The Combined

Board shorts.  There are just some things men do not invest enough in and sadly swim trunks are probably on the top 10 list for most.  I for one felt like this only until a couple of weeks ago.  Packing for Washington, DC, I gather beautiful button downs made with the highest of quality and pants custom tailored to my fitting, but when it came to swim shorts for the indoor pool, I was left with two options; the outdated, cliché floral swim shorts back from 05′ and a size too big, hideous green shorts which I bought when I realized how ugly the floral shorts were.  Now, they’re both embarrassing reminders of what my swimwear game used to be, stuffed in the void of my closet, hidden.  What lays neatly folded on my shelf and in front, the gatekeeper of the void, is the Phantom.

It was a little over two weeks ago when I received an email containing a code and instructions, I was given an opportunity to customize my own Hurley board shorts.  But I let that email sit as I pondered, giving my ‘creativity’ time to run wild.  I was thinking leopard print this and zebra print that, 3M flash here and snakeskin trim there, I wanted to put everything in one small piece.  It’s like a doughnut, if you will, yeah the jelly doughnuts, Boston cream and maple bar are all delicious on its own, but it’ll take a bad palette to enjoy a ‘jel-ton bar’ doughnut as one.  Catch my drift?  As I looked at my first draft with blue leopard mixed in with some other animal prints, I stared at the screen noticing that the shorts were too hectic.  It was all over the place and was lacking theme, so I asked myself “what am I trying to accomplish”, “what kind of taste do I want my doughnut to have?”.  I needed inspiration.

Although it wasn’t serious, I searched for inspiration whenever I had time for a couple of days.  Surfing the web, looking through lookbooks and even using my closet as a 3D mood board trying to come up with something other than leopard and snakeskin combos.   “When you stop looking, you will find it”, this quote is about being lost and although I wasn’t literally lost I was metaphorically.  Buried under an idea of ‘being unique’ I thought the piece had to be stupid, crazy in color and patterns.  But I realized something, the reason why it was so hard to come up with a design was because I was creating to impress others and not myself.

 

A month ago, a public relation company and I had planned to do a review on a timepiece and when the package arrived I quickly had the watch around my wrist.  Playing with the watch, I noticed the amazing simplicity of the NATO strap and its tri-colored stripes.  Red, white and blue, the colors of the American flag, Firecracker ice cream and Thom Browne’s signature, the 3 combination of colors is just simply brilliant.  Impressive almost.

 

When I “stopped looking”, as cliché as it may sound, it came to me.  Sitting on my black, suede couch I looked over to my coffee table and saw my collection of watches placed there.  For reasons of the vibrant colored strap, I reached for my Submariner and thought that this piece of nylon would be a great starting point for my Hurley Phantom shorts.  There are three strips on this NATO strap, each holding its own color respectably and there are also an optional three stripes on the right side of the shorts, I put two and two together and came up with what I call the “Phantom of the P’ropera”.

My index and thumb pinch the ash grey fabric as they trace it all the way down till it reaches the trim, then pulling towards me the “Phantom stretch”.  What’s important to know is the fact that the shorts stretch up to 60% allowing the consumer to be comfortable and maintain mobility all the while being water repellent.  I remember back in the days swim trunks just dried fast, now my shorts doesn’t even get wet!  The Phantom fabric is made from high quality water repellent fabric tightly woven for the best performance.  Most water repellent fabrics create big, clumped up umbrellas when water comes into contact with it, but because of the tightly woven, well crafted fabric the shorts create smaller umbrellas; the smaller the water coverage the softer and better the fabric quality it is.

It’s hard not to continue this post without getting too much more technical, but if I know anything about quality and if you trust our opinion here at TheCombined then you would take my word for it that these board shorts are well worth the cake.  To be a designer or the act of being, is not something people come by often and for a small price, you can colorize, customize and personalize your own Hurley Phantom shorts in which you will become unique in and out the waters.  I thought to myself, “how can I summarize my style into one piece of garment” and the process from paper to screen to packaging was really fun yet challenging, to eliminate ideas and create a product is just brilliant and well worth the time put in, I would do it again.

To create your own Hurley Phantom shorts, click here!

I will have colorized photos on my blog (shameless plugin) soon, for now enjoy these in b/w.

 

 

 

Very recently, I posted about the New Balance M1300DG shoes and even though I just copped those, I felt compelled to make another NB pickup. I saw these New Balance M574 Made in USA “Johnny Appleseed” shoes and was really enticed by the nice maroon and red colors. A majority of my sneakers are black, white and grey, so I felt that I needed to add some flavor.

This particular pair of NB’s are part of the M574 American Tall Tales pack that included a “Babe the Blue Ox” in blue, a “Paul Bunyan” pair in brown, these and the freshly released “John Henry”. The “John Henry” shoes are dope and it was a tough choice between the two, but due to the fact that I needed some color, I went with these guys that I am posting about. I have other pairs of GR M574′s and it’s really easy to see what you’re paying the extra money for when it comes to the Made in USA joints. The nylon mesh is soft and nice, and the suede is extra buttery. The comfort is top notch, too — not that my GR ones are uncomfortable, because they are.

Between these latest pickups, and the re-release of the M1300CL, plus the upcoming blue M998s that are starting to pop up on blogs, NB has completely captured my attention and my money. I don’t mind it, though, because it’s been a while since I’ve been this into copping sneakers. Since getting them, I’ve worn them every day. I’m even wearing them as I sit at the airport awaiting my departure. I will be back home in CA for a bit, so stay tuned for some new content in the coming weeks!

Oakley’s LSA boots are now available for the public to purchase. We showed you a really nice coyote colored Land version of the boot sometime back and I made mentioned of a Water version, so, here it is. The LSA is really something else. They combine great elements such as comfort and quality, and they look good. They wear almost like a sneaker because they’re so lightweight, but they’re built mad tough.

This Water version is called that for a good reason. In the event that you need to submerge your feet in water, they have vents at the bottom which will enable water to filter out easily. Also, if you come across some wetness, the sole unit is made of Oakley’s Unobtainium rubber, which should offer up some slip resistance. Other great features include the materials used to make up these boots: Scotchguard treated pig suede makes up about half of these shoes, while the Multicam portion is comprised out of the always rugged 100 Denier Cordura.

If you’re liking the idea of sporting military boots that you can wear a lot because they’re comfortable and because they look good, the Oakley LSA, Water or Terrain, are a good option. You can check for these at select Oakley footwear retailers.

I wanted to share a few snaps of some of the NFL’ers that were on hand during the Nike x NFL announcement that went on in New York at Steiner Studios. There were quite a few on hand, so this barely scratches the surface as to the amount of players that were actually there. It was really cool seeing these guys in person. I’ve been to other Nike sports announcements and have been around a lot of the athletes and it never gets old. I really enjoy NFL football, so this whole experience was a real treat. I was especially amped on seeing Michael Vick. I was thoroughly happy for him when he roared back last year. I even had him on my Fantasy football team and, man, did he pay off. He kept me in the mix for most of the season. I didn’t win it all, but thanks to him, I was competitive. It was cool seeing Alex Smith, too. I got some cool shots of him that went over well with the ladies on my Tumblr haha. Anyway, check out the pics!

There’s a certain factor of something magical, infatuation rather, when it comes to your first car.  Not your fathers car or your sisters, your very first legit car; be it leased or duffel bag lifestyle.  I for one, embarrassed to unfortunately admit, have yet to experience this extravagant passion, short lived or not, but my friend has. Since graduating from Johnson and Wales University with a degree in hotel management, he has bought the car saving up for about a year.  Since September he has been working front desk at the InterContinental Hotel, staple of the old Midtown Manhattan.  We were each making a name for ourselves in this city.  We’re smiling as we push 80mph down the freeway, this moment meant a lot to us.  From his dad’s blue Maxima, we called her Aqua, to his very own 1999 BMW convertible.  My friend is Norman and we cruise with the top down.

It’s funny isn’t it?  We witness convertibles all the time, not to mention the douche bags that come with it, and it’s nothing special.. until your friends get their hands on one, then WE BECOME the “D.bags” cruising, cutting the wind with our hands while it performs snake like gestures.   “A bird in hand is worth more than two birds in the bush”, I finally understand this saying now, one doesn’t realize something is of value or special until one comes to posses ‘it’.   What I’m trying to verbalize is a friends moment of achievement or those steps, the first leap to the continuation into the pursuit of his ‘happiness’.

But why did Norman choose to purchase a used car?  The car was the celebration of a hustler’s ambition. One of us had finally broken through. But each of us, in our own right, were on the cusp of something immeasurable.  What the car meant was that we had reached a point in our lives where we would start calling things our own. We had reached a point where we could begin having an impact on the world around us.  At one point that car was new, and someone who could actually afford it, someone who had achieved enough in their life to own it, loved it.

But it’s not like our ideas were anything new.  Generations before us felt the same way, they too started to make their way in this city.  It was one of them that had bought the BMW 323i new, tires still shiny, slowly rolling on out of the lot.  When Norman bought it the dealership had called it pre-owned, I like to consider it pre-appreciated, pre-esteemed, maybe even pre-loved.

We were inheriting a car with character.

There’s a sense of legacy there.  Not the same type of legacy that a father passing his car down to his son would have, but more like an OG passing a car down to a young blood.  The exchange is from one hustler to another.  It’s as if whoever buys a car with that much character is validating his own hustle, paying homage to the game.  After all the car has already been hustler-approved!  If we could keep going on this trajectory, we might be able to buy a car brand new, straight from the dealership.

Don’t get it twisted, we weren’t pushin’ weight or anything. Nah.  See the definition of the hustle had been expanded,  the game had changed.  Kids from our neighborhood didn’t have to hustle in the traditional sense of the word anymore.  They were getting smarter.  There were other ways of making it around here now.  What started off as a dream for a guy like Norman became his reality.  He was checking in guests who’s luggage was easily equal to other people’s net worth. When they had a question or an issue, they came to him.  He got along with them.  He could laugh with them.  See, the way that Norman came up was just as important as the fact that he did.

Norman used to drive his dads car, sharing it with the rest of the family and now at the age of 22, he works the front desk at a prestigious hotel and has his mind set on the greater things in life.  You may be puzzled as you read this and finding yourself asking “how does his car, job and his undeniable future come together and become relevant?”.  Well, in order to pursue a lifestyle of success, in this case ‘success’ is defined as self-made wealth and an independent individual, you have to first set your mind right, have patience and make smart decisions.  Will Smith once said, “You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out and say ‘I’m gonna build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that has ever been built’. You say ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid’. You do this every single day, and soon you have a wall”.  Playing on with which Smith stated, that first brick Norman has neatly placed is his car.

At one point in time, hustlers used to move bricks. Some still do. But some see it differently. Some hustlers saw that there were things you could build with bricks. That there was a different game out there. So they took the hustlers ambition and applied it elsewhere.

New York? New York is full of hustlers. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you came from. If you work hard, if you lay your bricks down as carefully as possible, you can build something in the concrete jungle.  We set out into the night, music blasting and fists pumped in celebration for our friend, Norman Chung.