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.
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.
