STAPLE x HUF x BLACK SCALE x 10.DEEP FOR ART START

Dropping on Black Friday.

A couple months back, we helped jeffstaple film the Keith Hufnagel interview for this campaign video. This project is all about jeff and the Staple brand coming together with HUF, 10.Deep and Black Scale and giving back to ART START which is a New York based non-profit that focuses on funding for the creative arts for at-risk youth.

Anyway, for our part, it was cool to see the new HUF offices in LA and film, and witness, a very insightful conversation between jeff and Keith about starting HUF and building his business and the state of streetwear in general. Anyway, a short snippet of that convo appears in the video below.

For more pics and pricing and release info on the gear, check out Hypebeast.

Click here for more info on ART START.

Happy Thanksgiving.

SOUTH BEACH

Flicks from our recent trip to Florida.

In September, Matt and I flew down to Tampa to film at Shriners Hospitals Headquarters. Once that was wrapped up, Matt flew back and I took the Jeep we rented and drove across the state for a week.

Spent most of the time in Miami. South Beach. Townhouse. Yardbird. Wynwood Walls. That type of thing.

Drove down the whole coast. Everglades. Gator farm. Past the sunset, all the way to Key West. Beachside Marriott. Glazed Donuts. Rented bikes on Duval Street.

Nice to just turn my phone off and chill at the beach with the jellyfish for a week. If only the water here in SoCal was that warm... Until next time Miami, I'll definitely be back.

JEFFSTAPLE + CYCLE WORLD RUCKUS TEASER

This project has been in the works for awhile.

It all came from a random idea that Matt and I were discussing one morning about a year ago. After that, we were able to connect Garrett from Cycle World and jeffstaple and then it all started to grow from there.

It should be pretty dope when it's all said and done. For now, here's a 2-minute trailer of what's to come.

NIKE KEVIN DURANT KDVI EVENT

Earlier this summer I got an invite to check out the launch of Kevin Durant's new shoe over at Nike Santa Monica.

The Santa Monica Place mall was packed with people, 3 stories deep, waiting for a glimpse of KD.

DJ Mando Fresko was in the building.

The event was hosted by Kustoo who does the 'This Week in Sneaks' vids. First off, he brought Nike Basketball designer Leo Chang out to talk about the KDVI and the design inspirations and the meanings behind the different colorways.

Then EasyMoneySniper walked in and the place went nuts.

Obviously there were a ton of die hard KD fans camped out.

The shoe has a very different look than the KDV. The cut is much lower and it features an asymmetrical tongue which gives it a really distinct look. Kevin talked a bit about the sneaker and then was kind enough to give some kicks and prizes away to some of the fans. He is definitely one of the most humble superstars in the league.

Anyway, the NBA season tips off at the end of the month which means we have about another 2 weeks left before productivity at the 0484 office begins to significantly fall off.

Shout out to John P, Fatlace and Nike for having me.

TOYO TIRES: UFC'S DOMINICK CRUZ: THE DRIVE WITHIN

As you guys probably know, Matt's been a UFC fan for awhile now.

Like since we were in High School and wayyy before it was a cool thing to be into. Anyway, we got to work on this series of videos along with our boy John P for Toyo Tires recently and Matt was pretty stoked about it. Fight footage was provided by the UFC and interviews were done by an agency named Vitro out of San Diego - Matt and I edited it altogether.

This Dom Cruz video was definitely the most compelling to me - he gave a great interview. If you're a UFC nerd as well, you can check out the others we put together with Chad Mendes and our boy Anthony Pettis.

RECENT WORK: THE DENNIS MATSON STORY FOR DUCATI

We're back from the dead.

September was sort of a blur so I sort of let the blog fall off a bit. But on the bright side we went and did a bunch of stuff, so if I ever get around to posting any of it, it'll be cool.

Let's start things back off with a bang. This is from our trip we took back in the spring to Austin along with Ducati for the ID Agency. Matty and Ryan and I all alone in a garage with a million dollars worth of Panigale R's. Not a big deal :)

Anyway, while we were there that week we filmed a story about this guy Dennis who had bought a Panigale S a year or 2 ago and basically picked it up from the dealership in Newport Beach and then drove it across the country for 16K miles. It was a really cool story and Dennis was super chill - we're now best friends with him. Check out the video below.

If you're dying to know more about Dennis' cross country trip, check it out his Ride Report / blog type of thing here.

Also thanks to our boy Adam over at DJI for help with the aerial shots.

SHOWTIME

We shot this out in Milwaukee a couple months ago.

On our way back from the east coast, Matt and I stopped in Wisconsin for a couple days and met up with the homie John Pangilinan and Stan from Toyo Tires. We rented a bunch of lighting equipment and went out to Roufusport, Anthony's home gym where he does most of his training.

We shot it all in one night - mostly captured in super slow motion on this new camera we picked up recently, the Sony FS700. Anthony was cool to work with as always.

Sidenote for die-hard UFC fans - we actually filmed this as a promo for UFC 163, a fight that was scheduled, at the time, between Pettis and Jose Aldo. But the day after we filmed, Pettis flew to Brazil to do some pre-fight press and while he was there he ended up hurting himself in training and that forced him off of that Fight Card entirely. So for awhile we had this footage and there was no fight scheduled at all (Matt was sad). But then Anthony ended up getting on the UFC 164 card, which was also a title fight, AND it happened to be Milwaukee, Pettis' hometown, so it all worked out for the best.

Anyway, check out the fight this weekend. Matt and I will be there in Wisconsin - you'll probably recognize us on TV, we'll be the 2 guys eating hot dogs and not wearing Affliction or Tapout shirts.

MORE HYPE

Episodes 2 and 3 from the 5-part series we made for Cycle World and Ducati.

A few random production notes:

Episode 2: Target Practice

We scouted locations with views of downtown LA for almost a week. Regular building rooftops would not work because they have too much junk on the top - A/C vents, satellite dishes, etc - and not enough space to ride. So we rented the top floor of this parking garage.

The 'targets' we used here were light bulbs filled with a mix of corn starch and dry tempura paint. Made for a decently cool effect when they shattered - especially when we captured it up close in slow motion.

We hallowed out the light bulbs and funneled the powder mixture into them in the car on our drive to DTLA the morning of the shoot. We prepped about 50 bulbs to account for re-takes and multiple angles. The backseat of Matt's 4Runner was about as messy as you can imagine it might be.

Episode 3: Container Yard Chaos

This Container Yard is our go-to location in Long Beach - courtesy of our boy Tim Cadiente. It's the same spot where we shot Pacquiao and a music video and a bunch of other behind-the-scenes stuff for Tim.

The container that the riders do the long stoppie through had a hardwood floor. In order for the riders to get enough grip, we bought rolls of skateboard grip tape and laid it in strips across the length of the container.

Anyway, enjoy the vids - comments and feedback have been really positive and the series has already logged a couple hundred thousand views. I'll post 4 and 5 soon - an Egg Drop vid which made a huge mess and then the finale which we filmed at Oakley.

ADIDAS NATIONS 2013

Matt and I went out and took some photos at Adidas Nations last week.

Adidas Nations is one of the premier Summer camps for the nation's best high school players plus they bring in prospects from all over the globe - Asia, Africa, Russia, etc.

During the week the camp counselors consist of top college players and then a bunch of NBA guys drop in to help as well.

The guys trained and played all week at the Next Level gym in Garden Grove. Then on Monday, we went out to go check out the 3rd Place and Championship games which were held at Long Beach City College.

Overall it was a cool environment. We enjoyed hanging out at both the practice sessions and the games. It was interesting to see the coaches and scouts interact with the players on and off the court. The global aspect of it was intriguing too - spent a lot of time watching the teams from Africa and Russia and just appreciating how universal the game really is.

Rookie of the Year phenom Damian Lillard was in the building.

As was John Wall rocking some new Pro Model's and fresh off signing his $80M extension.

Damian asked to take a picture with me on my way out.

Matt and I left halfway through the last game as we had to get back to the office and finish a few projects on deadlines. A couple days later I read that Derrick Rose dropped in later, after we had left. Missing hanging out with him is probably the lowest moment of my basketball player stalking career. Oh well, next time. I will find you Derrick :)

Thanks to Nima and, of course, SLAM magazine.

GAME OF HYPE: EPISODE 1

Shot this in June on a stretch of abandoned highway at an undisclosed location.

We had 2 pro stunt riders, a van full of props, a few hours to film and 1 super slo-mo camera. There are 4 more where this came from. If you don't like this one, don't worry, they get cooler as the series goes on. Episode 2, shot on the rooftop of a parking garage in Downtown LA, coming next week.

KDVI PREVIEW

It's been hectic recently.

Past couple months have probably been the hardest that we've ever worked. But, for all the late nights spent working at the office (every night) and the weekends we work straight through (every weekend), there've been also some not so bad things too. Like chilling with Kevin Durant in Santa Monica last Saturday, courtesy of The Swoosh.

Anyway, more KD pics on the way shortly because I'm definitely planning on catching up on blogging soon. And sleep. And laundry. Until then, enjoy this new Drake song 'All me' because you know no one bootlegs music at 2 in the morning like we do.

DOWNLOAD NOW.

PIKES PEAK III

Because all epic stories are trilogies.

Last month we went back out to Colorado for the annual Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

Flew in Thursday night and had to be up on the mountain at around 4AM on Friday. At 14,000 feet, in the pitch dark of night before sunrise, it's freezing. We set this sunrise timelapse shot up and then climbed back into the heated seats of the rental car for a half hour.

Ducati didn't bring a factory team back to the mountain this year so we went out on behalf of ID Agency to cover Jeremy Foley for Recaro. Jeremy was the driver in that gnarly crash last year that was seen around the world.

Matt and Ryan were back in Cali filming other stuff so Petra came out again this year. Jennifer from ID came along to chaperone us.

While we were out there we also got to hang out with and interview Jeff Zwart and some guys from his team.

Jeff is a motorsports icon - started as a photographer then became a driver himself and also, by the way, is now a renown commercial director for all the big car companies including Porsche.

The Hill Climb is not a joke.

While we were out in Colorado Springs we found some time to try Rudy's Country Store which is a legendary BBQ spot, and also a gas station incidentally.

We were hungry and the food was cheap and I was worried that we wouldn't get to eat much being stuck on the mountain on raceday so needless to say we bought an absurd amount of food. The chicken was pretty amazing. As was the chocolate pudding.

Anyway, it ended up being a fun trip. Shout out to Greg Tracy and Carlin Dunne and the whole extended Pikes Peak fam who we ran into and hung out with that weekend. If you want more pictures of racecars and stuff and less details about what I ate for lunch, hit up our boy Jamey Price's blog. He has some sick images from the week - especially considering he shoots on Nikon's ;)