In the history of athlete/designer collaborations, Michael Jordan’s work with Tinker Hatfield is the perhaps the most famous. But there’s another duo whose work is just as impressive—Kobe Bryant and Eric Avar. Over the course of a decade, they’ve redefined how signature shoes come to life, revived the low-top, and won multiple championships and gold medals (or at least Kobe has). With the Kobe 10 about to drop, we went to Los Angeles to speak with this duo about Kobe’s ultra-competitive nature and how it impacts both his shoe and his game.

About this presentation

Whether it’s due to exclusive communities in your industry or a slavish devotion to page views, tweets, and awards, it’s easy to get caught up in pleasing others. Entrepreneur, media mogul, and designer Marc Eckō tell us that, if we’re not careful, we can let others label us and define our career, robbing us of our natural potential. The solution? Stand up for yourself. What the gatekeepers may cite as a reason for your exclusion may very well lead to your success.

“Wealth that matters cannot be counted,” says Eckō. In this presentation, Eckō shares three strategies for taking control of your creative career, one gatekeeper at a time.

About Marc Ecko

Once a graffiti artist with no connections or fashion pedigree, Marc Eckō left the safety net of pharmacy school to start his own company. Armed only with hustle, sweat equity, and creativity, he flipped a $5,000 bag of cash into a global corporation now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Eckō is an American fashion designer, entrepreneur, investor and artist. He is the founder of Marc Eckō Enterprises, a global fashion and lifestyle company. He is also the founder and chairman of Complex Media, the world’s leading provider of fashion, entertainment, lifestyle, and product trends to young male tastemakers. Complex Media Network includes 110+ websites that generate more than 700 million page views and 70 million unique visitors per month. Eckō serves as an emeritus board member to the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Big Picture Learning, Tikva Children’s Home & Everloop. Marc lives in NJ with his wife and three kids.

Marc Ecko Cut & Sew
Unlabel: Selling You Without Selling Out
@marcecko

Check out the video below:

Fast forward to 2014 — Led by Walt Mossberg, Kara Swisher and the rest of the team who formerly built the trusted AllThingsD site and the legendary D: All Things Digital conferences, Re/code launched on January 2, 2014 and announced The Code Conference to debut May 27-29, 2014

Re/code is an independent tech news, reviews and analysis site, from the most informed and respected journalists in technology and media. Because everything in tech and media is constantly being rethought, refreshed, and renewed, Re/code’s aim is to reimagine tech journalism.

Check out this video from The Code Conference where Eddy Cue and Jimmy Lovine talk about Steve Jobs.

{Click here for more Re/code and Code Conference Coverage}

This Saturday, April 19th, will be the official 20th anniversary of Nas’ classic debut album Illmatic. VIBE’s Mikey Fresh got together with Nas’ younger brother, Jungle, they went back to the projects of Queensbridge. Their journey takes them to the very apartment that started it all for Jungle and his older brother. Check this out!

Pharrell talks to Nick Huff Barili of Best Of Hard Knock TV about his early relationship with disco and R&B, its evolution into hip-hop and its respective strands, and how his brand i am OTHER looks innovate culture in a similar way.

Make sure to subscribe to www.youtube.com/hardknocktv for our latest videos. You can also follow Hard Knock TV at www.facebook.com/hardknocktv and @Hardknocktv @NickHuff on twitter.

Make sure you check out: Major Lazer – Aerosol Can (feat. Pharrell Williams)

Richard Sherman has been the most talked about sports figure in the past few days then one could ever imagine. On Jan. 19, before the NFC Championship game, the general sports fan knew Richard Sherman to be one of the best or the best shutdown corners in the NFL. Also, most people knew that Sherman has a PacMan mouth on him as well.

In just one moment Richard’s mouth took him to a whole other level. Just a couple of minutes after Sherman batted Colin Kaepernick’s pass to Malcolm Smith, for the game winning interception. He then was interviewed by Erin Andrews.

What happened next, which I am sure everyone knows by now. has to be one of the most wildest post game interviews ever or at least in a very long time.

The reaction was absolutely insane, if you are like me, I did not mine the comments Sherman made. It was indeed brash but filled with such passion. It was definitely better then some of the cliche responses we hear in most of these post game interviews. Unfortunately, some people went on to twitter and other media sites and delivered very nasty racial slurs at Sherman.

In a interview with Rachel Nichols, Sherman talked about the latter group:

Sherman shared that, “it was mind boggling” about the racial comments said to him. “For the people that did react that way, and throw racial slurs and things like that out there, it was really sad.”

The most common word that was mentioned during the reaction, was “Thug”. During a press conference on Wednesday, Jan 22, Sherman talked about how much that bothered him.

As you can hear Sherman makes some valid points.

He definitely was in the heat of the moment after making one of the biggest plays of his career. He has apologized since in a attempt to put some attention on his teammates who helped Seattle book a spot in the Super Bowl versus a dominant Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.

Still, if you do not want to like him, or if you were not pleased by his actions, that’s fine. But to call him a “thug” or bring race into the equation reeks of ignorance.

Sherman is a smart, talented player. Some don’t like him, but he hasn’t harmed anyone. And there’s no denying he plays the game at a very high level with passion and intensity.

He’ll put that on full display in the biggest game of his career in Super Bowl XLVIII.

Hundreds of #sneakerheads in the #DMV and enthusiasts from as far as Ohio and NYC took over the Verizon Center to buy sell and trade exclusives deadstocks and other accessories-

Premium Pete and Dallas Penn even came through the building to show support-

We definitely want to give a big shout to Sports Zone for staying connected and true to the sneaker community, as well as brands like Inkkas, Grey Classic, and Sole Saver that are working overtime on that independent grind-

Nike SB’s new full-length video The SB Chronicles Vol. 2 hits iTunes on December 10. Check out SBChronicles.com for more information.

With this being the first video off of Phil’s R.O.S.E. tape currently available for download at DatPiff, the Sunny Norway produced track had DC’s Stadium Club turnt up!

Flex Kartel French & and Phil [PDP] were all in the building, and with Cool Kids Forever behind the lens, it was dope to see the big homie Tabi on the scene as well.

Being the trill OG that Bun B is, he showed love and shared some words of wisdom with the homies-

BTS | Phil Ade ft Bun B from In The Streets TV on Vimeo.

Big s/o to the that dude Dre, always holds it down!

Be sure to download the tape let Phil know what you think!

Phil Ade | Twitter
Phil Ade | Facebook