You’re getting the first look at Nike Sportswear in Brazil’s new pop-up store Canarinho in the Gallery of Rock in Sao Paulo and its accompanying Brazilian-produced line. Gallery of Rock is a multi-story behemoth of stores in the city’s decadent downtown dedicated to Brazilian alternative culture, from hip-hop to cosplay, so they couldn’t have picked a more appropriate place to launch the colorful boutique. Named after the pet name Brazilians gave to their national soccer team during the World Cup in which they wore yellow jerseys for the first time, the collection features local artists Don Torelly, Presto and Jurubis, whose takes are fun, animated visions on the classic Blazers and Dunk Lows, plus tees. Eduardo Saretta from Choque Cultural put together the creative team. See more photos after the jump, and if you gotta get your hands on these surely limited editions, hit up Maze in Sao Paulo.
In another well-curated proposal, Choque Cultural’s chronicling the art of text in Caligrafia, its latest exhibit. Jumping off from Chaz Bojorquez’s famous East L.A. tags, the show features a diverse array of styles from 40 international artists. Hardly anything is left out in this extensive visual history: Loomit’s 3-D letters, Atsuo’s glittery work, Retna’s engraved metalwork and seminal artist Billy Argel’s Brazilian skate contribution. Other big stars include L.A.’s own Saber and New York City’s KR. Media forms extend from painting to prints and photos. See a few pieces from the show online at the site. The show runs till June 27.
Interesting things are happening in the sneaker/partnering news department this week. Run-DMC’s abandoned their Adidas loyalty to Nike by releasing a Nike+ running soundtrack. And on the heels of that is Vice Brazil’s launch with partner Converse in tow. Kicking off Tuesday is The Way We Run, a multi-track of events spanning art, music, fashion and skate in Sao Paulo, like a meet and greet with team skaters and DJ sets, all taking place at various high-profile places for six weeks. The event ends with a surprise show. I met Vice Brazil publisher Tony Cebrian a few months ago, who told me he has big plans for the Vice empire’s South American version of the free magazine, including featuring stories that will knock any generalizations of Brazil right out of the water. Look for a translated version of those stories to wind their way to your copy of Vice soon. I’m looking forward, just as you likely are, of seeing some Dos and Dont’s from below the Equator.
In 2007, a tiny Brazilian sneakers blog started tapping into the kicks obsessions of its citizens, but as we are with most things, we were on their potential from the get-go. Two years later, it’s built up a veritable reader base, who head directly to it to hear first word on the country’s newest arrivals and to read the daily musings from some movers and skaters in the industry. Nike Brazil, one of its most ardent fans, has given it a flattering gift for all that dedication on its anniversary: to let it design its own Air Max 1 called the Lanceiro, making it the first model of this type to be designed by Brazilians. Pulling colorful cultural inspiration from the blog’s home state of Pernambuco, especially mangue beat, the state’s musical invention in the ’90s that mixes traditional maracatu and ciranda sounds with hip-hop and rock music, the Lanceiro is a real eye-catcher. Designer Fabricio Machado looked to the vibrant beads on the costumes of Pernambuco’s rural spearmen Caboclo da Lanca for the dots on the upper of the shoes and added in a speckled midsole to imitate mud from the state’s famous swamps. To switch things up a bit, the laces and inside soles are swappable for a version with the beadwork pattern. The site has full information in English on the development of the shoe including some amazing photos of Caboclo da Lanca, and promises to have information on where to buy the Lanceiro shortly. An inspiration picture after the jump.
Going through my ridiculously large memory box this past weekend, I came across a few particularly classic ’80s items amidst old report cards and photos: colored rubber bracelets, a two-sided Swatch phone and a photo of me wearing clear jelly shoes that took begging and promises of finishing my homework to get. It looks like I’m not the only one recently waxing nostalgia. With the Cons History Hunt, Converse Brazil is asking the public to send in videotape footage, homemade DVD vids, photos—whatever recorded memory you have—of their shoes in a serious effort to build up their archives.The best photo gets a rare, blindingly white sample model of the Cons CTS shoe in size 40—I’ll leave it to you sneaker freaks to decode what this size is in American speak—which comes in a sleek wood shoebox. Unfortunately the contest is only open to Brazilians, so if you want these shoes that bad and think you have the winning photo, I suggest you make a Brazilian amigo real fast and do some negotiating.
Nike Brazil’s newest campaign idea, entitled “V Project,” tasked nine people from the worlds of fashion, skate and art to create their vision of victory. One of them, artist and skate photographer Flavio Samelo (who’s part of the ever-productive Baglione collective), tapped into the period when he was in a coma for a year and had to learn to walk again after coming out of it. It was an experience that he made tangible through a mix of concrete and photographs (video here). Over the next few weeks, the works will circulate through the windows of various stores that carry Nike in Sao Paulo, including Surface to Air and Maze Skate Shop (which recently underwent a nice renovation that incorporates rails and concrete just like you find at the skate park), and will be put on the website of a new Nike-sponsored magazine called Project Gudi.
There are those who are darn proud to break wind. We’re talking about Nike’s iconic Windrunner, of course, which started off as a functional apparel piece to cut pace-slowing headwinds. In their latest Brazilian campaign to promote these classic nylon jackets, Nike Sportswear called upon my dear friends Paula Reboredo and Gil França of street fashion blog Freakstyle to help oversee the one-off Windfreak Style contest. Sao Paulo residents are invited to send in photos of themselves in Windrunners, via their blogs, for a chance to win a package that includes (another) Windrunner and VIP tickets to Freakstyle’s monthly party — essentially the bragging rights far outweigh the prize. So far the entries range from dudes on skateboards to stylish fashion shoots. Help pick the winner by leaving your comments on the Flickr page. What a great example of connecting a campaign to the local market.
Continuing to further shorten the artistic gap between the U.S. and Brazil, Sao Paulo’s Choque Cultural is extending their connections northwestward to well-respected Scion Space in Los Angeles. The Sao Paulo exhibit starts on Feb. 28 and features some of the strongest artists on their roster, and in Brazil: Calma, Carlos Dias, Titi Freak and Zezao. Influences run from folk art and tattoo iconography to hip-hop and skate culture. Throw in free valet parking and an open bar and you’ve got a party! Now if only they really had free valet parking and non-stop drinks in the real Sao Paulo, the experience would truly be authentic. The show runs through March 28.
Earlier this year we told you about a high-profile Brazilian skate art exhibit called Expo Skate Obsession at Maze Skate Shop that brought together the most known names in the discipline into one building. The project went so well that a book chronicling the participating artists and groundbreaking show was just released this week. Partnering with Adidas, the it was sold at the big price of free (how’s that for democracy!) at the launch party. I was totally flattered to be asked to participate as translator of the artist biographies, and I’m super impressed with how well the slick, hardcover book came out, especially with the design and well-executed photos (shot by skate legend and Cemporcento Brazilian skate mag editor Alexandre Vianna). If you just gotta have this book, I’m confident if you beg and plead to Maze they might be convinced to send you one of these skate must-haves if you offer up shipping costs.
Brazilian skaters like Bob Burnquist and Sandro Dias have been holding it down for the South American country when it comes to the worldwide skate stage, but unless you’re already deep into the scene or keep up it with here on JoshSpear.com, you wouldn’t know that Brazil has had other veritable contributions to the sport. Graffiti artist Sesper has been getting his hands dirty as producer on an as-yet-unreleased DVD documentary called Re.board on the history of Brazilian skate art which features jacks of the trade Fabio Bitao, Billy Argel and Ragueb Rogerio, who talk about the discipline’s development and shows what all the goodness they’ve done to push it forward. To get a closer look from the trailer, check out the photo album.
I’m a tripper. Invisible cracks in the sidewalk, errant candy wrappers, delicate leaves, you name it — I only recently stopped blaming the horrible conditions of the sidewalks in Sao Paulo for my clumsiness that oftentimes results in my arms flailing and legs akimbo; butt sometimes making contact with the cement. But when walking through one of the metro stations yesterday it wasn’t only me who almost lost their breath. I stepped right into a skate bowl but remained on terra firma. As part of the publicity campaign for the upcoming Guarana Antarctica Street Festival in Sao Paulo that counts in skaters like Bob Burnquist and Sandro Dias and bands like Bad Religion. Brazilian firm DM9DDB designed a giant adhesive that created the perfect illusion of a skate bowl in the middle of a busy thoroughfare. It was a convincing visual trick, even if you didn’t know what you were stepping into until after. Not a bad way of promoting another method of transport.
These great portable device adhesives are from the debut collection of iSkin Brasil, but they look so good you could stick one of these honeys on a sketchbook cover or skateboard. Sixteen Brazilian artists, organized by art promoters/non-profit group Aprendiz, each came up with a design that was translated by iSkin into covers, figuring iPods and laptops are an easy way for consumers to inject art into their daily lives. Themes run from Japan (definitely the most popular in the country this year) to São Paulo’s hopelessly polluted Tiete river, portrayed with lots of imagination, color and fertile talent. Unfortunately, you can only buy them through the country’s FNAC bookstore and electronics chain — but with a little ingenuity (and possibly a friend who speaks Portuguese) you can manage to order one online.
The Santander Cultural center in Porto Alegre, a major city in the south of Brazil, is the site of an exciting, monster-sized street art exhibit called Transfer. Not only does it draw the biggest names from the discipline (Ornesto, Herbert Baglione, Carlos Dias) in the country but also matches them with their international peers like Mike Mills, Cheryl Dunn and KAWS. A group of star curators including Sesper and Christian Strike has brought over the amazing Beautiful Losers tour as one segment of the show, bringing the overall participant total to 300 works by 100 artists. The other three parts of Transfer discuss street art: how it’s documented by photographs and film, accessories to the scene, such as skate and publications, and work that has transcended the street and entered more defined art and cultural spaces. The show runs until Sept. 28, but since you won’t be there to check it out in person, see skate photographer Flavio Samelo’s shots from the show here.
Despite the seriously crappy weather we’ve been experiencing here in Sao Paulo that’s wetting down all moods, the buildup is nevertheless mounting as the best athletes in skate, BMX and motocross are landing in Brazil’s concrete jungle this week for the world staging of the X Games at Anhembi to compete in various heats: street, vertical and best trick. It’s actually the very same spot where the city’s Carnaval is held and because of this very fact, I like to think (unscientifically, of course) that the dried-up sweat molecules from February will be reabsorbed into the air and carry the event to the same wicked adrenaline heights. Expectations are on for Brazilians Sandro Dias and Bob Burnquist, who will be adding notches to their legendary status on the skate ramps. To close out the games on Saturday and Sunday, Brazilian pop-punk band CPM 22 and rock group Charlie Brown Jr will entertain. If you don’t have cable, tune into the website to watch more than 40 hours of the Games as they’re going down in real-time.
From Ed Templeton to the Art Dump and stretching back to the Dogtown days, the world of skate plays a big part in the creative process, one that runs parallel with the sport itself and constantly reinvents itself as long as its progenitor does. Maze Skate Shop, with sponsorship by Adidas Skateboarding here in Brazil, is putting on the first-ever dedicated show of art as was specifically influenced by skate with its Expo Skate Obsession. The excitement kicks off tonight. Participating artists include Apo Fousek (who recently did a stint at Eastpak), Prozak, Paulo Ito and Tinho. They’ve given paintings, drawings, photos and other designs to commemorate the show, with a percentage of all sold works going to a charity. Later, a book archiving these works and the show will be released in Portuguese and English. The show will sit inside Maze’s new space that will become the site of its new girls-only extension after the show ends.
Nike Brazil’s newest campaign idea, entitled “V Project,” tasked nine people from the worlds of fashion, skate and art to create their vision of victory. One of them, artist and skate photographer 
I’m a tripper. Invisible cracks in the sidewalk, errant candy wrappers, delicate leaves, you name it — I only recently stopped blaming the horrible conditions of the sidewalks in Sao Paulo for my clumsiness that oftentimes results in my arms flailing and legs akimbo; butt sometimes making contact with the cement. But when walking through one of the metro stations yesterday it wasn’t only me who almost lost their breath. I stepped right into a skate bowl but remained on terra firma. As part of the publicity campaign for the upcoming 
These great portable device adhesives are from the debut collection of 
Despite the seriously crappy weather we’ve been experiencing here in Sao Paulo that’s wetting down all moods, the buildup is nevertheless mounting as the best athletes in skate, BMX and motocross are landing in Brazil’s concrete jungle this week for the world staging of the 
From Ed Templeton to the Art Dump and stretching back to the Dogtown days, the world of skate plays a big part in the creative process, one that runs parallel with the sport itself and constantly reinvents itself as long as its progenitor does. 
