Wednesday, December 24, 2008

my fascination with all things japanese continues

ever since my first trip to japan i've been fascinated by all things japanese. mind you, this was even before my current obsession with sneaker and streetwear culture. i was always mindblown by how the japanese can take something american and just plain do it better.

case in point is a company called loopwheeler which uses ancient (but better) technology to make insanely comfortable sweatshirts. what makes them better you ask? a terribly inefficient and painstakingly slow machine called "loopwheel" that can only knit one meter (about a yard) of fabric PER HOUR. all told, each machine only churns out enough fabric to make 8-9 sweatshirts IN A DAY. the result is a shirt made without any excess tension that is unusually soft and durable.

nike sportswear recently collaborated with loopwheeler to produce a limited number of sweatshirts and hoodies along with this nike blazer mid that i was lucky enough to pick up at their temporary event space in LA's montalban theater.



check out more on loopwheeler here. gotta love the sketchy japanese-to-english translation...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh man. how much do those things cost?!

dj dan suh aka koreantomcruise said...

i think the kicks were like $120 but were only released at a small handful of stores worldwide (less than 10 i think).

the hoodies are a bit steep and run for $250 if i remember correctly.