Courtesty of Geoff Hollister & The Oregonian

Often called “Nike’s Employee #3″, Geoff Hollister passed away yesterday, just three days after his 66th birthday, after a long battle with cancer. The Oregon native was born on February 3rd, 1946 and was an Oregonian in every sense of the term. After graduating from South Eugene High School in 1964, Hollister went on to University of Oregon, where he ran under the tutelage of track & field coach Bill Bowerman. To optimize his runner’s performance, Bowerman often asked Hollister to run in his prototype footwear. Not long afterwards, Phil Knight offered Hollister a job at his start-up with Bowerman, Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), then a distributor for Japan’s Tiger sneakers. After opening BRS West, the company’s first retail store, Hollister became ever more involved when BRS spun off a sub-label from Tiger in 1972. That new entity was Nike.

Thanks to Hollister’s intuitions as a runner and business acumen, Nike thrived in the then largely ignored running community. Seeing a need to develop next generation of track & field stars after a dismal showing in the 1976 Summer Olympics at Montreal, Hollister organized Athletics West, a sponsored program for athletes and coaches alike. His ability to think outside of the box helped to create innovative product like the Nike Aqua Socks. And when cumbersome track jackets weigh down Nike athletes, Hollister introduced the lightweight Nike Windrunner Jacket and its iconic 26-degree chevron design. During his later years at Nike, Hollister helped to secure the brand with a Swoosh a place in youth track & field programs across the U.S. When Bill Bowerman passed away in 1999, Hollister developed the Bowerman Project in honor of his former coach and mentor.

Geoff Hollister is survived his wife Wendy, who still works at Nike, 2 children from a previous marriage, his son Tracy, daughter Kaili, several grand children, as well as two younger sisters. Not to mention, the thousands who benefited from his programs and products

They are of different genders, races, religions, sports, interests, ages, even nations. Yet, they are connected by one reason – cancer. While grim, their shared afflictions, struggles, and grievances also gave them a collected strength and resolve to see the end of the disease. In bring hopes to the other 28 million cancer survivors and their love ones, Nike announced Team LIVESTRONG. Along with seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, a group of world class athletes, each affected by the disease directly or indirectly, will join the fight in education, prevention, and research for a cure. You too can be a part of the movement, simply show your support or share your story via Twitter at @NIKELIVESTRONG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nikelivestrong. With the current advancement in treatments, a diagnosis is no longer the end but the beginning.

The economic decline over the last few years and instability within the publishing industry have claimed yet another victim today. In an email message this afternoon, Harris Publications announced it will be ending ANTENNA Magazine along with its AntennaMag.com website effective immediately. Though no details were given, it comes as no surprise, given that other publication giants, like Conde Nast, have axed several periodicals in the last few years, such as Gourmet. But all is not doom and gloom. When hip-hop magazine VIBE ended its publication in 2009, the outage period gave time for it to restructure itself. Six months later, the magazine went on circulation again.  Perhaps ANTENNA will have a similar fate as well…

Murdoc Niccals, the seedy member of Gorillaz made a surprising announcement this morning on the band’s upcoming collaboration with CONVERSE. Sounded like a broadcast from a pirate radio station, Murdoc went on length about the start of the Chuck Taylor All Star project. What was originally a commemoration for the world’s most famous virtual band’s 10th anniversary quickly became a full-on creative session, which encompass four different designs and a special Gorillaz produces Three Artists, One Song campaign. With the collaboration’s release date of February 23rd fast approaching, expect Murdoc and the rest of his cohorts will be making more impromptu statements in the near future. Meanwhile, hear the full transmission from Murdoc Niccals at the link below.

Release Date: February 23rd, 2012 (Thursday)

The last time these Dave White-designed Air Jordan 1s were on our radar was in August of 2011. Back then we speculated that the shoes actually had a chance of making it onto retail store shelves, unlike its predecessor, of which all twenty-three pairs in existence had been auctioned off in support of Jordan Brand‘s WINGS for the Future education initiative. Five months later, we can finally share the news that Miami’s Sole Fly has announced a release date for these highly coveted kicks: February 11th at 11 a.m. sharp, with retail set at $175. It’s first come first served so you’ll want to get there early. Stay tuned for word of a release through additional retailers.

Sole Fly
8099 South Dixie Hwy #2 | Map
Miami, FL 33143
TEL #: 305-661-3423

Release Date: February 11th, 2012 (Saturday)

LEGO Stormrapper by designholic*

Do you have an appetite for all things pixelated? How about racking up thousands of frequent flyer miles from your multiple visits to LEGOLAND? Let’s face it, you have the classic symptoms of LEGO Maniac. While incurable, there are treatments to alleviate the insatiable craving, like ReBrick, a new social media platform for LEGO Maniacs.

No more filling your Facebook photo albums with your LEGO pics. ReBrick allows you to share your creations among your fellow maniacs and get instant feed-backs from them. The platform is still in its preliminary design phase, there won’t be any complex features, yet. But unlike other social media, LEGO got some of its most devoted fans involved in ReBrick’s developments. So expect a fury of activities to take place in the coming year. via: Wired

Adidas SLVR announces the opening of its first ever standalone store in Berlin during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Located in the trendy Mitte neighborhood, the 120 square-meter space is sleek, spare and modern — much like the store’s inventory. The store opens with SLVR’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection and features a full range of men’s and women’s apparel, footwear and accessories. The brand draws on the technical expertise of adidas’ performance line and blends contemporary tailoring to create sportswear that carves its own unique niche in the active lifestyle marketplace. via: Sneaker Freaker

adidas SLVR
Mulackstraße 31/32 | Map
D-10119 Berlin
Germany

Famously tight-lipped, Apple is still not divulging any details on the upcoming media event in New York City this Thursday, January 19th. From the chalk outlines, blackboard like invitations, and brief statement by the company, it is safe to deduce the summit to be education related. Perhaps the Cupertino tech giant will announce a textbooks-to-ebooks initiative, as many predict. Some have said the event will be the introduction of ebook self publishing software, similar to how it already is with Apple GarageBand. Then, there are speculations of another Nike and Apple partnership. After all, it is quite interesting to see both Apple and Nike having a announcement of some sort on the same day…

The gym at Masaryk Towers, a low-income high-rise apartment in New York City’s Lower East Side, was in a state of neglected disrepair until Nike Basketball made it a reclamation project, installing a regulation sized court with digital scoreboard, as well as a well-appointed locker room. For now, the gym functions as a private club, with appointments booked through the Masaryk concierge 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The facility is open to a select group of pros and New Yorkers, offering a full complement of services that include uniforms, shooting machines and trainers to sharpen skills.  In April 2012, the gym will be turned back over to the residents of the Masaryk Towers.

Fashionistas in Tokyo will have something to rejoice about come this March. Dover Street Market, the hugely popular retail concept by fashion designer Rei Kawakubo and her advent-garde label COMME des GARÇONS, is finally coming to Tokyo. Surprising, the new store will not be at the expected shopping district along the eastern part of Tokyo, where you have familiar neighborhoods like Shinjuku, Shibuya, Omotesando, Aoyama, and Harajuku. Instead, COMME des GARÇONS will take advantage of the newly revamped Ginza Komatsu Department Store in Ginza on the western side of the city. Taking up approximately 6 floors of the West Wing, the new store be in good company with the world’s largest UNIQLO flagship right next door. And like its mammoth neighbor, Dover Street Market Ginza is also set to open on March 16th, 2012.

Dover Street Market Ginza
Ginza Komatsu – West Wing
6-9-5 Ginza | Map
Chuo-ku, Tokyo Japan

Opening Date: March 16th, 2012 (Friday)

Basketball player Chris Paul can finally breathe a sigh of relief. A week before the already delayed NBA season is able to start, the 26-year-old will officially be on Los Angeles Clippers‘ roster. This after a week of dramatic behind-the-door negotiations that had Paul, at one point, going to the Knicks, then Lakers, before NBA administers approved his trade to the Clippers.

With the dealings and counter-offerings behind him, Paul is quick to adjust to his home on the West Coast, in part thanks to Jordan Brand, which already prepared a new set of Jordan CP3.V in his new home team colorway of red and white. Often viewed like “step-child” within all of Los Angeles’ sports entities, Paul, along with Blake Griffin, the first NBA Draft pick for 2009, might just lead the team to forefront this season. via: Yahoo! Sports

Over 200 people entered Freshness’ latest giveaway, a pair of Nike Air Huarache Basketball 2012 Quickstrike in Black/Italy Blue and a black tonal NSW-21M t-shirt, both exclusive to Nike Sportswear 21 Mercer flagship in New York City during this year’s Black Friday festivities. As usual, we filtered the long list of candidates through Pick-A-Name Randomizer 2000 first. Then, we hired a group of hard working elves from the North Pole to pick through the list again. But all jokes aside, while we would love for every entrants to win, there can only be one and the winner is Misha “The Mizfit” King. Congratulation to the winner! But don’t fret if you didn’t win this time around. We are hard at work and will present another Freshness Giveaway in the coming weeks. So stay tuned!

WINNER IS Misha “The Mizfit” King