PRO KEDS SPRING 2010 LOOKBOOK VIDEO
SPRING 2010 PRO-Keds from PK09 on Vimeo.
Not super in to hyping myself and the brand I work for in a obvious or obnoxious manner. I tend to think it’s tacky but that said here’s a video I produced. It was directed by my partner in the struggle Ryan Monihan Monihan. We have worked on a ton of stuff together the past few years the guys a genius.
This was a ton of work from pulling together product, styling,casting,scouting locations and then managing actors and crew through out the shoot. Add on undergoing 4 different edits in an attempt to appease my higher ups and finally whittling it down to 3 minutes.
There’s alot that goes in to this stuff so much more than most people realize. Pulling this 3 minute vehicle together took over 2 weeks solid of 10-12 hour days from writing the treatment,re writing it several times ( Monihan is a much better writer than me. He wrote it and re wrote it and then I re wrote it then he rewrote what I rewrote etc,etc,) gathering product, figuring out what shoes to profile and how, to seeing what product looks good on people.
Also every single person in the shoot needs to be a size 9 more or less so it made my casting much harder. Add on the fact that my director Monihan was in India while I prepped and did mylocation scouting/styling and casting. We did most of this over loooooong Instant Messenger sessions. Lets just say this was a lot of work. Let alone how much work it was while shooting. I get tired just thinking about it.
On top of all of this I also had a photo session running some what concurrently. It was for the Spring digital lookbook ( this is the video lookbook). As my trusted photographer Florian Bohem shot pics and tests while we did the video I got roped in to being a shoe model and part time wardrobe stylist for the photo side of the lookbook. It was without a doubt one of the most work intensive weeks I have under gone in my time with Pro Keds but at the end of the day the video was really well recieved and the digital photo version of the lookbook came out stellar.
I’m lucky I have a great team I work with. Monihan, Jasonong Lewis,Pho Fo Adams, Jay Garret, Florian and the lovely Annahita not to mention all my actors like Phil Matthew or Ease Da Man who did it on the strength for lunch and kicks cause there down for a OG like that. Gotta say cats who acted in the video were some of the nicest people I have ever worked with and the experience was like so many things for me life affirming. It’s cool my actors and were just really down for the cause. Thanks people I appreciate you!
Me personally speaking can’t really ask for more than that and I have realized that my time with Pro Keds has started to yield some results. It is actually measurable a bit at this point. It’s cool between the Opening Ceremony project, the Bobbito project, the forthcoming Haze project and the Huf one I got coming in April/May I have done some tangibly measurable stuff with the brand in a effort to re position Pro Keds closer to it’s rightous place in the sneaker world.
I grew up wearing them so my attachment goes back to the legacy of the brand. I was a huge Pistol Pete Maravich fan growing up and he and Tiny Archibald all six feet tall of him were the poster boys for the brand. They were also schoolyard types of players and this message resonated with me as a youth loud and clear. I wore em back then and I’m psyched to wear the new and core stuff were doing now. The new product looks really good thanks to my men’s Peter K and MOD.
Can’t complain I get to still make some music and help re-direct a brand I have a real attachment to.
So far so good more to come.
Enjoy
D Ross
