K-Swiss is making moves. Previously we showed you a very funny video that took you behind the scenes as Kenny Powers launched the brand’s new advertising campaign. Kenny isn’t the first athlete to be signed to the brand — that distinction belongs to Joey Yates, though his sport was tennis, and he wasn’t a fictional character created for HBO. Joey Yates was a real-life Richie Tenenbaum — a tennis prodigy in the early ’80s who flamed out and disappeared from the sport. After years of seclusion, K-Swiss found Joey to finish what they started. Reminiscent of the California Running capsule designed by Brendon Babenzien, the Joey Yates collection is all vintage style infused with a Southern California vibe. Look for it this fall.
Kenny Powers, one-time major league flamethrower and resident all-time badass, has been installed as the new CEO — make that MFCEO — of K-Swiss, and to show you that this isn’t your daddy’s athletic footwear and apparel company, he’s commissioned a video that gives you a behind-the-scenes look into his first marketing campaign. Kenny has appointed a first-rate executive team full of faces that you just might recognize, among them NFL stars Matt Cassel and Patrick Willis, MMA champions Jon “Bones” Jones and Urijah Faber, and super-trainer Jillian Michaels. They’re all eager to assert the company’s new mission statement: Kenny is the CEO, and you shut up. Hit the jump and check out the full hilarious video.
He’s known to add the “Southern Gentleman’s aesthetic” to the contemporary fashion scene of New York. A lesser known fact, however, is that designer Billy Reid been a wearer of K-Swiss tennis shoes for the last 25 years. Himself an avid fan of the slight worn comfort and simplistic design, Reid created the new washed canvas trio of K-Swiss’ Venice Surf & Court Collection in part as a mirror image of his very own K-Swiss canvas sneakers. In each of the washed natural, washed navy, and washed black colorways, there is also a hint of the southern Louisiana life, where a causal weekend meant sipping mint julep to beat off the sun, track side view of the next Triple-Crown potential, or a visit to the town’s speakeasies. Rural casualness and yet sophisticated, the K-Swiss by Billy Reid Collection for Spring/Summer 2011 is now available at all 6 Billy Reid flagships and its online retail outlet at www.billyreid.com
Billy Reid – New York
54 Bond Street | Map
New York NY 10012
With his over the top antics and omnipresent billboards, Kenny Powers (played by actor Danny McBride) would have you believe that “Tubes”, in any variation of size and length, is all footwear maker K-Swiss cares about. Not true, especially not in the sub-zero temperature of winter. Introducing the Classic Hiker High by K-Swiss, an extension of K-Swiss Classic range in the form of hiking boots. No Tubes here, just leather upper with treads for outdoor usages, and of course the K-Swiss D-Ring laces. Available in 5 different colors at the K-Swiss online store. Now where are those “secret muscles” Powers talked about?
UPDATE: This is a collaboration between K-Swiss and Brendon Babenzien who is a creative director at Supreme and not a collaboration between K-Swiss and Supreme.
K-Swiss store in Harajuku, Tokyo is turning out some heat in the form of California Tennis Co. Collection with Brendon Babenzien, the creative director at the world famous street brand, Supreme. It is a collection that is based on the vintage-inspired athletic clothing line. The debut collection takes inspiration from the Tennis Girl photo by Martin Elliott. Babenzien feels that the current athletic apparel styles are “really, really ugly” and these collections bring the nostalgic aesthetics back into sportswear. As well as K-Swiss stores in Harajuku, select Beams stores in Japan will get these goods from mid November. Good news for the second collection, it will be a running line that will launch in US and Europe only from Spring 2011. via: WWD
Bringing the “five stripes” together with the “five strikes”, UNDFTD has teamed up with K-Swiss to create the Deuce Collection, a collaborative line-up of sneakers based on the Deuce low-top. The collection features tough canvas low-top sneakers with gum toe and white soles in five colorways. In order to give the low-top sneakers a tougher appeal, regular eyelets have been switched out with D-Rings, and the lining has been piped with leather. The collection first hit racks on October 2, and are now available at UNDFTD Tokyo and UNDFTD SHIZUOKA. via: Unbar
This is an interesting week. First, to the joy for all who champion for equality, Proposition 8 has been overturned. Now all happy couples will enjoy the same rights and legal protection. Meanwhile, on a sadder note for Google, the search engine kingpin who has pretty much turned everything it touched into gold had to kill Google Wave– the previously promising revolutionary email which allows users to cooperate on documents in real time and more. That aside, this week was filled with releases and once again, roundball action since Nike will be hosting its World Basketball Festival soon in New York City. We have brought you the first look into what’s to come for World Basketball Festival, and on the sporty side of things, K-Swiss has enlisted the help of the fictional baseball has-been, Kenny Powers, as the spokesperson for its lates tubes technology. adidas Originals and Star Wars follows up their extremely successful debut collaboration with another season of hit items inspired by your favorite Star Wars characters, including Chewbacca, Han Solo, Stormtroopers, Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett. Kanye West finally released his new trippy video created by filmmaker Marco Brambilla who is responsible for the acid-laden videos looping in the Standard Hotel’s elevators, and we have met up with DJ A-Trak to talk about his music and more. At Compass we uncovered some cool collections to come, and in Hong Kong, we checked out the launch of adidas Originals by Originals Kazuki Kuraishi Fall/Winter 2010 Collection. Keep reading after the jump to get a feel of things you should not have missed out this week.
The latest spokesperson to hit the performance market with new technology is not the Jersey Shore crew for Reebok Zig Tech, but the fictional, has-been baseball pitcher-turned-middle school gym teacher, Kenny Powers (played by Danny McBride), from HBO’s Eastbound & Down for K-Swiss’s Tubes. The new K-Swiss performance Tubes campaign just launched yesterday with a series of commercial starring Kenny Powers and his self-righteous, over-the-top confidence. Check out the videos after the jump, which is not only packed with jokes and sassy one-liners but also a pretty good introduction of the new performance technology from K-Swiss, which are, according to Powers, secret muscles you never knew you had.
Classics will remain relevant because they are classics. However, a revival of the iconic does not always have to come in collaborations or revamps. Sometimes, a fresh perspective will do just the trick without putting risky changes to the beloved. California heritage sports label, K-Swiss does just that and quite literally, is bringing The Classic back into the spotlight with a fresh collaborative campaign.
If you have been to the space of Partners and Spade on Great Jones Street off Bowery in NYC, you will know how off beat and quirky Andy Spade and Anthony Sperduti (founders of the store) are. And if you know how special and odd these two are, you won’t be surprised at their summer new summer stint– ping pong.
Partners and Spade has teamed up with K-Swiss this summer to present us with a ping pong tournament and corresponding shoe collaboration. Fantastically named, “August Sweatout Ping Pong Classic”, the games held on Aug 29 will take over the left-field retail space/gallery of Partners and Spade.
For this joyous healthily sweaty occasion, special collaboration ping pong shoes are created to serve the players’ active needs. The Ping Pong Shoes are made in classic K-Swiss style with four stripes in white, orange and neon. The shoes will be sold at the day of the event for only $80; however, if you are feeling like shelling out and leveraging your game even more, you can also purchase a custom made ping pong table.
Remember to bring your own balls of fury on Aug 29 to Partners and Spade. Loser gets… well, a chance to sweat and more time to buy shoes.
Partners and Spade
40 Great Jones Street | Map
New York, NY 10012
Event Date: August 29th
K-Swiss x atmos – Classic LX Hi – Black
As NYC’s Harlem neighborhood undergoes another Renaissance in the recent years. Athletics footwear label K-Swiss is paying tribute to the original Harlem Renaissance that took place in 1920s. Together with Japanese retailer atmos, its flagships in both Harajuku & Harlem. K-Swiss is scheduled to pre-launch 6 models that infused the cultural identities unique to Harlem, the continuing influences the Harlem Renaissance had on literature, poetry, and not least of them all, jazz.
To keep within the K-Swiss’ tradition of streamlined aesthetics, most of these cultural incorporation will not be visible at first glance. Instead, a subtle approach was applied, allowing this special collection to tell a story without alteration to its classic silhouette.
The collection preview will take place on September 27th at atmos Tokyo, with subsequent releases across the globe throughout the Fall season.
atmos Tokyo
4-32-8 Jingumae | 
Map
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Japan
TEL #: +81-3-5772-1655
Pre-Release Date: September 27th (Saturday)
More photos after the jump…
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