Stay Fresh Nation brings you Sneakerheadz festival

A long and attentive walk through inner-city Johannesburg will mosdef lead to the realisation that this city is a sneaker exhibition in motion, a great sight for all lovers of footwear as a whole. It is for this reason that Stay Fresh Nation brings you arguably thee first Joho sneakerheadz festival. 

Lace up your kicks to join us on the 22nd of December 2012 at the Urban Zulu Roof top from 11am till you feel everybody has seen your fresh kicks. Great performance, stalls, sneaker exhibitions and more for a measly R30 or R60 for both the sneaker festival and after party at OST. For more information email stayfreshnation@gmail.com.

Puma Social - lets break it down

The Puma Social has been the talk of the town, Braamfontein part of Joho town to be specific. It has without a doubt earned its spot as one of the most reliable joints to not only offer great entertainment but a potentially unforgettable experience, emphasis on “experience”.

In the past few years, we have seen a number of brands effort to reach their market through lifestyle marketing; street culture to specific, some utilising cliché methods while others opted for more conventional strategies, too safe to say the least!

This year on the contrary has seen interesting campaigns led arguably by the top three commercial clothing brands in South Africa. Nike maintained its allegiance with sports through its “Run Jozi”, Str.Kings (Basketball) amongst other sporting activities and campaigns; Adidas appealed to street art with its “AdiBus  Tour” which boasts the  Jeremy Scott original and other animated designs, the search for SA’s most original crew and most recently the "I art Woodstock"; "I art Soweto" and "I art Joburg" campaign based at Maboneng precinct (pretty cliché spots if you ask me but it works). Lastly, Puma brought the “After hour athletes” campaign- the inspiration behind this offering.

Nike, Adidas and Puma, I honestly haven’t had much interest in blogging about the former two brand’s campaigns, Puma on the other hand has offered something worth exploring. So then, what gets a huge crowd lining up for hours to get into the Puma social events every Friday night? Could it be that entrance is free when registered on their online site (smart way to gather data); is it the smiley face the friendly lady draws on your hand when you enter, the amazing after hour sport games that make one reminiscent about their childhood, the relatively cheaper drinks, the imaginative photo booth, amazing performances or the cross culture and racially diverse audience???????. IT’S ACTUALLY ALL OF THAT.

 

To cut to the chase- Puma Social events not only offer great entertainment but an overall impeccable experience through a complimentary fusion of lifestyle and sports. A big Shout Out to Puma for successfully executing a campaign that fairly appeals to a diverse market and giving me something worth blogging about. Its about time that these commercial brands no longrer get commanded for achievements of their Western cousins' campaigns or former campaigns. In all fairness this post may not have acknowledge all relevant campaigns by the discussed brands, however we wish to see more innovative and relevant campaigns in the following year.

 Pictures by Paul Ward

Endo-Scape by Mandisi Lean

Last week Thursday 6th December 2012, I and a couple of other familiar faces had the pleasure of attending the Endo-Scape Exibition at GrayScale gallery (33 De Korte. Braamfontein), an exhibition by a East Rand based fine arts student, Audio and visual artist, music composer and writer known as Mandisi Msingapantsi or rather aGord Lean in the streets.

Endo-Scape art pieces introduced me to a visual aspect of an existentialism question that most urban African boys/men commonly face, The question of what does it mean to be a “man” in both cultural and urban context and further explores the meaning of manhood and masculinity. An interesting topic with Mandisi about his pieces led me to the realisation that male genitals remain a common determining feature in determining one’s legitimacy as a “man” across various spaces and time (The size of your “dick” in a urban context and the initiation that involves circumcision in a rural Xhosa cultural context). There so much more to discuss about Endo-Scape pieces, enough to write a short essay on, an exercise I may commit to in the near future, until then take the opportunity to view Endo-Scape art pieces at Grayscale gallery before the14th of December 2012.

Dashiki T-Shirt by the Stylagang

"STYLAGANG GAME" is how the streets hail Stylagang members these days, whether people are sucking up for what ever reason or genuinely admiring them, these fellas truly deserve the recognition. If you would recall Sneak-Peakers were introduced to this dynamic crew in our "Sneak-Peak 7min photo shoot with stylagang" post. Stylagang have broken away from being  mere stylish urban kool kids into creators of style with their debut dashiki t-shirt art piece.

I refer to this dashiki T-shirt as an art piece because of its creation being an unprecedented move by young  Joho street kats with an original design, artistic use of the now cliche print fabric and the simple fact that they are young group of friends living progessively by owning their ideas and craft. Adidas has  also recently crowned them South Africa's best crew, that's just a side note for those who doubt this crew's greatness. maku ngabe uzi funela iDashiki yama Stylagang order by email at stylagang@gmail.com, si biza RZA200

As seen on TV...

                                                 AS SEEN ON TV...

Lace em up and give them spirit

I copped these laces about a year ago for R9, yah R9 cause nobody really wanted to buy them at a certain sneaker hub, so they ended reducing the price to that. I on the other hand decided to buy them even though I did not have any use for them at that point in time, to my great fortune I finally found use for these print laces.

This how it went down, I took one of my favourite kicks, Air Max 90s and switched up their flavour by lacing them up with these and vwala, I then went to the twitter streets and posted pictures of the sneakers illustrating how switching up laces could bring out aesthetic appeal that you may have never thought your kicks had, consequently one of my followers reminded me of "Just For Kicks", a sneaker documentary that showed us how American teens use to switch up funky laces to coordinate with their outfits which worked well for those who could not afford to cop a lot of kicks as it is still the case with a number of people.

The tradition of working within your means to look fresh is a traditional South African urban streets have always practised, I recall when my friends use to buy some Dickies like shoes called "Ama futsek", those kicks had crazy colour ways and the best part was that they were R70 which allowed kats to buy up to 5 pairs on average. The main idea presented here is that being fresh is more of a state of creativity than affordability and that's why the streets will always stay fresh while others depend on their stylists.

Fratpack - "Calibre Justice" video drop

If you have been a Sneak-Peak subscriber from the very beginning you will remember that we introduced Fratpack on the Fratpack music post and later put you on their first ever and conceptually sick Dream music video on the Fratpack - dream video post. Fratpack consisting of the Moremi brothers have now stepped up their game by dropping their latest mixtape titled "Frwednesday mixtape" available for free download here and further up the indie game by inviting all the street etiquette dudes from all over and actually shooting a quality video themselves. This right here is a spark that we can create greatness on our own as soon as we decide to be brave, learn and not wait for commercial brands to put us on.

 

Flying with the Eagle to STR.CRD

A couple of days ago Sneak-Peak got a pleasant email from Fish Eagle Brandy and it went a little something like this "Ayo Sneak-Peak the streets been saying all sorts great things bout you and that your thee platform to reach out to when a big commercial brand like us wishes to reach out to the streets", well they didn't really say it like that but that was the idea. Fish Eagle Brandy has decided to reach out to SA street culture by being part of the main sponsors of the most anticipated street culture event in Africa that we all know as STR.CRD 2012.

A lot of Sneak-Peakers will be glad to learn that Fish Eagle Brandy is giving away double tickets to STR.CRD 2012 via a quick and easy application procedure on their sites, all you got to do follow these easy 3 steps:

1.     1.   Go to www.fisheagle.co.za and sign up to Eagle Air (or login if already a member).

2.     2.   Go to the events tab at the top of the page and find the STR.CRD party.

3.      3.  Click Get me on board to RSVP

For the twitter streets, we got you by also giving you a chance to also scoop up double tickets to STR.CRD 2012 by simply letting us know how you intend on looking fresh for STR.CRD by mentioning @FishEagleBrandy and using the hash tag #StayFly4STRCRD, the best part about this is that Fish Eagle will also be giving away a pair the limited Nike Air Yeezy 2s at STR.CRD on the 29th of September 2012. For greater things to come like Fish Eagles Facebook page and be on the know about their "Sneaker-themed September".

Tempracha Creation

My first encounter with the dude Tempracha (Sanele Cele) was in mid-2011, he came off overly confident when it came to his craft talking about how he rejected nice offers from certain commercial clothing brands cause they just don't understand. Fast-forward to 2012 we start seeing the dude being recognised and associated with international brands such as New Balance and most importantly CREATING amazing things through his Temperature brand.

Temperature caps (cost price ZAR250) and many more will be personally delivered to you if you're in KZN, by mail order if outside KZN. order here http://www.tempracha.com/ and let's celebrate genuine SA street creations.

Summer Time Fun with the Goodfolx

Its no secret that Sneak-Peak gets most of its social network love from the Vaal, now we show our love to the Vaal by letting you know about one of its freshest seasonal event called *Summer Time Fun At The SkatePark" brought to you by the Goodfolx. The location is Van Der Bijl SkatePark, the date 15th of Sept, the time 12:00 - 19:00 and cover charge is R60 nyana. oh and I just have to mention that the dudes are doing incredible things on the thread game as well.

1st gift from NSW

Just a week after I was telling a friend of mine how I'm always one to blog about sneakers yet I haven't even bought a single pair this whole year, I receive a call while chilling with my cousin and the screen indicates that the call is from non other than "NSW".

I was invited to the NSWZA (Nike Sports Wear South Africa) offices to help out for 2 days and they were kind enough to hook a kid up with these two fresh kicks, A limited Classic Cortez with white laces dipped in black and these fresh Air Max 90s. I think the moral of the story is "Invest your gwap in your dreams not vanity, the world will find a way to keep you looking fresh"

Sneak-Peaking the Play Griffin Session

Last year saw the rebranding of what was an ordinary energy drink that transformed its image into one that has become synonymous to South African street culture. Play Energy Drink launched its recent orange griffin logo last year through diverse marketing avenues and later established a group of veterans in South African urban street culture known as the Play Heroes.

The Play Heroes consist of ten characters that supposedly represent various sectors of South African street culture, consisting of DJ Kenzhero (A great in Hip-Hop DJ fraternity), Wandile and Wireless G (Team Thesis), Nick Kaoma (Co-Founder of Head Honcho wear), Andile Cele (founder of DOPE store and wear), DJ Akio (Founder of KOL and Collide-A-Scope records), Tshidiso Maduna and Girland Masola (Team 1808) and lastly Max Mogale (Photographer of note)

I attended the first day of the 2 day Play Griffin Session held at the Bus factory in Newtown and what I found most interesting about the event was the rather compromised attendance. The event was well commercially marketed and had 10 of the supposed street culture heroes marketing the event in their personal level. What concerns me is the fact that 10 of the supposed street heroes failed to at least lure ten thousand people to the event on that day (that’s 1000 people each) and these are meant to be our street culture heroes?!?!. I am not one to hate on fellow street cultured individuals however I feel that we should re-assess who our true street heroes are, is it the people we see on TV, Street culture veterans or the kids walking and living in the streets on a daily? Without sounding overly critical, let’s enjoy this Sneak-Peaking Play Griffin Session video clip.

What the Nike Air Yeezy 2 means to us

#AIRYEEZY2ZA has been that hash tag that’s been making great waves on SA twitter streets, The much anticipated Air Yeezy 2 finally drops internationally today 09/06/12, Kanye West’s gift to the world a day after his birthday.

The much anticipated Air Yeezy 2 is only exclusively dropping at Cape Town for the South African market at one of the most credible and cultured sneaker hubs, ShelfLife.  The Nike Air Yeezy 2 is going for a recommended price of R3, 000, 00 a pair. We would assume that the Yeezy 2s are only dropping in Cape Town this time due to the Cape arguably being the capital of SA sneaker-culture and there not being any existing cultured Nike sneaker outlet in Joho since Nike Gallery on 4^th.

The @NSWZA team  (Nike Sports Wear South Africa) have done a commendable initiative by giving the larger public an opportunity to get their hands on this exclusive kick through its online RSVP queuing system that went live yesterday 08/06/12. This scored a selected few a queuing ticket to purchase only one pair of Yeezy 2s between sizes US6 – 14 on a first come and first serve basis.

The great number of tweets, Facebook status and BBM DPs dedicated on to the Yeezy 2 drops got a lot of people dropping me BBM messages (pin 29593227) and tweets asking “What is so special about this shoe?”. I felt obliged to let all understand the essence of the hype around the drop of this exclusive sneaker:

First and foremost, it should be understood that what each sneaker-head purchases when they cop a new sneaker is not the material but the culture that the sneaker’s amazing aesthetics symbolise. This has been a  sentiment that has long been held in the sneaker-culture, from a wave of kids filling Madison square garden and holding up their Adidas sneaker when Run DMC  performed their hit song *My Adidas* a song that symbolised rebellion to social standards, to Nike Air Jordan kicks worn at every B-Ball court and ghetto streets by those who aspired to be as great as Jordan thinking they’d run faster and jump higher with those on, to exclusive finds that symbolise one’s individuality and great affiliation to a certain sub-culture or sporting code.

The Air Yeezy 2 is undoubtedly not the most aesthetically appealing exclusive drop by Nike, but is most definitely the most anticipated; this could simply and honestly be explained by the fact that they are Kanye West’s sneakers. The epitome of the hype around Yeezy 2 is well explained by a Kanye line in a track titled *Heard em say* “Things we see on screens s’not ours but these niggas from the hood, so these dreams aint far”. In essence the Nike Air Yeezy 2 is that aesthetically appealing reminder to the streets not to betray themselves and keep keeping on till they get what they deserve, these dreams are not afar, cause one of those whom we identify ourselves with proved so.

So when you see a fellow sneaker-head with any sneaker that is meaninful to them; recognise and CELEBRATE TRADITION.

Sneak-Peaking with Last Letta Zubz

Sneak-Peaking clips are officially back in session this time with my all time favorite SA based MC, Zubz the Last Letta. This clip is extra special to me simply because Zubz was the only rapper the 14 year old me could find refuge in at an intellectual and geographically relevant space. I could safely say that my primary political and artistic views were greatly influenced by this dynamic individual. My fellow Sneak-Peakers, brace yourself for another classic Sneak-Peak moment with Zubz the Last Letta.

Having Fun Documenting Str.Culture

Yaaaaah we back at it again, sharing some of the special moments we had while we were documenting Str.Culture for our latest Sneak-Peak 10 part doccie series. This time we feature an amazing performer with an even greater spirit, Mante Ribane. Kum'nandi

Having fun while documenting Street culture

Sneak-Peaking Street Culture documentary series is the biggest and most exciting project that Sneak-Peak has been working on during the last couple of months. We have documented one of the most exciting and credible characters in the Johannesburg street culture, we shared great and funny moments with them, some of these moments may not make the final cut so we decided to share them with you now.Enjoy this hilarious clip of Mesuli Splash leap of faith shot while documenting Soweto Skate Society.

Hype Mag shows love to Sneak-Peak

The biggest Hip-Hop publication in Southern Africa Hype magazine  has showed love to us by featuring us as the recommended site on its latest (Apr/May 2012) issue. I would like to firstly give thanks to YOU who takes your time, data and love to read and watch our content, always remember that no view goes un-noticed here and we mean that. I would also like to take this moment to engage in self praise by stating that "I've been outchea doing original work while most reblog commercial content". Lastly I would love to thank Hype Magazine for showing love for authentic blogging and domestic sneaker and street culture by rating Sneak-Peak as "the dopest sneaker blog" and for also recognising our great videography work. Kum'nandi

Sneak-Peak 7minPhotoShoot with Styla Gang

So here I was at the streets of Braamfontein helping friends carry their grocery bags, Plastic full of yummies on my right hand and a pack of 8 pack 2ply toilet tissues on the other hand. Soon I bump into my skater dudes near SouthPoint central and had to justify why I'm looking fly and carrying toilet paper in the streets, and of cause I did a good job justifying it by telling them to "step your toilet tissue game up niggaz and upgrade to 2 ply cause yol beeeeen on that 1 ply swag". Soon after escaping that street cred risk moment I notice a gang of fresh looking dudes, stepped up to them, pulled out my cam and began with my #7minPhotoShoot with a crew named "STYLA GANG". More pics in our gallery

Sneaker-Head for Blackberry ambassador

I don't usually post about any of my other hustles on SNEAK-PEAK. I just thought I should slowly introduce myself to everbody that has been subscribing to the blog, while I sort of push my personal agendas. My most recent hustle is to gain enough votes to be a BlackBerry ambassador at Wits university, so I dropped a humourous concept vid clip to prove that I am the man for the position and of cause I stay representing the kick culture as you will see on the clip. Enjoy and vote for me on www.sv.co.za/blackberry for mobile phones and www.studentvillage.co.za/blackberry for PCs. go to the Wits tab and vote for me "Mpumelelo Mfula".

Sneak-Peaking with Choc

Most were introduced to him through the VuzuTV reality show known as Cream Cartel, a group of friends with eclectic style, talent and epic moments (Season 2 said to be coming soon). At home he is known as Michael Chirwa but the Streets know him as Choc.

Choc launched his mixtape titled "Confectionary Vol1", he then hit DopeStore and met up with us last saturday. Most may know him for his rap, being part of the Cream Cartel family and the W.A.T.E.R family, but we at SNEAK-PEAK introduce you to the sneaker aficionado part of Choc. As Choc would say "Its a movie" and enjoy the clip

Sneak-Peaking with AD85

We've been slacking on bringing you our Sneak-Peak talks on the streets so we will start by expressing our apologies. APOLOGIES. yap thats outta the way. We redeem ourselves by bringing you a chat with one of the realest characters in domestic street culture. Ayanda Njanya known as AD85 in the streets.



AD85 is the man behind Throw Down Events, AquarianOxRadio and a number of other credible hustles which explains why brands such as Nike and Nixon aligned themselves with him. Without giving away too much about about the dude, go ahead and enjoy our clip. ShoutOut to Vice for the sick pic of AD85 tagging our Sneak-Peak kick.

LEVI MAESTRO X VANS AN INSPIRATION

On days where there is little if any inspiration for untouched young creatives such as I, We get introduced to the likes of Levi Maestro. A young creative from LA who has made a brand of himself by documenting the world as he perceives it. He has also directed and produced content as well as consulted for corporate brands and music artists, building relationships one day at a time. “You gotta work hard and do for yourself, cause nobody else is gonna do what you want for you” being his motto which has also inspired our latest Sneak-Peaking Str.Culture project.

Levi Maestro has achieved what we here at Sneak-Peak regard to be greatly remarkable by collaborating with Vans to produce his very own LEVI MAESTRO X VANS sneaker. A premium grey leather and suede upper that not only brings back that old school classic Vans look but also truly represents the simplicity of a skater and his simple yet expressive style and a bright rainbow blend on the out sole that captures his vibrance and diversity.The Sneaker was officially released last saturday in the USA. My fellow Sneaker Peakers I promise to bring you an exclusive Sneak-Peaking with Levi Maestro clip soon,till then lets appreciate this work of art.