LA Business…Man.

Being a cutthroat business man is no easy task. People ask me all the time how I pull it off so flawlessly, and really, my answer is simple:

I have lots of fake official business conversations, I discuss lots of fake business strategies, and have a ton of fake business meetings. Anyway, yesterday was one of the biggest business days I’ve had in a while, so I took DJ Vice, DJ Gusto, Low Raven (better known as child actor Joe Sunrise, the cute but feisty little Indian orphan in season 9 of Murder She Wrote), and my camera, and headed to the city where fake business runs more rampant than anywhere, LA!

The day started at Nike Headquarters in Culver City where we had a 10:00 appointment with our Nike rep Richelle, who somehow still puts up with us a year into this thing. Nike is the only account that actually requires us to go to the showroom every 3 months to see the new product, and do our ordering. Tucked away in the heart of an industrial area of Culver City, this is the place I tried so desperately to get an appointment at for the year leading to the opening of the store. This is THE spot you have to be on the radar at if you want to open a sneaker store with Nike. It’s a pretty cool experience for anyone that likes shoes. You get to see a TON of product, and learn about each shoe and its significance to the line.

I snapped some shots of the lobby area, but once in the secret sneaker vault, each of us are strip searched and asked to leave cameras and phones at the door. NO PICTURES. We were set to see Fall 2010. Child actor, Lowell, and myself arrived early, and fortunately Vice and Gusto were only about an hour and a half late this time. We met up out front, made some small talk that didn’t serve any purpose whatsoever covering topics such as: traffic, facial hair, Space Jams, and Tiger Woods. After the pointless banter, we headed in beacuse we were already late. Richelle had snacks, water, and Christmas gifts lined up for us…so nice. I went right for the fruit snacks while DJ Vice decided to try a Quaker Chewy Bar.

Pointless small talk. Real serious business men about to do some real serious business.

Gotta wear good Nikes at this thing.

Front desk area. Richelle pissed that we’re late.

Nike art everywhere.

Lots of dramatic hallways.

Child star. Joe Sunrise in 1992′s Murder She Wrote movie. Cute as fuck. You know how many haircuts he’s had since then…? Zero.

Fall looks strong again from Nike. I’m probably most excited about the
Infrared 90′s, some really good canvas shoes, and the high heel blazer. This was one of the funniest meetings I’ve ever been a part of. It’s hard to stay on track with these guys, but 4 hours later, we had seen all the product and were on our way.

I had randomly received a text from our Hundreds rep, David, in the morning. When he found out we were in LA, he immmediately invited us to come down to their warehouse Downtown to shoot the shit and grab some gear for ourselves. So Gusto, the former child star, and myself jumped in our cars and were on our way. The #asshole had some other obligations which didn’t surprise any of us. Gusto said he knew a shortcut, but he was clearly lying because it took us an hour to get there thru the Garment District. Notice the clarity of some of my pics taken from the car. We didn’t surpass 20 mph the entire way. Gus is also one of the angriest people I know and this carries directly over to his behind the wheel persona as we watched him honk and flip off at least 25 other cars.

don’t cut this dude off.

mannequins with gadunk.

these are so cute and don’t make me think about being murdered at all.

An hour later we finally arrived. I go on the Hundreds blog daily, so I’ve seen the office and warehouse a thousand times in their pics. It seems like a pretty cool place to see hang out. Smack dab in the heart of LA, on a street lined with homeless peeps, cast iron bars over every window, and rundown warehouses, we pulled up to what we thought was the right place. We were almost instantly reassured we were at the right spot because every sign, streetlight, and pole on the block was covered in Adam Bomb stickers. We were greeted by Dave and Keith, two of the nicest reps in the entire game. They gave us a tour of the office, and gave us a sneak preview of the custom window display their design team has been working on for CRSVR which I am pretty excited about. We ended up in the warehouse, and they told us to grab whatever we wanted for ourselves. Without hesitation Gusto was climbing the shelves and claiming everything for himself. He said he was trying to do his Christmas shopping. 45 minutes and 45 pound shopping bags later, we were off. HUGE THANKS TO KEITH AND DAVE AT HUNDREDS FOR EVERYTHING THEY DO TO SUPPORT OUR STORE.

sneak preview of the custom Hundreds x CRSVR window display

gusto christmas shopping

corgi shoes. google it.

Since we were Downtown, we decided to hit J-Town real quick and see our friends at RIF, one of the hottest consignment stores in LA, look for #asshole’s Christmas gift which really baffles me because he is rich and owns a shoe store, and do some business networking. Anyway, I love checkin out consignment stores to see all the crazy retros, especially with Gus because he seems to be on a first name basis with every employee of every sneaker store in Southern CA.

one of 5 venti green teas gus had…no joke. also rockin his beanie like he was the star of New Moon.

giggity giggity giggity…aaaaallllriiight.

yep.

Did the whole small talk thing, saw all the shoes we had to see, then we were off to our post-Nike business lunch, Mario’s, and one of the best dishes in LA is the ‘Salty Lavaplato’ (really Loma Saltado, but I tell the same joke every time we’re there).

Just like any typical business men would do, we decided to go have a drink after our busy day. You know, we just wanted to loosen our ties, discuss our golf games, talk about cheating on our wives, and see which one of us could get the cocktail waitresses number….just like any terrible, typical, piece of shit business men would do. And of course, we had to have the most typical 6pm sunset drink…margarita rocks salt.

11pm, one last stop–Playhouse Hollywood. Vice is the resident at one of the hottest clubs in LA every Thursday. I hadn’t been, and have heard nothing but good things about it, so we decided to have one last business meeting and catch his set. The place was dope…felt and looked like a Vegas club. Walked in, got situated near the DJ area, acted really cool, and pretended not to recognize people I really did. The place was packed, and the night was probably highlighted by Warren G x Vice’s impromptu live concert. Also hangin out were DJ Echo, Summer Altice, and Mary Cherry. Lots of fun peeps. MIA– Eric Dlux, Johnny Barba, AndItIsLiz, and Matty Matt.