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.
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.
