pushed back and now is due out in March of 2008, but to be honest it’s still hot enough around then anyway.

What about matching thongs? You can have that tip for free!
Maybe a pair of budgie smugglers, or something. Maybe a limited edition Vegemite jar?

Provider is now more than just a store with the release of your new line of apparel. What freshness can we expect?
The label is a natural extension of the store. Not too serious, just based around the music and art that we are into. There’s also a great group of Australian labels that we’re showing in the store like AER, For The Homies, Schwipe, ComRaid and I feel we have something to contribute, so why not.

What’s been your favorite shoes this year?
The Huarache re-release by Nike. Possibly, one of my favourite shoes of all time. Or the Solebox – Toothpastes are real nice.

http://www.provider.com.au/

For the opening of the new Soph. store in Osaka, Japan, Soph., which sells their own brands like Sophnet., F.C.R.B. and Uniform Experiment, has teamed up with Nike to release an exclusive pair of the Nike ACG Air Revaderchi. These sneakers will come in two colorways including gray/navy and white/green. The materials used for the sneakers are kangaroo leather as well as full grain leather. Along with the shoes will be a matching t-shirt. These shoes will be released on March 20th at all Soph. stores as well as Isetan.

There will be more Soph. Osaka exclusive products so stay tuned for more info.

For someone who never even got the chance to see them live during their extremely brief tenure — mostly because Ian Curtis died when I was two — I really love Joy Division quite a bit. So much so that my all-time favorite song is the inspiration for the tee I’m going to be talking about today.

Now when I say “all-time favorite”, I seriously mean it. I obsessively listen to this song — or a semi-reasonable facsimile — at least once a day. I’ve also considered getting the phrase tattooed somewhere on my person, something I don’t think about doing unless it means the world to me. You could say I’m a bit hardcore, I guess…

Anyhow, the concept is actually a pretty basic but very cool one. All the shirts have on them is nothing more than the running time and title of the song — and that’s it. That might not fly for some of you, but I happen to really like the idea and execution here.

Now I could try to be impartial and talk about one of the other shirts Blanka offers — they even have really clever Helvetica ones — but most of you are already keen to the fact that I like to indulge my obsessions more than anything else. So despite the fact that they have similar shirts for Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, The Smiths, Public Enemy, New Order and AC/DC, I’ve gotta go with what I love. Y’all understand that, right?

£29,00 | PayPal | URL | M: S - XL

Tom Burns designs another winner here with French KISS. Tom using the same kind of visual pun that he used in his threadless design The Communist Party, which BTW is the number 3 result on google if you do a search for “the communist party”, that’s crazy.

Advertisement: Palmer & Cash T-Shirts - Vintage & Funny Great Shirts I Can Personally Recommend

 
Though pictured surfaced a while back, the Nike B Huarache has begun to hit retail. The B Huarache combines the midsole/sole of the Nike Air Classic BW and the upper of the Nike Air Huarache runner. Three colorways are beginning to hit retail as part of this initial release of B Huaraches the White/Red-Black-Bright Mango colorway pictured above and an all White and all Black.
 
The Nike B Huarache is available now, if not very soon, at Nike accounts.
 
Tech Info:

Nike B Huarache

White/Red-Black-Bright Mango

318021-161

$88
 
More After the Jump
 
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London is know for it’s serious approach to art but this time around an unknown artist is going around spreading some Looney Tunes cheer.

Info.Image: Supertouch

With all the anticipation surrounding the upcoming NBA All Star weekend it was just a matter of time before the sneakers from Nike would surface.…
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Shikito, the streetwear icon from BSHIT, returns with this special limited-run edition with FTC Skate, one of the pre-eminent skateboarding shops in San Francisco. Featuring FTC's colors, the FTC Skate edition Shikito is limited to 100 pieces and is available in late February at a handful of retailers.

More pics after the jump.

Chapel of Dawn, the Hong Kong based brand from the Silly Thing crew, has been released at the TUAN TUAN store in Taiwan. TUAN TUAN, which was started in July 2007, has been at the center of Fashion promoting international independent designers and brands like Undercover and Martin Margiela. If you ever in Taiwan, TUAN TUAN is definitely a shop to visit.

For those who forgot about what the line looks like, you can check it out here.

This banger starts at 10 at the Palms MOON Nightclub and with a line-up like Roxy Cottontail, Flosstradamus, and Crystal Castles you know this is one party you can’t miss! Be sure to keep your eye out the unannounced special guest…Oh and I mention the open bar?

One more banger at 10 at the Palms, this time at the Playboy Club with Jus Ske, Klever, and Stretch Armstrong spinning. Choosing what party to go to is gonna be a tough decision with line-ups like those. Fortunately for you both of these bangers are at the Palms.

It’s a celebration! So come enjoy yourself with the Karmaloop fam at the Palms tonight!