Sunday, May 24, 2009

Fly Kicks, How Much?



This past week has provided a great release from the consumer pressures of society since its focus was main on our research project that was due today. Now that the stress of that paper is now behind me, I can now direct my attention to this challenge and reflect on my thoughts on consumerism.

As I continue to participate on this compact challenge, I noticed that I find it easier to consumer less goods and question more about the product itself. I guess the latter is a great idea since I put a lot more effort in understanding the origin of product, how it's made and to what extent are its utilities. Backed up by Kawamura , "Clothing production and fashion production are both collective activities which require large numbers of people to produce the finished product." When I look at all of the clothes and products I have, I now take into large consideration how they are made. In a specific case that most of my colleagues have already touched upon are sneakers. However, my focus will be on a specific shoe I have, the Jordan I. The reason why I chose this shoe is because of the sneaker culture that revolves around it despite the knowledge that these shoes are made a lot cheaper than they are sold. It's hard for the common consumer to understand that the shoe that they purchase at such high prices is produced at such a low price. In addition, the process of creating the shoe from design to mass production is often subcontracted to less-developed countries. In the example with Nike, the process of creating a sneaker is first designed by in-house designers in American and then subcontracted to be created in Vietnam (Valverde).

My job in the compact challenge is now not only to submit myself to being consumer friendly and knowledgeable, but to also share my knowledge about consumerism and sneaker culture with others around me that way more people are aware of this good cause.

For further enjoyment and understanding of the process of designing, I have posted a video that explains the process.



Christian Borgonia BLOG #4

Works Cited:
Kawamura, Yuniya. Fashion-ology An Introduction to Fashion Studies (Dress, Body, Culture). New York: Berg, 2005.
Valverde, Prof. Caroline. Asian American Studies 189B. Lecture 15 May 2009
Video: The Shoe Game:
TheShoeGame.com - Todd Jordan Nike SB Sneaker Design Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b_rO-GHYo4

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