That calls for celebration

24 maj, 2013 //
0

It is almost 15 years ago now. Myself and Peter started Sneakersnstuff. Over the years we have had much love, and of course some haters. Yesterday Russ Bengtson of Complex Magazine posted a list of the best Sneaker Boutiques in the world right now. Just to be on that list, and in that crowd would be humbling enough. And Russ put Sneakersnstuff as number 1. Now, as a 16-year old kid from Gubbängen pointed out on my Instagram yesterday – Complex has lots of lists, and sometimes you might not agree to all that is written. And that is fine, every kid (and grown-up) is in title to their own opinion.

But to me, to have Complex Magazine, and Russ Bengtson telling us and the rest of the world that he actually thinks we are doing the best job in the business right now – that means the world to me. So – as much respect as I have  to everybody on that list – and also to all the stores that did not make Russ’s cut but who might as well be on that list too – I will take this moment to soak this in. Number #1. That calls for celebration. Thank you very much!

See the complete list here

 

 

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Kategorier Me, Sneakers, Sneakersnstuff

Happy Birthday Peter

29 september, 2012 //
5

I started to write this yesterday. I wanted to sum up our history together. But after 4000 words, I felt that maybe I should save that story for another day. I sort of lost focus on why I started it. I started it because it’s your 40th birthday. And I wanted to try to explain to everybody who you are. I mean, as the person I know you for. I guess you could look at this as a speech on your birthday-party. But as I am not sure you are even having a birthday-party, I figured I’ll write it here.

He sold me a L-A Lakers cable knitted v-neck sweater. That was probably the first time I met Peter. To be honest, I’m not sure it was him, as this would be about 22 years ago. Back in 1990 or something. He was the store manager of a Fliesbergs shop that had opened in Sture Gallerian, and for some reason they had some NBA stuff that was hard to find anywhere else. And if you ask Peter about it, he will probably tell you why they had it. Because that’s Peter. He will tell you how it was. I still have the sweater to prove it, but I can’t say for sure that it actually was Peter who sold it to me, as I did not know at the time that it was Peter who had sold it to me. But he might have been the only one working in that store. And selling me a Lakers sweater when I was a Bulls fan… that fits the profile of Peter Jansson. He will make you create that need for something that you didn’t even know you needed.

First time I ever heard of Peter though, was when I was working at New Sports back in the days. I was known for my fanatic passion for sneakers, and perhaps in particular Nike. So, someone told me that there could only be one other person in Sweden that could match my unnecessary knowledge of Nike and sneakers. I found it hard to believe that some dude called Batman from Kungsängen would be that person. But already back then, Peter had gained a reputation for being a fanatic sneakerhead.

We later got to work together at New Sports on Hamngatan, but it was not until we traveled to Chicago together (as some sort of reward for putting up extra hours during the sale when New Sports closed down) that I really got to know Peter. And it was in the passion for sneakers we found each other. I can remember running to Nike Town the minute we hit the hotel, since we had about 1,5 hours to rest before catching up with the rest of the group we were traveling with. Peter was somewhat of a tourguide on this trip, and instructed everybody not to buy to much before we had paid a visit to the outlet mall. But within 24 hours Peter himself bought a Nautica winter jacket for somewhere around 700 us dollars. And a few pairs of sneakers of course. And that is Peter. He has a good brain that will tell you what is right. But he will always follow his heart. And in Chicago – his heart needed that Nautica jacket.

To tell you the truth, me and Peter never had that much in common. Besides the obvious of course – sneakers. And perhaps music. And we never really hung out that much. Not when we were working for New Sports and Fliesbergs. And not that much more when we started Sneakersnstuff together. To me it was natural to ask Peter to join me when I wanted to open up a website to sell sneakers. Just as natural as it was to open up the store before we had a website, when we found the space next to Peter’s buddy’s office on Åsögatan 136. Because everybody likes Peter. And no wonder. He is (almost) always happy. And if he’s not – he will not stay mad for longer than 10 minutes. Then he his back to happy again. That is probably one of the reasons that everybody likes Batman from Fliesbergs.

And today he turns 40. As I mentioned I am writing on a over detailed story about Peter – but figured that I’d save that for another day. I have known Peter for about 16 years. I have run a company with him since 1998. We have been all over the world together. We have had bad days, and good days together. And the future holds more of both. Hopefully and most likely more good than bad.

So, with all that said: Thank you Peter. Thank you for being you. Thank you for always following your heart and bringing positive energy where ever you go.

I am not sure I will see you today, but I got you a gift. I think you will like it. I had some great help from some people to get it. J-bawls is one of them, but the other two would like to remain anonymous in social media context. And there is a catch. You can’t show of your gift online…

Happy Birthday Peter

Love – always

e

Etiketter , ,
Kategorier Family&Friends, Sneakersnstuff

That real Dream Team documentary

25 september, 2012 //
2

So this will show how old I am. I am almost tired of hearing myself talk about the good old times – the times of Magic, Jordan, Bird, Pippen, Barkley and such. And looking at this Olympics ”Dream Team” brought out the grumpy old man in me. And then J-Bawls talked about the true Dream Team documentary the other day.

That tells my age perhaps even more. I saw the trailer for that documentary when it was released this summer. I then thought to myself that this is something I need to see. But, as a child of my era – I figured I had to wait until.. I don’t know.. until they showed it on Eurosport or something. But all of a sudden (or actually last week – about 3 months after I really, really, really wanted to see it…) it hit me – I could just try this Google thing I keep hearing about… Damn, you kids got it good…

And there it was. And apparently it has been there since June 16th. So this is no news to the youngsters out there. But for the b-ball peeps of my generation – you have got to watch this. I mean now. Watch it now. To see these multi billionaires go at it in Barcelona ’92. And to get access to John Stockton’s home video walking through the city of Barcelona. And to hear David Robinson talked about Michael Jordan’s energy. Man, this makes me sound like a NKOTB fan. And I guess that would be like sounding like a Justin Beiber fan to you youngsters. And somewhere around here I wanted to squeeze in a punch line about even our early-teenage-girl-idols were better then. Just watch it

 

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Kategorier Basketball, Me

Berlin Summer BBB Day 2, 3 and more bcktrckng

3 augusti, 2012 //
1

Day 2 of the summer tradeshow trip. No rest for the wicked. Up early to a breakfast meeting with Vans to talk about secret projects. And as it is impossible to get a cab after 9 me and Peter decided to walk back to our hotel.

A few appointments this day, and with my bag lost and the deadline on Nike spring 2013 we had to split up after the visit to Seek. I had so much fun at Seek that I forgot to take pictures… Not really. But I will tell you that the Our Legacy collection looked decent. Shoes were alright, and there are some really nice pieces of fashion in their clothing line. You can expect to find Our Legacy at Sneakersnstuff any day now.

After that I took refuge to the hotel lobby with my laptop to nail down the Nike sp13 order. There are some true iconic classics within the Nike Air Max range (for example a super nice vintage Nike Air Max 90 Infrared) that will be back and the question was how to fit in a really huge order of those besides the rest of the collection that also looked nice. I think I managed ok. And oh yeah, the Air Jordan 5 Retro will be back for spring 13. In white/blk/fire red. However, Nike changed the rules of Jordan to not letting us order as many as we would want. Not even near as many. So it will be mayhem when we release them this spring.

Done and happy I walked in to the Supra showroom. I think they get my vote for best showroom this time as well. Nice food. Good coffee. Nice people. Shuttle service. What more could you ask for? I know I told you this before. I’m not a skater. But I am also not a hater, and Supra has some nice shoes out.

After Supra we rolled on to the Opening Ceremony x Adidas Originals press event of whatever it was called. Met Umberto and Rachel and the rest of the Adi crew. I love my job. I get to hang out with fun people all the time. The Spring 13 collection is way better than the Fall 12 if you ask me. So much easier to wear. But the second delivery of Opening Ceremony x Adidas Originals fall 12 is not shabby either.

And on to the Wesc x SNS x Vice party. Apparently the party was held in Goebbels old bunker. And apparently it was raining as hell when we started. But never the less. Me and Jonas was up for 2 hours on the decks. And we had a lot of fun. Smart man as I am, I left my phone in a puddle to charge it.. so it was dead for a good 4-5 hours… so no epic pics. But we had an epic time though. Thanks for putting us on WeSC. Let’s do it again soon. Perhaps in a sunnier and warmer place?

Day 3 was more of a sum up. We looked through the OC x Adi collection again to place the orders, and then dinner with Otto to talk more secrets. There was a lot of secret talks this trip. Had the privilege to hang out with our Sneakersnstuff Malmö store manager Tuan for the rest of the afternoon as we both was going to Copenhagen.

Back home it was time for vacation with the family. And the summer of rain and cold was well on it’s way.

Wow – what a pretentious sum up. Well, for what it’s worth I’ve managed to get David ”shitballs” ”nowhitesauce” Wilson to start instagram.

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Kategorier Family&Friends, Music, Sneakersnstuff, Travel, Uncategorized

Back in Berlin – Day 1 – Still back tracking…

27 juli, 2012 //
6

Tradeshow season is here, and it was time to head down to Berlin. Me and Tuan flew in from Copenhagen as my family stayed with the in-laws in Malmö. That could have started better I guess… my danish is a bit rusty at 7 in the morning. And well in Berlin it turns out that my bag was missing. Not sure how they even managed. They should have had about 15 bags, but only about 10 bags made it… And Charlotte, who flew in from Stockholm with Peter, Johan, Erik J and Thomas, also had her bag lost by Air Berlin…

So after filing the bags missing to the very German woman at that desk, we came into our hotel a bit later than expected. But after a steady breakfast at Oliv, things felt a little better. And then one Supra shuttle service (good service) to go to hell on earth… aka Bread & Butter. That tradeshow is the oposite of inspiration… Still, a lot of good people we know are there, so we kind of have to go. Besides, we had a few meetings booked.

First of was Asics, who told us that there would be no Asics for 2013… I mean, not for lifestyle anyway. All lifestyle products will be branded with Onitsuka Tiger. But the door was not completely shut for still releasing some LE’s from the GEL series. After that we bumped into big surf dude Magnus Wedhammar who is now at Converse in Boston. Magnus was our first apparel sales rep for Nike back in the days so we go way back and it was good to see him of course.

Then grabbed some invites for the party that we had with WeSC and Vice on the thursday and had a nice chit chat with the good people from Stockholms finest Skatewear brand. Danne Schön was still awake at this hour.

Well, showing face and chit chatting is very tiring, so we all decided to have lunch in the sun. And then on to the ”new” section. It was called fire department or something. Said hi to CP-Johan (Carhartt-Pointer) on the way, and then had some dried reindeer meat at Denim Demon who had showed up at BBB for the first time.

The main objective with Wednesday evening though, was to eat burgers at The Bird on Pontus’s expense. Not that it has to be on his expense, but it just is. And the best thing about going to The Bird, besides the killer burgers, is the fact that most of the good friends – and the reasons why you go to Berlin – are there too.

Oh snap – I forgot. We found David C Wilson somewhere between the Asics booth and meeting Wedhammar. He snuck me a ice cold Small Sake and I kept it in my pocket for 30 minutes. Small Sake is best enjoyed ice cold. But still. David C Wilson!

To sum up Day 1, we ended up at a Our Legacy/Rollerboys party somewhere… that was also fun. And for the record Viktor Tell could use a haircut. And you will find Our Legacy at Sneakersnstuff any day now.

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Kategorier Sneakers, Sneakersnstuff, Travel

Hold the phone! There is a WeSC / Vice / Sneakersnstuff party on Thursday!

3 juli, 2012 //
0

I realize that posting here once every second month is not really getting me more followers. But, as you might have guessed from the amount of text in my posts, I am not doing this to get more followers…

And yes yes yes, I know I’ve promised you pics and backtracks and what not. But here is the deal: it is time for Berlin tomorrow. And you know what that means. So there is no way I will be able to catch up on 3 months missed posts. I will do some eventually, because I have some really funny pics I want to share.

But right now I have something more important to tell you. As you might have noticed – the WeSC stocks has gone through the roof (not really but still) and is up 25% past week. And going back one week, that is exactly when rumors about a certain collaborative party in Berlin on Thursday the 5th started to afloat.

Co-incidence? I think not…

I any case – I know you all have a busy schedule in Berlin – but you know you usually end up at the WeSC party anyway so… here is yet another reason.

More information to follow shortly (and by information I mean that the public has requested me and Capitan Jonas Wiehager to entertain in the VIP-room with music and cheers (and by public demand I mean myself – I actually asked to do it (it will be fun and it might help me not to drink way too much))).

So – come on down ya’ll

So – what are you doning on thursday?

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Kategorier Me, Music, Sneakersnstuff, Travel

A Tres Bien night in Paris – still back tracking

22 maj, 2012 //
13

Back from Las Vegas and New York, I just had time for my birthday and hang out with my wife and kids for a bit, and then back on the road. Or plane…
Nike Sportswear has a few collections under their umbrella, but perhaps the most exciting one right now is the Nike x Undercover line. The Nike x Undercover line, also known as the Nike Gyakusou Line is running clothes designed by Jun Takahashi and his Undercover team, and it has that perfect balance of extremely detailed, yet very clean. And that was the main reason for us to come to Paris for 2 days.

On top of that Nike also showed their Nike Pinnacle line, and some nice Nike Quickstrikes, and Nike TierZero styles. In case you are not as snowed in on this as I might be, I will give you a quick explanation of these terms.

Nike Pinnacle – almost what it sounds like. This has been the home for some top of the line clothing from Nike. You will usually find really well designed and underrated pieces of clothing in that range. With details as waterproof cotton, hidden zippers and so on. From what I hear, 2012 will be the last year for Nike Pinnacle. But you never know with these things.

Nike Quickstrike – if you like what you see and it says Nike Quickstrike – it means you have to strike quick. It also means that the productions is limited. For us it means a range of shoes that are outside the ordinary range that we buy into 4 times a year. Nike Quickstrikes are spread out over the year and have one drop every other (or sometimes every) week on Fridays (and some occasional Wednesday). I think there are about 5-10 Nike Quickstrike accounts within Sweden, but don’t quote me on that. But I know for a fact that Sneakersnstuff has been a Nike Quickstrike account since the release of the Edge pack with the Nike Air Force II, Nike Air Trainer 1 and the Nike Air Max 90. I think that was around 2002.

Nike TierZero – What we are gonna do right here is to go back. Back into time (hiphop voice) to 1999 when we opened Sneakersnstuff. At that time there was no Nike Sportswear. Just Nike. And the same guy that sold us running shoes was the same guy who sold us Nike Air Force 1 (What’s up Fryken). In fact, most of the styles we bought at that time were new styles. Not just retroed styles in new colorways. Some times I miss those days. Anyway – when the retro business started to blow up, Nike came up with the idea to tier all their accounts into different levels. Tier 1 was top level and stores on that level could get access to everything. Tier 2 was a bit more average stores, and they could not get access to all products. And so on. This was to segment the market to keep the interest in the brand as they grew rapidly. It would be hard to keep the attention from all the trendsetters if all, let’s say, price focused stores were able to buy all the coolest stuff. That could make even the coolest sneaker uncool.
Well – as the business grew, Nike had to keep pushing the boundaries of cool. And now they had a problem, since they already had some decent stores in Tier 1. But to top it of with even more limited runs of sneakers – they created Nike Tier Zero. So, at stores with Tier Zero account is where you can find even more limited stuff.
So far so good. But today this has all evolved a bit. Even though Nike Tier Zero still only has one door (yes, Sneakersnstuff are very proud to be Sweden’s only Nike Tier Zero account), Nike has lately added TierZero+(that really should be named TierZero- since it’s one level down from Tier Zero) and some other variations to the Nike TierZero world. So if you ask me what the rules are today, I don’t think anyone really knows anymore. Still – it is under Nike TierZero you will find some of the more hard to get styles.

And there you have it. A back dated update of my life. This updates brings you up to date to March 1st. Don’t be surprised if my next post will quickly sum up April and May to just get back to now. Because I am not really feeling this back-tracking thing…

And oh yeah – most of the time we go to Paris, we see the brothers from Tres Bien Shop. Not sure why, because most of the brands they deal with are Japanese. They should change their name to とても良いお店. Still, I like those guys. And they have a very good selection of brouges and such.

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Kategorier Sneakers, Travel

Old song – new video – still a valid topic

3 maj, 2012 //
1

So Supersci dropped this very underrated and probably on of the most overlooked albums in 2010. Even looking to myself – I loved the Pinetrees on the Pavement album of 2006 – and still I slept on the release of  Timelines for some reason. I’ll blame it on the kids. Cute as my kids are, they do take up a fair amount of my time.

So, to my point – I am glad that Supersci released this video now. Just so I could be remembered to listen to that Timelines album again. And so should you. Right now. And check this video

Yes, it sounds a bit like this Apani tune that came out back in the days – but it is still nice. And it is still a valid topic. Time.

Speaking of time – I have a nice post of our trip to Paris with the Tres Bien brothers and Nike. I will post that as soon as I find the time to do it. Time…

Etiketter
Kategorier Music

The USA trip – back tracking edit pt. 2 – New York

20 april, 2012 //
0

So… that was a rather long break from blogging. I like how my last post was pt. 1. For any of you that just have been patiently waiting – I salute you. Those of you that never even noticed my absence – I salute you too. But… since I had the privilege to hang out with David C Wilson last weekend where he actually asked me why I haven’t updated my blog in forever, I figure I should step this up a bit. I mean, between David C Wilson and Danielle Krasse I now know I have two readers of this poor excuse of a blog.

And since the main reason for my blog absence is that I have been super duper busy lately – that means I have plenty of storytelling to share with you. Let’s start by doing this pt. 2 back track thingy.

For this New York trip I would like to thank Reebok for hooking us up with NHL tickets. And adidas for the NBA tickets. Also shout out (yes, very hiphop) to Mike Packer for also hooking us up with tickets.

If you for any reason feel that this report from our trip to Las Vegas and New York in febuary feels a bit late… you should follow me on Instagram – @sneakererik.

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Kategorier Travel

The USA trip – back tracking edit pt. 1 – Las Vegas

7 mars, 2012 //
57

So here is the deal. I started to write on this report from Las Vegas on the way to Las Vegas. I thought I would have time to do updates here on a daily basis… but, oh was I mistaken. And now it has almost been a month since we got on that plane to Vegas for the Trade Shows…

So, I have started two or three really long posts for every day. But looking at them now, they feel a little bit old. It would have made sense to tell you everything day by day… but now I figured I will just share the photo’s with you instead. If you have a Iphone, you could also follow me on Instagram and you might have seen these pics about one month from now. And that is really important in this social networking era right. You have to know everything now. To learn about something one full month later is just not worth it..

So – if you do have any questions regarding our trip to Vegas (yes, I did gamble – and this time I actually won). feel free to hit me up below. I think one of the highlights must have been the conversation I had with Brian from Hanon about helmets and such. Or when Kevin showed me the price of the Champagne on the meny he had brought from some place. Or just hanging out with my long lost friend Rikard (pronounced Rick Hard… for real). Or waiting at Newark airport for 3.5 hours. No, that wasn’t that fun… but what I am trying to say here is that it is the company that makes these trips. So thanks for hanging out. I had fun. Now – pictures

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Kategorier Family&Friends, Travel
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