Cool Hunting
| 13 October 2005view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Time Out: Shelf Conscious
by Josh Rubin
All hands on decks. For a true sneaker freak, shoes aren't just something to wear on one's feet. As a nod to his obsession with collectors' kicks, Josh Rubin, editor of design blog Coolhunting.com, has created pair-o-deez ($10), a sneaker-themed paring card game based on the age-old kindergarten pastime Memory. Test your recall-- not to mention your knowledge of limited edition footwear-- with the 52-card deck, which bears photos of 26 pairs of shoes (all from Rubin's personal collection). When you mismatch the Adidas Tennis Hi with the Adidas Nizza Hi, don't feel bitter-- 25 percent of the cards' sales goes to the Humane Society Disaster Relief Fund, which helps pets abandoned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
--Kate Williams
Gaffer's Tape Wallets
by Ami Kealoha
Dbclay replaces gooey duct tape with one continuous piece of durable, matte Gaffer's tape. Further upgrades include waterproof nylon lining and exteriors emblazoned with designs like spray-painted stencils, limited edition, hand-painted patterns, and photo imagery. The result is a grown-up version of its predecessor that looks good, adds functional design elements, and retains the novelty and surprise that comes from an inventive use of materials.
The line's available on their website and in select boutiques, ranging in price from $40 for the simplest to $85 artist-designed versions.
826NYC Fashion Show and Benefit
by Ami Kealoha
McSweeney's, the youthful bi-coastal publishing house, is one of the more prolific enterprises out there, having put out dozens of books, a quarterly journal, and monthly magazine The Believer, all within the last few years. Not the least of their accomplishments is the non-profit 826 program that originated in their San Francisco space and offers writing workshops and tutoring for grade school-age kids. 826 has blown up with a branch in New York, and Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Seattle outposts all opening in 2005.
Their success doesn't mean they don't need support and a few others, like comedienne Amy Sedaris, Daily Show correspondent Ed Helms, seem to agree. They're three of the models who will be wearing superhero attire (in keeping with the theme of 826NYC's Brooklyn storefront) at the October 20th show held in Manhattan's Symphony Space to benefit 826NYC. Designs by local luminaries, including Kenneth Cole, and Jack Spade, Behnaz Sarafpour, and Zac Posen, as well as a marching band, commentary by Sarah Vowell, and more, promise to make the night well worth the $25 cover. For $75, guests receive priority seating, a wine reception, and can bid on the fashions in a silent auction after the show.
Tickets are available here.
The Freeman PC Museum Collection now on eBay
by Evan Orensten
The Freeman PC Museum Collection is de-accessioning their impressive collection of personal computers—more than 440 computers (and their peripherals, manuals, software, etc.) covering the last thirty years of personal computing. Probably the largest of its type, the collection is currently on eBay and has been posted widely. Tell your friends with deep pcokets (and even bigger storage spaces) or your company/clients to jump on this great piece of our tech history.
