Gavin CT by DVS

You can't say anything bad about a pair of Gavins, especially when they add a fancy vulcanized sole on there for you. As a selling point in their catalog it says that these particular ones are "designed and tested by Tim Gavin", so as an exclusive scoop, we're revealing this top secret footage of him testing them! Keep it on the low...

Pizza Pin by Porous Walker

Measuring in at 1.5" in diameter, produced in an edition of 20, this thing can be applied to anything that a pin will go through. Make yourself a pizza hat, a pizza jacket, or maybe even a pizza ear.

SIDE NOTE: Porous is a genius. You'll be seeing more from him here in the future.

Camoflauge shorts by Planet Earth and Volcom

The top ones are Planet Earth, the bottom ones are Volcom. It's kinda weird, they're both custom camo patterns and they both have small black lines printed into the lightest part, like the camo drawers were in cahoots or something. If you were to put these two up against each other in the Vietnam Camolympics the Volcom ones would likely end up scraping by the PE ones and landing on the top spot on the podium... but in war there is no second place so I guess Volcom's camo might be going home to a victory parade while Planet Earth's might be held as a P.O.W.. Stuck in a rat-infested bamboo cage with little or no food, festering gangrene on a head wound incurred during a rough interrogation, eating bugs, drinking their own whiz and cursing Charlie while fashioning a shiv out of their dead buddy's femur. War is hell.

This thing is a few years old, Freshjive produced it in a limited run right before they unceremoniously dumped their entire team. Maybe you saw it, maybe you didn't, it's like 12" tall and has insane details like tiny shotgun shells and working mini zip ties and velcro straps and bullet clips. It's awesome. I'm posting this as an excuse to show you Mike's promo video released by his new company, Turf Skateboards, dropping soon with a team made up of Sammy Baptista, Jason Wussler, Jason Wakazawa and the legendary James Kelch as their godfather pro...

Zoom Air Paul Rodriguez 2 by Nike SB

You really don't know the amount of thought that goes into the fine tuning of a shoe like this until you've listened to the designer explain every single feature down to the number of tiny ventilation holes in the toecap. Paul's second pro model Zoom Air is more technical than his first and it looks like the fusion of a classic skate shoe with a running shoe or even a soccer shoe that's not so crazy that it looks like something Michael Jordan wore in Space Jam. They were designed to help Paul skate better and they can hopefully do the same for you. I'm skating in them as you read this and I'm fuckin' killing it, dude! Here's a lil' clip (of Paul, not me):

Two striped sweaters by Matix

Both of these thin, summery sweaters were super comfy and hung really well when I tried them on but like my mom told me more than once, I should always wash new clothes before I wear them. So, after checking myself out in the mirror for a few minutes, doing all sorts of poses and shit (standing, walking past, arms crossed gangster face, pointing at myself, winking, waving, the turn-around and its close cousin the look-back), that's what I did. I washed 'em. But when I threw the blue one in the drier it came out fit for a Smurf, or a hamster maybe because Smurfs are naturally blue and they don't even wear shirts. In short: Matix makes nice sweaters but read the care instructions because some of them shits is made of wool. And wool shrinks.

Here's a 4 minute clip of a Chocolate tour that has Marc Johnson wearing a Matix sweater in it. I wonder if he washed that shit before or after he wore it, and if he followed the care instructions. Hm:

Foam Finger by Arkitip x Undefeated

Released with issue #37 of Arkitip (the Undefeated issue), this foam finger is full of bells and whistles and has many practical uses. We'll post a full list of them as soon as we figure them all out.

The Capital by Nixon

This thing is coated in 24K gold with a subtly detailed black face and Japanese movement. It has enough weight to feel just right on your wrist and, perhaps most importantly, it's got a decent sized face without bordering on a Jacob The Jeweler Pop Swatch.

406g by Gram

The design and the concept of these shoes are super refreshing but I wish that they didn't make me look like a hipster elf when I wore them. Each shoe has it's weight in grams emblazoned on the back of it, the designs are cool, they're lightweight, they breathe well, they're bendable, they got flashy colors... that pesky pointy toe is really the only thing holding them back.

Custom Air Max 1's by Nike ID and Me

Somebody recently asked me if I thought that the Nike ID program (where you go online and design your own colorway of almost any Nike shoe you want and they make a pair of shoes especially for you) might spell the end of the limited edition sneaker craze. I told them no, I didn't think so.

So let me tell you about the inspiration for my design. The two tones of khaki represent all of the animals in the world and the green symbolizes the forest which keeps them healthy and ties everything together in harmony. Beneath the two lies a sinister dark stripe which is meant to be man's ability to undermine and destroy the two with a swoosh of orange: his abrupt attack on his environment and his co-inhabitants. The cream colored sole is his attempt to give the illusion (to himself and to those around him) that he's walking softly, not stomping all over it, but blending in, and the words on the back are what it says on the hard hat that he wears when he's chopping down trees and setting fire to endangered wildlife habitats.

Just kidding. I fucked around with some colors that I liked and I put my name and my wife's nickname on them because we share shoes. They came in a fancy bag in a fancy box in the mail and we fight over who gets to wear them.

Turtle Camper Figurine by Jeremy Fish x Strangeco

This camper dude comes in a dope lil' cardboard box, like a travel kennel that you'd buy for your turtle. If you had one. Which you probably don't. Here's a J Fish video, it's like the making of his Fish Tales video with Aesop Rock:

574 Shogun by New Balance

New Balance sent us two pairs of their latest limited edition 574's to check out. The other ones (not pictured) were super hideous, crimson red with an over-the-top, multicolored, embroidered, flamed out dragon circling one of them... but these ones are cool. They're making use of some super nice materials with these and the busy bamboo / samurai sword overlay really works.

Golden Era tote bag by Ruby Republic

Not sure who designed this piece but Megan at Girl Skateboards heads up this brand and she's got a nice one here. Ladies, have you seen those tote bags that won't even go over your shoulder? That shit's fucking gay. I mean, uh, those don't make any sense. This one goes over your shoulder. And it holds a lot of stuff . And it's got a fancy design on it with hearts and stuff.

Twist and Number 5 by PF Flyers

I keep seeing ads for PF Flyers but I rarely see the actual shoes in stores anywhere. Maybe people aren't ready for an outsoule that looks vulcanized but is actually crafted out of leather, or maybe they're not ready for dip dyed hemp, or fine details. Or maybe I'm just shopping in the wrong stores.

Knit beanie by Melodica

Okay, I know it's spring and everything but it's less about this beanie and more about my new favorite skateboard company. They're out of Finland and there's something truly magical about them, like that indie rock band that you listen to that nobody else gives a shit about. Their new video, Good Luck, has a charm that's hard to explain. Like they're so far removed from California and industry bullshit and so just about skateboarding and having fun that it's almost confusing to watch. There's no glamour and there's no anti-glamour, you know? It's just about skateboarding. I'll sum it up letting you know that the first kid in the video, Wille, films his part in four days, wears a fucking poncho on one of them and only rides away from about half of the shit that he lands. That's rad.

The Grudge by Forum Snowboards

I've always found it kind of crappy that when you buy a snowboard you have to run one graphic for an entire year, if not two. Like with skating you could set up 52 new decks in as many weeks depending on how much you skated, and part of the beauty of that is that they could all be different. How boring would it be to run the same graphic for 52 setups in a row? And what if it was a super intricate one that looked like the pro rider drew it themselves while they were high on mushrooms in the 9th grade? Wow. Long story short, for Forum's ten year anniversary they released the snowboard I've been waiting for: clean top with a simple logo on the bottom. Here's a trailer for their new video, "That", which you can download from the iTunes store for like a buck.