Tag: Nike

Weekly Update: Mars Yard 3.0

My Tom Sachs Nikecraft Mars Yard 3.0 sneakers arrived! I worked so hard to earn these and they were so expensive that for a moment I wondered if I’d ever wear them. But then I saw the bottom of the box:

Perfection.

The box is so well designed:

Box lid
Box side

There are even hidden ten bullets:

There are two sets of sockliners that come with these shoes, one made of cork and one made of mesh:

And here are the shoes themselves:

Mars Yard 3.0

Yes, I am wearing them, and yes, they are very comfortable. They aren’t in any way loud or attention grabbing, but that’s part of why I like them so much.

Not a poser.

I’m nearing the end of reading “Helmet for My Pillow” by Robert Leckie. It’s a powerful narrative, but I think that “With the Old Breed” packed more punch. I also went to the Pelikan Hubs 2025 and you can read all about that here. I’ve now only got Pelikans inked up (and one Platinum Preppy), which is an interesting experience.

I sketched a new barista at my favourite cafe. The customers kept cutting off the view so I gave up on sketching the rest of the counter at some point. I was using my arttoolkit palette, which is ultra portable and contains a different set of paints than what I’m used to using. The notebook is a Stillman and Birn pocket Beta:

I went to develop film last week, and also went to an artist’s open house and splurged on a new painting. Have good art on your walls. It makes a difference.

Have a great week!

Nikecraft ISRU Summer Camp

Yesterday was the last day of Tom Sachs and Nikecraft’s I.S.R.U Summer Camp challenge. Since the 17th of August you could download the ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization) app and participate in a series of “rituals” to earn points towards getting the chance to purchase Sachs’s coveted Mars Yard 3.0 Nike sneakers.

Tape waiting for the Out and Back ritual

So what’s the deal with the shoes? You can see a film about the Mars Yard shoes here, but for me personally they are just cool shoes with an interesting design story. I downloaded the app out of curiosity and even though I participated in all the “rituals” and am currently in the 95th percentile of people on the ISRU app’s leaderboard, I doubt that I will get the chance to purchase them.

Part of my wall in the ISRU app.

I’m writing about this challenge and this app because after a month and a half of participation I think the rituals and habits that I garnered from the experience are worth sharing.

There are six daily rituals in the app, and they were revealed week-by-week. If you plan on participating, I’d suggest adding all the rituals gradually and in the same order that they were added in the app: you are building a set of disciplines after all.

The rituals are:

  • Ten Free Throws – shoot 10 free throws at something. I settled on a small box and a crumpled piece of paper as a ball, and I use an orange and a black sharpie to keep score on the box. This seems silly but it’s a lot of fun and a quick palette cleanser in the middle of the day.
  • Output Before Input – if there’s only one ritual/habit that you should take from this it’s this one. When you wake up, don’t reach for your phone. Create something instead. I started out this ritual by journaling, but now I’m sketching in the morning and it’s the best way to start the day.
  • Out and Back – another great habit – run for 20 minutes, and mark the halfway point. I run for more than 20 minutes usually, and there are rest days when I walk, but this has been a great reminder to get out there and move.
  • Wall Drawing – tire out your arms with push ups, and then draw a line on a “wall” (either a real one or a piece of paper). Stop when your line touches a previous line or when you lift your pencil up from the wall or when you reach the end. Mark your stopping point with a red X. This is a way to get push ups and some interesting artwork done.
  • Read Before Bed – read a physical book before bed instead of staring at a screen. Excellent ritual, and one that I really needed.
  • Medicine Ball – create your own medicine ball out of cans, bubble wrap and duck tape (I used the one in the gym), and perform 5 daily exercises with it.

Apart from these there was a one time “Choose Your Ritual” challenge where you had to create a 1 minute or less movie about your ritual and upload it to the app. This was a tough challenge, but it got me to learn iMovie and how to edit videos on my phone, so I really appreciate it.

Even though the challenge has ended I’ve decided to continue doing these daily rituals and updating the app. These are just good habits to have and the ISRU app is a pretty great habit tracker for these.

There are also some great films that were uploaded to the app as part of the challenge. My favourite is How to Learn How to Surf.

How about you? Did you participate in the challenge? Are you interested in any of these rituals?

Sketchlog January 6, 2018

  • Really glad that I snagged one of Adjiashvili’s charcoal drawings.
  • Yoga is turning out to be more enjoyable than I thought. The new yoga workouts in the NTC app are really good.
  • Wrote a good deal today and going to write some more.
  • 2nd day of the 30 day plank challenge was OK. Yesterday was test day – I can hold a plank in good form for 1min. We’ll see where I end up.
  • Not pictured: I saw “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure”. There’s a reason it’s not pictured.
  • This made me laugh, because it’s true…