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nothing really as hip as the alife team so lets have a thread on them...

 

"alife for your life"...the freshest store in the entire city. clever merchandising display, great product mix and selection. regular edgy exhibitions too

 

products: shoes, bikes, skateboards, clothes, toys, games, all sorts of weird domestic essentials.

 

clientele: the new lower east sider

 

service: really friendly...if one of the owners isn't by the counter then they're usually hanging around upstairs in the 'office'

 

interior: plywood floor, mint green steel, glass+ply display cases. totally utilitarian. metal halide lighting. high ceiling. blobby happy graphics. a visible second-floor office and design space. spray cans everywhere + vintage ghetto blaster.

 

 

Alife

 

Alife are a design / art collective based in New York City.

The Alife crew have worked with Adidas on footwear projects as well as collaborating on art installations with the likes of Mark Gonzales, David Kinsey, RoStarr and Geoff McFetridge to name a few

 

 

Fall 04 collection

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Alist tee - produced by, "Married to the Mob" exclusively for alife.

Alife is proud to introduce the first and only female brand into the, "Retail Mafia" line up.

These ladies of leisure are infamous for their mob wife lifestyle; sleeping late, brunching

and boozing, talking shit and Most Official Bitch behavior.

http://www.marriedtothemobnyc.com

 

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THIS KIT INCLUDES:

 

* Issue 17 of Frank151 magazine featuring

alife, Wu, Nov York, Krink, So High Society.

Livingroom Johnston, ReelTeen, State Your Name and more...

* "The Next Chamber" hosted by the RZA and mixed by Allah Mathematics.

featuring unreleased freestyles with rare old and new tracks.

* alife/Wu/Frank exclusive tee

* Dutch Masters blunt

 

250 PIECES WORLDWIDE

 

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Parkview/ Alife Crewneck - Workwear created for the Master Plumbers of

Parkview Plumbing. NYC & Westchester Local Unions #1 & #21. Parkview

Plumbing when quality of work and professional pride is what you need. Lay

that pipe dogs.

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Right in time for the warmer season, alife are ready to release their new range of RTFT footwear. As before, they won't settle for anything ordinary. Or, let's phrase it this way, at a first glance the shapes of these new models might appear familiar, however, when you let the first impressions pass and dwell upon the appearance for just a little longer, you will reconsider your initial thoughts.

 

The Everybody is a shoe that follows in the line of alife's now characteristic canvas models. While before they were remixing/enhancing all time classics like the Vans slip-ons or Converse Chucks, the new RTFT are heading more towards the style of one the sneaker industry's giant's most popular retro shoes to date. Just when this shoe (or better shape) seemed to be loosing its appeal to some folks, alife are bringing it back with a new approach towards materials and colors. To us, the Everybody is like the aforesaid model's younger brother - the one who spends most of his time at the beach or in the park.

 

Now, the Kennedy is something different alltogether. We've shown you the first colorway a little while ago and here are the follow ups. We would need more space to get into detail with this shoe - maybe there's a magazine that will give us a few lines...? - for now we say: yes. Yes, we like the concept. Yes, we like the colors. Yes, we like to have a sneaker alternative.

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from http://www.beinghunted.com

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ALIFE LEVI'S 501

178 Orchard Street (Btwn Houston Street and Stanton Street)

 

After some 'renovating', ALIFE reopened this Friday, Sept 10th with a private-by-invitation-only party and to the public Saturday, Sept 11th, 2004 as ALIFE LEVI'S 501. The store will be open for one month, Sept 11th to Oct 10th. The store will feature a special collaboration between ALIFE and Levi's to produce the classic Levi's 501 jeans. There are a number of tee shirts to commemorate the collaboration. Please make sure to make a trip to the mecca of the Lower East Side as this could be the last time you can visit the ALIFE store.

 

Visit also the Alife Rivington Club while you are in the neighborhood. 158 Rivington Street (Between Suffolk St and Clinton St)

 

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What’s Alife all about?

We’re more of a creative agency, company, whatever you want to fucking call it and these two stores are only part of what we do. We created these like faces for the company. Orchard Street is a little bit more of a roundabout of I guess who we are and Alife Rivington Club is like a segment from that. We’re all down with sneakers, I think everybody around our age grew up on this shit…

 

Yesterday when I came in it was quiet but today there was 20 kids in there going crazy and I could smell the excitement.

I know, so it’s fun to see that but I mean we really, I’ll be honest, we had the other store first and Nike came in. We were basically more of a casual shoe type of store. But we started seeing the trend a couple of years ago that it was more towards the hardcore sneaker more than the casual shoe. Kids were wearing sneakers with suits, you know. Nike came by our shop and they basically wanted to use us more as like their, I guess the word they used was a ‘probe’ account but it was pretty much like…

 

Does that mean they bend you over and…

Nah, it’s more like a trial shop and at that point they were trying to launch the Air Woven and we were pretty much the first store in the U.S. to have that and we saw the craziness that went on, I mean we couldn’t believe it. There were kids waiting out, we opened up at 12 and there were kids at like 8 in the morning and that’s when I got there. God knows how long they were there for and it was like a concert, you know. We were basically selling out in 15 minutes, every time we got a new colour. As soon as we saw that we knew we gotta do this, there’s something that… you know, something that’s gonna start up again and we opened Alife Rivington in 2001 and we’ve just gotten a lot of love from everybody in the area ever since.

 

Rivington is in a big sneaker area isn't it?

Yeah, now you’re seeing a lot of more specialty sneaker shops popping up, especially this year, there’s been like 3 or 4 of them. When we came into the scene, we were the only one here pretty much in New York and our business hasn’t really changed because of all the new shops. I guess we have a clientele that wants to actually come here for the atmosphere as much as the special shoes, you know.

 

It seems like some of these kids have endless supplies of money as well, doesn't it…

You know, we really can’t pinpoint our customers, sometimes we have limo’s and shit coming from the upper east and west sides, we’ve also got people from the neighborhood, you know the guy that deals shit on the corner and then we got like celebrities like from Missy Elliot to Fat Joe, people like that, Robin Williams, you know, so it’s like…

 

What did Robin Williams buy? I bet he’s into Rifts and Reebok!

I’m actually not sure, I know that he always comes into the other shop and I know he always comes here too coz once in a while I see him with a bag from here but I never really actually saw…

 

I wouldn’t have pictured him as a sneakerhead.

I tell ya, he is a mad collector of everything. He goes around, from Supreme to Stussy to Alife to 360 Toys and it’s crazy. I never expected any of the shit. He’s a real mad customer.

 

I suppose everyone’s kind of trying to predict when the bubble’s going to pop but no-one can see it coming. Is it going to wind down or what…

I don’t know man. I mean I’ll be honest with you, this whole retro thing, I mean it’s still cool and everything but I feel like people are starting to exhaust their back history you know and…

 

Nike still has a ton of stuff in the vault though I guess?

Well, I mean so does adidas, they actually have an even bigger history, you know they probably have even more to grab but I think the real test is going to be to see who starts bringing out the new shits, you know. Changing up colour ways, changing up leathers, changing up whatever materials, that’s the easy part. The test is gonna be when it’s time to move on…

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How many collaborations did you do with adidas?

We did three. One pair I’m wearing right now, these are the Top Tens. We did ‘em in kangaroo skin and silver leather inside and all that, you know.

 

It gives you a bit of credibility doesn’t it?

Yeah, I mean they’re great to work with it was like a no-brainer for us. You know, we approached them, they totally went for it and they were excited to do it and we got mad press on it. It worked out for both of us, it was an easy, stress free experience. Puma has also given us some special stuff where they actually, if you could see in there we had a couple of hi-tops, suedes, a bunch of stuff...

 

Were they exclusive to you guys?

They’re gonna be I think out to everybody soon but they gave it to us just a little bit beforehand and they stitched the Rivington ribbons inside so we got a special lot exclusive to our store. A lot of people have really been coming forward and we’ve been holding back, you know, just coz we wanna do it the right way. We figured if we sit around and think about it a little bit we’ll figure it out, you know, but we don’t wanna just jump into anything, but adidas was an easy thing to do.

 

New York does seem to be a town obsessed with the AF1, I know it’s almost a cliche but it’s my favorite shoe. I’ve never seen a town just so dominated by one shoe alone.

And Dunks, man, it’s crazy. I mean, that shit’s like, it’s like a drug. People will come in here every other day just to see if we have anything new. We get stuff so randomly and we sometimes showcase a cool collection, like there’s a lot of really avid collectors here in New York City. I’m learning a lot just by having a shop like this, you know… just the extent that people will go to keep up with their collections. From having separate storage areas just for their sneakers so that they can keep the boxes so they can have everything in mint condition.

 

New York’s probably not far behind Tokyo in terms of lack of space. Where do people put this all this shit?

That’s right, that’s what I’m saying, I mean everybody’s got their thing. Some people come in here and they automatically don’t want the boxes coz I guess it’s easier and they don’t have much space. They’re more fanatics I think than collectors, coz most collectors wanna keep the boxes. These people who don’t want the boxes are rare and everything but they buy mad shoes, like they’ll come on a Friday and ask us to put everything in size 12 aside. They’ll call before they come and it’s pretty incredible.

 

And, what was the blackout like? You know the next question I’m going to ask… I know you got robbed.

We had a problem with that. We were probably the one store that really got hit the worst in all New York City. I think there was a couple of other stores that got hit or were attempted to get hit but not to the extent that we were. They actually had a little more time in our store because they were able to break through through our landlord’s door and once they were in the building they were able to come though a side door so they didn’t actually break through from the street. Once they were in the building they were able to sit there and work on our big metal door and once they were in there they were out of the public eye. So they were in our store and it looked like it was still closed, you know. Once I found out it was being looted, I ran over here, we were near the other store on Orchard Street, I came over with like whoever was with me, it was one employee and his girlfriend and my girlfriend and another one of our friends...

 

Far out, you must have been freaking ?

We just came here, we saw everything was already wrecked and there were people outside trying to get in while we were here and, I mean that’s how the whole shit went down, we ended up getting into fights with all these kids… yeah, local kids but you couldn’t really tell, I mean everything was pitch black, all you saw was shadows and I mean pretty much, long story short, my girlfriend ended up getting 16 staples in her head, one of my boys ended up getting a bottle smashed across his face and a whole bunch of stitches on his face and lacerations and we had problems with the police, they didn’t want to help us. It was just a nightmare man. We are just trying to get over it, forget about it and move on. Business as usual, you know.

 

It’s business but it’s also your heart and soul isn’t it?

It just sucks because it’s I’ve always got that feeling, especially when you walk around the neighborhood, you’re looking at everybody’s fucking feet wondering if those are your kicks or not.

 

I shouldn’t laugh but I guess you’ve gotta...

I gotta laugh about it too, otherwise I’ll fucking... I’ll get too fucking upset, you

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What about the future, like you got anything juicy you can tell…

In Alife style you don’t talk about shit, you know, so as far as juicy I’m probably not gonna give you what you want to hear, but we’re definitely back in business. We’re getting a lot of support from the sneaker companies, from Nike, Puma, adidas just to name the top three right now but they’re sending us really great products ahead of time to help us get back on our feet. So we’re gonna have a lot of product that no-one else is gonna have in the world. I can’t say thank you enough to everybody, from the people that work for me to the sneaker companies, to our customers. Everybody’s coming through. I’ve gotten calls from everybody and just as an example, Stash from Nort, he wants to donate part of his earnings you know while we were closed coz he thought that he was picking up a lot of our customers that we were losing and he was just basically offering to give us a percentage of what he was earning .

 

Is it hard when everyone wants something that no-one else has got? That’s kind of the crux of the whole thing isn’t it, I mean how do you…oh, I don’t even know what my question is.

Something else that we’re actually working on and you have to see, we just finished doing our whole new Spring 2004 Alife NYC line. It was Rightfoot now we’re switching it to Alife NYC. We’re bringing back part of that Argyle stuff that sold out and that was crazy when we first launched it, when we first started our own shoes. I don’t know if you ever saw the slip-on Argyle ones that we that we got sued by Vans for.

 

I never heard that!

Yeah, that was a whole big fucking fiasco…

 

You never hear about anyone getting sued for copyright infringement which is surprising I guess because there’s so much plagiarism in the industry.

Well, you know what it is, when Vans sued us, it wasn’t for the actual shoe, coz I mean a slip-on is a slip-on. They got that shit from keds, you know what I’m saying. They weren’t suing us for that, they were suing us for the pattern which they were saying they had a patent on checkerboard. We were doing Argyle so I don’t even see where the connection was. A long story short they were just trying to put us out of business coz they felt that there was a threat coz they saw that when we launched those Argyle slip ons it was like a craze throughout the world, I mean, we didn’t have enough pairs to sell. Then we had to stop it because of this whole legal bullshit so we were never able to capitalise on that. So now, we’re not bringing that particular style back not exactly but we are bringing back the Argyle pattern but we’ll make it a bit different.

 

Those original ones must be kind of collectors items now…

Yeah, we have a couple of pairs left in storage but we don’t know exactly what we’re gonna do with them yet coz the sizing is a little bit irregular. Anyway, we are launching some really great styles coming up beginning of next year so keep definitely a lookout for that.

 

I will, thanks Tony, good luck with your slip-ons.

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The Surprise Pack project launched earlier this year. What is the idea behind it?

 

The Surprise Pack© is pretty much a test project for alife. Number one was to see the repercussions that arose from people knowing that alife was collaborating with Ecko. Ecko, in the states, is not our target market. So for us to collab together specific rules had to be put in place. One rule is that “The Surprise Pack©” will not be available to any retailers in the USA, except for Ecko flagship stores. At the moment, they have 20 stores across the US and no-one even knows. So the distribution of this project is another test at moving product through a new venue, not targeted at the people that usually consume the alife brand. It is going to be offered for sale on thesurprisepack.com as well. Overall, alife is an independent entity, Ecko is a corporate entity, and we’ll see what comes out of our collaboration.

 

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When I first heard about it and checked the link that took you to the alife Paypal account asking for money in exchange for a surprise I was more than intrigued. Did you have many takers?

 

The “BUY” button that we had put on our website was another test. We were just curious to see how far people would go with buying product over the Internet. The buyers had no idea what they were going to receive. No information was given to anyone. Basically, we had a set number of products set aside for this BUY button. Within three days we sold out of a nice amount of product. This will be an ongoing venue for us to explore.

 

The Egg (is that what you call it?) was a collaboration between alife, Echo and 360 Toy Group right? What part did each company play in the product from concept to being an item on the shelf?

 

alife is bringing the concept.

 

Ecko is bringing the Funds.

 

360

 

manufactured the product.

 

That’s pretty much how shit is going down.

 

Collaborations are something that has characterised the movement I have been documenting on my site for a while now. How do you find them?

 

We usually try to create them. We will approach specific entities and try to get things popping. Also, entities will approach us with ideas as well.

 

How did the BAPE collab a while back happen?

 

very randomly

 

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What about those Kid America x alife toys....did you have any hand in those?

 

We were approached by Sony to work with them on a specific project that they had already begun. We asked if they would be interested in doing a series of alife produced products. This is where the collaboration with them began. Kid America and the crew were just part of the nightlife scene that’s going on in NYC. It was an idea that came out of just knowing what these guys are all about and believing in it. These toys took almost a year to finish, so by the time they dropped, Kid A was already pretty blown up on the underground circuit. Sony had no idea about who the fuck Kid America was, and if they really did, maybe that shit wouldn’t have happened, due to the content of the show. Basically we produced the set, Fatboy from Kid A crew designed the characters and Sony manufactured

 

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have read elsewhere you are in favour of artists working on products. How do you find the process of converting your artistic inspirations into commercially accessible (albeit - often not very easily!) products?

 

We are just down with working with people that we feel are true to their game, whatever they do. A lot of the things that we produce are not money making endeavours. They are more of promotional objects that you have the opportunity to buy. Again, we are basically producing things that we like, most of them have little demand to the average person, so our products are usually consumed by people that are looking for something a little different.

 

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Do you get involved much with the production of goods you have been involved with (eg visiting factories etc)?

 

We manufacture a line of footwear named, “RTFT”. For this we are involved in the process from the sketches on paper to the factories that produce, to the distribution. This is pretty much how it goes for anything that is alife goods,(clothing,toys,etc...) Because we are so small, we are forced to be hands on with anything that we get involved with.

 

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How do you and the alife crew view the company - as a fashion house? design studio etc?

 

We pretty much look at our operation as a creative platform that is at the disposal of anyone that wants to get down, as long as they are on stepping to us with some substance.

 

And finally, what can we expect from you guys in the near future?

 

Be prepared for the big upset in the near future...

 

Thanks for your time.

 

SHOUT OUTS:

 

SSUR-THE DIRTY DON-KID A and BANDY-10th street-BATHS-KR-ESPO-IRIZZAK-REAS-XBOX LIVE-RTHQ-SAM SPITZER-NY NIGHTLIFE-RETAIL MAFIA-MIKE TYSON-WU TANG-FRANK 151-CHRONIC BONG HITS-JAPANAMA-RUSTOLEUM-AND ALL THE SAGITTARIUS OUT THERE....

 

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from: RTHQ.com

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If you want to get inspired, visit the Alife headquarters on New York's Orchard Street. What looks like a shoe store is also the realization of the late-night plan that so many talk about, fewer attempt, and even fewer achieve. Rob Cristofaro, Arnaud De Le Colle, Tony Arcabascio, and Tammy Brainard (from left) met five years ago, saved and invested the same amount, and became equal partners in the venture that does what it likes, including art direction, curating (with artists like Shepard Fairey), book publishing (of Ryan McGuinness), a maiden shoe line called Rite Foot (to be carried at Colette in Paris and Los Angeles' KBond), and a lot of other stuff that there isn't room to mention. And they're all 30. "Yeah, shit's fucking off the rocker," says Cristofaro. "It's about getting older, getting a little bit smarter, and taking on these dreams of people's and making them happen. It's pretty good."

Mark Jacobs

 

from:

http://www.papermag.com

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You can visit the Alife store in the Lower East Side of Manhattan - or see their 'Rivington Club' store on Rivington Street. Expect lots of visual stimulation, plenty of cool collectables and a multitude of creative people milling around.

Crooked Tongues is the exclusive online spot to pick up the Alife footwear - and we don't expect the shoes to stay around for too long... Pick 'em up ritenow!

 

 

One of the main contributors to the Alife way of doing things is a guy named Jest. Taking his solid foundations in the graffiti scene and applying the methods and techniques to regular objects has made him one of the most inspiring people in the modern New York design scene.

His stickers and layout styles are only surpassed by his enthusiasm and original ideas - and the chances are that you've more than likely seen his cloth figures before

 

 

The first range of shoes on the 'Ritefoot' Alife label break all rules. Mixing up the expectations with plenty of Alife characteristics, the attention to detail is superb. Small tags add style to the side panels, whilsts the rear 'bumper logo' keeps things in tune with the style of the shoe.

Fastenings range from traditional lacing methods through to straps and buckles - but the most talked-about detail so far is probably the addition of the lace guard (a feature not seen in sports footwear since the skate shoes of the late 1980's).

 

http://www.crookedtongues.com

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alife have teamed up with Cone Denim to produce a book - which will not go on sale - of photographs by Kai Regan featuring a cross-section of New York City personalities and the life they are leading.

 

Part I: The Cast - a blank studio, one man with a camera, 28 people. These straightforward studio portraits present the characters in this tale of city life. The stark white background allows each person’s individual style to be prominently displayed.

 

Part II: The Feature - following in the footsteps of the cast, these photographs capture a split second in the life of each character. We see Ricky Powell on the lookout, A-ron buzzing around the streets, Drea De Matteo chilling in a favourite hang-out.

 

Probably the only way to even try to get a copy of this great book is to attend the launch party March 1st, 7:30 to 10 at BLVD (199 Bowery) in NYC.

 

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Cheryl Dunn

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Sky Nellor

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Ricky Powell

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James Jebbia

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Helena Christensen

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Futura 2000

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Eric Haze

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I remember when they first opened...Coolest fuckin guys around...I walk in with a sparypaint covered jacket, Jest and I start talkin graffiti...Next thing I know hes tryin to hook me up with illustration work...I was, and still am a nobody...But damn Jest and Tony are just regular guys, doing a great job in creating all kinds of things...Two guys who i respect big time in that god forsaken city...They really tried lookin out for an art student tryin to get his career on...Much respect....

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The last time I was in NY i made a call for the shop, as I hadn’t been there before. It took me a while to find it as I could no see a sing anywhere. So I resorted to ask a shop over the road. Where a woman pointed me in the right direction, the only problem was the shutter was half down and the lights where off. But as I was leavening the next morning so thought fuck it. And ducked underneath them and in to the shop. it suddenly dawned on me that this might not be a good idea and being a brit generally thing yanks are a bit gun ho. I was a little worried some one would walk thought the door and think I was trying to rob it. After calling for a bit I adventurly a guy came down from the office and agreed to let me a buy a t-shirt if I was quick.

 

 

a pointless story

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  • 2 weeks later...

nope, it's true, they are building a hotel on that block, not the rivington hotel. Madonna and her plastic surgeon are investors. apparantly they recently discovered that there is a foundation that can support a much larger structure than the 2 stories that are there so the property is worth lots.

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Originally posted by bloodreign@Dec 23 2004, 11:25 PM

nope, it's true, they are building a hotel on that block, not the rivington hotel. Madonna and her plastic surgeon are investors. apparantly they recently discovered that there is a foundation that can support a much larger structure than the 2 stories that are there so the property is worth lots.

 

hadnt heard anything about that yet. good to know.

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Originally posted by jakepaints@Dec 14 2004, 11:59 AM

anyone know the address of the main store (cross streets and such)? i know where the rivington club is but ive never been to the main store

 

if you go down houston street.

turn onto orchard

its about 5 stores down on the left.

 

across the street from it is the Staple store and Break Beat Science.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

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The following is the story of alife.

This is Jest and these are his words.

 

==========================

 

alife is a creative collective that involves itself in various projects. We started out with a space that was shared between exhibition space, creative studio and retail operation. During the construction of alife we called a meeting with all of the graffiti artists that we knew. The turnout was a group of some of the most influential people that our age group had to offer. The purpose of this meeting was to get a movement started of young artists that wanted to have a place to come together on projects that we felt were worthy of working on. At the time, there were no other organizations in New York that were dealing with this sort of stuff. We also had a retail idea to offer young, casual footwear and other product that was more limited and hard to find, in an environment that wasn't expected.

 

We figured that by us having products that no other stores carried would be a good way to generate the money we would need to contribute to the artist based projects that we would need funding for.

 

We are a group of four people, each one of us is coming from a pretty different background. We brainstormed ideas and focused on what we believed would be most important to represent. The one thing that we have in common is our age. One of my partners comes from a history of family that has worked within the footwear business for three generations, so although he is pretty young, he has a great deal of knowledge about shoes and manufacturing them. Myself and one of my other partners are into the whole art thing. We are both from New York. The female of the crew focuses on the business and money side of alife.

 

Since we have been opened we have acquired a pretty good following that are interested in the projects that we work on. We have large corporate companies that send these cornballs to our space to see what new products or ideas that they can bring home to their headquarters. What most people don't understand about us is that we are not just a retail space, we are a catalyst of people, ideas and concepts that most chumps have no idea about. We are just focusing on the life that we grew up living and representing New York to the fullest.

 

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I come from a graffiti lifestyle, which is something that you are either involved in, our your not. This has been an important asset to us because the people that we involve ourselves with are worthy of respect, to us. We work with people that have made a name for themselves because of their originality in what they do. We see a lot of people that try to work with specific artists just because they see alife working with them. We see alife as a stamp of approval on anything that we get down with.

 

One thing that we find funny is the amount of people from around the world that are trying to mimic the alife concept. From large companies to small boutiques that are all of a sudden interested in having art exhibits and galleries within there stores. All of these places to us are just on the nutsack.

 

We are always thinking about our growth and where we are going in the future. At the moment, we are launching two brands of apparel for alife. The Ritefoot brand of sneakers and shoes, which is an alife brand. A publication is in the works for 2003. The alife Rivington Club, which is a sneaker store unlike any other. A creative agency by the name of alife creative, which is located in an old bodega in the L.E.S., were we are working on concepts for other companies that are interested in having us give input about how to make their brands better. A traveling store/exhibition which will be traveling to specific established galleries around the world. There is a bunch of other stuff but this shit is probably getting boring so I'll stop.

 

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I would like to talk about the new project that we are doing which is the traveling alife store/exhibition. This concept store opened up on December 14th at a gallery named Deitch Projects located in New York City. Deitch Projects is one of the most influential gallery's dealing with contemporary artists here in New York. We were very happy when they asked us if we would be interested in working on a project within their space. To us, this is an opportunity to step into the gallery scene on a higher level. Our concept for the alife exhibit was to install an environment that is a working piece of art. We wanted products that were only produced by artists. Everything from zines, toys, furniture, to perfumes and inks. The idea was to have an environment that you could not touch anything, a space that appeared large, but in reality was quite small and couldn't hold a bunch of people so the products couldn't be seen. We wanted the people to have an experience of walking through this space and focusing on nothing but the products. It's hard to explain but the pictures will be more telling.

 

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EM: Coming from a graffiti standpoint what are your feelings about graffiti artists expanding into the fine art/galleries?

 

Jest: the question about the graffiti artists that are now stepping it up to the gallery scene. My feelings on this topic are that if you don't evolve and step up your game, you will fade away and it's over. I give much love to the people that are really trying to make the most of themselves. This whole art game has mad drama and politics surrounding it, it's very hard for an artist to make a living by doing art.

 

EM: What’s the difference between Street Art and Graffiti? Which one is rockin’ the city right now?

 

Jest: I think that is just some labeling type of shit. People trying to give titles to the type of work that they do. I just know when I put my shit to the public, it was in a high traffic area and the shit looked crispy.

 

EM: What about these products (pillows, toys, one off items, inks) artists are making either by hand or by a 3rd party what your take on them?

 

Jest: Artists and products: I am all for this shit. Once again I think that a lot of companies are trying to release products with artists connected to them. For the companies, they have something to brag about, and for the artists, they have a product that that is their own that they didn't have to spend money producing. Overall I like the way shit is going. The only problem I see is that the whole limited product thing is getting pretty watered down.

 

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EM: Anything? What’s up with these stickers been spotting them all over?

 

Jest: That's my man-Aaron the rotten don, one of the most influential people in the new York underworld. It's his clothing company/movie and television production company/The kid America show on Manhattan public access, channel 34 Monday nights at 11:30...That shit is buckwild...

 

EM: What’s your take on the Japanese?

 

Jest: I love the Japanese- They support everything that we are pumping out, more than the American public. I think that they are very fast to suck something up and then spit it out, and when it gets spit out it's dead... So proceed with caution. jestosan Ichiban...

 

We are in the process of setting up the schedule of galleries that are interested in housing this exhibit for two month time periods all around the world. For the artists that have product within the alife exhibit, it's a good way for them to be introduced to major galleries from around the world, where it is usually very hard for most artists to make any contact to this scene in the past. So be on the lookout for the travelling alife shop coming to a city near you. We feel like this is going to be the next trend that you will start seeing arise... believe that... There's just too much to talk about. alife is an independent company, I still write graff, born in Bkyln. In 1970, I listen to Hendrix and Wu-Tang, I love Mike Tyson, I got some toy shit getting ready to drop, and big ups to Evil Monito...

 

peace out, Rob-Jest

 

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http://www.evilmonito.com

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