Thoughts on the Lebron 9

Hello fellow shoe lovers,

This past weekend I was out shopping for my birthday present and I entered my local Finish Line to check out the latest display of kicks. I came across a few different styles I liked and then like a semi truck hitting a brick wall I was stopped in my tracks.

A little back story before that moment, I had been following the creation, so to speak, of the Lebron 9 ever since it was first announced. I have always been a fan Nike’s Lebron line until last year with the release of the Lebron 8, PS, and V/2. So naturally, I was pretty excited about a brand new full redesign of the Lebron 9. Hours turn to days, days to weeks, weeks to months and then the first photos of the 9 are released. My face instantly puckers up as if I was drinking straight lime juice. I had such high hopes for this shoe and abruptly they are shot down. As soon as I see the image I go to my favorite footwear blog, Nice Kicks, and bash the shoe down into the mud. Over the course of the next month several more images are released along with multiple colorways. My hatred for the shoe is still quite high but at the same time with each image it slowly and I mean SLOWLY starts to grow on me. By the time the shoe releases I get to the point where I say, “I will check it out in the stores and if it straight I will probably pick it up.” However that turned out to be an epic fail!

Rewinding back to the mall …
It was October 29, the day of my birth and I walk down to the Finish Line to check out what they had in stock. I wear a 14 so I have to go to a specific part of the store where bigger sizes are located. I am scanning the shoes and BAM the Lebron 9′s hit my eye. However, this is where I was fooled. This shoe has one of the best profiles of any shoe that was located on the shelf. From the side this shoe looks aggressive, bold, and an easy eye catcher. As soon as I took that shoe into my hand and turned it to the other side I threw up in my mouth. The inner side, where the arch is located, looked like a tortilla. There was no structure for the arch section of the foot. I knew if I stuck my fairly large foot in that shoe it would be the muffin top of the shoe world. I immediately put the shoe down and went about my day.

Thoughts of the Lebron 9:
As a designer myself I really believe Jason Petrie, Lebron 9 Designer, has good intentions with his designs. But I believe that sometimes the new technology that is implemented by Nike is overplayed on certain signature shoes. For instance on the Lebron 9 the whole arch is a flywire panel. Yes, it is a durable technology and does add reinforcement but in no way does it add vital arch support. My main problem with the finished design of the Lebron 9 was busyness. I feel like I always reference the Lebron 7 but I believe it embodied the best design thus far for the Lebron line. It was simple but still read performance where as the Lebron 9 shows you the complicated mechanical workings of how performance works. On the other note I do like the look of the materials used in the shoe. It does give it depth and a great texture. If you are a die-hard Lebron fan then these are a sure pick up. Or if you are looking for something to ball in, then I would recommend the Hyperfuse over these. Collectors just sit back and wait for the Lebron 10′s like me.

Images courtesy of Nice Kicks

Thanks for reading.

Opening Day kicks

Hello All!

Since last week was the start of baseball I thought I would show a few shoes that are a must have for any Cincinnati Reds baseball fan. These selections all have a unique look and probably are the most visually stimulating in the red/black/white colorway.

The first sneaker is a classic! The Nike Air Max 90 is always a sure bet in any persons collection. This shoe looks sick in any team color but this colorway of red/dark grey/white is one of the better ones I have seen in awhile. If you can’t find them in stores head over to Nikeid and create your own.

The second is a classic with a twist! The Nike Air Max 24/7, it takes the 95 and 97 and fuses it with with a 360˚air bag. Though there have been some bold colors released with this sneaker, the red/black combo is always a bold statement. Be sure to pick these up.

Third, Air Griffey Max 1 is the ultimate baseball kick. As a Cincinnati fan you have to have these in the red/white/black colorway. No other color does this shoe justice like this one. If you don’t follow baseball Ken Griffey Jr., know this, he is a native of Cincinnati and a former Red’s outfielder. If you haven’t gone and picked these up already good luck finding them!

Last the Air Jordan 2011. This shoe’s upper in red was a unique look since the designers used a dress shoe leather that adds depth to the color on the shoe. I was not a fan of these in the black but this colorway has proved to be a better look. I mean they are Jordan’s so you can’t go wrong … right? Get em!

Let me know which are your favorite. leave a comment!

Random thoughts about Nike’s designs

Hello all,

I have been thinking a lot lately about the cost of kicks and the quality and originality of the design of the shoe. If any of you readers follow me on twitter you have probably seen my rants on a few of Nike’s newest shoe releases. Here is why! I love Nike, no doubt about that and they make up 95% of my sneaker collection. Nike has always been a big leader in innovation ever since the creation of the AIR. However, I have noticed recently that the new releases of shoes that are being released from Nike are the same shoe they made years ago with a slightly altered “ego”. Recently, for anyone who does not follow Nike, they developed a new shoe design called hyperfuse. This new technology makes for a lighter more breathable shoe and does away with a lot of extra material associated with the traditional sneaker. Nicekicks.com explains Hyperfuse in this way, “Hyperfuse “fuses” its distinct layers into a composite using a unique manufacturing method. Hyperfuse eliminates the need to manually stitch together footwear materials, and provides engineered zones of performance with a level of precision never possible with traditional cut-and-sew construction.” I commend Nike for this design because it is very modern and fresh look. Unfortunately they have taken this technology and tried to integrate it into classics and newer models of recent releases.

This takes me back to an old post where I talked about originality for the first time. In that post I commented on the combination’s Nike was doing with the Air Force One and Air Jordan. This of course was not the only thing I noticed in their shoes. After the Fusions, came the 360º AIR technology. This innovation was where Nike took the AIR bag and extended it across the whole bottom of a shoe. It was first seen on Lebron’s 7th Signature shoe. What Nike did shortly thereafter was but this 360º AIR on various classics like the Air Max 97 to create a new shoe called the Air Max 24/7. As you see below I have shown two of the current lines Nike has that have incorporated the Hyperfuse tech.

Am I saying it is a bad idea? No, but I feel like it is a cheap way to make money. This technique they use I compare to a remaking of an old movie. It is someone else taking an original idea and tweaking it with new technology to make it their own. Does it give it a new attitude or feeling? Yes, but you still see the undertone.

At the end of the day I have to stop and ask myself am I viewing this through the eyes of a consumer or through the eyes of an artist. As a consumer, like I said earlier, it is an easy way to make money off of old ideas. But through an artist eyes I would call this legitimate design.

I think a quote like this is very good for these types of situations. “Every designers’ dirty little secret is that they copy other designers’ work. They see work they like, and they imitate it. Rather cheekily, they call this inspiration.”- Aaron Russell.

Typeography Kicks!

Hello All,

As you all know I am a graphic designer and I am a sneaker head. Combining these two loves I started doing typographic shoes a while back. I have seen several different designs that are done a lot but they are not very detailed and more stylized. So What I did was used the words that are the name of the shoe , so for example the picture below is made up of the words NIKE, AIR, FORCE, and ONES. I have not seen anyone do it this way and I have not seen anyone really put in the detail that my designs incorporate. In an earlier post you can see where I did the Air Force One but after looking at it I was very unsatisfied with the quality of it. I went back and redid the shoe using a better font, and I eliminated the overlapping of words which makes the composition a lot cleaner looking. As for now I have done two shoes, the Air Force Ones and the Nike Dunks. I plan on doing the Air max 95 as well but as any designer knows making typographic art is very tedious and long so please be patient. I am also making these designs t-shirts so if any of you readers out there have kicks you would like to be made in type art and a t-shirt visit my facebook page and request one! Pricing is coming soon. Be sure to stay tuned I have a lot more art coming.

Thanks for reading.

All images property/copyrighted by Gabriel Clemons Design

New Photos of Jordan Flight 45

I have just posted my photo set of my Jordan Flight 45 shoes. Surprisingly these are the fourth pair of Jordan’s in my collection, with a wht/crimson/coolgrey color way they really caught my eye. Do you like? Let me know what you think! The whole album can be seen on my facebook page. Stay tuned for more sets from my collection. Would you like your shoes photographed like mine, contact me for pricing/availability. If your not a fan of Gabriel Clemons Design on Facebook, be one today! Or follow me on Twitter.

New Sneaks!!!

Hello All,

I recently bought four new pairs of kicks. I picked these shoes because of the detail they each have. They all are atheistically pleasing in there own way and the design of each is unique but all centers around the same subject of basketball/training. When I pick shoes for my collection I don’t just pick them because they are popular, I choose the shoes that I believe have some of the best design elements in them. I try to think of what inspired the creation of the shoes and how that ties in with their overall purpose. Three of the four I have really wanted for my collection where as the fourth is just a good ole pair of the New Balance 574 grey/grey just to have to walk around in. These three new sneaks will bring my collection to a total of 30 pairs of shoes. I know that doesn’t seem like a lot for a sneakerhead but I think that is pretty good considering I have recently started collecting in the past year.

Let us start with the first pair, The Nike Zoom Huarache Trainer. I have wanted this shoe ever since 2003 when I was in NYC for a school trip. A guy on the trip bought a crazy colorway that looked amazing. The Trainer I purchased has a black/volt colorway which is Nike’s newest colorway that they are using with a lot with the brand. This shoe still has the same Huarache logo and technology and uses a carbon fiber detail pattern on parts of the upper. It is a great looking shoe and really reminds me of the Oregan Ducks uniforms for the bowl game. If you see a pair, pick them up they are HOT!

Next, I got the retrod Air Jordan XIII. I got to tell you out of all the Air Jordans the XII and the XIII have to be my favorites. I had bought a pair of these off Ebay years back and of course they were fake and I was so disappointed and when I heard they were being released again I knew I had to jump on it. The only thing was I procrastinated and almost missed out. I picked up the White/Black-True Red-Pearl Grey colorway even though I really really really wanted the flint. I know a lot of you know about the Air Jordan XIII but if you dont, the XIII boasted MJ’s nickname black cat, Zoom Air, and a hologram panthers eye. This is a iconic shoe and will probably be one of the most cherished out of my collection. Be sure to look for a few more colorways before it goes in the vault.

Finally, I picked up a shoe that I wanted to get when it was released in October of 2009 but waited for a price drop. However, in doing so Lebron’s signature introduced the Lebron 8 and 8 V2 which fazed out the VII and I was limited to two colorways. So as you know the last shoe I purchased was the Lebron VII. When this shoe first dropped I followed it from the design level all the way up to its release. This shoe was not only one of the best looking shoes in Lebron’s signature brand but also versus other signature shoes. I had wanted the debut colorway but like I said earlier price held me back a little, so I ended up with the Cool Grey/Orange/White. It is okay because this matches up with my some of my favorite teams and I honestly don’t need another red/black/white pair of shoes in my collection. But this shoe is beautiful and ranks high in performance (ratings by sole collector). In an earlier post I compared this shoe to Lebron’s 8 V2. If you don’t have these by now good luck finding them, because the supply is low and they are now $80 compared to the $150 when they were released.

Be sure to stay tuned to my blog I will have photo sets of these new shoes along with other shoes out of my collection on my facebook page in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading.

2010 Hyperdunks

Hello All,

I recently purchased a pair of Nike Hyperdunks in a fresh color way. Being that I live in Knoxville and went to the University of Tennessee I had to get a pair in orange. I have been working on a photo set of these shoes which can be seen on my facebook page I really wanted to focus on the detail of the shoe to the point that the shape becomes its on entity and the thought that your looking at a shoe completely disappears. I hope you all enjoy! More shoes and photo sets are to come.

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Sneaker Head Song (Hot)

Nice little song for all the sneaker heads in the world, enjoy

The All new Lebron 8 V2 thoughts

Today I am sharing my thoughts on the new signature shoe, the Lebron 8 V2. The Lebron 8 V2 is an alternate version to the first Lebron 8 shoe that was introduced late last year. I was never a fan of the 8th shoe in Lebron’s line up and thought that it was a step down from the design on the Lebron 7. Now the shoe is designed by the same designer as the previous version, Jason Petrie. When I saw what he did with the 7 I was amazed and it helped fuel my passion for shoe design. The Lebron 8 V2 has a lot of great performance designs that I do like such as the tpu skin for flexibility and the flywire lockdown to hold the foot into the shoe. However, the overall look of the shoe doesn’t say Lebron James to me. If these weren’t Lebron’s shoes I would think these were for a 6’8″ center. Now all of Lebron’s shoes have had a bulky quality about them but I believe this one is the worst. I hate to do this but if you refer back to some of the designs for the Air Jordan specifically the 12, it just looks like it is fast and dynamic. This shoe lacks a presence when it is entangled with nine other designs. One thing that is striking on this shoe is the tongue, I like the over-sized logo aspect to make it pop. When I think of Lebron, I don’t necessarily think of speed but I do think of agile mixed with power. That is why I liked the Lebron 7, the flywire panel on the upper was just gorgeous and in all the  directional lines it still had a clean look to it. If you don’t know what I mean just go check them out. Undoubtedly I think the V2 is a good basketball shoe and may possess some kind of attractiveness in a different colorway, but unfortunately I do not think it will be in my collection like the Lebron 7 is.

Thanks for reading!