SoleGoodz
351 Zi Zhong Lu
Shanghai, PRC

ICONIC-1 was used as Clot’s JUICE STAND Pop-Up Store for the past month and a half. Today, we turned it into an exhibit venue for Bee Wong’s FIRE PANDA 10th Anniversary Exhibition. This exhibition is split into 2 showrooms; ICONIC-1 Store and its next door neighbor SOLEGOODZ Sneaker Boutique. I haven’t curate an artist exhibition for a long time, about 2 years. Setting up an exhibit one night before the opening, well, haven’t done that in a while….

Bee Wong arrived this afternoon, and we immediately went to work.

K from ONEWAY came to Shanghai for our friend’s anniversary exhibition opening. I actually met both of these guys on the same day almost 2 years ago. Is nice how the three of us worked very closely ever since.

Setting up. Crack opening each exhibition pieces. We were like kids opening up our X’mas presents.

Li Ming aka DAYBREAK. Veteran FIRE PANDA member, impressive illustrator in his own rights as well.

So what does this exhibition entails? Why both Iconic-1 and Solegoodz?

Paintings and illustrations. Of course, FIRE PANDA’s forte.

Customized figures. I just can’t help myself…. Each FIRE PANDA member customized one FIRE PANDA vinyl.

Customized PUMA shoes. Thanks to the support of PUMA.

adFunture usually drop a new item in each exhibition, how can this time be different? Especially with it being FIRE PANDA’s 10th anni.

So, let’s drop the big one.
I bought a FIRE PANDA 5″ like 8 years ago. Loved it. This time around, we made it big. I mean like 14″ big.

I’ll post more images after the opening. Better yet, if you are in town, swing by and take a look for yourself.

It has been a busy month with New Balance at SoleGoodz this month.
Within 30 days, we have/had 3 special drops.
It all started with Jeff Staple’s White Pigeon 575 at the end of August.

Last weekend was Solebox’s M1500 “The Finals“.
Those in Mainland were exclusively sold at SoleGoodz.
Of course, those went quite well.

Immediate weekend after the Solebox’s, we will have The 99x Feral Creation Pac.
Again, Mainland is dropping these products slightly later than other countries.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? That depends, I guess.

I love the Lion variant, more of my colors.
Definitely keeping a pair for myself.

With these 3 releases, New Balance has been highly visible in the Mainland media, which (sorry to say) hasn’t happened for a long time. By bringing in more hot items, NB will definitely get stronger exposures. In a marketplace that is dominated by N & A, a sudden burst like this month’s will help a long way.

Is quite interesting to watch shoppers react when they come into SoleGoodz where we only sell kicks from Puma and New Balance.

“PUMA/NB has shoes like these?? Cool !”
Well, they always did….

Came to YOKOYAMA.
Just in time to check out their Yokohama Port 150th Anniversary Exhibition.
Needless to say the weekend there was crowded.

The show stopper was Francois Delaroziere’s La Machine.

Unlike the Transformers, this giant machine doesn’t transformer itself into anything. It is, however, a robotic performer that needs 8 people to control and “dance” to the music.

The sky was so blue, I was lucky that the weather has been great while I’m Tokyo so far.

Diet Butcher…. most sizes were sold out.

Finished my day with this for dinner. It was like $12usd….

August 22nd, SoleGoodz will have this latest collaboration between Jeff’s Staple Design and New Balance available for sale.
The White Pigeon 575. Dont miss out.

As for me, I arrived to Beijing again this afternoon.
Meeting up with a few friends in town, cooking and planning.

 
Joleigh took us to Dali Restaurant inside Xiao Jing Chang Hutong.
This is inside a group of old (broken) houses in the Hutong.
Who knew inside such a pile of old houses near stores like Blinking and Deal there’s such a peaceful place for Yun-Nan cusine??

Thank you, Joleigh, for leading the way.

SOLEGOODZ officially opened 2 weekends ago, didn’t have time to show some pics until today.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support us that rainy day. Much appreciated.
SoleGoodz will be bringing you special selections down the road. Hope this store can present the sneakers differently than how you see them in the corporate branded stores.

If you ever make it out to Shanghai, hit us up.
SoleGoodz is at 351 Zi Zhong Road, right next to Xin Tian Di.

With the official opening scheduled for this Sat, Aug 1st, we decided to warm up the SOLEGOODZ space with PUMA and friends 3 nights before.   An easy night of food, booze and shoes.

We invited about 20 friends to come in and check the latest PUMA goods, at the same time, catch up on what has been going on in this crazy city of Shanghai.

From DJs to interior designers, streetwear brand owners to tv hosts, hip-hop dancers to corporate directors, we had the crowd-mix of a Chinese hot pot dinner. I hope the interactions that took place was fun for everyone. I’d rather have this than a 300 people crazy party where you won’t even remember how you got home…

DISC BLAZE is definitely making a strong comeback. Diggin’ those ill colors.

A good friend from the PUMA camp, Erik Troppenz, was in town. He was commenting on what was on the feet of product designer Scott Hung.

Soon after, Nicole and I joined the conversation… Notice how we talk… with all eyes looking on Scott’s shoes.

This type of judgement was no fun for Scotty! Okay, we were just being mean.

The boyz from DUSTY and Hitz trying on a few pairs.
With some things, you just have to try it on for size.

Yoyo and Denson. Both dance-a-holic.
Yoyo is responsible for alot of our management work at adFunture, she’s also the one with that Bumble Bee fixed-bike I blogged a while ago. Yah, that’s HER bike!

Eddi: “So, what was it?? The water? The milk? The steaks? How da hell do I grow taller?? Tell me!!”

I went with the PUMA Suede Angeler. Not a limited edition or what not, but just a fine looking pair of kickz.

So, back to Scott Hung and what he had on…

the PUMA Cabanna Racer.
We were actually saying how nice this shape is, and we understood why Scott chose to use this Cabanna Racer as base for his 8 designs for 2009 Winter collection. It was a very good choice on Scott’s part.

Scott, it was nice seeing you again. I’m sure we’ll work together again, be it on shoes or on some other platform. You are a cool dude, take care.

Days before the opening, I’m sure there are tons of things not yet covered, but then I don’t feel the panic yet. Wait til Friday nite, it’ll hit me hard. Always a last minute guy..

Had to take mug shots this week, Neil did a great job and made me look half decent.

Was asked to make a YOKA for the opening, and decide to draw inspiration from the gradient 580.
Nothing crazy, just looks cool.

These will go into goody bags for the Saturday opening event.
SOLEGOODZ, come check us out if you are in town.

SOLEGOODZ Sneaker Boutique will officially open on Aug 1st, 2009.
Nothing too fancy, just the opening of yet another sneaker boutique in Shanghai. What makes this one different is what we will do with it down the road. If you love sneakers, come check it out.

Located right beside ICONIC-1 Store, SOLEGOODZ is on #351 Zi Zhong Lu, Lu Wan District, Shanghai.

Upon my return to Shanghai from Taipei, our attention went right back to the rennovating new retail space. Right next to ICONIC-1, we’re opening a sneaker boutique named SOLEGOODZ. For my personal love for sneakers, this seems like a natural step to take. With all the designer figures and designer products right door in ICONIC-1, SOLEGOODZ will purely be focusing on footwear and some apparel to match.

After using too much silver color next door, we decided to balance our taste with some wood grains.

Our craftman spending his time making our leather sofa for customers to sit on while trying on their sizes. The whole rennovation thing has been going on for one and a half months now, the anticipation is killing me. Will show you more as we move forward.

Speaking of sneakers, I’m loving this Undefeated x New Balance 580. The gun metal colorway is spot on. Very nice.