Hasta La Ideas

Yeah! The Insane comb is ridiculously, well…Insane! Only crazy people would have the guts to walk around with one of those, in these days of patholo..

Elaborate disguises, subterfuge, slightly subpar swooshes: welcome to the world of counterfeit-sneaker manufacturing. In the latest issue of The New York Times Magazine, Nicholas Schmidle voyages inside the knockoff factories of Putian, a Chinese town teeming with ersatz Nikes, Adidases, Pumas, and Reeboks. “Shoes from Putian are designed primarily for export,” writes Schmidle, “and in corporate-footwear and intellectual-property rights circles, Putian has become synonymous with high-end fakes, shoes so sophisticated that it is difficult to distinguish the real ones from counterfeits.” In some cases, the only way to tell the difference is by the smell of the glue, notes one knockoff factory owner. And while the Chinese government doesn’t turn a blind eye to counterfeiting, things do get culturally complicated.

Beijing’s top intellectual-property officials…seem to disagree over what even constitutes counterfeiting. Last year, a debate occurred between the heads of the State Intellectual Property Office and the National Copyright Administration. The dispute revolved around shanzhai, a term that translates literally into “mountain fortress”; in contemporary usage, it connotes counterfeiting that you should take pride in. There are shanzhai iPhones and shanzhai Porsches.

One top intellectual property official goes so far as to distinguish shanzai from counterfeiting. “Shanzhai shows the cultural creativity of the common people,” said Liu Binjie of the National Copyright Administration. “It fits a market need, and people like it. We have to guide shanzhai culture and regulate it.” And then there’s the argument that counterfeiting is a form of industrial training: a technically illegal way to bone up on branding and production techniques. “We are developing our own brand now,” one fake-shoe factory manager tells Schmidle. “In the longer term we want to make all our own brands, to make our own reputation.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

An interview with Casey Neistat and the debut of his doc film on Kanon vodka

Video pranksters Van and Casey Neistat have been making movies together since 1999 when the debut of the iMac spurred the brothers to start editing videos at home. Over the last decade the duo’s provocative antics and DIY aesthetic has taken them from early viral fame (2003’s guerilla anti-Apple campaign “iPod’s Dirty Little Secret“) to the Bicycle Film Festival entry ““Bike Thief,” in which Van repeatedly steals his own bike—obviously and in public without any argument from the hundreds of passersby. Now the subjects of their own HBO show, The Neistat Brothers, the series launched earlier this year and chronicles the video adventures and artistic short films of the team.

Most recently, Casey joined forces with Kanon Organic Vodka, traveling to their Swedish headquarters to explore the history and process of the brand behind the spirit. We’re pleased to present to you the exclusive debut of the resulting love-letter that combines documentary footage with homemade stop-motion animations. The short officially premieres tonight at NYC’s Jane Hotel, also kicking off a weekly party called Jane Doe and Kanon Vodka Mondays. Below read what Casey had to say about the filmmaking process, his feelings about vodka advertising, and why NYC natives will suffer after the apocalypse.

How did you get involved in the project?

I’ve known Harry [of creative agency
The 88] for a really long time and we had been looking for fun projects to do together. The brief was extremely vague, which I always find very exciting. We wanted to do something cool and we didn’t want to do anything “advertisey.” Putting an advertising label or a commercial label on this project would be a misfire.

A vodka company is literally just booze in a bottle so what really differentiates those booze in a bottle companies it is branding, it makes them who they are. And that’s why so many vodka companies are so douchebaggy, because its just stupid advertising, but I think there is some interesting stuff with Kanon. It was explained to me that there is a 100 year old farmhouse that used to be run by a family of only five people, and that the CEO is a molecular biologist who is the head of the distillery. The whole thing just sounds romantic and interesting. It’s surreal.

What was the process like?

Seeing the physical distillery was nuts. They built it inside a building from the 1600s and they retro-fitted it with the most modern technology. My favorite shot in the video is of the mad-scientist dude that drives in a fancy trunk—that’s the guy that owns the distillery—he’s a really awesome dude who is crazy smart who just dropped a breadth of knowledge, and is extremely well-versed. There’s very little he doesn’t know about, we talked to him for like two days and we never got sick of what he had to say. He built the company from his own heart and own two hands. But anyhow, to see this guy keep this thing running covered in grease, it was very romantic, crazy, and sweet. The whole thing is understated almost.

What’s your advice for aspiring filmmakers?

Learn how to work with your hands; I’m totally serious. I won’t hire someone or date a girl who has not worked in a restaurant, and that’s the honest truth. I don’t think you know how it is until you’ve worked in a restaurant. The reason why I’m sending my super intellectual 12-year old kid to tech school is because I don’t believe he would succeed in this world unless he first learned to work with his hands. I’m not a cynic, but don’t you get frustrated when you meet all these NYC born-and-raised kids and they are super academic and are really crazy smart and so worldly because of their experience in the city, and they are totally fucking incapable? If the apocalypse were to come, they would totally just die immediately because they would have no idea how to do anything. They’re helpless. One of my first questions when I interview prospective employees is “do you know how big a sheet of plywood is?” Most people don’t, and say they are different sizes, but it’s 4′ x 8′ Anyway, working with your hands is a very American thing that we kinda lost here, but it’s an important skill to have.

With additional reporting by Margaret Kaminski

Some of the best work I’ve seen all year.

He just launched an impressive new site, make sure you take some time to look around. My favorite is the drawing section, however it’s all truly and completely inspiring. The erotic nature of his nudes (bordering pornographic) sometimes paired with thoughtful and clever quotes make it almost impossible not to click through to the next image. Such an awesome style! Great work Neil, so glad to see you finally got this up.

Some great looking design work coming out of Manchester.

This is from the portfolio site of Luke Finch. It consists mainly of website design, showing a particular aptitude for managing information hierarchy and nicely integrating background images (not to mention that he’s created a really interesting site for himself). He also has a clean looking blog that you can check out here. Thanks for the link Luke.