Saturday, June 12, 2004
Out Of Reach: An Exhibition of Rare and Sample Sneakers
5th Dimension launched their new sneaker show last night in Hoxton. I was lucky enough to be on the guestlist, and dragged my sneaker dis-interested mead drinking buddy (see previous post) along with me. I sweated slightly about what shoes to wear. I figured this was a prime opportunity to impress the footwear cogniscenti with something fresh. I toyed with the idea of busting out a deadstock pair of Wovens, but that in itself is just too expensive, too important to waste on a bunch of sneaker nerds. It would be like cracking open your favourite magnum of vintage Krug, just to impress the local wine bore. Finally I plumped for a near DS pair of 1996 original colourway Footscapes.
The gallery space is squashed next to London's coolest video store, Today Is Boring. The antechamber to the cache was hung with sneaker art, including some pieces by Dave White,and some from JB. As predicted the crowd were predominantly Japanese sneaker freaks, furiously photographing each others feet. Biggest splash of the night came from the shop assistant from Foot Patrol who rocked a sample pair of the as-yet-only-rumoured California Dunk SBs (pictured).
The actual motherload of shoes was totally awesome - but only of interest to a real trainer fiend. My inebriated companion was utterly underwhelmed by what superficially was just a whole lot of Nike shoes. For those that care I shall shortly be posting a gallery of snaps. The curators had rifled through the collections of the greatest "'heads" in London to assemble 50 or so of the rarest dunks and AF1s ever made. For example: all four super-rare Undefeated Dunks, including the Splatter Lows available only to the staff of the store; the Futura FLOM Dunk, (1 of 24 pairs, available only to competition winners) and a matching signed Futura Deck (1 of only 100); the Michael Lau embroidered ThreeZero Dunk, 1 of 10, and also available only to staff of the toy company; the Tokyo "White" Dunk (won by lottery), and the London Dunk, both limited to 500; the early prototype for the Orange "Stars" Supreme Dunk Low; the Unkle Dunk and Methamphibian Roswell Rayguns Dunk (1 of "less than 4"!); the Black Album, Nellyville, Shady Aftermath, and Vibe AF1s. These are all among the rarest and most expensive shoes ever made by Nike, all so rare in fact that they practically never show up on eBay. To complement these "production" shoes was a display of customized sneakers, including the semi-production Ricky Powell. I particularly liked the dunk pictured above, that was panelled with actual dollar bills. I actually really enjoyed this exhibit. It's like seeing the crown jewels of Nike collecting.
The depressing flipside is that each of these shoes has value, only because Nike chooses to release them in tiny numbers, but with maximum hype. I would never dream of wearing lime green Huarache Lights, even emblazoned with a Stussy logo (1 of 21), so why was I so pleased to see them exhibited? Furthermore why have I bothered to add to the hype by reporting on the show? Curses on you, corporate machine! (but congratulations on a killer show.)
5th Dimension launched their new sneaker show last night in Hoxton. I was lucky enough to be on the guestlist, and dragged my sneaker dis-interested mead drinking buddy (see previous post) along with me. I sweated slightly about what shoes to wear. I figured this was a prime opportunity to impress the footwear cogniscenti with something fresh. I toyed with the idea of busting out a deadstock pair of Wovens, but that in itself is just too expensive, too important to waste on a bunch of sneaker nerds. It would be like cracking open your favourite magnum of vintage Krug, just to impress the local wine bore. Finally I plumped for a near DS pair of 1996 original colourway Footscapes.
The gallery space is squashed next to London's coolest video store, Today Is Boring. The antechamber to the cache was hung with sneaker art, including some pieces by Dave White,and some from JB. As predicted the crowd were predominantly Japanese sneaker freaks, furiously photographing each others feet. Biggest splash of the night came from the shop assistant from Foot Patrol who rocked a sample pair of the as-yet-only-rumoured California Dunk SBs (pictured).
The actual motherload of shoes was totally awesome - but only of interest to a real trainer fiend. My inebriated companion was utterly underwhelmed by what superficially was just a whole lot of Nike shoes. For those that care I shall shortly be posting a gallery of snaps. The curators had rifled through the collections of the greatest "'heads" in London to assemble 50 or so of the rarest dunks and AF1s ever made. For example: all four super-rare Undefeated Dunks, including the Splatter Lows available only to the staff of the store; the Futura FLOM Dunk, (1 of 24 pairs, available only to competition winners) and a matching signed Futura Deck (1 of only 100); the Michael Lau embroidered ThreeZero Dunk, 1 of 10, and also available only to staff of the toy company; the Tokyo "White" Dunk (won by lottery), and the London Dunk, both limited to 500; the early prototype for the Orange "Stars" Supreme Dunk Low; the Unkle Dunk and Methamphibian Roswell Rayguns Dunk (1 of "less than 4"!); the Black Album, Nellyville, Shady Aftermath, and Vibe AF1s. These are all among the rarest and most expensive shoes ever made by Nike, all so rare in fact that they practically never show up on eBay. To complement these "production" shoes was a display of customized sneakers, including the semi-production Ricky Powell. I particularly liked the dunk pictured above, that was panelled with actual dollar bills. I actually really enjoyed this exhibit. It's like seeing the crown jewels of Nike collecting.
The depressing flipside is that each of these shoes has value, only because Nike chooses to release them in tiny numbers, but with maximum hype. I would never dream of wearing lime green Huarache Lights, even emblazoned with a Stussy logo (1 of 21), so why was I so pleased to see them exhibited? Furthermore why have I bothered to add to the hype by reporting on the show? Curses on you, corporate machine! (but congratulations on a killer show.)
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