These landed on my proverbial desk while I was gone over the summer courtesy of Timberland Abington and Sky of Epiphany. Timberland Abington was probably among the most refreshing concepts from a large brand that was probably hitting a bit of stagnation. Aside from these shoes, they did a great job diversifying their portfolio with lifestyle products that weren’t ugly dress sneaker joints or of course some construction boot derivative.

The Rugged Handsewn shoe came packaged with a nice canvas sling bag and polar fleece blanket(unseen, it was tough to throw it in the frame). Maybe I’m thinking too much but the polar fleece while I’m sure will be supremely warm, didn’t really fit with the heritage/vintage/”whatever you want to call it” theme. I really like the whole Vibram Christy outsole on anything upper… or I did. Not that I’m 100% on the elitist tip, it’s more the desensitization effect. It simple isn’t as exciting or cool as the first batch. Of course not to necessarily fault Timberland Abington, they have been doing a white wedge outsole since the subrand’s onset. There have been some good versions along the way involving a nice robust, off-white outsole. Starting with the eYe JUNYA WATANABE COMME des GARCONS joints last year and the subsequent wave of Tricker’s customs, but now anyone and everybody is doing it. Nothing is immune to the Vibram Christy outsole these days. But I must stay true to a pair of Danner Japan Mountain Light IIs I have, still my favorite boots of all time.

Thanks a lot to Sky and co., the whole package is pretty useful and the bag is good for lugging random stuff around. I must admit the chunkier boat shoe is tougher to pull off in my eyes… oh wait it’s just my pinner calves (I swear it’s cause I have a high calve insertion point! haha).

-Eugene

A lot of interesting stuff going on these days. From an economic and sociological standpoint, China is a continued area of fascination. The country does some things right yet the by-products are difficult to control and I’m hoping it doesn’t spiral out of control.

-Eugene

Reference
SSS – : Denotes a short article.
***: Denotes an article I found particularly interesting
Picture: self-explanatory
Video: self-explanatory

Feel free to comment below and reference the link #.

An archive of previous Link Dump’s can be seen here.

*If you’re always on the go, I’m a huge advocate for Instapaper. Basically you can bookmark links to read on your mobile device later and it can strip away all the unnecessary imagery to load more quickly.
**If you encounter a login page for a NY Times article (yes there are quite a few of them…), I highly suggest signing up for a free account or else use this dummy one I set up.

Login: tempaccountNYT
Password: tempaccountNYT

#1. Is Search Now A Strategic Industry in China?
If you look at China’s big industries, the trend has been to ensure three different entities exist. This can be seen over airlines and mobile communications. With the China government recently announcing that it will create its own search engine, does that mean that this is something of importance to the government. One would definitely think so even more so than air travel perhaps.

#2. ***Inside the Knockoff-Tennis-Shoe Factory
A very thorough look into factories that produce fake footwear. Yes it’s true replicating footwear has become an art for Mainlanders.

#3. China’s Growth Leads to Problems Down the Road
You heard about that 9-10 traffic jam in China? There are more on the way as infrastructure simply can’t keep up.

#4. ***China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy
A sobering look into the situation at end. While China is the second largest economy in the world, there is still room for much growth. As it stands, the US’s per capita GDP trounces China’s by a long shot, however going forward a government that calls all the shots make for some tidy decision making.

#5. Tensions Over Chinese Mining Venture in Peru
Sketchy shit going on in South America… on the surface it appears as though China is making a sincere effort to invest in the country’s infrastructure.

#6. ***Chinese Hospitals Are Battlegrounds of Discontent
Sad stories of how doctors can lose their life after being thrusted onto the scene without the proper education and training.

China Corner/

#7. Vitamin D Found to Influence Over 200 Genes, Highlighting Links to Disease | Vitamin D May Treat or Prevent Allergy to Common Mold
Vitamin D is the big deal of 2010 and 2011.

#8. The Secret Histories of Those @#$%ing Computer Symbols
Where did signs such as play, pause, on/off originate from?

#9. New Link Found Between Inflammation and Cancer
I thought these two were a given? I guess not but yeh… inflammation such as that cause by insulin can’t be healthy.

#10. Behaviors and Attitudes Towards Oral Sex are Changing, Study Shows
Ya don’t say…

#11. ***Comparison of Harvard Study Results with ChiRunning
Some interesting but simple mathematics regarding ground force based on landing zones on your forefoot, midfoot and heel when running.

#12. Bootcamp Palestine: The Manmaking Machine
How to build a tough motherfucker. No this has nothing to do with inept Filipino special forces.

#13. The Ugliest Catch
Ugly fish that are now becoming the new sport… and some don’t taste half bad.

#14.The Seven Principles and You
Seven different training principles. I don’t think any particular one is heads above the rest, but a combination is obviously the key.

#15. ***Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Much Needed Downtime | Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain
I’ve always thought about what’s beneficial that comes from unwinding and unplugging. I definitely relate to some of the people in the articles that state that being on their phone was simply a time killer but at the root of it, new thoughts and ideas don’t have the ability to develop when you are continually being electronically stimulated.

#17. Watermelons Get Small
The big ass watermelons as we know it are being phased out in favor of small, seedless versions.

#18. ***Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?”: America’s Misguided culture of overwork
Germans work less and are more efficient… resulting in more freetime. Yes freetime makes Jack a happy boy. So what is it about American culture that results in extra, unproductive and unfufilling workhours?

#19. The Most Isolated Man on the Planet
A man in Brazil roams in a 31-square mile radius and the Brazilian government is out to protect him from any human contact. A pretty noble act given what one could do with the space he occupies.

#20. Toronto’s Backyard Axe Throwing League
Forget beersbee, throwing axes at a target is the new extreme backyard sport.

#21. The Rise and Fall of American Apparel
In one corner, you hate American Apparel for what it represents, that is… a super creepy/perverted owner. However on the other hand Dov Charney is pretty legit for apparently pushing domestic production (although they hire illegal immigrants) and offering superior working conditions in the production industry. Oh if you didn’t hear, AA isn’t in the best financial health.

#22. Does Kanye’s Twitter Mark the Death of Music Magazines?
Kanye doesn’t like giving interviews cause he gets misquoted, making Twitter his perfect platform. Tons of readers and everything he says, he means it.

#23. Grapefruit’s Bitter Taste Holds a Sweet Promise for Diabetes Research
I wonder if the bitter-compound has something in relation to that seen in bitter melon.

#24. ***Japanese Sushi Students Aim for a Job Overseas
Once an art, sushi probably cans till be considered an art form. However, it has just been fast-tracked. It’s not about 10 years now, it’s about only about a couple. However the definition of sushi will probably change as it experiences an injection of global/regional flavor.

#25. Forget Ads in Books, Lit-Lovers Face An Even More Hideous Prospect
Don’t think it’s going to happen? Ads in my e-reader. The writer brings up a good point, books like movies are things you get very much into and readers won’t like to get interuppted in the middle of their erotic thriller with a full-screen ad.

Here’s a bunch of images that I wanted to share before I archived these photos onto my external harddrive. The last of Canada as I like to say. Some random shots in Calgary (in reality only the one shot of Calgary’s greatest attraction………..), some shots of Invermere and a handful from around Vancouver. The Pride Festival took place while I was in Vancouver and I decided to not make a late entry as a participant……… haha. But regardless some really vibrant personalities out there. Conservatism and homosexuality don’t go hand-in-hand so you get some interesting characters for sure.

-Eugene

My bike literally broke in half off that little ledge behind you… stupid rental. I had to carry it like 10 minutes to Granville Island.

The World Cup concluded a few weeks ago but thanks to my boy Frank Liew and his Qubic crew down in New Zealand, he made sure to rally the troops with the involvement of the Kiwis (or Bulldogs in this case) during World Cup 2010. Qubic did things up big with a big event (seen here and a video seen here) and a commemorative dogtag. At the end of the day, New Zealand came away undefeated, but was still stuck in the first round. Regardless New Zealand made their mark. The logo was pretty solid and the custom laser tagging on the back was a nice, exclusive touch.

So when does Canada go to the World Cup?

-Eugene

First off, apologies to Gary of Crooked Tongues fame for the length in which it took to produce this piece. I got side-tracked but a large part of the procrastination was due to the potential edit job that was before me. As the title foreshadows, 5,840 words later (not including this intro) and 6 months later, I finally got around to putting this together. However, I must say, the edit job was minimal, Gary has undoubtedly earned the “unofficial, official” title belt for greatest uncanny ability to write on a Blackberry. I still cringe at the thought of writing anything more than three sentences long on a non full-sized keyboard. For those unfamiliar, Gary Warnett’s perhaps best known for his involvement with Crooked Tongues but I’d say it’d be a bit unfair to classify him as just that… but for the title’s sake it probably draws the most attention off the bat.

My interest in running this piece with Gary stemmed back to my own personal respect and admiration for his work. I hold this guy in high-esteem, he’s unparalleled in bringing a level of otaku interest to something as mundane as Champion sweaters, blank tees and sneakers. It’s refreshing to see somebody with a level of knowledge that he brings to the table all while conveying a series of complex (yes, I can associate sneaker releases with complexity at times) thoughts regarding a subculture that’s hard to dismiss. His references are often so off-base you either need to keep extremely close tabs on what’s going on, or refer to the encyclopedia of subcultural phenomenons that was never written.

There really wasn’t a whole lot of agenda to this, I just picked a series of loosely related topics, ones that I knew Gary could share his “2 dollars” on and with it I thank him. If you read it end-to-end, I commend you, as I can already hear the groans of it dragging on past this introduction, but I’m happy with how it all turned out. Re-reading it just a few hours ago proved to be an entertaining read and hopefully if you’re into this, you’ll find some interesting bits to pull from it as well.

Check out Gary over at GWARIZM and Crooked Tongues.

-Eugene

Been almost a 3 week hiatus, but here you go. I sort of delayed getting back into this but I couldn’t help but clean my plate. Either my filtering has gotten better or less topics are of interest these days, 3 weeks of reading could only muster 27 links.

-Eugene

Reference
SSS – : Denotes a short article.
***: Denotes an article I found particularly interesting
Picture: self-explanatory
Video: self-explanatory

Feel free to comment below and reference the link #.

An archive of previous Link Dump’s can be seen here.

*If you’re always on the go, I’m a huge advocate for Instapaper. Basically you can bookmark links to read on your mobile device later and it can strip away all the unnecessary imagery to load more quickly.
**If you encounter a login page for a NY Times article (yes there are quite a few of them…), I highly suggest signing up for a free account or else use this dummy one I set up.

Login: tempaccountNYT
Password: tempaccountNYT

China Corner
#1. Slow Boat to China = Big Fuel Savings | Slow Ships Cut Greenhouse Emissions
This is sort of not really 100% relevant to China, but I guess a lot of shipments are from China… Anyways not everything needs to be shipped ASAP… slowing boats just means more preparation is necsesary, but it’s a win-win.

#2. ***Is the era of cheap Chinese labour over?
Super fascinating read. I’ve always thought that China’s latest uprising in terms of labour wages would mean the end of an era, but more so for the cheap goods sector with low margins. I think this sort of reinforces that, but relative to the rest of the production world, China workers STILL make peanuts.

China Corner/

Pictures

#3. David Takashi Favrod “Gaijin” Series
A series of images depicting Japanese childhood memories, but in Switzerland.

#4. ***The Rolling Stones’ Other Mick: Mick Taylor’s Substance Over Style
Deemed not cool enough for The Rolling Stones, Mick Taylor never lasted… but he was a mean guitar player apparently.

#5. Luke Ramsey + John Holinty Mural in Edmonton
It’s quite Os Gemeos-esque but gotta rep the home town.

/Pictures

#6. The Big Lies People Tell in Online Dating
Among the deception: height, how much money you make and posting up old ass photos.

#7. DETAILS: Everything You Think You Know About Mike Tyson Is Wrong
This popped up awhile ago and if you haven’t read it, DO IT NOW. Tyson seems to have a roller-coaster ride of a relationship with the public: love —> hate —> love?

#8. Logic Does Not Apply Part 2: Breakfast
More intermittent fasting support and why breakfast ISN’T the most important meal of the day.

#9. The Creativity Crisis
If the rest of the world looks to maintain a certain intangible edge over China, I still think creativity is their calling and they should pay close attention to its nurturing and development.

#10. Background Music Can Impair Performance
I hate listening to music when I work so I guess I’m better off.

#11. Phys Ed: Does Lucky Underwear Improve Athletic Performance
Maybe I should make up some lucky charm for increased confidence.

#12. Higher Education Is Overrated; Skills Aren’t
I wonder what else could I do outside of being a managing editor. I scour job ads for fun and while I realize I don’t have the necessary scholastic qualifications, I think I definitely possess the skill set. I think the world has entered a time of rethinking. Decisions made by “higher education” people predominately in the financial sector didn’t turn out so rosy.

#13. Exercise and Caloric Restriction Rejuvenates Synapses in Lab Mice
Fat gluttons will die first obviously.

#14.Speed Demons: The Domination of Sports by Blacks
A very scientific breakdown of why blacks do in fact dominate professional sports.

#15. You Scream, I Scream… at the Price of Ice Cream
When you eat that cheap (but still delicious) ice cream, know that it’s made from the dregs of the dairy industry. But $5+ for an ice cream cone is pretty expensive as well.

#16. Re-engineering the fundamental design of the gas and brake pedal into 1
Since all that pedal-related Toyota scandals, a Japanese design that has been around for awhile gains traction in re-inventing the way we interact with our automobiles.

#17. The World’s Biggest 40oz Collection

#18. What You Say About Others Says a Lot About You, Research Shows
Don’t talk shit people!

#19. Do Typefaces Really Matter?
I think typeface is highly overlooked, nobody thinks about the certain response elicited by a font style.

#20. Paper vs. Pixel – When Writing About Magazines Goes Bad
My buddy Gary once again provides a well-thought approach to his favorite magazines as well as the debate of paper vs. digital.

#22. The changing social landscape of getting by on less and being happy about it
More and more people are trying to revert to a simpler lifestyle.

#23. The Essence Controversy Is More Than Skin-Deep
The black female-centric Essence magazine recently hired a non-black chief editor, aside from the obvious skin color issue, what other problems surround the choice?

#24. Black Jews Will Save the World
In Israel lay a small community of black Jews who practice their own form of modified Judaism.

#25. Interval Training Doesn’t Work
I was on the HIIT bandwagon for awhile, while I’m not totally off, it’s perceived strengths get a thorough bashing here.

#26. Inside Apple’s Antenna Design and Test Labs
They forgot the testing function “hold iPhone 4 here”.

It’s been a minute since I last posted anything. As I spent the last few weeks in Canada, updating this site become more of an after-thought. Now that I’m back in Hong Kong, the hot and humid weather may very well keep my standing behind this desk. A grip of packages awaited me, perhaps none of them were as highly anticipated as this one. Once again, my boy Tim Yu gave me a great opportunity to test out the latest subline of Nike Football boots dubbed the Elite Series. Essentially, they are somewhere along the lines of a top of the line performance boot under commercial availability. That’s not to say many of the offerings you see out there now aren’t top of the line, but the Elite Series looks to take things to the next level mainly with its re-engineered boots and price tags that have never been seen for such a widely distributed line. Lightweight is the key characteristic throughout the line. I won’t bore you with the details, many of which can be seen over at the Hypebeast article I wrote.

Colorways are probably the most dominant aspect of this shoe. None of the models are new so no surprises there. Each have enjoyed their own respective inline releases. The colorway in which the Elite Series was launched took place on the world’s second greatest footballing stage, I say second cause I think Champions League football is a bigger deal… monetarily and skill wise, but that’s up for debate. The colroway is absolutely ridiculous. The pairing of the neon orange and metallic-esque faint purple was an instant favorite for me and personally the follow-up Elite Series colors have been pretty unremarkable in my eyes. From a scientific standpoint, the colorway is allegedly created in a way so that it is instantly recognizable which is good and all, but what if a good chunk of the opposition are wearing these boots as well?

A pair of CTR360 Maestris and Mercurial Vapor Superfly II WCs were both included in my box. I’m more than familiar with the CTR360 Maestris as they’ve been my boot of choice for most of the latter half of last season. However, the last two pairs I had were probably sized too small but these will probably work out just fine with the .5 size increase. The Mercurial Vapor Superfly II is an interesting boot, especially with the dynamic front studs which can instantaneously sense the need for grip and determine the adequate stud length. Unfortunately, they fit pretty small and I can barely cram my foot in. I’ve never really worn a “speed” boot, so I guess I’ll just have to wait. I must admit, the adiZero looks real cool as well and I’ve heard good reviews.

Anyways, there’s more pictures than anything here… I’ll give the CTR360s a spin on Wednesday. I’ve previously had good things to say about my regular CTR360s, but we’ll see how the new Elite Series versions go given that the fit should in fact be better.

-Eugene

The boot bag is quite nice I must say.

At the start of July, I had the opportunity to go to Europe for the first time to attend this season’s Bread & Butter Berlin tradeshow. It was an experience to look forward to as I had heard many good things about Europe and especially the city of Berlin. First and foremost, I think Berlin is set-up in a way that is much like many cultural hubs throughout the world. Let’s put it this way, if you can ride a bike throughout the city and witness non cookie-cutter architecture, it creates a promising environment. Interaction is abundant, inspiration can be derived from your surroundings and ideas can be disseminated quickly thanks to the closeness of the city.

Anybody who’s done even a bit of traveling, the benefit of a local is priceless. I don’t necessarily think that it’s a waste of time per se to get lost in a new place but having even a bit of guidance is helpful when you only have a finite amount of time. Anyways Petar from our sister-site Hypetrak had the honors of showing us around. In general, from conversations with him and from other locals, Berlin is unlike the rest of Germany (hence the title of this feature). While I had always had these pre-conceived notions of Germany, a land of astute approaches to execution, efficiency and general regimentation, Berlin is non-symbolic of these characteristics. Many seemed to describe Berlin as simply being “laid back”, a place where artists can ply their trade and at a more reasonable cost than the rest of Germany and Europe.

As I sort of hinted at in the initial paragraph, riding a bike through a city as a method of discovery has really taken much of the edge off of traveling and visiting new places. In the past, and in the foreseeable future, many of the new places I hit up were done with only a small amount of free time due to work commitments. But knowing you can really extend your reach and range of new surroundings on a good ol’ bicycle is something that makes you feel as though you’re taking in a good amount of the culture without missing out. A lot of images were shot while riding and it was a pretty cool challenge attempting to compose while riding. Luckily it was a bright day with ample lighting. There are quite a few shots of the Berlin Wall which is probably not as scary as I had previously thought. You could probably attempt to scale it with a little bit of athleticism and overall it’s not very thick.

That’s all I have to say about Berlin, I would love the opportunity to go back. Thanks to Michal and the Bread & Butter crew, the High Snobiety/SOTO/MADE crew, you guys have a great set-up… but your currywurst is over-rated haha.

-Eugene