Bata Shoe Museum & Toronto Loves Kicks Present...

Time to order your plane ticket, talk your buddy into a road trip, whatever it takes! Bata Shoe Museum is North America's only shoe museum, and they'll be showcasing rare and beautiful kicks from over 150 years! If that's not enough to wet your whistle, Toronto Loves Kicks got Bobbito Garcia, aka Kool Bob Love, to come to their opening event. Don't miss it!

In their words:

The Bata Shoe Museum is excited to announce the opening of the first exhibition in North America to examine the history of the Sneaker Culture.


What you will see at this Sneaker Exhibit is the history from the beginning of shoes which came from rubber on tires, to what we know now as a Sneaker Culture – a culture that is often referred to as “urban” which represents many forms of expression i.e. fashion, art, music but really, it’s the people who unintentionally helped to elevate it to what we know today. From the likes of the Clyde Frazier’s (puma) to the Run DMC’s (adidas) to the Moses Malones (Nike) and the phenomenon himself Michael Jordan (Nike/Jordan Brand) who single handedly elevated a culture that breaths fresh air into the diverse world we live in today. Our parents and grandparents often refer to sneakers today as tennis shoes; however, it’s just terminology like tamatoe/tomato. At the end of the day, everyone should come out and support this one of a kind sneaker exhibition.

Toronto's "United We Sole" Event

Toronto Loves Kicks' "United We Sole" event was definitely a success.  Check out my photo coverage of the event at Sneaker Freaker.

Here's the lowdown on the day via Dion of Toronto Loves Kicks: 

"This sneaker convention brought in over 1200 people from around the City and abroad and created a lane that was much needed in Toronto.  You had your choice of Foamposites, Wolf Grey's, Ragging Bull pack, Air Max 95's, Air Force One's customized personally for TLK courtesy of Anthony Armenta.  Clothing lines included Nothin', Doinitwell, TheONE and Ambush Apparel helped along side exclusive Snap Backs to literally set the ATM on fire. That's just to name a few of the heat that you could have expected to see.

Throughout the event there were giveaways by the hour, plenty of photo's being taken by the TLK back drop as everyone was "sneakergenic". We had live performances by JRDN, Church Chizzle - MuchMusic's Rap City freestyle battle champion and Gee Wunder to name a few of the talent within the community. In addition, we had DJ Tabs and Channel Nine at the show and what a social driven sneaker party convention this turned out to be. You had collector’s young and old trading, purchasing and selling limited edition sneakers, as well as discussions of their guilty sneaker obsessions.

If you were to ask the Co-Founders of Toronto Loves Kicks what they set out to achieve with United We Sole they would say for a buy, sell and trade socially driven Sneaker Expo which will attract all walks of life, art and culture which is a direct reflection of our City uniting everyone's sole in the process. It's important to us to have everyone step with a positive sneaker forward in order for our City to grow as one.

Look out for more great social initiatives from Toronto Loves Kicks and stay tuned for more details on United We Sole’s ‘FALL' edition by visiting www.torontoloveskicks.com"

Toronto Sneaker Expo: United We Sole

Toronto's premiere sneaker event is less than a month away.  Will you be there?

Toronto Sneaker Expo: United We Sole

'Toronto Loves Kicks presents “United We Sole” which will be Toronto’s first ever buy/sell/trade Sneaker Expo of its kind. This event will feature over thirty vendors selling some of the most rare and exclusive sneakers and/or merchandise on the market. “United We Sole” will be set up to have a traditional trade show look and feel, and may include some additional merchandise, but the highlight and focus will be on sneakers.

Although sneakers are what this culture is passionate about, other things that will be highlighted will include: live music, artists showcasing their work/talent on site, live creation of sneakers being made on site and independent clothing lines which are some of the different avenues that the urban and sneaker culture draw into.'

If you live in Toronto and you love kicks, you do not want to miss out on this.  Hit up info@torontoloveskicks.com for info and table bookings.  For up-to-date info, be sure to check out the official website and Facebook page. Toronto fiends represent!

(My USA FSF Crew: you already know you've got a spot on my couch and a city tour guide if you want to come up for the event!)

Miss Canada Globe 2010

A friend and I attended the Miss Canada Globe pageant out in Richmond Hill, Ontario last night to cheer on his little sister,  who was a contestant. On my way out of the building, I just had to stop and get a shot of Miss Teen Ontario's post-game steez because I know y'all would appreciate this. 13 year old Shevante Williams won the Miss Teen Fitness title so it shouldn't be a surprise that when she slipped off her evening gown and heels, she slipped into a fresh pair of J's.

Loving that crown with kicks!

FSF's Lori & Loni in T.O.

Last Wednesday, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Lori in my new city, Toronto. We started the morning off at her hotel for breakfast and an interview. Then, Lori only had one request: "Wanna show me the good sneaker spots?" I was pretty disappointed when I learned that Goodfoot and Stolen Riches both recently closed. Besides the chain stores, the only independent sneaker shop downtown that I knew about is Live Stock. So that's exactly where we went. We were met with so much love! Sneakerheads: Jermaine and Victoria talked with us about FSF and kicks in general, and let us take some photos in the store. They even hooked us up with t-shirts....one with a maple leaf on it for Lori to do some Canada-reppin', the Live Stock way. Special thanks to the whole crew at Live Stock!!

Artwork by legendary Toronto graffiti artist and Live Stock store co-owner, SKAM.

After we left Live Stock, we headed down to Yorkville to check out another store called Capsule. Nice staff and cool store but unfortunately they didn't have sizes we were lookin' for. I'll be back there, though!

Lori was pretty stoked at the look of the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) so we stopped for a quick shoot....

....the perfect time and place to get her fresh sneaker game up!

....lookin' fr3sh 2 d3ath in T-Dot!

Toronto travels...

In Canada for work, I caught up with our blogger Loni, so she could show me around. Who knew the last Good Foot had just closed their doors weeks earlier? And they aren't the only ones... seems that sneaker boutiques in the TO have fallen on hard times, with the noted exception of Livestock, which is alive and well! And so is Loni, who just moved to Toronto but who is also doing some traveling around the U.S. for her own book about positive hip hop. Keep an eye out for this up and coming female hip hop photographer!

Inside Livestock

Loni with Livestock's resident female sneaker fiend, Victoria