Coca-Cola deserves a round of applause for its latest mobile effort: The Cheering Truck (tx Elliot).
Outfitted with a recording booth, the red Coca-Cola truck drove throughout Argentina, stopping in select spots and inviting fans (sometimes whole school’s worth of them) to step inside and have their cheers captured on tape. As more sound files were stowed away, a digital sign outside the truck counted the number of cheers as it crept towards the one million mark.
Palace X Umbro is a unique collaboration between English sporting legend Umbro and London skate brand, Palace. The two have teamed up for a twist on football classics, like a re-issue of the famous Italia 1990 away World Cup jersey. Palace has also created a promo video of nostalgic VHS footage re-enacting the second semi-final match between West Germany and England. The short video is set in a traditional British boozer and superbly captures the vibe and excitement experienced on that day.
In celebration of Levi’s 511 Commuter line leg-wear, designed for commuting cyclists, the Levi’s and Urban Outfitters Bike Shop went on a nationwide US tour. The free public event featured bike tuning with an expert mechanic, customised Levi’s Commuter tailoring, a DIY bike bag workshop, bicycle food carts, a human-powered amusement ride, a commuter obstacle course, Goldsprint racing, and SF-based Heavy Petal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo – a bicycle club of ‘alter-bike mechanics, mariachi-punk musicians, and psychotic clowns who love bikes, beer, and building stuff.’
Nike, noticing the trend towards barefoot running, have designed shoes for it. The Nike Free series combines the best of shoe-free athletics with some of the protection and enhancement that shoes can provide. (If you didn’t already know, there’s evidence that padded shoes change our gait in a way that means heavier heel strikes while running—which could increase the chance of injury. The argument of barefoot running is that we evolved to run without shoes, so shoes that change our gait are probably doing more harm than good.)
Nike has unveiled the Nike+ FuelBand, a wristband that aims to provide a common metric for tracking physical activities. Building on Nike+, the FuelBand tracks ‘NikeFuel’ – units that let people compare, say, a game of basketball to a dance class. People can measure up and compete with others or use the band as motivation to stay fit. You can set daily NikeFuel score goals and the FuelBand turns red, yellow, or green to tell you how you’re doing.
Puma has launched its own limited edition craft beer, Kreechr, to mark its entry into the 2011 Volvo Ocean Race. The brand collaborated with micro-brewery Brewers & Union to create the beer, of which only 600 cases were made.
Nike has re-released three of its most venerable brands – the Air Force 1, Dunk and Air Max 90 – with a seamless new construction.
A thermo-moulding process called ‘Vac Tech technology’ results in a one-piece vacuum-packed upper construction with no visible stitching. The shoes come in glossy and matte leather, as well as suede versions finished with a variety of tonal colourways.
Adidas recently released its new intelligent soccer boot – the adizero f50 miCoach. It features a space for the miCoach Speed Cell, a tracking device that records speed, sprint times, distance and stride rates.
Brand 69Slam makes surf shorts, bikinis and underwear with wild,
in-your-face prints. It all began when the founder decided to rail
against dull, boring briefs and “create mayhem” in his pants. Now the
brand is on a mission to spread a revolution with its motto: PLAY LOUD!
(Thanks to Amy K)
Like many brands, Umbro is going retro with its new 1350 collection, which takes inspiration from the 1978 World Cup Scotland v Netherlands kits. Aston Villa’s Darren Bent and Fiorentina’s Juan Vargas are participating in the campaign and Umbro is also collaborating with designer Aitor Throup to revive other Umbro football garments from the past 87 years.
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