Arkiv för inlägg med taggen: BBB

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

Berlin Bread&Butter – The Movie

2 februari, 2012 //
0

One day, I will have the ego big enough to have a 2 hour film made about every trip we go on. But for now you will have to settle for this nice feature made by Johan – @johnnyballe – those of you who are into twitter need to follow him asap. Other sneakersnstuff peoples on this trip that you can also follow on twitter was my buddy and co-founder Peter – @peter_sns, our women’s clothes buyer and store manager Charlotte – @iamcharls and me Erik – @sneakererik.

Sneakersnstuff in Berlin from Sneakersnstuff on Vimeo.

Besides from the adidas Jeremy Scott line there is not that much footage of products in there. We will try to get more cheeky in that area next time around.

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Kategorier Travel

Berlin Bread&Butter Day 3

31 januari, 2012 //
17

Not sure when was the last time I got up at noon. It is not that common these days. Me and Johan shared room – I told you this right? If not, I have a really good video of Johan if anyone would like to see it. He won’t allow me to post it, but if you ask me when you see me and promise not to tell Johan, I’ll show you. Codeword is ”I can see clearly now”. Another tradition we have is to eat lunch at Monsieur Vuong. Usually on the Friday, when everybody is a bit hung over. What is weird is that Johan is always the most hung over of us. And he doesn’t even drink.

We had a scheduled appointment with Norse Projects at the Capsule tradeshow at 14.00. Norse Projects is a bit new to us. I mean, Norse is not new to us – but Sneakersnstuff has not carried Norse Projects before. But we just got the spring delivery through the door – so you can now find all the good looking stuff from Norse Project at Sneakersnstuff. But we browsed through the Fall 2012 and that all looked very good. The mandatory Heather Orange Knitted Sweater was there of course. You cannot call yourself fashion if you don’t have that in your line for fall 2012. Heather Orange Knitted Sweaters is the new rolled up red knitted hat. Or it will be. Don’t try it now, it will be too soon and people will laugh at you. You can buy it now and start using it from July.

Not sure why I didn’t take any pics of the Norse collection. I think it might because they are Danish and that I don’t know them that well. I am not trying to offend any possible Danish reader – but let’s just say that the business ethics is a bit different between Sweden and Denmark… Just saying…

But after checking out Norse, we walked over to Wood Wood. And those guys I know and they have always been very friendly, ever since they got to do that Adidas collaboration before us back in the day. And to give credit when credit is due – their business ethics has been flawless so far. Laust was a bit bummed out since he had to pack down the men’s collection and ship it to Paris. So we re-scheduled our appointment and will hook up in Stockholm instead.

As for Capsule it is by far the best tradeshow in Berlin. Next time I am not sure if I will even go to Bread&Butter. And if Denim Demon play their cards right I will not even go to Seek. And I was very tired that Friday, so I’m guessing it was even better.

So – that concludes my reports from BBB Spring 2012. After Capsule we went back to our hotel for the traditional Pizza before heading to the airport. Ran into Michael Mohn and he had been at the hospital for a few days since a dog had eaten his nose. Did not sound funny at all. Hope you are feeling better Micke.

You know you’ve got older when you are hung over for two days.

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Kategorier Travel

Berlin Bread&Butter Day 2 – Pt. 2

30 januari, 2012 //
2

Ok, on to that rowdy evening of January the 19th. It all started calm enough. We hooked up with the Carhartt and Pointer people of Scandinavia in the hotel lobby. The Toft brothers Ed and Brian of Hanon were there as well. And Sundance and Sjöbusen from Footish. Since I didn’t want to walk anywhere in the rain we got a few cabs to take us to the Pointer Dinner @ Soho House Berlin… About 500 meters from our hotel… And after wandering around in the lobby for a while, they directed us to the dinner room on 2nd floor. John from Footpatrol and another bloke from Size? were there already – as were a few other known and unknown faces.

For those of you who don’t know we have a traditional burger dinner at The Bird every BBB. Well, I make it sound like it is our dinner – but it is really Pontus and Happy Rabbit’s dinner. This year we were invited to the Pointer dinner a few weeks before Pontus invited us – for that same day… I am still bummed that we missed that Bird dinner.

But, no shadow shall fall on the Pointer dinner. Food was grade A – and company was… well… I was sitting next to Brian all evening. And when he have had a few beers, I can’t understand a Scottish word he’s saying. No – I’m just kidding Brian – It was a treat to sit next to you, and thank you for laughing at my jokes. I’ll see you and Ed in Vegas. We will eat nothing but Nobu – I know you love that place.

Another thing about the Pointer dinner. The waitress was really good at topping up my glass. Gave me a good foundation for the evening. When dinner was done – or, maybe even a little while before the dinner was done we headed out. Options were: The Bird for 2nd dinner, Adidas Originals Party or the WeSC party. The WeSC party is usually where everyone end up. And it is usually the rowdiest party. Last summer I ended up walking home, drunk as a skunk in pouring rain…. not a sober decision.

Anyways, it turned out everybody left The Bird to go to the Adi party. But, time was running out so we took a cab to the WeSC party instead and figured that the people we knew at the adidas party would come to the WeSC party anyway. And if you were Swedish, the WeSC party was the place to go to. Most, if not all people were there. Lots of friends, expected and unexpected. Most unexpected to me must have been Aziz. And most expected… I don’t know – except for WeSC people – Jonas perhaps?

Well – and so it begun. Or kept on rather. Beer after beer, drink after drink. Before you know it, you are standing on the floor with your t-shirt tied up to show your belly (and thank you to all of you who has sent me pictures of this to remind me). One pocket inside out. Flipping the bird to Johan’s camera. Dancing butt-cheek to butt-cheek with David. Telling Greger that I say Wäsk and not Ui Ess See about 15 times (he still didn’t promise me any trip to LA or anything this time… might have to hook up with him later on to squeeze some kind of undeliverable promise out of him), and oh yeah – I even think I gave Johnnyballe a lap dance and some girl from the Shelta crew gave me a wedge. It was like a anti-alcohol commercial.

In my own defense I would say that I wasn’t really that drunk – I was just trying to uplift the spirit of the party. And I think I did a good job in that area. However, judging by the pics below I might have been a bit drunk after all.

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Kategorier Travel

Berlin Bread&Butter Day 2 Pt 1

30 januari, 2012 //
0

As I am falling a bit behind schedule on my posts from Berlin, I wanted to make Day 2 as one post only. But looking at the pictures, and thinking back on all the fun moments on Day 2 – I have to split it up. So, welcome to the 19th of January.

It is Thursday today. Last night we went to the Vans OTW party (among other things) but did not go crazy, so we are feeling pretty good. Weather is more like expected as well. That sunlight yesterday threw me off. Last summers adidas Consortium breakfast offered weird sausages and other strange things, so in the spirit of better safe than sorry, we (well, some of us) enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the hotel.
It is amazing how many run down buildings that would make really nice apartments that is just laying about in Berlin. The adidas Consortium Breakfast was in one of those buildings. And this year they certainly stepped up their breakfast. And since I already had breakfast at the hotel I just went for Chocolate cake. As usual, this was no health trip. As for the actual products – it looked good. Remember the adidas Consortium Tabula Rasa project with the all white styles that dropped in November? It is now time to fill those white canvases. And no, I am not talking about adicolor. The drops are scheduled for May and June.

So – on to Seek. They had moved. Just 100 meters, but still… This tradeshow was one step up from Bread&Butter. Actually it was a few steps up. But, most brands in there all looked the same. And speaking of Same (what’s up Gothenburg) Denim Demon had their booth at Seek. Of course we stopped by and had some dried reindeer hart, and a snaps. Some of the Denim Demon spring collection just got delivered, and the fall 2012 collection looked really good. New labeling and stuff as well. Labeling and hang tags are very important – in a time of ”everything-looks-the-same” details like that will make the difference (do you hear me Aaron). And speaking of everything-looks-the-same… I circled around the two floors of Seek. And I am sure there were good brands there. But they all sort of looked the same. And no brand gave me a reason to even enter their booth.

The lack of excitement was obvious. So, we decided to go for lunch with Josefin and Otto from adidas in Mitte instead. We had a secret project to talk about, so it was business and pleasure mixed together as usual. Quick pitstop back at the hotel, and then a sit down with Supra. Yes, I know you know I am not a skate dude. But last summers BBB, Supra was about the only brand that inspired me. So, I was happy to be back up there to talk about the fruit of that inspiration. Besides, they had a really good dessert. Supra crew were as nice as always, and we had more secret-project-talks, so all was good. After Supra we walked back to the hotel. We had the impossible task of being at two dinners at the same time ahead of us. And of course that evening got a bit out of hand… Stay tuned for Day 2 Pt. 2 soon.

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Kategorier Travel

Bread&Butter Day 1 Pt. 3

27 januari, 2012 //
0

Time flies – It’s been a week since Day 3, and I am only on Day 1… Stupid brands and their stupid order deadlines keeping me from doing really important things like blogging (should be read with a Homer Simpson voice).

I will sum up day 1 real quick. You saw the plane ride, the mitte breakfast, the room with a view, the crap at BBB, the good people that I like to hang out with at BBB and some products. On to that evening. I mentioned Ben and his Holden. And the collaboration they are doing with Stüssy. That stuff looked good, and you will most likely find that at sneakersnstuff this fall. They had their launch in the Highsnobiety headquarters (and we say hajsnåbajity ok?) – a pretty cool spot for pretty cool dudes (and dudetts I guess).

But no peace for the wicked – we had to go to the Wood Wood fashion show. As I like to call myself a worldclass photographer when it comes to the runway, I wanted to be there in time. We were of course late, but not too late. We (as in I) are almost always late, but very rarely too late. As required I had front row seats. Well, I didn’t really require that but Wood Wood people are nice people. And they served good drinks, hence the blurry pictures… For those of you who follows this, I must say that this collection looked much better than the previous ones.

After the WW show we moved on to our hotel. Time is of essence so we figured we should just catch a quick pizza and then go to the Holden party. But Carhartt and Pointer Johan’s (aka CP Johan) Norwegian colleague Erik really wanted to go to a true-to-the bone Italian Pizza. Apparently a Pizza costs about 30-40 euros in Norway, so when in Berlin… At this point it had started to rain, but CP Erik (god bless his hart) firmly and steadily led the way to little Italy. I admit that I was a bit cranky before we got there. My Nike ACG down jacket was not really ACG, more SCG – some conditions gear. Rain was not part of what it was made for.

But Erik – if you read this. Don’t take it personal. I sometimes get cranky when I don’t get food in time and have to ”gå på tur” in the rain. And I’ll be the first one to say it: that pizza was really good. And actually totally worth it.

But just to make sure we took a cab from there. Quick stop at the Holden party – where Ben called me a little bitch for leaving him there when we moved on to the Vans party. Sorry about that Ben, it was crowded and people where smoking indoors. That is another condition my Nike All Conditions Gear Jacket can’t stand for. Smoking. And I am right behind my jacket on that one. Smoking…. what’s wrong with just drinking?

We brought the Hanon brothers with us to Vans, and also ran in to the Footish boys on the way there. From what we heard the venue took about 700 people, and Vans had given away 1700 tickets. With those numbers in mind the Toft brothers called it a day – but we got lucky. Or not really, we had the greatest hook up (cheers Jeremy) who let us in the back door (I know what you want to say here Johnny Balle). Mos Def was on stage, and Lupe Fiasco. And I think all the 700 people all tried to fit into a room for 150 peoples. So I never even bothered to try to squeeze in. Luckily Jeremy gave us access to some sort of an VIP room where you could serve your self drinks. Cheers again Jeremy. I also ran in to Per from Caliroots in there. Some of you might not know this, but Per and I (and Peter of course) all used to work at New Sports back in the day. And Per also used to work for us at Sneakersnstuff a few years back. So I was really happy to hear that he had become a dad just before Christmas. Congratulations again Per (and Linda) – kids are the true meaning of it all. And if I will remember anything from this trip a few years from now it will be Per’s excitement talking about it. I am indeed very happy for you!

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Kategorier Travel

Berlin Bread&Butter – Day 1 – Pt 2

25 januari, 2012 //
12

So, Day 1 – Pt 2 will take us from Berlin Mitte to the Bread&Butter tradeshow. I think they have about 9 hallways. And you enter in the middle, and that is where you will find adidas originals. So far so good. But sometimes adidas feels a bit all over the place. To me it does not make sense to be showing classic retro styles like Superstar, Pro Shell and such in a plastic futuristic environment. But that’s just me I guess. But if any of you decision makers at adidas read this – next year, you can do what you do at Bread&Butter, but also show the more classic styles in a low key booth at Capsule or something. Just saying..

Anyways, as we had seen most of the adidas fall 2012 we did not really have much to do there. But it was nice to run in to Rachel and Josefin (what’s up girls!) and also glad, but a bit surprised to run into Ben Preuss in the adidas booth. He have moved on to Holden, and their stuff with Stussy looks really good. Don’t be suprised if you will find that at sneakersnstuff later on this year.

Besides that we had someone to hunt down the new Adi’s Archive line for Fall 2012 as they didn’t have any samples in the Sweden Showroom. Don’t think I’m allowed to show them yet, but adidas Milano and adidas Oregon looked really good. After that, the heat in the adidas booth was just too much so we had to leave. And I am talking about that ordinary heat. Not that american hiphop-lingo heat as in really nice stuff. Btw – Jeremy Scott is still crazy, but not as crazy as the price of some of those adidas originals x Jeremy Scott stuff they showed.

And after walking through 3 gigantic hallways filled to the roof with crap like Uggz, Crocs, Roland, Smiley and whatnot, we finally end up in the far end hallway. That one is better. I would say they have limit in that hallway to only about 40% crap. Here we said hello to New Balance who showed us some heat – as in the American hiphop-lingo meaning of the word. Nothing out of the ordinary, but made in UK 576 or made in USA 998 is really good. Not sure if I’m allowed to show you these pics either… but as you probably can find them online already I think I might just go ahead anyway.

After New Balance we strolled around the crap section and stopped by in some of the nicer brands booths. Finally ending up in the WeSC booth. Nice people in there as usual, but I was really looking for Greger. It is something of a routine to get him to promise you something that someone else can not deliver. And I also really wanted to tell him that I will always say wäsk, and not Vi S C. But I had a chance to tell him that in Day 2.

Puma served alcohol, so me and Charlie had a (and this a is very important here) sex on the beach. After that, some of the crap brands started to look way better. Quick stop for a 20 euro sibylla burger lunch and then say hi to Vans where we also hustled up some tickets to that evening’s party. Then walk through 3-4 more hallways with crap to end up in the far end of the old airport. As we were running out of time we only stopped by the Carhartt booth real quick to say hi to Johan. Carhartt showed some really nice stuff as well.

Wow – I just realized that this is far more text than even I bare to read…. sorry about that. I wanna say it won’t happen again, but I tend to do alot of rambling lately. So it will probably happen again. But I will leave you with this for now, and deliver Day 1 – Pt 3 tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

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Kategorier Travel

Berlin Bread&Butter – Day 1 – Pt 1

24 januari, 2012 //
0

Wow… every time I go on these trips, I try to remind myself how intenced they can be. And every time I come home I am amazed over how intenced that trip was. So many people you know, all in one city – and you hook up with a lot of friends. And for me, just trying to be nice for 3 days in a row is very hard. Not really, but when you walk by one crap brand after another you sort of want to chew someones head of. And if you haven’t been there yet – be warned. The amount of crap all lined up at one place is mindblowing.

Some golden nuggets though. And as it takes a few days to get back on track, you will have to bare with me on the slow posting. Posting random funny pics is, believe it or not, not my actual job. But there will be some good stuff posted shortly. I am still debating with myself if I should post that picture of myself with my t-shirt tied up, showing my not-so-small-anymore belly… I think I might have been a bit drunk at that point. One part of me feel a bit embarressed over those pics. And one part don’t really care to much. And then there is the part that figures that a few peoples already have those pics somewhere – and stuff like that goes around… I might have to do some sort of a poll here to find out if you want to see that pic or not.

But now – without any further ado – day 1, pt 1.

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Kategorier Travel

Going to Berlin tomorrow

17 januari, 2012 //
0

Time for that Bread&Butter tradeshow. Twice a year, streetwear stores from all over Europe (and some ”international”) all go to Berlin to look at Fall 2012. We usually go down there to drink beer, eat burgers at the Bird, mess around with Pontus and hang out with friends. I know it all sounds like hard work, but someone has to do it. Yes, we will stop by adidas Originals, NSW, Puma, Carhartt, Converse, Denim Demon, Wood Wood and all of them as well, but mostly drink beer, eat burgers and so on…

As we we’re expecting Elton last January, I haven’t been to the winter tradeshow for two years. So in order to try to create the right type of mood (what’s up Herbie!) here are some pics from the 2010 January Bread and Butter trip. More up to date war-story-pictures will follow this week. Stay tuned.

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Kategorier Travel
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