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.