St Louis natives Indiana Rome, Saint Orleans, MVP, and William H dropped their collab project this week, catch em at Cicero’s Thursday May 31st

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Anyone who knows me knows how much I love raw denim’s ability to evolve and reflect the owner. My friends Antonio and Eric stopped by the store on their way out of town and I made sure to document the fade projects they’ve been rocking. Antonio (blue Vans) purchased his 3sixteen ST-100s from Self Edge’s New York location 16 months ago and after 8 months of continuous wear washed them by swimming in the ocean and letting them air dry on the beach. Eric (Iron Man SB Dunks) purchased his APC petit New Standards from the New York flagship store 14 months ago and has never washed them.

Watch out for Mishka Summer 2012 Product in at SwedLife this summer.

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Dusty was in town and had some fun the store with his new flash. Enjoy the gear homie! His new site theyownthenight.com launches this summer

Checkout The Atomic Cowboy

If you have stopped by our #6378dlmr shop I’m sure you’ve met our resident sneakerhead Mark. We took these shots of his new Motivation inspired ink, shouts to Mike Rush for the work. Check out Mark’s blog at takeoversneakers.com or come chop it up at the shop

The warm weather might have come early this year but The Hundreds and SwedLife got you covered. Tons of dope shorts, tanks, snapbacks, and more available now at #6378dlmr along with the spring lines from Mishka, Diamond Supply Co, Huf Worldwide, Entree Lifestyle, Motivation, Dope Couture, and Kid-N-Clay.

It is official spring on the Loop and we just put a gang of gear on sale. Fall thru this week to snag some of these deals.

The release of the Nike All Star 2012 Pack was an absolute frenzy of constantly changing information and rising rumored resell prices. While the whole pack was highly anticipated and sought after, the Galaxy Foam commanded the majority of the hype and most exclusive distribution. With no online availability, the Foam was only available at House of Hoops locations for the same retail price as any recently released foam, $220. I understand Nike’s decision to maintain normal pricing, as a large publicly traded company Nike’s profits are well known and selling a special colorway for five times the price would be a PR nightmare. But, with a realistic market price easily over $1000, selling the shoe for $220 created a gold rush type situation with collectors having no chance to acquire sneakers in a mob of thousands trying to resell.

Under the current system, the surplus value between retail and street price is up for grabs to whoever can find a way to be in the front of the line, by any means necessary. Nike shoes frequently sell for several times retail price for deadstock vintage shoes, but the market valuing a sneaker at this level is unique and infrequent. With that much value up for grabs and so few pairs available at each location, the crowds became a destructive storm showing its worst side in Orlando, where tear gas was used on a crowd of 3,000.

Nike used a much better method of distributing the Air Mag in 2011, an equally anticipated and valued sneaker. By selling the shoes to the winner of eBay auctions, Nike gave the shoes to the customer who valued them at the highest price while giving the surplus value to charity. It would undoubtedly be considered too greedy for Nike to retain all profits from selling the shoes at the highest possible price, but starting the auctions at the retail price of $220 and giving any extra money to charity solves the public relations greed issue while allowing the value created by the hype to culminate in helping less fortunate people. In-store releases and waiting in lines in unquestionably a part of sneaker culture, but the value left on the table by Nike is literally dangerous. Had Nike made the remainder of the pack slightly less exclusive, crowds would have been spread over more locations for in-store release while Foamposites were shipped off in separate boxes to the winners of the eBay auctions. Just like the Air Mag, the Galaxy Foamposite could have been delivered to 3000 different locations after 3000 auctions, capturing the value of the hype while never putting enough pairs in one place to start a riot.

Every time it’s rumored someone died over sneakers our community reacts like the situation couldn’t have been avoided. Releasing hype monsters does not need to be like this, and the Air Mag proved it. Continuing to generate violent and uncontrollable situations at retailers reflects poorly on the sneaker community and Nike is capable of both protecting their customers while helping others. Yeezy 2′s are primed to be the next monster and I can only hope Nike will go the Air Mag route instead of cultivating another mess.

Chicago’s BBU let loose a new album this week presented by Mishka and Mad Decent just in time for LONDON CALLING PRESENTS BBU TOMORROW SATURDAY FEB 25TH! 18 and up, on $4 before 11. Check out the new album on Mishka’s awesome bandcamp here

Just got our personal stash of Cement 4s (NOT FOR SALE!!), hope you had an opportunity to get your hands on a pair or two

Checkout Mishka’s Spring 2012 gear on your favorite hip-hop artists like Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire, Das Racist, Action Bronson and more. Mishka Spring 2012 Product Available soon at SwedLife.

MishkaNYC

Also releasing with the All Star pack is the University Blue Spizike originally rumored to drop in January. Definitely a hella tough colorway, which of the 5 sneakers gets your bread?

In-store only Quickstrike release, favorite heel embroidery from SB in a minute