CELEBRATING THE ORIGINALS.
August 29, 2009

On Friday evening we finally opened the doors to our "Qubic Celebrates Originals" event that we'd been working on with adidas Originals Pacific for the past month or so. With so many elements to the event it had generated quite a lot of buzz amongst the core community, especially those who were familiar with Kazuki's work and his influence within the culture globally. All in all it was an amazing night, with plenty in attendance and an incredible vibe - it was a fantastic thing seeing so many people so amped and into the event. It really made for a whole new calibre of event and crowd attendance for us here, so thank you to the tons of people who came and supported the event on Friday night.

A big part of the event was the Pacific region's official opening reception for designer Kazuki Kuraishi's O By O FW09 collection, and it wasn't until Kazuki touched down in Auckland and told us that we realised we were the first country in the world to host an opening reception for his FW09 collection with NBHD, which was a real honour.

For the event we set up a special installation in our gallery space, focusing on adidas' iconic three stripes and trefoil, as well as showcasing items from Kazuki's collection with Neighborhood before they all promptly sold out when the doors opened after a 24 hour camp-out outside the store by the dozens who wanted to secure their sizes. A few lucky event-goers also managed to go home with signed copies of Kazuki's "Felicity" Originals By Originals FW09 catalogue as well.

I was also personally surprised at the reception to our "Originals By Qubic" feature as well, which was also unveiled on the night. If you hadn't seen my past few posts, adidas Originals Pacific selected five regional personalities (four from NZL, one from AU) to design their very own custom adidas Originals sneaker for the night, which was manufactured as a one-off for the night through the originals program. For the most part these guys were just your normal people who simply love the three stripes, so it was a really interesting experience seeing what they could come up with, given the chance to make that shoe they've always wanted to see come out of the brand they've admired for so many years. If you are in Auckland, please do feel to pop by into our Qubic store where the five individual shoes are still on display, and vote for your favourite design over the next couple of week.

There was a truckload of local media in attendance, from magazines to newspapers to local sites, so I'm sure you'll see more pictures pop up and float around over the next few weeks or so but for now, here are some pictures, courtesy of Hieu Tran.

A huge thanks to everybody at adidas Originals Pacific, especially AJ Moriarty and Craig Argent, the mi-originals team, our always incredible event prep team and store crew, the other four Qubic originals - Kevin Downie, Chris Lewis, Sean Aickin and Woody, Sean Wallace @ Radar Films, all the people who waited patiently outside to secure the items they wanted, the press/media in attendance, and of course, the man of the hour - Kazuki Kuraishi for making the big trek across the globe to attend this exclusive opening reception in our country with such a hectic schedule, like, say, designing the CD artwork for... Ian Brown, or working on new collections for just-about-every-brand-you-know. I hope you enjoyed your trip here, and I'll see you again very shortly.

The only casualty of the night? Our trusty Canon SLR, our faithful witness over the past few years of all of our antics and tomfoolery. After finally giving up the ghost, we're going to have to leave it to the professionals for the nicer images.

Stay tuned as we unveil the five "Originals By Qubic" shoes that were finally uncovered on the night. I hope you will enjoy our tribute to Originality.