STREEThing

As Malaysia’s launch for Nike Sportswear has come and gone, Thailand still has a few more days left, whilst Indonesia’s celebrations will kick-off tomorrow. Much like our Malaysian launch, expect to see the eight icons of NSW to be represented thought eight installations created by local artists. Details all on the flyers.

Taking inspiration from elements usually associated with the Heavy Metal music genre, these Terminator Highs from Nike aren’t made to mosh, but they certainly rock! The usual Terminator font on the heel has been given a gothic makeover, whilst just above it are a cluster of studs and rivets. The pitch black leather on the uppers are given just enough pop through the use of a gold midsole and swooshes, and the final touch is the inclusion of a guitar pick sneaker tag. Time to get metal!

Available this month at selected Nike stockists across South East Asia.

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After launching their NSW range to invited media and guests last Wednesday, Nike granted Streething use of their pop-up space outside Pavilion KL for The Eight, a one-night event to introduce the eight icons of NSW to our friends and family.

Apart from the installations by Vincent Leong, Ultraboy, Lisa Foo, Hugo Gardens, Saiful Razman, Findars, Bright Lights at Midnight and us, there were some mini-performances by several sports enthusiasts. Lastly, Arabyrd came out of her nest to rap for a while, then Blink took to the decks to keep people moving whilst the mingled.

After the generous supply of booze was almost depleted, everyone made their way down to Cloth & Clef for a secret after party. Blink met up with his old mate Ah Xu, where they joined forces and transformed into 5ft and Mr Puah, their Lapsap alter egos.

The night ended more laid back than usual, no crazy stories to bitch about, just good times and good people. We would like to thank Nike Malaysia for giving us the chance host our own event. For those that weren’t able to make it, you can still check out the pop-up space from 4pm - 8pm, 14th - 16th August 2008.

For more information on NSW, head over to the Nike Sportswear website over here.

* Even more pictures after the jump

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Last night, Nike launched their Nike Sportwear (or NSW for short) range by setting up a pop-up space in the bustling Bukit Bintang area of Kuala Lumpur. Eight individual artists/collectives were invited by Nike to occupy a space and create an installation that pays tribute to one of the eight icons of Nike Sportswear: the Dunk, Cortez, Air Force 1, Air Max 90, Eugene track jacket, Windrunner, AW77 hoody, and the NSW tee.

We aren’t artists, or a collective of creative minds, but somehow we got roped in to fill up a room, so we chose to represent the Dunk. So what you get when you walk into our container is a huge 5 by 4 feet, 130 kg Dunk carved out of solid wood. It ain’t as artsy or creative as the other rooms, but it’s a real conversation piece to say the least.

Apart from the installation spaces, the whole area is covered by a transparent canopy and is littered with pieces of the upcoming NSW collection, so it’s really worth checking out if you’re in the area. Stay tuned for more updates from the NSW launch in Malaysia.

Those interested can pop by the pop-up space from 4pm - 8pm on 7th - 10th and 14th - 16th August 2008; Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Bukit Bintang, opposite JW Marriott hotel.

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Nike NSW is set to launch on 080808 (8th August 2008), we spoke to Nike Global Design Director Jesse Leyva recently on the upcoming Fall’08 NSW sneakers collection

Hey Jesse, we are excited to be here to witness to launch of NSW. Knowing you played an important role in designing team for NSW sneakers range, what can we expect from NSW sneakers?

You will definitely see more fusion and innovation from the NSW range. The innovation would be coming in very different form, you will also see lots of Nike innovation as bunch of concepts rather than being just icons. It’s in our DNA that innovation drives the design approach first. And from that innovation come these new and exciting expressions of style. For Fall ’08, you get to see collection like the Air Force 1 Supreme Max Black Widow, AF1 Rasheed from the AF1 One World, Air Max 90 Current Infrared and many others.

We are looking at the 4 NSW iconic sneakers – Air Force 1, Dunk, Cortez and Air Max 90. Are we expecting more NSW icons in time to come?

Potentially yes but we are currently focusing on the 4 sneaker icons for now and you will get to see lots of fusion within these 4 iconic models in time to come.

Where did your team get most of their design Inspirations from?

For the Fall ’08 NSW sneakers range, we get a lot of inspirations from the athletes and Olympic. If you look at the AF1 Supreme Max Black Widow, while on a design inspiration trip to Beijing, our team was taken to the Bird’s Nest stadium and immediately all our cameras came out. We thought, what if we could create a structure that removes material from the upper, but maintains support and adds an innovative graphic element? And at the same time, back in Beaverton, Nike’s Innovation Kitchen was working on a material called Flywire that would provide suspension-bridge-like foot support through a system of lightweight, high-strength threads. The Bird’s Nest and Flywire are both designs that allow for the removal of materials by engineering exterior support structures. It was from these two sources of inspiration that the Air Force 1 Supreme Max Black Widow’s distinctive upper was born.

We know Nike always work with the influencers for designs, how does Nike work with the influencers from industry for NSW range?

In Nike, we always work with trade makers or influencers to get opinions out of just Nike design team. The trade makers actually provide value inputs for design that we don’t see. That’s why we value the influencers’ opinion so much. For example, we worked closely with our athlete Rasheed Wallace when designing the AF1 Max Supreme, his inputs are always valuable especially when he wears AF1 during games day in and day out. These are the inputs that make our products better.

Speaking of which, we are always curious about whether Rasheed Wallace’s AF1 is the same like any AF1 that is in production or he does get his game-shoes modified for maximum comfort?

Working with Rasheed, he is really old school and he just wanna keep his AF1 as it is. So yes, he is actually wearing the same AF1 that is available in stores without any modification whatsoever.

We take special interest in the new Air Max 90 Current in Infrared, can you tell us more about the design and the innovation applied on this model?

As for the Air Max 90 current, we just took an iconic product Air Max 90 to do it. Actually Tinker Hatfield was already thinking FREE sole back in 1990 but Nike didn’t have the technology back then. So now we thought If we could remove rubber to make it lighter. Refining it and making this legendary shoe even lighter, more comfortable, and more stable. Building on the same Nike Air platform Tinker created for the AM90, we designed the upper with the latest Flywire technology for lightweight stability and added a Nike Free outsole for optimized flexibility and traction. Every element has a purpose and makes the shoe better. The overall look of the Air Max 90 Current retains the integrity of the original AM 90, radiating from the iconic signature visible Air unit, but upon closer inspection, this new creation has all the markings of a Nike Sportswear product: It’s instantly recognizable as Air Max 90, but hybridized with the Air Current dynamic fit system and Free 5.0 technology to improve the function and feeling of the shoe. So it’s much lighter and more comfortable with silhouette of AM90.

It’s not easy to come out with new designs for the NSW range, what are the difficulties that your designers faced?

It’s definitely a challenge when there are already a hundred of colourway out there for the iconic models like AF1, Dunk, AM90 or Cortez. What’s more difficult for us is not to mess up the iconic models. That is why we need stay very focus in terms of keeping the design fresh yet practical and comfortable for the new sneakers range.

Eddie Cruz of UNDFTD is calling NSW – a new startup company within a conglomerate, what is your take on that?

He is right, we do have a small design group. It’s not like we don’t wanna have a bigger team but we just wanna keep it small so we get more focus and creative in terms of design. So yes, NSW is like a new startup team within Nike to keep the range focus and innovative.

We look forward to seeing more products from NSW very soon Thank you for your valuable time.

Thank you very much. Stay tune for more releases from NSW.

Stay Tune for NIKE NSW launch in your region comes August

For these Air Classic BWs, Nike have used several shades of brown, whilst applying suede, leather and a textured mesh-like material, to create additional depth. An interesting aspect are the references to minority baseball associations from the past printed on the insoles. Interesting not because we find them particularly engaging, but because we’re surprised that Nike didn’t go all out and slap pictures on the uppers, logos on the heels and random details on the tongues. Nonetheless, a rather nice release from one of the unsung heroes of the AIr Max era.

Available at selected Nike Stockists across South East Asia around September 2008.

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This has to be one of our favourite colourways so far for the Nike Air Rejuven8, straight up black and flash orange with a white sole - simple design, yet ever so striking. Unlike the Olympic editions, you can’t switch the sockliners with these. Understandable, because if Nike came out with a base model and let you purchase sockliners separately, people would just buy the base and cop the liners, resulting in multiple colourways on the cheap. Hmmm, how cool would that be?

The Nike Air Rejuven8 orange/black will be available at selected Nike stockists across South East Asia around August 2008.

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These Terminator HIs combine buttery white leather with seamless gold swooshes and lettering - resulting in a pair of crispy clean kicks with an added metallic gleam. Careful of that gold though, as it smudges and scratches easily. Still, it is undeniably the icing on the cake, so what’s a few smears between good kicks?

Available at selected Nike stockists across South East Asia around August 2008.

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