Nike Lab x James Lavelle:
Available at Haven – $700 CAD ($563 USD)
Haven describes it as a bomber / varsity hybrid. Talks about the lustre of polyester, supple wool blend, and premium tumbled cow leather. Are the cows tumbled (tipped?) or is the leather tumbled after the fact? Kidding fam. I feel like I have to call audibles on jokes on this site sometime. Many you guys think there’s something wrong with me for talking about this stuff in the first place… gotta be safe and assume a joke-question about tipped cows might not be caught.
The jacket itself is pretty hot, I must say. Classic MA-1 pocket on the sleeve, and they tossed us another outer pocket on the chest. The tonal olive fabrics they use definitely work. What the hell is up with the black unintelligible patches though? That shit is straight ISIS. Like if ISIS had a dope stylist, he (yes HE… I’m not trying to be sexist here but ISIS is not going to have a female stylist) would lace the whole crew in actual ISIS versions of these, along with the all black Balmain bikers and some black on black Common Projects Achilles’. Think of how fire they would look posted up with the black balaclavas and AKs too? WOOOOOOOOOOO, now that’s what I call marketing terror to the fashion obsessed Western world. The best part would be, even though take home weapons of war are no longer allowed, jackets definitely are. When the whole lot of them are dead I’d call a favor in to have one of these show up at my doorstep FedEx International Priority. I’d deface the patches, and USA USA USA the shit out of the jacket. Might even be a savage and keep the blood on the fabric for authenticity, carry around the certificate I obviously would have copped from the DNA lab showing that the blood does indeed contain human and goat DNA. Can’t fade me. If you run into me, better have Allstate with you. All day.
James Lavelle (who I hadn’t heard of), started a UK based record label called Mo’ Wax. He must be doing alright for himself if he is famous enough (or has enough money) to have a Nike collab… I haven’t heard of much in their discography tbh.
Thoughts? Would cop in current version, or war take-home ISIS version?
Phenomenon Tokyo comes through with the MA-1 bomber, with a twist:
LOL yea 16 pockets on the back alone, and it looks like there are side pockets too. So much for just having the MA-1 Bomber classic, one on the arm. You’ll full on need a second person to help you retrieve stuff from your back. Either that or you’ll risk looking like a herb removing your jacket to fetch your inhaler, which you no doubt only have because you’re out here runnin’ shit. *Oh my god oh my god, if I die I’m a legend*
I have no idea on the price because the Phenomenon site is mad Japanesey. Google translate fails me for the most part on there, but I gather that this back pocket version of their MA-1 is part of a capsule collection called “Tokyo Versus The Stage” which they have on for a limited time.
Thoughts? Would cop? It’s a tough choice between OD and black with this one for me.
Hat tip: Andres
Nike Sports Wear (NSW) with a fall heater:
£175 ($281 USD) over at END Clothing.
Are you questioning the price point? The justification is in the details… first off that pocket is worth at least $50 on it’s own, add another $50 for the fact the color and material contrasts the sweatshirt, embroidered NIKE on the sleeve ($25), tri-color inside the neck taping ($50), Italian flag colors embroidered side hem detailing ($75), and “Made in Italy” ($150)… bringing the total value up to $400, and those are all conservative estimates. The way I look at it is, if you buy this sweatshirt and you’re not a thief you basically owe Nike a couple hundred dollars to cover their costs.
In case you’re questioning the utility of the MA-1 sleeve pocket, I discussed its utility in a past post; basically for Costco and Starbucks receipts.
Thoughts?
Esemplare is an Italian brand that makes ill jackets with military design cues, but their name is ambiguous at best.
Ever been at a nice restaurant with a new girl looking over the appetizer menu, and she’s like “Lets order the Esemplare, I LOOOOOOOOVEEEE Esemplare” and you’re like “Yea same. We should definitely roll with that.” even though you have no idea what the hell you just agreed to, but agreed anyway just to save face? At least it showed up and was delicious, kind of like this jacket maker on the menswear landscape.
Head over to the Esemplare website and take a look for yourself.
Initially I went to the site expecting the jackets to cost about a FIAT, but they actually are reasonably priced at around $500 – $1000.
Thoughts?
The classic MA-1 sleeve pocket gets a new home:
Subtle military design cues work well. Trust Japanese brand Digawel to do it right.
I find I’m always shoving my keys and store receipts in my MA-1’s pocket sleeve. I don’t know how well a heavy set of keys would work in this pocket on a thin cotton shirt, but I could definitely puff it up real nice with a week’s worth of Starbucks and Costco receipts. Flex smarter, not harder is what I always say.
$275 over at Maas And Stacks.
I gave Alpha Industries a rough time on couple past posts for not changing the game as much on collabs as I think they could have. In reality, it’s probably not their fault because they have the standard thing they do VERY well, and the companies they work with don’t want to deviate too far from that.
Although I’ll say this New Era collab looks like an unbranded satin NY Yankees jacket (pictured left), I think that’s the point.
￥36,750 ($421 USD) over at Hayabusa.
