Nike 100 located in Beijing is an exhibition that highlight’s 100 Nike innovations. The innovations are pretty darn cool but I was more attracted to the space and the install of the exhibit.

About every 20 seconds, the panels on the entrance flip to reveal a different image.

Upon entering, you’re greeted by large imagery, big type and a glowing window filled with…

…iPod Touches that give you an audio tour.

a long hall way that feels somewhat like a locker room highlights the various innovations. the ceiling graphic changes every 30 seconds, similar to the outside entrance.

Down that corridor are smaller rooms. I really liked the large, black and white, informational graphics that adorned this room.

This is the nikeID room where you can design your own shoe.

Upstairs hung life size replicas of Chinese athletes in every Olympic sport.

In case you didn’t recognize the sport, a diagram on the floor keeps visitors informed.

A showcase of Nike’s shoes for every Olympic event!

The exhibit ends here showcasing Nike’s latest shoe innovation. As you can see it culminates in florescent lights, led ticker, backlit tables, white plastic, clear threads - all encircled by a wall of wood. Lots of materials but they manage to make it all work!

I’m pretty fired up now to get going on another New Leaf installation! We’ll see what we can whip up for our fall release party.

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XDC Space (Xin Dong Cheng Space) is a gallery that exhibits contemporary Chinese art. I caught the current exhibition Red, Smooth and Luminescent.

The above piece really caught my eye. I think it is a depiction how the west (coke, mcDonalds) has become a part of Chinese life. I want to say this is not good but one of my friends here gave me another perspective. She says the Chinese people are happy that they can afford these more expensive American goods ($5US for a meal is a lot of money here). To them, it shows that they are doing well, that their country is prospering and growing. What do you think?

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I’m in Beijing for the next two weeks so I’ll be posting on the various art and happenings here…so here goes. I got to check out Beijing’s art district known as the 798 Art Zone and its pretty awesome. Wikipedia says:

798 Art Zone is a part of Dashanzi in the Chaoyang District of Beijing that houses a thriving artist community, among 50-year old decommissioned military factory buildings of unique architectural style. It is often compared with New York’s Greenwich Village or SoHo, but faces impending destruction from the forces driving Beijing’s urban sprawl.

There are a ton of galleries (seriously at least 50), but many were closed. Still, I spent a good half day there looking at paintings, sculptures, and installations. Here are some of the goodies:

This is 798 Space, one gallery in the art zone. Its cool how they decided to leave the green machinery from the original factory.

Sleeping quarters for resident artists.

This is to be converted into a cafe!

A bit of graffiti. The only graffiti that I’ve seen in all of Beijing is in this district

enjoy life.

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It’s still not over! In case you have been living in a cave or did not have internet for the last few weeks and do not know about Erik’s show that is up right now, here is a cool little video that sums it all up from install to opening night.

For those in the Bay Area, check out the Shakedown this Saturday! There’s going to be emcees on the mic, djs scratching it up, with bboys (and bgirls) strutting their stuff on the dance floor. I’m always wowed by what I see these days. I grew up around this and am amazed to see how breakdancing has evolved. To top it off, there will be a fashion showcase! This is gonna be better than America’s Best Dance Crew See ya there!

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…david, brian, rudy, michelle. Congratulations all! Email me deny@newleafclothing.com with your address.

Thank you to everyone that let us know what you’ve liked thus far. We’re working hard on the next series, due out early September. Hope we can continue to impress all of you who have been with us since 2004!

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What is that in “t-shirt” years? I actually can’t believe we’ve been at this for four years already. We’ve seen a lot of lines come and go so we’re happy to still be around and dishing out our artsy tees. To celebrate this anniversary, we’ll be giving away 4 shirts to four lucky fans…thats you guys!

“How do I win?’ you ask.

1. Simply leave a message telling us what your favorite new leaf tee is (there has been over forty designs).

2. Winners will be selected at random.

3. Contest ends July 7, Monday, 11:59PST.

The winners will be announce next Tuesday! Good luck! Enjoy life.

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Read a good interview today between CNN and Andrew Stanton, writer/director of Wall-E. Here’s a couple things that resonated with me

CNN: Well, what about profit? Did you guys think, wow, a movie where nobody talks, or very little talking happens, could mean [trouble]?

Stanton: Businessmen think like that. We’re a group full of artists, and if you want to understand how we think, think about [the fact] that an artist runs the studio and nothing but artists work under him. So we just make it for the pure excitement of the cinema. We want to make sure it does well enough that we can keep working there, so we have a vested interest in survival, but that’s about where it ends. We just love movies and we want to make more great movie

CNN: This film has several messages, I feel. From the environment, to love, to trying hard …

Stanton: Yeah, frankly the love one is really all I was pushing. Everything else I was using elements that I knew matched those scenarios of environment and society and things, but I was just trying to go with things that [were] … true aspects of us that amplified the big point of the story, which was this love story and what is the point of living? What is the real point of living? There’s a lot of different ways people can fill their time, but there’s really only one reason we’re here and it’s relationships and loving one another. That’s all I was pushing. Everything else was a benefactor of that.

Alright, now I’m sold…gonna go watch it this weekend! You can read the whole article here.

Our friend Josh, who currently lives in China, has been spending the last few weeks in refuge camps for people displaced by the earthquake. Here he is rocking our Empower tee and and making the children laugh. How fitting!

Love life

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To promote our new framed art prints, we will be giving one away by the end of today, 11:59PM PDT. To be eligible, leave a comment to this post telling us why you should be the winner. We will let you know who won tomorrow. Have fun and good luck.