The Work
I got to go to see my friend Eric Haze unveil his Stussy X Haze collection this weekend and to celebrate our Pro Keds collab a little. More so though I went to hang with my boys and see some old friends cause life is way more then T Shirts and sneakers at the end of the day right?
Haze got logo’s!
Ok now I have to show the product he did with Pro Keds and Stussy…it’s is my gig
Now it’s on to the party peoples!
2 of my favorite people named Eric/Erik….Erik Everlast Schrody and Eric Haze
This is Scott Oster and Eric…we met Scott in 1987 with the rest of the Venice boys but more on that later
This is a epic picture: Block the mayor of Venice,Haze, Eric Dresson one of the greatest street skaters ever and a key member of the Venice crew,Steve Olson and me…That’s a lot of sore knees and stories right there….I’m proud to know these cats!
Muggs and Mills….I thought Mills was JSone…I am a spaz sometimes…I’m blaming it on the beers my bad Mills
Cobra Snake came and showed love!
Three Rs: Raymond Roker owner of URB magazine, Risky and Revok MSK heavyweights!
Another epic crew shot: Phil Frost, Eric Dresson,Me, Killer B, Blocks,Casey aka Eclipse MSK and owner of Known gallery and a friend! Casey helped put this thing together he’s a righteous cat
Haze and our old friend Tim Easton from London/NYC
The gangster locos featuring Nick Diamond and other notables!
I saved my commentary for last, there was some meaning for me at this event more so than the usual shoe drop type of thing for me it was almost like a high school re union of sorts.Here’s the runnings:
I attended the Haze X Stussy collection release event this past Friday. it was an amazing event and a culmination of sorts for Eric. I have a storied history with Eric and some of it started in LA in a roundabout way. See in 1987 a year or so out of high school I landed a gig working for my friends The Beastie Boys managers Lyor Cohen and Russell Simmons at the fledgling Rush Productions.
One of my first assignments post sorting fan mail was to go to ASR and get the Beastie Boys a skateboard deal. My co-pilot was Eric Haze a few years my senior and in the middle of doing most of the graphic design at Def Jam. It didn’t hurt that we were friends with the Beasties and god only knows why Lyor and them trusted me to go and get this deal for them. Eric I could understand he was already a businessman of sorts, me I was a delinquent more or less at this stage in the game. Anyways the Beasties happened to be playing at the Hollywood Palladium the week of ASR so they and Jam Master Jay plus Lyor and the entire entourages of Run Dmc and The Beasties were present and were all staying at the same hotel as us. It was for all intent and purpose a circus and somehow we got a front row seat to it.
Let me not digress though. We went to LA to go to ASR and get our boys a skateboard deal. We quickly found out we had been rented a Suzuki Samurai which was like a blender on wheels basically. After driving to Long Beach one time in this piece of crap Eric somehow linked up with a young brother who worked at Sunset cars rentals and who was supplying the Beasties and Run DMC with fly rides. Eric worked his magic and somehow we rented a Porsche 924 with Eric’s Bank card. To this day were both not really sure how he worked this but then again Eric’s good like that. This was/is a testament to his game.
We proceeded to drive to ASR and meet/hang with people like Christian Hosoi who I already knew a little, Block, SkateMaster Tate, Sean Stussy, Scott Oster, Shawn Mortenson, Matt Robinson, Steve Olson and a host of other characters. We got a bunch of the dudes into the Beasties show in LA. It was a blast and little known to me at the time life long friendships were established this amazing week in LA. We forged one if not the initial Venice-NY bond that week and in retrospect witnessed one of the initial skate/Hiphop connections happen. It was a true cultural exchange.
While we weren’t linking with future cultural icons and cool guys at ASR we linked up with Brad Dorfman the then owner of Vision and Vision streetwear and he jumped at the idea. Lyor and him verbally worked out a deal for something like 30,000 advance via the hotel phone but for reasons unknown either the Beasties had cooled off, it wasn’t worth the time or money or it simply took to long to get done the boards were never manufactured only a box of samples were ever produced. Once upon a time I actually had 2 of the boards one which I gave to my friend Ian Frahm a OG NY skater and one I somehow lost along the trail called life. Much to my dismay Eric has kept his all these years and I often froth at the mouth when I see them at his house or posted somewhere. This story is eternally linked to my friendship with Eric and to my relationship with the city called Los Angeles.
The ultimate irony was/is that Eric ended up moving to LA eventually for 12 years and founded his pioneering streetwear line post this journey. Fast forward 12 years after this fact and Haze and me are in Venice Beach at an event and we decide to walk down the boardwalk to the beach for a sec. Accompinied by Chad Muska who was shredding everything in site Eric told me about his plans to move back to NYC. Of course Haze has done this since this convo a few years ago completing a full cycle life journey/experience of sorts that I was privy to witness firsthand. This weekends show was a furthering of this journey of sorts which was amazing to see. I had the pleasure of hearing Eric tell this same story to Revok and Steve Olson a day before the opening at the gallery all the while smiling ear to ear. These 2 people alone, Revok MSK and OG Olson represent the gamut of LA culture and life’s broad sweeping spectrum in itself and of all the generations Haze’s influence spans.
For me personally I was glad to be a small part of it as well as being able to create some really tight shoes with Eric and Stussy it’s one of the good things about my gig getting to create tangible product with esteemed members of the culture something I intend to do more of in the forthcoming year.
One more thing before I forget the event was besides being all of the above a really good hang!
Enjoy
Dante Ross NYC
