To celebrate the sport of baseball and the legacy of a team that continues to dominate. Nike Sportswear enlisted an idol of New York’s creative culture to take on this project and interpret design in anew way. By twisting together two legends -Futura and the New York Yankees- Nike Sportswear tapped into that sense of self-expression and individuality that is ” Being True”

Nike Stickball Tournament from NANO on VimeoNike Sportswear took over the New York’s Mercer street ( in front of Nike Sportswear 21 Mercer store ) for a day of fun with a Stickball tournament and a block party! This also marked the global release for NSW x Futura x Yankees product collaboration. Stickball players all received 1 of 30 Futura x Nike Sportswear jerseys and a drip-painted Futura Stickball bat for the event. Futura was very happy about this collaboration, he went on to say ” I didn’t want to do another shoe that would wind up in the hands of ‘insiders’ or people in the industry, I wanted to give the kids a shot so I was excited to do something with Nike that would reach more people….and then It’s not  just a sneaker, It’s a whole collection”For more Nike Sportswear news become a fan of Nike Sportswear on facebook.

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In his song, “Hole Heart”, Arno Carstens describes someone’s aspiration to be a ‘doctor-model’ as a sweet illusion. Wonder what he’d say about this model/national rugby captain/human resource officer?

Nomsebenzi Tsotsobe is one amazing woman. In spite of playing rugby for the first time in her early twenties, she went on to become captain of the South African women’s rugby team!

And without her actively pursuing a career in modelling, she ended up on the catwalks of the world and doing photo shoots in France. (As well as for Ross Garrett’s contribution to the Gallery on 4th, I hasten to add, where his pictures of Nomsebenzi in her very different worlds strikingly illustrated the concept of being true to every part of who you are.)

All this in addition to keeping down a full-time job – and being a really nice person.

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For the launch of the Gallery on 4^th, we were looking for artists who are inspired by South African street culture and who are able to convey what it means to be young and BE TRUE in SA today. Of course we were expecting these artists to be fairly young but some of them, like the creative collective “The Punk Soul Brothers”, still managed to surprise us…

At 10 and 11 respectively, Ross and Callum Sey actually fit the collaborator’s profile quite perfectly, listing skateboarding, art, reading and Playstation games as favourite free time activities. With some practical assistance from Mom Sue they’ve produced a range of radical T-Shirts that just goes to show ‘being true’ has nothing to do with age.

Here is an excerpt from a recent interview with The Punk Soul Brothers:

What do you want to be doing in ten years time?

C: I want to go to Paris to study to be an author at this famous university (I can’t remember the name of it).

R: I’m going to America to study to be a graphic artist.

Best part of your day?

C: Getting home from school.

R: (nodding) Getting home from school.

Worst part of your day?

C: Homework.

R: (nodding) Homework.

If you could change the world in one way, what would you do?

R: I’d stop crime.

C: I’d stop pollution.

Your definition of art?

C: Expressing yourself.

R: (nodding) Expressing yourself.

C: Hey! Stop copying me.

For more info, contact Sue at: susansey@mweb.co.za

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With the smell of the burnt toast of many a well-meant Mother’s Day breakfast still hovering in homes countrywide, I thought it would be most appropriate to devote some blog space to our dear Mother City.

The launch of the legendary Nike Dunk in South Africa was an excellent excuse for Cape Town’s cool to get down at the SHELFLIFE NIKE BLOCK PARTY. On Friday the 25th of April Nike & Shelflife, one of Cape Town’s freshest street culture stores, treated over 200 guests to the BE TRUE spirit.

The evening started off with 6 taxis (which had been sprayed by 6 of Cape Town’s hottest graffiti artists, each in a different Nike Dunk colour) setting the scene in front of the store on Loop Street. There guests could explore the upstairs Shelflife Gallery where a unique BE TRUE sculpture and hundreds of images of the taxi’s being painted were on display. (A nice touch & big hit of the evening was The Nike Dunk Stencil Wall where guests had the chance to create their own style of Nike Dunk.)

As the evening progressed, guests congregated downstairs in the BE TRUE Café where the likes of ILL SKILLS JAZZ BAND, INTELEKTU (MC), SWEAT X, & DJ NASTY provided the soundtrack. See more pics at our Flickr Gallery or go to the main blog by clicking here.

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Alon Skuy does not want to be called an ‘award-winning photographer.’ So I won’t. But I could have.

After completing a course at The Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, he started his career working as a freelance photographer for The Star, The Saturday Star and the Sunday Independent Newspapers. In December 2006 he was employed as a full time photographer for the Star, and later moved to The Times, where he’s been working for a year.

See the picture that earned him the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Award for News Photographs here. He was praised for his ability to capture the essence and emotions of “a moment of experience that will dwell for a long time with the two people involved” as well as being “a photographer who does not flinch, even when there is major danger in the air.” The photographs he took for the Nike BE TRUE Exhibition - and which also served as a poignant backdrop for the fashion of Lisa Jaffe – can be viewed at the store on 4th Avenue, or online.

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