FIVE FOUR

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• MAGIC Show

  September 4, 2006 0 Comments

  Sorry again for the lag of updates, I've had a hectic schedule. Busy preparing for the MAGIC show, then the actual show and now off on a much needed vacation.

  So it's Labor Day September 4th, and I feel like a cherry tomato. Well at least I look like one. I'm in Hawaii right now in beautiful Waikiki cooling off with some friends and Five Four family. We took an early morning flight out of L.A. on Friday morning, 12 hours after we arrived from Las Vegas. We were in the city of sin for 6 days, 6 very long days. I started off the trip missing my flight out of Burbank airport. I raced the streets of L.A. like a mad man, leaving my office at noon from downtown L.A. with my flight being at 12:45 pm. I got to the airport at 12:25 pm and by the time I got to security it was 12:35 pm. I was wearing some Five Four military shorts and of course they happened to have 8 snaps on them which caused the metal detectors to go off. I told the security about it before I went in but of course they suspected me of all people to be some wacko osama follower. Anyways, so after the chick security guard is yelling "male assist" for like 5 minutes, I told her "yo my flight is in 5 minutes can you please hurry up"...the asshole security guard next to her, which could've done the damn "male assist" looks at her with a chuckle and goes, "oh well I guess he's going to miss his flight." So after this douche bag said that I knew it was over. I waited another 10 minutes for this damn male assist and missed my flight. I hopped on the next flight and landed in Vegas late afternoon. I had a light fever going into Vegas, and after landing and going over to the convention center to check out the booth, it got worse. I took a z-pack and pretty much slept for 2 days until the show started.

  The show, as usual, was a great show for Five Four. Our booth was in the front and we designed a new booth for this show. It had a very modern look to it.

  We were slammed the whole show, as you can see our booth was busy w/useful and useless people...another typicl MAGIC show. If you've been to MAGIC, you know what I'm talking about. Here is Ronnie, our Mid-Atlantic & Southeast rep hustling some orders... We had our staff on full salute, Christine and Amanda greeted everyone with a smile and a middle finger Davey (FF Art Director) is trying to show off his new tee designs Eman (FF Design Director) is pondering by himself, "what did I take last night?" The Five Four staff is always working hard , this time they are hardly working..what a shock. L to R: (Julia - FF Designer, KB - Special Projects & Lifestyle, Amanda, Sisilia and young Christine, Davey Detail in the middle) Dee had some sick shoes on one day in the booth, I mean, SICK. I'm no sneakerhead, but these are worthy of respect. Straight fire. He said it was a Dunk Hi Dontrelle Willis shoe. Young Chris (FF West Coast Sales) dozing off in the booth Christine being super young once again with someone else on her intellectual level Greg, our bill colllector, I mean friend, hangs out w/his girl Carissa (FF East Coast Sales) in front of the FF booth Christine, being real young once again, thinks she's in the MLB hitting J Dubb with one of those wiffle bats The great Maurice Malone stopped by the booth on Tuesday to chat for a bit On Tuesday night, we decided to rent a hospitality suite at the Venetian and have our staff, distibutors and close affiliates for some drinks, food and drunken times... Our friend, L.A. club promoter Brian Toll, sits and watches for prey Branden (FF tata), sweaty as usual, trying to cop a cheap feel from Sisilia while Davey strikes a pose Chris, being real young, recruited some spaced out chick from the hallway and tried to lay down some of that Midwest charm on her This is when you know people were getting rowdy, when girls start arm wrestling. Here you have Christine first challenging a Monarchy Clothing intern. Then Melissa (Monarchy) and Amanda facing off Corey from "Leaders1354":http://www.leaders1354.com/ in Chicago stopped by the party and reminisced with Dee about the time they went to go ball it up in Chicago, Dee trying to be the Indian Jordan Branden and Davey at the bar Nate from Monarchy playing off the cool guy role KB giving homage to my Gucci kicks It was Steven's bday, our distributor from Canada. He turned 55! Happy bday Abba! Doesn't he look like the French Jew version of Mel Gibson? With a mullet? We all know Mel loves the Jews... J Dubb playing bartender, AS USUAL After a few hours, seeing the drunken debauchery he helped to create, he ponders "what did I do?" Bernard (European distributor) checking out his blackberry while Steven tries to get a peek After this wild party, it was only 11pm. We headed over to Tao for the Hudson / Creative Recreation party which was off the hook. We had our own little section and just kept popping bottles after bottles, I think everyone was TKO'd after this night. The next night we headed over to the BPM / Triple Five Soul party at Tryst which was a wild time as well. Davey Detail showed up thinking he was going to the VMAs. After a much crazed 6 days in Vegas, we headed off home. Alan (Midwest Sales) along w/his show assistant, Kate Miss Kentucky, were in the cab line behind us. Bernard, gives us his final goodbyes as he heads back to Munich.

• San Fran & Entourage

  August 20, 2006 0 Comments

  Friday started real early for me. I had a 7:30am to San Francisco for a big meeting. Unfortunately I woke up at 6:15am and got out of my house by 6:45am. I forgot to put gas in my car so I was driving on Empty all the way to the airport. Luckily I made it 15 minutes before my flight and more importantly I was flying out of Burbank. Security check took 2 minutes. I was driving thru L.A. like a mad man to get to the airport on time, I was scared my car would just stop with no gas and I'd be stuck there like an idiot on the side of the road. Anyways, got up there and I was picked up by Dee and Chris (FF West Coast Sales). They had driven up the night before to go check out one of our stores in Sacramento, Ikon, who was having a party on Thursday night. We headed to downtown San Fran and went to get a bagel and coffee before our meeting. This psycho Chinese lady came up to Chris and was asking him what sour cream was used for. She also said she didn't know how to read English. However, she spoke it well enough to yell at Chris and keep asking "what sour cream used for???" repeatedly...it was so awesome.

  Chris and the lady below having a moment...

  Dee and Chris were coasting thru San Fran After our meetings we drove back up from Palo Alto to go visit Haight and check out the local stores. We were leaving the city to come back to L.A. around 5:30pm and we got a call from Dee's cousin to come visit her. I was trying to go to the St. Regis for drinks to get loaded for our drive back (of course only the passengers) but they were trying to hurry back to L.A. It worked out perfectly going to visit his cousin. Her apt. in the city is ridiculous, straight out of MTV cribs. Peep out this view below, if you have a view like this in San Fran you know you are doing $omething right. Got back to L.A. around 2:30am and hit up the crew to hit up some parties. Stayed out till 7am the next morning. Came to work the next day on Sat and Sun. We got a phone call from some of our friends out on the East Coast that there was heavy product placement in Entourage. We waited until the show came out in L.A. 3 hours later, and sure enough, there was 2 hits on Entourage the show...peep below! Lastly, Jeremy Shockey of the NY Giants was featured in the NY Post the other day...he was rocking the almight Five Four.

• Fast Times at Five Four

  August 17, 2006 0 Comments

  So it's been a crazy week over here at Five Four. We've had a few visitors, some magical events and been all over the media.

  First, my friend just returned from playing pro volleyball overseas. He is Brook Billings, he was part of the U.S. Mens Volleyball team. He played over in Greece during the '04 Olympics. We went to USC together, he's been in town for practice w/the US team. Haven't seen him in awhile, it was good catching up w/him.

  We both exchanged some product, I gave him the new fall Five Four gear and he gave me a US team jersey, it was pretty dope. As you can see he is really tall, this jersey was like a mile long... Another fellow Trojan sent Dee and I autographed balls...you may know him as the Heisman and best new quarterback in football...Carsonnnnnn Also, I got a jersey sent to me from Timmy Howard's agent. He is the goalie for the US Soccer team and plays in the Premier League for Manchester United. On another note, our fall campaign just hit the following magazines; Complex, Flaunt, 944 and Vapors, check it out.

  I had the pleasure of going to dinner the other night w/some friends that brought along super magician Keith Barry. He had a special on CBS a few months ago. We ate one of the best sushi meals I've had in a long time at this restaurant called Sushi Wa. The next night, we went to go check out his show at the Roosevelt Hotel...it was pretty insane. Definitely check him out.

  I've got a 7am flight to San Francisco for some meetings, then coming back at night. I think I have to be at the airport like at 5am, I hear you can't even bring water to the plane...water! What is this damn world coming to. I think at this point it makes more sense to drive to San Fran, anyways...I should leave the office now since my flight is in a few hours. Next week is the last week before the big show...MAGIC Show Las Vegas. Five Four is about to make a huge splash there again...can't wait.

• Futbol fever comes to L.A.

  August 7, 2006 0 Comments

  Yesterday Dee and I went to go watch the soccer game at the L.A. Coliseum, tickets courtesy of U.S. National Team superstar Clint Dempsey. First game was the New England Revolution vs. Chivas USA. Second game was FCBarcelona vs. Chivas Guadalajara. That was actually my first soccer game in the states, I'd been to games in South America before where the fans get super nuts. FCBarcelona is the home to some of the greatest soccer players in the world, particularly Ronaldinho. He played only in the second half, but when he came on everyone in the stadium went nuts. I'd never seen such admiration for an athlete like I saw yesterday for him in the stadium.

  On a funnier note, the crowd was nuts. It seemed like all they cared for was 4 things: titties, fights, cerveza and Ronaldinho. Dee and I kept laughing at the savages in the stadium.

  Today I went to meet up with Clint Dempsey, member of the New England Revolution and U.S. National Team. He's also part of the Nike Soccer campaign. We chopped it up for a bit, then he had to get on a plane back home. Clint right now is the huge center of attention in the MLS, because there's a lot of attention for him coming from Europe to go play in the league out there. We wish him the best of luck.

  Here's a pic of Clint representing Five Four...

  

• What a Week

  August 5, 2006 0 Comments

  Having a broken digital camera sucks. In my car accident, my lcd screen on my camera got cracked so it's not as much fun taking pictures anymore. I can never see what I'm shooting. Anyways, I have to take the initiative this week to get it fixed. This past week I went to see 2 movies, first time I did that in years. I don't think I've seen more than 2 movies in the theatres in the entire year. I checked out Clerks 2 and The Devil Wears Prada (I was with chicks for the latter one). Both were pretty good, Clerks 2 is really funny. Make sure to go check it out.

  It's been X-Games week in L.A. this past few days so there's crazy parties everywhere. I checked out the Vapors/DC party the other night, it was pretty nuts. DJ AM and Travis Barker did their set and straight up killed it. Massive props to their performance, one of the best live shows I've seen in a long time.

  Other than that, it's been a busy week. We're getting ready for the MAGIC show at the end of the month and for the first time it looks like we're actually on time with everything. We're also finishing our design on our summer '07 line and getting ready to start designing fall '07 as well as designing the girls line launching next summer. Very busy and exciting times at Five Four.

  Hopefully I'll get my camera fixed this week so the updates will start rolling in again.