Ryan Babenzien of Greats recently teamed up with G-SHOCK for “The Whiteout Collection” which is a partnership between G-SHOCK x GREATS. In a recent interview, Ryan tells Complex, “This collaboration has been a long time in the making. I’ve had G-SHOCK’s in my life since I was a kid.”
The result of this partnership is a custom designed pair of Greats’ PRONTO kicks along with G-SHOCK’s new trio of Whiteout timepieces. Here’s what’s even sweeter about this collaboration: For a limited time, G-SHOCK x Greats will be giving fans a chance to win a prize package featuring the complete White Out set of G-SHOCK x Greats brand collaborative sneakers and G-SHOCK watch.
(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers centered around love. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.
I come across Jack Erwin ads all of the time on Facebook and it’s probably because I was recently in the market for buying quality dress shoes. Long story short, I came across this video while revisiting Aloe Blacc’s “Love is The Answer” video to insert into my post entitled, “The Spiritual Partnership: Gary Zukav.”
Ronan Gallagher directed this short and both the music and video direction caught and kept my attention. Thus, I decided that it may be cool to share it with you all. Plus, as you may have already picked up on from previous posts, I absolutely love the documentation of almost any creative process.
– Enjoy…Ciao!
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(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.
A few days ago I happened to stumble upon a documentary featuring Pharrell entitled, The Plastic Age. It was released on i-D magazine’s youtube channel back in April and produced by AllDAYEVERYDAY. It was a very interesting watch as it shared a lot of insight into the impact that plastic has on our planet. “In the 1950’s and 60’s, plastic was heavily marketed to consumers as a time saving device and matter of convenience” says Anna Cummins of 5 Gyres Institute. Today, it is estimated that we make 288 million tons of plastic annually. This is more than 1 BILLION TONS every 4 years! So what happens when this plastic escapes or does not make it into our waste management system? Where does all of this plastic end up?
In the Pacific Ocean exists a “Great Pacific Patch” which is approximately 1500 nautical miles from shore. It was discovered by Captain Charles Moore in 1997. This is where anything that we throw into the ocean that floats eventually ends up. Captain Paul Watson, Founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society mentions, “We live in the most highly educated society that has ever evolved on this planet, everybody knows…the real problem is getting everyone to care.” His estimate of the number of plastic in our oceans is around 700 million tons. It’s important for us to think about what we use and how we discard it. Think about this, when we utilize plastic that is not properly discarded, it makes it’s way into our oceans. Shortly after, it is consumed by fish. Eventually it makes it’s way back up our food chain to be consumed by us humans. “The chemicals that are in plastic make their way up the food chain and now they are in us because we’re eating those fish” says Kahi Pacarro of Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii.
So, what is the solution? Well, no one person can solve it. However, Parley for the Oceans unites partners in all categories of industries to develop new ways of doing business to protect our oceans. In an effort to address the issue of plastic in the ocean, Bionic Yarn helps to turn low-grade plastic into high-profile material. Tim Coombs, Co-Founder of Bionic Yarn shares the process of how it works. “Bionic Yarn is a yarn spinning process that takes recycled plastic bottles and turns them into a high-quality yarn and fabric. A plastic bottle is shredded into flakes, melted, extruded into fibers, spinned into yarn, and helixed into another fiber like cotton to create another surface over the recycled plastic.” “Everything has a purpose, even trash” says Tyson Toussant, Co-Founder of Bionic Yarn, “We should be accountable for everything. The basic idea is to synchronize the economy and the environment by pulling out the plastic from the ocean, keeping it on land, and making it into products for us to use.”
RAW for the Oceans by G-Star is a collection of products to make the world’s first denim from recycled ocean plastic. RAW for the Oceans by G-Star is where science, activism, and fashion intersect. “Innovation comes from a lot of different people working together” says Shubhankar Ray Global Brand Director at G-Star RAW. The idea of RAW for the Oceans by G-Star is to establish a new mindset within the fashion industry and inspire other segments of business and economy to follow these models. Captain Paul Watson sums it up best, “The strength of an eco-system is in diversity. The strength of any movement must also lie in diversity. All social revolutions in history have been carried out by passionate individuals who discover, build, and ideate. There are ways of solving these problems if we can harness our imagination to find solutions through everybody’s particular love.”
What do you love? #ALOVERSAmbition
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(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers centered around love. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.
It always amazes me how just a few clicks on the internet can lead anyone down the road towards a great discovery. This time, my discovery comes courtesy of a Da-P dabeatX mix that he did with clothing company, Frank & Oak entitled, Studio Issue Pt. II. As soon as I heard the first track, I was hooked!
After checking out the tracklist, I found out that the collaboration is between Bearcubs and Tom Misch. The title? “Colours Of Freedom.” I’m happy that I was able to track down the original version and add it to my coveted music collection.
Other than the great music, Frank & Oak are doing a splendid job in regards to marketing and brand strategy. Through utilizing various platforms, Frank & Oak are pulling potential consumers from their native online social media environments (ex. soundcloud) to the Frank & Oak brand. I checked out their website and their products speak significantly to their intended audience. In fact, I even ended up signing on as a member. The greatest part about it — it feels super natural and organic!
As consumers, we engage with people, products, and services which we already love and respect on a daily basis. When a recommendation is made to us from a trusted source, we usually take action. It is no different online than it is in the real world. We align ourselves with things that are of importance and interest to us in various aspects of our lifestyle. Why not discover and be introduced to even more coolness through cool brands and cool people? Take note — what is your brand’s sonic identity?
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(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Cultural Curator, and Educator. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Behind The Hustle, Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about bridging the gap and building value between brands, communities, and culture. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe, leverage the influence of popular culture to create social change, and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.
Hello Lovers…Happy Valentines Day! NYC has been buzzing since earlier this week and the festivities will continue over the course of the next 24+ hours or so. Not only is it fashion week, it also happens to be NBA All-Star weekend. On top of that, Monday is Presidents Day; which adds another layer to the madness. With everything that is going on this weekend, what is there not to love?
Yesterday night, as I was making rounds through Jersey City and Manhattan, I received a call from one of my good friends. I couldn’t answer at the moment, but when I called her back, she asked if I heard about Kanye’s fashion show with Adidas. I told her that I did and she sent me an email to check out an article and some footage of how the show was received.
As I began to read the article, the number one statement that initially caught my attention is when Kanye mentions, “I want people to think awesome is possible.” I immediately identified with that philosophy. Too often we idolize the achievements of others to a point that we no longer believe that it’s possible to achieve great things in our own right. We become desensitized to mediocrity. We view greatness as an anomaly. We become comfortable with things being fine just the way that they are. I extremely disagree! I believe that our existence in itself grants us an opportunity to achieve profound accolades beyond our imagination. Why settle for anything less?
Push culture forward. Push creativity forward. Live legendary, leave a legacy!
On Wednesday November 6, 2013 “InfluencerCon” will be invading New York City for an exciting three-day conference. Attendees will include the likes of influencers, innovators, and tastemakers in the arts, entrepreneurial, philanthropic, and technological spaces. Through panel discussions, keynote presentations, 1-on-1 sessions, and workshops, Influencer Con will tackle the landscape of influencer culture.
The event will take place at SPiN New York, 48 East 23rd St, New York, NY 10010.
A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group 