an open letter to steffineuman@deutsch.com
December 14, 2009
some days ago i posted something about a shoe i had gotten by a friend of mine from the nike office, the shoe was desigened also by friends of mine who i hold very dear, the wood wood crew. about two hours later a girl sent me the email you can see in the picture about that i should get the swoosh tattoed and such. well honestly i was about to put it aside and not even put it out but then i thought hey why not tell my view of things for on that matter.
contrary to public belief there are PEOPLE working at nike. these people make good stuff happening, from time to time they even make great stuff happening and sometimes even they miss the mark, i have to admit as well. but believe it or not there are some of these people who are friends of mine on a global scale who all work hard at the swoosh, some in Hong Kong, some in the U.S.A. some here in Berlin. all these people make something happening that you probably don't , with vision and courage, they helped me personally to get some things done, that without them i would never have gotten done and it was not about money.
if you talk about that people work in factories in china to produce these shoes, i suggest you get a ticket and fly to china and see how ANYTHING that your household stocks gets produced, honestly i cannot see the people here in germany working at volkswagen in the production line always whisteling a happy tune and farting butterflies. grow the fragg up, the factories might be bigger than you have ever seen and there are more people working over there and that might scare you but these people are normal workers and i have been to china quite often to get work done because yes labor is cheap there and unless you have a perfect 100% fairtrade household please don't give your "they must pay you shitloads of money" crap.
nike is a big business i give you that but it is run by people, some of them are my friends and then again they make good product in my book. you can apply all that to the rest of the usual suspects as well. thanks for your time.
by the way nobody EVER paid me for a post !
and another funfact steffi: i got no tatoos by now !
oh meeen!
Nice statement.
Hey Steffi -
he lied - he just got your name (yes incl. your last name) next to a hole where the sun doesnt shine.... bahahahha
Nowadays folks can pass judgement on the character of others by simply reading a few lines of text or by looking at a picture or two. 7 deadly sins...
Artoo has a heart of gold - evident in writing and in person, and he always has a point of view. But as everything is subjective, we're bound to get some naysayers.
Fair play artoo, any idea whos pushing the W.W Nike colab in terms of purchase?
Deutsch is printed on the - by far - worst stinking paper you could possibly imagine.
haha made me laugh andy
you couldnt have put it better. and no, i am not a fanboy or a hypebeast. i disagree with a lot of stuff posters [and commentators] write, sometimes i think sneaker hype is taken too far, as is misguided cause-driven philosophy. but i think you summed it up nicely and in a relatable way. we should all push for change, but not with the self-entitlement and aggression that the person emailing you exhibited.
really Steffi? C'MON SON! youknowyoufuckedupwitthatshitrightthereson!
..pretty sure you didn't intend to put the author of the disliked comment on the digital pillory; but stating her full name and email adress is just not right - even if her comment is arguable - no need to make her private data including the ip-address available to everyone I'd say. there is something like data privacy protection on hypebeast right?
...btw I'm a little afraid to write a comment using my real-name emailaddress, cause the statement next to the commentbox saying that my data won't be published doesn't seem to be true...
no offence: but I think you should edit this blogentry... open-letter-to-steffi will do. just a suggestion.
as regards to content i honestly don't think that steffi was talking about work conditions in china or anything like that - I'd say it s rather a statement on her sensitiveness for product placement and such (totally can't understand why she is posting this comment on a hypebeastblog...apparently playing the wrong field ...) anyways, I agree with commentator admiral ackbar, the big players and your friends working for them do care to create a „friendly environment“ around bloggers and so called opinionleaders and even though you may not be paid and asked to blog about their product, they managed to suceed on some point, which is fine with me – why not support a product you like (and got for free)!
@ any chiu: you are right! he obviously does give a shit on (what) steffi (has to say) otherwise this blogentry wouldn't exist
@ nils: deutsch.com = deutschmagazine.org?? not sure about that...
i guess you can see why i named the post the way i did. i also guess that the address is not even real, just guessing tho, i took out the ip address that should do, but honestly if you start barking up my tree you should be able to handle a reply, just a fair thought i think. i also had the thing in my head that she came to the wrong place to complain about posts about product. but then again this is how the cookie crumbles. and as far as it goes i keep all the info i get personal as well, only this time, this one time it really pulled my strings and i got "carried away " into fast mode...apologies for the IP address ! best artoo
@artoo: I think so too, that you got "carried away". Taking more time for a more balanced answer would have been good.
The initial mail was an ironic critique on your (supposed) Nike fetishism and a possible financial dependency - which is a fair point to raise. But your reply is basically just "fuck off, you spoil my fun".
Claiming that no one who is 100% fairtrade has the right to criticize a company producing stuff in China is a classic "Totschlagargument". And as unconvincing as "my friends work there".
Beeing german you should know better about working conditions in german factories (e.g. Volkswagen) in terms of working hours, breaks, holidays, union support ... If you really think that's comparable to conditions in China get yourself some info from human rights groups. Or faster - try Google (unless youre in China).
But to get back to the "meta-topic": on Hypebeast everything is about brands and the latest super-limited sneakervinyltoytshirtfixedgearsomething. It would be great to read articles that are a bit more reflective on the whole streetware circus/bizness. The discussion about the nazi-chique trend in Japan prooved it is possible - and neccessary.
PS: the WW-Nike sneaker is so lame!
Now thats classy Artoo - deleting critical comments. WTF?
maybe i was just "out" due to holidays and it was just not approved yet
haven't deleted a comment yet, btw classy email dude !
@artoo: Sorry, I apologize.
seriously, f*** nike....even if they pay your holidays and your friends are the workers at the marketing factory, by the end of the you just contributed to the whole marketing bullshit...
artoo you'd check what the fuckin' NIKE do all over the world.
NIKE IS BASTERD, NO DOUBT!!!!
just one tip : NIKE bought a park in SHIBUYA TOKYO, and they gonna kick the
homeless people out. what your friend HF do for this??