Shoe typography

Typography on shoes! Recently upgraded my basketball sneakers from the 2003 Nike Uptempo's to the Kevin Durant's. The Uptempos have been my basketball shoes since playing for the RISD Balls (2000-2005). 6 years and a lot of crossovers later, it was time for a new pair. I had no idea how dirty/worn the old shoes actually were until placed next to the new ones. 

The KD's caught my eye the minute I walked into Foot Locker. Nike nailed it with the color scheme. I was looking for a white shoe, and there is just enough "flair" to make these work. Then, when I saw the stitched 35 on the side I was sold. (On top of a low sticker price). The 35 is well balanced, great texture, and cropped just right. Overall, a beautiful shoe. Thanks for the memories, Uptempo. Great job Nike. Now if only all of Nike's shoes could be made from recycled content like Trash Talk.

(update) After my first game, they are light weight, easy to cut with, and provide good ankle support. *Excellent performance*

 

 

 

Checking out Ballpark

I love discovering new sites and services on the internet, and this one certainly caught my eye. It's a new site for online invoicing and client management called Ballpark (great name!). They have a nice demo video that walks you through a typical use case (though I don't think Nike needs a new logo). The design comes across as clean, organized, and has a nice hierarchy of information layout - colors to indicate status, big clickable buttons, and large type. There are clues of Basecamp in regards to the layout (leaderboard across the top, main dashboard w/right column), and the homepage reminds me of Campaign Monitor. Both these sites sell web services, and excel at communicating, so it's completely natural to fit this style. I look forward to signing up and digging deeper into the site.