On The Road Again : San Diego

words_Nick DePaula

It was time to hit the road again a few days ago, and I was headed down to sunny California to help my brother move into his new over-priced apartment at San Diego State. He’s a scholar for sure.

Whenever I’m in San Diego, I always try and make sure I catch up with the good fellas over at Pony. They’re trying right now to get back in the game. They have a pretty nice office right down the street from Petco Park, and you’re probably already familiar with some of the designers. Kyle Pulli, who’s designed the adidas TMac V & VI, as well as the entire adidas KG line and the latest adidas TS sneakers, heads up the direction for Pony design now. My good friend Chad Little, who was featured as the Focus:Artist in our Issue 14 way back during his college days, is now working as a jack of all trades designer working across several categories like cleated, apparel, hoops and more. So basically these guys put in work.

The main reason I was stopping by was to check up on some recent projects we’ve been working on together. Namely, a Straight Cash Homey inspired trainer that is still being finalized, and a series of their hot new casual sneaker, the Special Blend.

If you’re in San Diego, and you have to work at an office, it might as well look like a beach hut inside. Being located in SD’s Gaslamp Quarter is another bonus.

Not gonna lie. This creeped the hell outta me. And it’s not even Halloween yet.

And then we had to get down to some business. Here’s some pics from back in May when Mikey and I booked it down to SD to work on some shoes for the first time around.

Pony had just signed Randy Moss at the time, and we wanted to put together a shoe that could celebrate his career a bit by using his first signature trainer as the canvas. This is where I came in to help. People were talking non-stop about his Touchdown record that he just set and the undefeated regular season he helped lead the Patriots to, and Pony already had plans for Patriots in-line colorways. I wanted to take it back a bit instead. Being that I’ve always been a huge fan of both Randy and Jason Williams, it seemed to make perfect sense to touch on their Dupont High School days, where they ran folks on the football field and basketball court. It’s arguable that Randy was one of the greatest dual-sport athletes in High School history, winning state titles in both sports and setting numerous records. At 6′4″, he was an inside presence on the hardwood eager to catch lobs from the overly flashy JWill, while on the field, he was a quick leaping receiving target ready and able to catch a 70-yard pass at any time from JWill the quarterback. We’re still hammering out some details, materials and the final touches — but you’ll be seeing some updates hopefully down the road in the near future.

Here’s the best I can give you for now. This is from back in May when we were still playing around with colorways.

And then there’s the Special Blend, a shoe that we’re hitting up for three different colorways. Kyle Pulli designed the sweet chukka height sneaker that features an awesomely light weight, strap and some great materials. Well done. I’m a fan of this shoe for sure. Mikey and I did up our own personal pairs, and then we did a celebratory shoe for the Forums hitting 100,000 members in the colors at the time: grey and neon.

Back in May, I went for the classic Kings colors as usual, and Mikey knocked out a Rasta colorway. Big surprise there.

Line art looks SO cool. (And my pair is black/purple - for some reason it looks blue here.)

Yesterday, Chad and I went over some final details and factory call-outs on the Forums shoe and the Moss shoe.

And while we’re still waiting on the sample of my colorway and the Forums version, Mikey’s was the first to get in from the factory. Combination rich suede, ballistic mesh and belt leather along the upper, with the Sole Collector logo on the underside of the strap and sure enough, Mikey’s middle name Ozo stitched under the tongue. Mr. Mike Andersen — With the most generic name of all time, how the hell did your parents come up with Ozo for a middle name?