Kickin’ It At The NBA ASG

By Phil Hecken

It’s that time of year again — the one day I let the inmate run the asylum day everyone’s favorite sneakerhead, Matt Powers, gets to highlight the footwear of all the players at the NBA’s annual All-Star game. Yes, folks, for those of you (and you know who you are) for whom this game, this weekend — this spectacle — is like Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Hallowe’en combined, this is your day. Strap on the rubber pants and keep the tissues handy, because here comes the show…

For the rest of us, for whom owning multiple pairs of shoes is not an obsession, not a cause for rioting, not a raison d’être, not running out of closet space because the boxes can only stack up so high… well, you may approach today’s column with more curiosity than rapture.

Unfortunately, Matt has been a busy beaver recently, so he only has a short intro to this momentous work. But really, it’s the kicks we care about, not the words used to describe them, right? Right. So, without further ado, here is the one, the ONLY, Matt Powers:

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Moneyball must be catching on, everyone is cutting back this year. The Mets are ditching the black, Wayne Hagin, and everyone and everything that isn’t bolted down. I am getting into the act too … My annual ASG KICKSANITY is a stripped down version due to a LIN-SANE work schedule. Nonetheless, enjoy!

Western Conference All Stars

1. Blake Griffin — Nike Zoom Hyperenforcer

2. Kevin Durant — Nike Air KD IV Galaxy All Star

3. Andrew Bynum — Nike Zoom Hyperfuse

4. Kobe Bryant — Nike Air Zoom Kobe VII

5. Chris Paul — Jordan Brand CP3.V All Star

6. LaMarcus Aldridge — Nike Hyperdunk 2011/Hyperenforcer

7. Kevin Love — Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2011

8. Steve Nash — Nike Zoom Hyperfuse Low

9. Dirk Nowitzki — Nike Hyperdunk 2011

10. Tony Parker — Nike Air Zoom Brave

11. Russell Westbrook — Nike Hyperfuse 2011 PE

12. Marc Gasol — Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2011

. . . . .

Eastern Conference All Stars

1. Carmelo Anthony — Jordan Brand Melo M8

2. LeBron James — Nike Air Lebron IX All Star

3. Dwight Howard — Adidas AdiPower Howard 2 All Star

4. Derrick Rose — Adidas AdiZero 2.5 Rose All Star

5. Dwyane Wade — Jordan Brand Fly Wade 2

6. Chris Bosh — Nike Hypermax 2011

7. Luol Deng — Nike Hyperdunk 2011/ Hyperenforcer

8. Roy Hibbert — Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2011/Hyperenforcer

9. Andre Iguodala — Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2011/Hyperenforcer

10. Paul Pierce — Nike Air Max Hyperfly

11. Rajon Rondo — Nike Air Zoom Hyperfuse 2011

12. Deron Williams — Nike Hyperdunk 2011 Low PE

. . . . .

Sidebar:

A. The first Linsanity Player Exclusive Hyperdunk 2011 Low

B. Landry Fields Kobe VII Knicks PE

C. This year’s big Air Jordan 2012 release

D. Nike Foamposite Galaxy All Star on then-Nike exec Gentry Humphrey

E. Nike 2012 ASG Dunk Pack

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And that, folks, is a wrap. Big, big thanks to today’s sole man, the master DIYer, the crackerjack halfback, Matt Powers, international man of mystery.

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Benchies

by Rick Pearson

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Oh, well, never mind…

And the full-size, as always.

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Uni Tweaks Concepts

We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.

And so, lets begin:

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We start with Jeff Worthington, who has a logo for a Canadian California AIFL football team:

After a few days to think, I created a second attempt at the Ontario Warriors logo for the AIFL team.

They have extended the submission deadline a few days to have more “non-traditional/non-Trojan like designs.”

Thanks!

Jeff Worthington

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Next up is Leo Strawn, who has a bunch of stuff:

Phil

These designs of mine have been accepted as the official kits for cleveland cannons and charleston saints (united states australian rules football)…I did the cannons logo also, but not the saints logo (which is pretty much just an alteration of the st. kilda saints of the afl)…

I also recently submitted some designs to the ontario (california) warriors (american indoor football) for their logo design competition…also decided to go ahead and do some helmet and uniform designs while i was at it…no decision on who the winner was…will keep you posted if it happens to be me…

logo 1
logo 1a

black helmet 1 … helmet 2 … uni mock
red helmet 1 … helmet 2 … uni mock

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logo 2
logo 2a
logo 2b
logo 2c

black helmet 1 … helmet 2 … uni mock
red helmet 1 … helmet 2 … uni mock

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logo 3
logo 3a

helmet 1 … helmet 2 … uni mock

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leo strawn

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And we close with Ruben Zendejas, who actually wanted to see the Ducks in school colors:

Phil,

I really liked the this years ducks rose bowl helmet and i wanted to see what they would have looked like with the same finish but with their school colors.

Ruben

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That’s it for today. Back with more tomorrow.

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Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

Due to curling festivities & a UW gathering, we had a one-week hiatus in Colorize This!

But we’re back now. Let’s get started:

This first set of colorizations comes from John Turney, who combines the *skill* of tweaking with colorizations:

I took the excellent work already done and filtered with with a Polychrome 1936 filter, a film possible in use at the time of the picture.

…

I took the updated one and covered it with a less grain Kodachrome 1936-40 filter. I think it brings out highlights in the faces and enriches the color a bit.

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A little side by side comparison . . .

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Basic colorization with a Kodak Autochrome filter applied in Photoshop.

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Next up is one of the “G’s” in the “G&G Boys,” the one and only George Chilvers:

Hi Phil

I know you said you might take a break this week, but I’m sending two for next issue.

They both come from a brilliant book entitled “Famous Association Footballers 1895” which has a number of portrait pictures.

This first one is an interesting character called William Foulke. He was goalkeeper for Sheffield United and in this picture he looks fit and athletic. He gained fame years later with a new nickname “Fatty Foulke”, and can be seen about 20 years later here.

Another pic to follow.

George

Indeed:

… and a second one.

This one shows that pink is not a new invention in sporting gear.

This chap is F H Bray wearing the colours of Old Carthusians.

At the time interest in and involvement with football was split between Northern professional teams who drew support and players from the working classes of the industrial North, and with ex-public school boys, mainly based in the South. Just to confuse you all on the other side of the Pond, “public school” in the UK means “private schools” – fee-paying establishments. Confused?

Mr Bray played for Old Carthusians, the team of former Charterhouse School pupils, and he wears the school colours of pink, magenta and blue. Old Carthusians had won the FA cup about 10 years earlier, but the balance of power was moving to the professional clubs, and to the Football League.

George

But…George wasn’t done, not by any means. This one’s for Conn:

All right – I promise this is the last from my new books from Amazon (for this week at least).

1895 again – and one for Connie. This is Charles (C V) Rooke, an Irish rugby international. I just love the embroidered shamrock badge on the jersey. Also have a look at the size and shape of the ball he’s holding. Not quite like the streamlined torpedoes now used.

At the time of the portrait Rooke was 25, 6 ft 1 in tall and weighed 12 st 7 lbs (sorry, I don’t convert stones and pounds to pounds).

George

Whew! Great stuff, George.

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Moving on, we have one from one of our more frequent colorizers, Larry Bodnovich:

From Shorpy

New York, November 25, 1913. “Mullins & Sullivan.” West Point football players Charles Love Mullins Jr. and Joseph Pescia Sullivan, future major generals from the Class of 1917

Larry Bodnovich

Thanks Lar!

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And, last but not least, we have Gary Chanko, who had previously had one of his colorizations autographed — and he’s back with another:

A few weeks ago I colorized a photo of Bart Starr during his Alabama days. (29 Jan 2012 Colorize This edition). Today I received this autographed print by mail.

Just wanted to add encouragement to Colorizers to create their own unique sports memorabilia.

Gary

Awesome, Gar! The rest of you folks who colorize should try this. Of course, in George’s case, they might be dead, but still, worth the effort.

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And that’s it for this week. Keep it up guys! Back with more next time.

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And Finally…

Got this note from “Jet” and I thought I’d share. I’m not much for eBay, but these are great:

Hi Phil,
If you’re doing UW tomorrow, Here are two Ebay postings for cotton/flannel baseball unis:

One

Two

thanks
-Pete (Jet)

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And that’s all for today. Y’all have a great Saturday, now!

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“ummm…what?” — Wayne Boardman