Busta Rhymes wearing Monderer for Jump in YRB

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He’s wearing the Gatsby Black Dentelle.

Culture Catch X Henry Butler X The Sopranos

After having met Dusty Wright (the man behind Culture Catch) and Ed Bennett (founder of VH1) at my friend’s mom’s birthday party (random, but cool), they kindly invited me to their Culture Catch events.  Each of which have been very intimate invitation-only performances held at some amazing townhouse or some other crazy loft.  Last week’s was at the residence of Joe Scarpinito in Tribeca.  The event featured Henry Butler, a blind pianist from New Orleans.  I introduced him to the Monderer for Jump Gatsby in Black Dentelle and when he started feeling it, he was immediately impressed.  He could tell through his hands that it was a special shoe.

Also in attendance were a host of characters from The Sopranos, notably Michael Imperioli who made the introduction for Henry and who also flipped for the Vanquish Grey Nappa.

His performance was amazing.  The things he was doing with that piano without the ability to see was breathtaking.  Must’ve been the shoes.  Check out Complex’s writeup on him.

My hair’s shorter now.

My homies, Ed and Dusty.

That’s Norena, Henry’s manager, Michael, his wife Victoria and Dusty.

The caterer was wearing one of our shoes from last season, completely unsolicited.

Dope view from the roof.

Joe had quite a collection of artwork.  I recognized this piece from a Chinese artist, Yue Minjun.  As usual, it was quite a unique event.  I’m certainly looking forward to the next one!

Brian White wearing Monderer for Jump at the Premier of Fighting

My boy Jerome from The Source told me he was wearing the Gatsby in Black Dentelle Patent.  They’re available at the SoHo boutique at 89 Spring St.

Monderer for Jump is here.

Our first delivery of Monderer for Jump has arrived at the SoHo store.  They are awesome.  It is our first collaboration with Christian Monderer from Paris whose family has over 100 years experience as shoemakers.  The quality and artisanship is impeccable.  Made from Italian leathers and crafted in Portugal, they come with their own bags and shoe horns.  They work with a tailored suit or with jeans and truly embody the meaning of casual couture.

The Stingray material is very interesting.

I thought this was cute.  It was on the corner of Wooster and Grand.

YRB How You Rock It

We participated in an event with YRB magazine where they had celebrities and tastemakers come to the Red Bull Studios and pick out clothes and shoes to wear and be photographed in.  Apparently they all wanted to rock Jump.

Also check out Footwear Plus’ feature of Monderer for Jump’s silver oxford in their latest issue.

Vegas.

So we’re going back.  As if once a month weren’t enough already – my liver is already trying to hide.

We’ll be at POOL booth #1118 and Project at 12131 12th Ave.

Come say high if you’ll be around.

Which reminds me that I never blogged about the last trip.  Here goes.

We introduced the ads in the trade pubs Footwear News and Footwear Plus.

The good ol’ booth at the convention center where we showed the regular Jump line.

Our suite at the Venetian where we showed Monderer for Jump (to hit our SoHo store soon) and our higher end Jump collection to debut later in the year.

That silver shoe is cut from one piece of Italian leather.

Some kickass mocs.

Sneaker deluxe.

Teaser!

Uncle Harry and shoes for humanity.

It’s become tradition to hit up the same Chinese restaurant every show.  Notice the chicken head.

And the abundance of Tsingtao Beer.

And the chicken head has landed onto Bree’s lips.  She’s our rep in the west.

A Joy, Bree and chicken head triple kiss.

“Now that, I say, that I say was what I call heaven.”

Remember this guy?

I always liked him.  Now this is, I say, is just wrong.

And of course, Larry goes for the coxcomb.

The women of Jump.

The men of Jump.

Our distributor and brother, Daniel and his wife Melanie from Montreal.

Uncle James and Uncle Harry.

Harry loves to perform his psychoanalysis tests during dinner.

Our last night in Vegas.

This is like the megatouch game.

With Jorge of SWEAR shoes.

Lawrence with Stephanie and our German distributor Thuy.

And that was that.  We went to LA after.  We’ll be there again after this trip.