Why Lakai, why?

[Cool Ceith]

Even Lakai is trying to distance themselves from this weird offensive project—they repeatedly stress at every opportunity that this is something he did independently with his friends (not the Lakai AV dept).

[Gray Imp Sausage Metal]

he's fucked the laces on them already, so im guessing the shoes are a pile of shite as well

yeah not a good look when you're trying to promote a shoe. I guess the clip's only saving grace is that he seems to have inherited Carroll's Japan air?

[lrg straw cap]

https://skateboarding.transworld.net/photos/booksmart-interview-nico-hiraga/

Since I got you on the phone, I wanted to ask you about the Lakai Cherry Blossom colorway shoes.

Oooooh, yeah dog!

I’ve always heard that when you get a colorway with Lakai, it always sells really well.

Ah you already shnow what it is! Lakai, those are my people, those are good people. A couple years ago I turned am for them, signed the contract, did the whole shebang. That entailed with me being able to put some of my own ideas in my shoes. Give some of my style to some of the clothes. We put out the Owens, some slip ons. They were lavender and one was baby blue. Those did fire too man. It’s a trip when people skate my shoes. What the hell? I’ll show up to Soma skatepark and see multiple people wearing purples. I’m like wow.

I heard it was a best-seller.

Yeah, it was good, for sure. After that, I was like holy shit, they sold out. I was like, okay, people are really fucking with the vision. I want to really tap into my Japanese heritage. I worked with Aaron Hoover and Craig from Lakai. I wanted to make a cherry blossom shoe. We made it so the branch was squiggling through the Lakai flare. The first samples they sent over the phone, on a group chat, and I was like, “Oh my God!” I like shit my pants. It was so sexy looking. We need to add a Japanese red dot on the back of the shoe, we need to make it sexy on the other side of the shoe too. I’m incredibly stoked on that. A few days ago Craig actually hit me up and told me they sold out. I was like, whoa, that was quick.

The video with you and Ando is hilarious.

Oh dude, oh yeah. My boy Nakota, he’s great at directing. If it’s raining out, we’ll make a skit on Instagram, he always directs them and always comes up with the ideas. So Kota came up with the idea for this shoe, like why don’t we make it look like a Kung Fu scene? At first, I was questionable about it because I didn’t want people to think it was racist or anything. We managed to pull through with that because I’m Japanese, and there’s a white dude there, it might have been a little fucked up. I wanted Kota to be the sensei at first, but he was like, nah we need someone more burly, a little more big, he was like, we need Ando. I was like, copy, aite. I hit up Ando, he was free the day we filmed it and we just knocked it out. It’s in the tea garden in Golden Gate Park. The place closed and 30 minutes after it closed, we found a cutty place to film it in. A park ranger was like, just so you know, we’re shutting this down, but you can have five more minutes. So we knocked out as many shots as we could. A lot of the clips in there are one take, the first shot we got, we were like fuck it.

I was going to say, a lot of Lakai commercials have been directed by Spike Jonze and Feds. Were you feeling any extra pressure filming a Lakai commercial?

I didn’t. Feds and Spike fucking murk it, they destroy it every time. It’s always so good. I think Lakai is known for its advertisement. It didn’t cross my mind at first, I was just like this is another Instagram one-minute video, Kota will direct it. Now it’s like, oh shit, this is one of Lakai’s first ones not directed by Spike or Feds. If I would have thought about that before, I would have been, oh this needs to be top-notch, Ando you need to take acting classes for a week.

It’s better that he didn’t.

Yeah, Ando killed it.

[shannamal]

https://skateboarding.transworld.net/photos/booksmart-interview-nico-hiraga/

Expand Quote

Since I got you on the phone, I wanted to ask you about the Lakai Cherry Blossom colorway shoes.

Oooooh, yeah dog!

I’ve always heard that when you get a colorway with Lakai, it always sells really well.

Ah you already shnow what it is! Lakai, those are my people, those are good people. A couple years ago I turned am for them, signed the contract, did the whole shebang. That entailed with me being able to put some of my own ideas in my shoes. Give some of my style to some of the clothes. We put out the Owens, some slip ons. They were lavender and one was baby blue. Those did fire too man. It’s a trip when people skate my shoes. What the hell? I’ll show up to Soma skatepark and see multiple people wearing purples. I’m like wow.

I heard it was a best-seller.

Yeah, it was good, for sure. After that, I was like holy shit, they sold out. I was like, okay, people are really fucking with the vision. I want to really tap into my Japanese heritage. I worked with Aaron Hoover and Craig from Lakai. I wanted to make a cherry blossom shoe. We made it so the branch was squiggling through the Lakai flare. The first samples they sent over the phone, on a group chat, and I was like, “Oh my God!” I like shit my pants. It was so sexy looking. We need to add a Japanese red dot on the back of the shoe, we need to make it sexy on the other side of the shoe too. I’m incredibly stoked on that. A few days ago Craig actually hit me up and told me they sold out. I was like, whoa, that was quick.

The video with you and Ando is hilarious.

Oh dude, oh yeah. My boy Nakota, he’s great at directing. If it’s raining out, we’ll make a skit on Instagram, he always directs them and always comes up with the ideas. So Kota came up with the idea for this shoe, like why don’t we make it look like a Kung Fu scene? At first, I was questionable about it because I didn’t want people to think it was racist or anything. We managed to pull through with that because I’m Japanese, and there’s a white dude there, it might have been a little fucked up. I wanted Kota to be the sensei at first, but he was like, nah we need someone more burly, a little more big, he was like, we need Ando. I was like, copy, aite. I hit up Ando, he was free the day we filmed it and we just knocked it out. It’s in the tea garden in Golden Gate Park. The place closed and 30 minutes after it closed, we found a cutty place to film it in. A park ranger was like, just so you know, we’re shutting this down, but you can have five more minutes. So we knocked out as many shots as we could. A lot of the clips in there are one take, the first shot we got, we were like fuck it.

I was going to say, a lot of Lakai commercials have been directed by Spike Jonze and Feds. Were you feeling any extra pressure filming a Lakai commercial?

I didn’t. Feds and Spike fucking murk it, they destroy it every time. It’s always so good. I think Lakai is known for its advertisement. It didn’t cross my mind at first, I was just like this is another Instagram one-minute video, Kota will direct it. Now it’s like, oh shit, this is one of Lakai’s first ones not directed by Spike or Feds. If I would have thought about that before, I would have been, oh this needs to be top-notch, Ando you need to take acting classes for a week.

It’s better that he didn’t.

Yeah, Ando killed it.

[close]

this somehow made it even worse

[Baron Samedi]

YOU ALREADY SHNOW WHAT IT IS

[shannamal]

YOU ALREADY SHNOW WHAT IT IS

i just realized he talks like lil kev from it's always sunny

[shannamal]

also,

[Gray Imp Sausage Metal]

Expand Quote

https://skateboarding.transworld.net/photos/booksmart-interview-nico-hiraga/

Expand Quote

Since I got you on the phone, I wanted to ask you about the Lakai Cherry Blossom colorway shoes.

Oooooh, yeah dog!

I’ve always heard that when you get a colorway with Lakai, it always sells really well.

Ah you already shnow what it is! Lakai, those are my people, those are good people. A couple years ago I turned am for them, signed the contract, did the whole shebang. That entailed with me being able to put some of my own ideas in my shoes. Give some of my style to some of the clothes. We put out the Owens, some slip ons. They were lavender and one was baby blue. Those did fire too man. It’s a trip when people skate my shoes. What the hell? I’ll show up to Soma skatepark and see multiple people wearing purples. I’m like wow.

I heard it was a best-seller.

Yeah, it was good, for sure. After that, I was like holy shit, they sold out. I was like, okay, people are really fucking with the vision. I want to really tap into my Japanese heritage. I worked with Aaron Hoover and Craig from Lakai. I wanted to make a cherry blossom shoe. We made it so the branch was squiggling through the Lakai flare. The first samples they sent over the phone, on a group chat, and I was like, “Oh my God!” I like shit my pants. It was so sexy looking. We need to add a Japanese red dot on the back of the shoe, we need to make it sexy on the other side of the shoe too. I’m incredibly stoked on that. A few days ago Craig actually hit me up and told me they sold out. I was like, whoa, that was quick.

The video with you and Ando is hilarious.

Oh dude, oh yeah. My boy Nakota, he’s great at directing. If it’s raining out, we’ll make a skit on Instagram, he always directs them and always comes up with the ideas. So Kota came up with the idea for this shoe, like why don’t we make it look like a Kung Fu scene? At first, I was questionable about it because I didn’t want people to think it was racist or anything. We managed to pull through with that because I’m Japanese, and there’s a white dude there, it might have been a little fucked up. I wanted Kota to be the sensei at first, but he was like, nah we need someone more burly, a little more big, he was like, we need Ando. I was like, copy, aite. I hit up Ando, he was free the day we filmed it and we just knocked it out. It’s in the tea garden in Golden Gate Park. The place closed and 30 minutes after it closed, we found a cutty place to film it in. A park ranger was like, just so you know, we’re shutting this down, but you can have five more minutes. So we knocked out as many shots as we could. A lot of the clips in there are one take, the first shot we got, we were like fuck it.

I was going to say, a lot of Lakai commercials have been directed by Spike Jonze and Feds. Were you feeling any extra pressure filming a Lakai commercial?

I didn’t. Feds and Spike fucking murk it, they destroy it every time. It’s always so good. I think Lakai is known for its advertisement. It didn’t cross my mind at first, I was just like this is another Instagram one-minute video, Kota will direct it. Now it’s like, oh shit, this is one of Lakai’s first ones not directed by Spike or Feds. If I would have thought about that before, I would have been, oh this needs to be top-notch, Ando you need to take acting classes for a week.

It’s better that he didn’t.

Yeah, Ando killed it.

[close]

[close]

this somehow made it even worse

[cheetahsheets]

Hey nico runs off the hype beast shit, I mean it’s his whole career. He’s done a lot of Hollywood shit, even that new movie. He’s kind of whack in those regards but I really don’t see the shit talking on his skating tbh. I remember I watched the flare and that was the first I saw him, I remember him being the focal point of the montage IMO. He has unbelievable style, maybe not his fashion sense, but his actual style is unreal. He reminds of like a native Hawaiian surfer or something when he skates. I’m not sure if he’s from Hawaii, but I wouldn’t be surprised, definitely has that HA surf style, not that Cali surf style.

[Cool Ceith]

Hey nico runs off the hype beast shit, I mean it’s his whole career. He’s done a lot of Hollywood shit, even that new movie. He’s kind of whack in those regards but I really don’t see the shit talking on his skating tbh. I remember I watched the flare and that was the first I saw him, I remember him being the focal point of the montage IMO. He has unbelievable style, maybe not his fashion sense, but his actual style is unreal. He reminds of like a native Hawaiian surfer or something when he skates. I’m not sure if he’s from Hawaii, but I wouldn’t be surprised, definitely has that HA surf style, not that Cali surf style.

I agree. I first saw him in FTC's Chao Down and thought he was sick, but when I caught his Illegal Civ output and glam nonsense I got turned off.