Good to be Back

So, it happened again again, apparently I'm not very good at blogging or being consistent.  A couple things have happened that have prevented me from blogging (most notably exams) but most of those things are so old that they don't even count as mediocre excuses anymore, so we'll just say I lack the consistency to be a good blogger.  Anyway, it's summer (!!!), which, coincidentally, is the most swag time of the year!!! So of course I have some new swag to share with you (some of which is actually old swag that I've been waiting to share).

This is gonna be a looong list so bare with me, hopefully you'll find something(s) you like.

The first thing I'm gonna share with you isn't really new, it's just new to me and not so popular as to be widely known about.  They're the new era fitteds of the popular "Made in Detroit" brand, pictured below, and they're cool in a few distinct ways.  One, they come in Tiger's colors, two, they're out of Detroit, and three, I think the symbol is really evocative of the nature of the city.  To elaborate, I think the patch says a lot about the working class culture that built the city and that Detroit is famous for.  Shout-outs to the Motor City are always going to be popular here, sorry if you are from elsewhere/ are a hater.

(P.S. even though I thought these guys were relatively unknown, they're running out of sizes and color schemes fast, get it quick or be sorry later)

The second items to take a look at are actually two hats from the same place, Fitted Hawaii.  The first is the Mua Hooligan fitted.  The guy here kind of reminds me of the aztec symbol used by San Diego State University for athletics, but since this store is based in, you know, Hawaii, I'm guessing that's not what this is.  There's one thing it definitely is tho, and that's swag.  The black background really makes the symbol pop and the face in profile just cool, I can't think of a better way to describe it.      

The second hat features sort of the same look, but the design is definitely different and swagged up in its own way.  This hat is featured in various color schemes, most of them are solid and the pictured one is my favorite, and has more of a 3D looking Hawaiian warrior (yeah, that's what I've decided it is).  Also, if you aren't sold on the hat just by looking at it, consider this, it's called "Kamehameha", you read that right, it's just like Dragon Ball Z.  If I had photoshop skills this is where you'd see Goku wearing this hat, instead I'm just gonna show you the hat, and let you know that Vageta thinks its swag is over 9000.

As an advance warning, these hats cost $50 bucks and are shipped from Hawaii, so it's gonna cost you a lil bit if you want one of these.

For my next recommendation we're gonna head to REVIVE in Birmingham.  I've already state my feelings on the store so we won't go over that again, but I will say that the custom fitteds they put out are usually top notch.  This one is no exception, the MI design may only appeal to Michiganders (maybe out of Staters will also appreciate it) but the look should appeal to people from everywhere.  The simple cursive script with State initials has been used by several stores, most notably In4mation for Hawaii and Ecapcity for New Jersey and possibly New York.  Anyway, the look is polished and I'm lovin the MI, so stop by Birmingham and get it.

    

The fourth hat I want to discuss is from the Crooks and Castles spring drop and is called the Port.  I'm not in love with this color-way ( I've seen an excellent blue and gold one but I can't figure out where, maybe in a dream or something) but the design is top notch.  The wreath that runs across the brim offsets the Crooks' C and the rolled silk nicely and overall this is just a really creative piece with things you don't often see on hats.  It's available a ton of places, since the brand is so huge, but I'll send you to motivation to get it since they're kinda the hometown team.

SN: the one at motivation is in black and white which I like better than this anyway.

The next hat recommendation is one of those ones from a store with no web store, you're going to have to be in Chicago to grab this one.  Akin has put out a ton of new color-ways of their knight fitted and it's definitely worth looking into.  The design looks cool from a distance and I also like the diversity of options with this hat, but what really gets me is the level of detail.  If you look close enough you can see the word "akin" stitched into the top of the helmet, I don't know why but that's the kind of thing that really appeals to me in a hat design.

The last two items for discussion are both gonna bring us to Burn Rubber. The first items (pictured below) are their new Detroit snap backs. 

These hats are obviously popular with me for their Detroit theme and the Burn Rubber chef on the side. I also like this script and think that this is a really well put together hat, especially for a snap back.  It's also featured, in what looks like fitted form, in this Mike Posner music video:

If you aren't a Posner fan just skip to about the 3:40 mark, if you watch the whole thing, you can also see Wayne in a nice hundreds fitted (which is way better than his own fitted as previously discussed, good job Wayne).

The second Burn Rubber item is a significant piece on several levels.  Its primary importance comes from the fact that it's a design meant to help the people of Japan recover from tsunami damage.  It's designed by Kengo Tanabe and has the burn rubber logo made to look like the Japanese flag as well as the Burn rubber motto written out in Kanji.  I realize my post seems a little late but Burn Rubber didn't release all that long ago and I think it's still critical that we help the people suffering from this disaster long term.  

So this has been another swag post. Hopefully I'll see you soon, if not I may have quit blogging without informing you, but don't worry, I'm hoping that won't happen almost as much as you are.

  

Quick Swag Update

So I'm back again, as promised, and this time I'm bringing you a quick swag update because right as I finished that last one I found some new swag stuff and some not swag stuff. I'll start with the swag and eventually get to the not swag, saving the worst for last so to speak.

First off is Respect this Fresh who just dropped some new snap backs

Even though it's a snap back they're reppin the D (and demanding respect for our fresh, finally!) so they get a pass on that, although seeing as it's new era they should have just gone straight to fitteds.  As a native Detroiter I have no idea where Respect This Fresh is, this may mean they don't have a physical location or that they're one of those places that reps Detroit but is way out in the burbs somewhere, either way you can get their fresh at their online store.  Also, you can probably expect more snap back news soon as I have it on good authority that the new motivation stuff will involve wolverines gracing snap backs and is supposed to be dropping in mid April (in case you haven't noticed I'm a sucker for wolverines, it is also mid April).

The next new hat is from Bape:

It's too bad I didn't have this one before because it goes perfectly with the motif from the last post. It's swag, it has a monkey, and I have no idea where you can buy it.  Actually that's not quite true, there are plenty of stores that sell Bape that are easy to find, I just don't have a link (and no, I'm not looking for one either).  Since the company got bought out a while back it has been a little difficult to find Bape stuff and their production also slowed down a bit, now it appears they're getting back into the swing of things and this hat shouldn't be too hard to find if you're already a Bape fan.  

The third piece of swag is from Exclusive Game (a name that has just about the same ammmount of swag as "respect my fresh"):

Yea, that's another swag crest, and on top of that it looks kinda redwing-ish.  I've been searching for a nice wings hat in my size for a while now and this may serve as a replacement when it actually comes out.  The hat hasn't dropped yet, but it has been previewed extensively around the web, and at Exclusive Game, and a select few celebrities have gotten their hands on it, so it should be out soon. 

On to the things that are distinctly not swag. It's a sad day when a swag blog is forced to discuss things of the un-swag variety in the same proportions as things that are swag, this is that sad day.

 The first sad swag report is from The Hundreds:

If you can't see it, that's a Lil B shirt.  It's tough to tell if this is worse than the Lil Wayne hat.  On the one hand, Lil B is probably one of the worst rappers in the world (clearly worse than Wayne), on the other hand this shirt at least shows some creativity in incorporating Lil B's trade mark move, as opposed to the lameness of a hat that just says "Lil Wayne".  It's sad that we even have to go over this though, as the hundreds is normally known for sticking to swag and for putting out great stuff, they're one of my favorite brands, hence their spot in the blog roll.  This is a serious slip up on the west coast, and I'm pretty sure they know it's a slip up too since they wrote a half hearted defense of their collab with this artist on their blog when they announced the shirts' release (note to the Hundreds: if you have to justify working with someone to your fans you probably made a mistake working with them).  

The second one is just random but I've seen this making the rounds of certain blogs and people are apparently trying to get it for no discernible reason, other than bad taste:

Why? I don't understand why anyone felt the need for this hat to exist.  Not only is it not a cool logo and makes you look completely geeky (in a bad way for those of you who might misinterpret the word geeky as a compliment), but the game isn't that good either.  Everyone likes street fighter better, and what's more, everyone knows that combat is spelled with a "c" not with a "k".  So yeah, not swag, don't get this unless you want to be mocked and ridiculed.

The third hat is also random and weird and normally wouldn't need to be addressed, however, it is also making the rounds of the blog world

BOOOOOOO! (not in the scary sense of the word but in the angry sports fan sense). This is like a faux fitted with a flat top, and is done by new era, and I'm not sure why it exists either.  I would think people wearing fitteds would understand that this is a no-no but maybe they don't, I'm not sure.  Aside from the fact that this has no design, weird paneling and a terrible looking brim, this hat is great; unfortunately those are all the aspects of the hat, so what I'm trying to tell you is that this hat sucks on every level.

So there you have it, sorry to do that again but to make up for it XV just came out with a new mix tape that is pretty awesome, it's called zero heroes and you can get it at live mix tapes or datpiff (google it, it's real simple).  So you're welcome for that and hopefully I'll be back again soon. 

Wassup Swag World?

So it happened again, I let my blogging die for a lil bit after a flurry of blog activity.  I still have a good excuse (my professors were being haters and assigning wayyyyy too much work) but I'm sorry for the lack of swag blogging recently.  I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the world of blogging just isn't nearly as awesome without me in it.  Anyway, there's been some swag developments of late but largely school, the ultimate swag killer, has been interfering with me monitoring the swag world as closely as I would like. So here, I'm just gonna review some new swag and as a bonus give you some do's and don'ts of swagging up.

As you can see, swag development number one is a hat (in fact, most of the swag developments today are hats) and it is a hat that I am the new proud owner of.  In case you were wondering, yes, this hat does fall under the swag animals rule.  It also has a pretty good color scheme and the off color brim is definitely a good look on top of that.  There's not much else to say about the piece, other than it has a nice imitation of the mlb logo on the back with a gorilla where the player outline normally is, so I'll just jump right into some swag developments and related recommendations.

Swag Recommendation 1:

FTC and Xlarge just came out with a combo hat that has immeasurable swag.  The gorilla is certainly a swag animal (I know you gotta be happy to learn that the wolverine isn't the only swag animal, although it is the primary one) but the rainbow design is kinda trippy. Since this is an FTC and Xlarge collab, you'd think you'd be able to buy it from one of their web stores, but you'd be wrong.  If you find one of their locations in Japan they may have it (you know, in case you just happen to be looking for hats in Japan) and it will cost you 85 bucks, so getting this hat probably isn't that feasible, but its related swag so I had to post it on the off chance you'd be in the area.

SR2:

Noticing a theme here? (If you aren't the theme is monkeys, if gorillas count as monkeys, but I'm a swag expert not an animal expert so in my world they are monkeys).  Aside from the gorilla-monkey debate, the verdict of the is this animal swag? debate would be a resounding yes. I'm not really sure where the monkey got the bat and I don't really care, cus clearly the swag animal with the bat is on a whole new level of swag.  This hat is by New Era Japan, and again, I'm not sure where to get it (I'd guess Japan tho) but you still needed to see this.

SR3:

 So here's one hat that I can actually help you get in a more substantial way than just referencing you to a country that the hat could possibly be in.  Sole sneaker boutique in San Antonio announced this hat on their blog a little while ago and it should be online here soon, but even it if isn't, San Antonio is much more accessible than Japan and this hat is only 35 dollars.  In an analysis of the hat, I like the colorway and the second tone of the brim, the bear (at least I think it's a bear) is also pretty cool looking.  Another nice feature to the design is the s and the b in the eyes of the bear, that level of intricacy is nice to see in an already awesome fitted.

Also, here's two swag updates that you can take as recommendations, but really aren't related to these hats and I don't want to talk about at length:

This is the coolest piece out of the two hat collab done by mishka and the clink room. Do I know what it is? No. Is it swag? Yes. The hats are available here.

    Sneaker politics also just put out these colorways of their "JETS" hats, one for the saints, one for the hornets, as those are their hometown teams.  The new hats (along with old colorways of this reasonably epic design) can be found at their web site and you should definitely head over there because they also have this:

yea that's a pelican with a fitted, stackin paper- BALLIN.

Now, in a first ever for swag tales, we're gonna go over a few swag lessons that relate to what isn't swag.  Normally I wouldn't even want to associate my blog with these things, but un-swag concepts seem to be creeping into society and I have to do my duty and defend man kind.

First we'll start with all white fitteds. The very idea of a white fitted is a no-no plain and simple.  This has nothing to do with labor day rules, and everything to do with not looking like the abominable snow man.  I'll sum it up in the words of dbthecoolkid, "You can't let ya mans rock a white fitted, that's not a good look" - end of story.

Also, this will happen to you if you persistently wear an all white fitted.

The second sad swag no-no is one that you might even find through traditional swag channels (as opposed to the scrub channels of the all white fitted) but don't be fooled.  That last sentence was cryptic I admit, but I just had to warn you about the hat below

NO. NO. NO. I could go on like that forever, but the answer is no.  You shouldn't need an explanation as to why this isn't swag, I'm not even really sure where to start on it, but I'll say a few things.  Being a shameless enough Lil Wayne fan to wear this (really being a fan of any musician to this extent but particularly Wayne) already indicates that you've lost your way in the world of swag.  On top of that, this hat had very little going for it even without being a Wayne related hat.  Black and white hats can be swag (though they best to do more than this one) but generally that color scheme does very little for anyone.  A normal block font of anyone's name also really can't be considered cool, in fact this hat probably took all of two seconds to create because there is nothing to the design.  So yea... just no.

Now that we've got that done with, here's some videos, that it was mandatory I post, ranging from cool to not so cool:

  That's the new New Era commercial that I found to be reasonably funny even though I can't stand the Yankees or the Red Sox (side note: YAY for baseball!).

Ok the song may not be of the quality of the songs normally posted here but it gave me a serious case of the lols- "I bet she's mad, cus I look fab, ha ha ha ha, jack my swag" (that's true genius)- plus at least she rhymes *cough Rebecca Black cough*.

So I've never heard of this group but this came up in my news feed and my man on the right is killin it in that classic Michigan (Woot Woot!!!) Tom Brady jersey. #SWAG

So in conclusion, sorry for the last two videos, the hash tag and the tainting of the blog with those hats but it had to be done.  Hopefully my next post will be sooner in coming than this one was.

Mid-week Swag Adventures and Other Tales of Glory

Ok, so the title of this post might make you think that me and the boys in Ann Arbor were out here killing swag dragons (known to some people as swagons) this week.  We weren't, they've been extinct in Ann Arbor for a long time as brave swag knights have been valiantly slaying them forever, but we were doing the next best thing.  We hit Motivation, where swagons would be if they still existed, and copped some swag. Some of it was freeeeeee! So we'll start there, cus free swag is good swag.

Skullcandy representatives were in town to pass out free headphones and ear buds and one of the guys there actually worked at Supra too so just about everybody there got to grab a free t shirt as well.  If you've ever got a hold of any skullcandies you know how nice their sound is and I was also runnin through headphones like Donkey Kong in a jungle of banana trees, so in the words of Roscoe Dash, I upgraded to ham from bologna (sorry, I had to do that just once, but I promise to never paraphrase Roscoe again).  The tee wasn't as badly needed as the ear buds (although laundry is getting low around here, anybody wanna help out with that? No? Oh well, it was worth a shot) but I'll take free Supra stuff anytime.  Anyway, the free stuff tour is headed out further in the midwest, so if you live in Michigan you missed it but otherwise you can peep this to see when they'll be in your area. Tell them I sent you, it won't get you anything other than strange looks, but it'll still be a good call on your part.  Also, head back to skullcandy at some point in the near future and find their blog if you can (I can't, so hit me up if you find it) you may see some familiar faces in their pics and vids, ignore my beard though.

Anyway, on to the non-free swag...

Yea, that's the motivation wolverine again, this time on a crew-neck (normally I wouldn't buy a sweater at the end of March but this year winter is interminable and I've already discussed my laundry situation).  I don't think I still have to discuss why the wolverine is swag again, but a wolverine rockin' a swag hat and a swag crew-neck, while posing on the front of a crew-neck, means that the swag level of this sweater is over 9000.  To celebrate my new swag acquisition I'm gonna put you up on some more swag, call it a celebratory swag lesson.

The first thing we'll examine is another motivation piece in the classic University of Michigan (woot woot!) color-way.

   Yea that's the wolverine again, sorry to be so redundant but it really is swag on another level.  Ignore the writing around the wolverine on there, normally I'm against defacing swag, but if I get this that's getting blacked out for sure.  But overall the pennant with the motivation cursive script is a really good look.  Another great aspect of the shirt I want to highlight right quick is the arm patch. You can sort of see it on the left arm in this picture but take a closer look:

That's a sort of motivation seal with the ornate M (SWAG) and the classic motivation catch phrase, "A dollar and a dream" (DOUBLE SWAG).  That's the seal of a true swag knight right there so take notes, or a snapshot if you want.

The second recommendation is of the Mishka variety

You can get it here.  You may be giving me that skeptical look again for the pinkness, (please stop, I really don't like that look) but this shirt is on its a game as far as swag.  The Mishka bear is one of my favorite brand characters anyway but this artistic combo of the Mishka bear's normally 2d head with the new body is just a solid concept overall.  Again we have the swag animals motif, and this swag animal just so happens to be wearing a crown, so double the awesomeness.  As an added bonus, they have this shirt as a tee, in case you aren't living in a perpetually frozen world, and they have it in different color-ways if you really aren't comfortable with the neon pink.

The third crew-neck is by booger kids, yea, just ignore the name and embrace the swag:

  Again we've got a swag animal gettin down on this sweater and the duck has a hat! (If you couldn't already tell I'm particularly big on animals with hats).  The duck is also drinking out of cup(s?). So yea, swag.  But really I don't have to go into the finer points of this sweaters swag because this is a bit of a cop out recommendation, what I'm really advocating is that you head over to karmaloop and check out their stuff because they have an excellent selection.  That's right swag padawan, I'm giving you the keys to the swagmobile for a lil minute and, using the swag guidelines, I trust you'll make the right choice.

As an extra little bit of swag advice on crew-necks, I would warn you to get measurements of the sweaters as they can fit a little tight.  The best thing to do is try them on, but if you order online make sure you know how big you are in comparison with the sweater and don't trust the sizes like S,M,L, etc as these sweaters can be a bit small if you order it in the same size you wear t shirts in.

watup doe

This post isn't really about anything, but then again not much is poppin off in Ann Arbor tonight and I'm super duper tired (so obviously I'm blogging instead of sleeping right?).  So we'll discuss a lot of nothing, first off a heads up on some new swagggg. That's right, I said swagggg with, count 'em, four g's. This is because there's multiple items of high swag to put out there, so obviously more g's are needed.

Tokidoki just dropped a ton of hats. Tokidoki's stuff is always cartoonie (or is that spelled cartoony? I really have no idea) and obviously this stuff is no different.  They've also been putting out a lot of Marvel stuff (can't DC get some love tho?) and that stuff has been largely successful as far as sales, you can find a ton of hats at lids, and you can find a ton of tees at tokidoki's website.  Unfortunately, the hats pictured above aren't at either of those sites, although they may be shortly, but if you're looking to cop them now head here.  I don't wanna ruin your hat purchasing, but just so you know, I'm on that boxer swag all day, everyday. 

The next little update I have for you is Big Sean related.  He was in Ann arbor last night for a show (I missed it for a party which turned out to be reasonably lame, the life of a swag king is hard sometimes) but that isn't the extent of the update.  The rest of the update is that the video for his collab with Chris Brown just dropped.

"one time for the westside!"

I know you're over here like "Word? Chris Brown again, really?" but don't worry about it, you're not supposed to focus on Chris, you're supposed to listen to Sean. And, it's a reasonably dope song with a pretty good storyline for the video as well.

Also, as a side note, the visuals for Big Sean's "Hometown" dropped a while ago. It's not recent but I thought I'd post it as it made me pretty nostalgic for the Motor City.

A note for sensitive ears: you probably don't want to hear either of these songs, although the first is "edited" the subject matter may not be appropriate for small children or geriatrics.

still back/ swag lesson/ swag achievement!!!

It's been kind of a busy week in the world of swag and it's only Wednesday, if it doesn't feel like Wednesday to you don't worry, it feels like Monday of last week to me so you're still good. Getting right to it, I've grabbed a new hat and a new t this week and we are gonna show case them in another swag lesson combo post because of the way in which the world of swag is exploding.

Starting with the t-shirt, you've got the design right above this sentence, and it's called the "don't care bears".  I didn't post a picture of the whole shirt cus I don't actually have it yet and cus the model wearing it on the web site might scare you (it's at threadless tees type in "don't care bears" and you'll see what I mean, but don't say I didn't warn you).  As you can see, the design clearly fits the "swag animals doing swag things rule", and it gets extra points for irony.  Anyone who was ever abused with the carebears as a child (thank you gracious sister for your help in this area) probably said the phrase "I don't care" a number of times to counter their mantra of  "WE CARE, WE CARE... WE CARE".  The children that grew up with this abuse should love this shirt as I do, and if you are one of those children I give you permission to go get this shirt, even if it bites my swag a lil bit.  For more recommendations of similar swag, threadless is actually a great resource; it's not street wear but if you sift through the hipster shirts you'll get to the gold, probably at a good price too.  This means you should avoid shirts that say "geek" and have words making ironic historical jokes; instead try to stick with the awesome animals rule, it has never failed me. Some threadless suggestions:

"monkey business"

"da noize"

"electric jellyfish"

I've purposely shielded you from the models on the website but if you do go there remember not to judge them; they don't mean anything by their weirdness, they just don't know any better. Also, shout out to dbthecoolkid for puttin me up on threadless.

On to our next matter of business: the hat. Remember that Michigan hat I told you about in that previous swag lesson? The one in which I said that if you didn't get it soon, I'd have it first? Well, unless you got it before 5 o'clock today, I beat you to it.  If you forgot what the hat looks like it's here:

We've already been over the specs so I don't have to do that again and I've already made my recommendations... so yeah, not much to say here, other than that the white part of the hat feels really cool (don't hate, I don't usually feel up hats, this one is just very touchable).  Also I would love to say that this is my last snapback purchase, especially as it is not a new era, but I cannot make this promise. I've heard it from reputable sources that motivation will be dropping some new snap backs with the raging Wolverine in a new design that looks too good to pass up. So I'll try to refrain from snap backs, but in the mean time I'll defend myself with examples of swag luminaries wearing Michigan/wolverine snap backs:

1. Big Sean: the snap back king from the D is probably the most credible source out there for snapback swag, peep his choice of hat in this vid

that's right wolverines (woot woot!)

2. Chris Brown: I know what you're thinking "first he's defending snapbacks, now he's using Chris Brown to justify his cause tisk, tisk" *quizzical look you give to crazy people*... Well first of all, don't give me that look, and second of all, in this video Chris rocks the throwback Petway bball jersey to go along with a smooth hat, I'm contractually obligated to admire him for that.  Also, the song isn't terrible and his collab with big sean was pretty hot too, he's getting better (or maybe that's just the side of me that likes his hat talking, we'll never know)

    3. Bun B: That's right, I redeemed myself from the Chris Brown fiasco with a pic of Bun B himself rockin a wolverine featured snapback that I recommended earlier.  It's almost as if he read my mind or something

 but really tho, there's actually a ton of big names who have this hat including Bun, Wiz Khalifa, and Mac Miller (photo evidence can be found at the motivation blog).

But all this talk of wolverines and rappers has brought me to the fast rising wolverine rapper P.L. He's one of Ann Arbor's finest and reps the whole state of Michigan quite well with his unique flow. He's already dropped a ton of singles from his upcoming album and here's a free style on "Bill Gates" that will only serve to raise his profile (he's also done a "black and yellow" remix called "blue and yellow" so you know he's got my respect) check out his block M tattoo as well:

Anyway, that's all from me, peace swag world, happy swag trails.

I'M BACK!!!!

So I've been slacking with the blog, my apologies.  A lot has happened since my last post.  First and foremost, Michigan (woot woot!) won some more basketball games!!! The mighty Wolverines beat Illinois in the Big Ten tournament, and then smacked Tennessee in the NCAA tournament, and then beat Duke on top of that!!!!! Ok, we didn't actually beat Duke, but it was close and their mascot is the devil, so I'm claiming the moral victory here.

Zack Novak being a boss. No, this picture doesn't have anything to do with anything, I just like it

          
But anyway, that's probably not what you came here for so we'll talk about some developments in the world of swag.  The first of which is that Big Shan dropped a new mix tape.  I know what you're thinking - "Sir Swag Don't Stop, don't you mean ya boy from the D, Big Sean, just dropped a new mix tape?"- and your confusion would be understandable.  But no, avid reader, I meant Big Shan, another pretty dope rapper from the D.  Don't worry, Big Shan isn't tryna jack Big Sean's swag; they're cool with each other and have worked and performed together.  The mix tape is called "The Fresh Prince of Detroit" and has some great tracks, including my favorite "I love U", to go along with it's great name (although c'mon Shan, everyone knows that I'm the real Fresh Prince of Detroit).  The cover for the mix tape is pretty swag, especially the maize high top, and you can download it here.

Sir Shanimal himself             

The next bit of swag news is that motivation had their spring drop which included 3 new snap backs and a ton of new crew neck sweaters and hoodies.  Now normally I'm not a big snap back fan, so I was hoping for a new motivation fitted or something like that, but the snap back that they put out was just too good to pass up and, if I had time, would certainly be the feature item in the next swag lesson.

  As you can see, the hat is pure swag (there's also two other color-ways of the hat if you are a hater and don't like maize and blue for some unknown, but clearly sinister, reason).  I shouldn't have to explain why this hat is swag, but I will anyway.  The two tone hat is a pretty swag thing all on its lonesome, but the fact that it has the most awesome animal on the face of the planet (the wolverine of course) only helps this hat.  We've already discussed what an awesome animal can do for your swag, and now we see the classic University of Michigan Wolverine with a motivation twist on his little sailor hat thingy (which also makes this hat cool, awesome animal +awesome hat on animal= extra awesome hat).  So yeah, even though this is a snap back, this hat is swag. In fact, the whole snap back genre is kinda (not really but sorta) growin on me.  I don't have any real reasons for this other than that the University of Michigan seems to get a lot of love in the snap back game.  So in an ode to snap back swag I'll make some recommendations of the University of Michigan variety:

This one's a mitchell and ness that's over at motivation for only 25 bucks!!! I've been told that there are about 20 left so there's no rush to grab this, but if you don't get there fast I'll probably have it before you, so get a move on!

Yea so my photo shop skills suck, but imagine you only see the maize and blue hat with the block M in the picture, cus that's all that's important here anyway. This is a vintage hat at burn rubber, that has the burn rubber logo on the side for extra swag, I'm not sure if they still have it in store as I haven't been there in months, but if you're in Royal Oak you should check for me.  They also had a reasonably swag lions hat that released with these other vintage snap backs but that may also be long gone.

  Again, I have no idea if these are in stores still, and you should feel free to look at me with a heavy dose of skepticism now that I've posted two Tisa snap backs from Revive in Birmingham.  I'm not a big fan of revive (although they can come up clutch with their custom fitteds) and I usually can't stand Tisa, but even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while.  Here Tisa and Revive (two blind squirrels) have combined to find two acorns!!! So even though these hats will be hideously overpriced, the Michigan logo makes them worth it... Also it would be really cool if a hat company would make a fitted with a blind squirrel finding an acorn, cus that would also apply to the "awesome animal doing something that said animal could not do under normal, non-hatworthy circumstances" rule.

Remember how I didn't know if those last two hats were in stock or not? Well I know that this one is no longer in stock over at Motivation but I decided to post it anyway as it is the original hat that piqued my snapback interest.  This hat was a special anniversary hat done by Motivation in collaboration with Mishka (hence the Motivation Wolverine on the left opposite the Mishka Death Adder on the right) and only came out in limited quantities.  The design was pretty popular and this hat has actually been sold out for a while but you may be able to find one on the interwebs somehow (if you could find two and would give me the second one we could definitely be bffs). 

Anyway, this has been a Michigan update/ new music gift/ swag lesson; you just got three posts for the price of one, congrats!!!  

   

WOOT WOOT !!!!

This post may seem out of character from my other posts but I just had to share some of my joy with you about The University of Michigan's victory today in Basketball!!!!!! When I say share my joy with you, I don't mean to do so in words, because words can't describe this kind of joy (and the words I might try to use would probably be considered trash talk) so I'll do this with a combo of pictures and videos, hopefully they can convey some of my Euphoria but they will probably fall miserably short.

3 stars of the game:

1.  Tim Hardaway Jr.

2. Darius Morris

3.  Evan Smotrycz

One more thing: IT'S GREAT TO BE A MICHIGAN WOLVERINE!!!!!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Swag Lessons

Today we'll be discussing swag lessons for anyone who is swag challenged or just wants to get up on some new swag.  Admittedly, I don't run the swag school in Ann Arbor, that's run by a friend of mine, but I can offer a few lessons about what swag looks like, especially in today's topic of hats.  We'll actually be discussing my most recent hat purchase and how it offers examples of swagdom in hatwear.

 That's the hat, or if you prefer a crispier, less on Carter's head look, check below

Anyway, as you can see we have a LRG fitted here in gray and black with a giraffe skateboarding on it.  What you can't see in this post are two things I really like about the hat: 1. the texture of the material (I have no idea what the material is called but I wish I did because it feels amazing, like a combo of suede and felt) and 2. That inside the hat there's a feature I've never seen before on a fitted, a little pocket, which is awesome but not really practical.
Anyways, this hat can show us several things about swag fitteds. The first is that the symbol is important, as is the brand.  This symbol is cool for a number or reasons: giraffes are cool, skateboarding is cool, giraffes do not normally skateboard and therefore a giraffe skateboarding is extra cool.  The brand, in this case LRG, is also reasonably cool to go along with that and is much cooler than your average skateboard related brand (I'm looking at you DC).  The second thing this hat reflects is the importance of a good color scheme, gray and black isn't the greatest (in fact a hater once hated on this color combo, but like David Cone (a Michigan QB woot woot!) once said, "if the haters aren't hatin on you you're doin something wrong"), but it's better than say brown and orange.

So where does that leave us? Well when establishing your own swag collection you don't want to bite my swag and buy my same hat, so you have to take the advice this hat offers (swag animal, swag brand, swag color scheme) and apply it to your own purchases.  Here are some recommendations: you could find some way to get to Brazil and cop the hats pictured above (if you do this and bring me one back I will love you forever and ever). They are swag and exclusives, so they may be impossible to get and I'm not sure they're out yet.  Or you could hit up the LRG section of a number of sites, including karmaloop and hatclub to purchase hats such as the ones pictured below.

Until next time, this has been a swag lesson