This morning Greg & I set off on our Biannual trip to Asia to deal with production, distribution and all sorts of other upcoming projects with our friends in the East. We leave with our baby in the hands of all of our employees to look after for 2 weeks while we finalize details for Spring 2009. And what exactly does 2009 hold? Well I’ll be frank… those of you waiting for a Banana Streetpublic version of Mishka, are going to have a long wait. I know the trend everyone is desperately steering their ship towards is being simple, basic, or to put it into more marketable terms, “grown up“. And while that’s all fine and good, we’re not simple, nor basic… never have been and probably never will be. And while I’ll concede to the fact that we’ve definitely grown up in the almost 5 years of existence, our aim was and still is to never grow old… something we hope is resonates with every Mishka fan. Simple & basic is for the Gap, Uniqlo and Banana Republic. We’ve always been about graphics, color, design and most importantly providing an alternative! And 2009 will  really be no different… well probably a whole bunch different, but you get the picture.  Just don’t oxford dress shirts, tan rain coats, plain V-necks and earth tones from us.

We’re pretty awful bloggers when it come to keeping track of our daily exploits, especially on the many trips we take each year. We’ll try our best to do a better job than we have done in the past on keeping you posted on our daily/nightly excursions and anything else of interest we may find along the way!

Off we go…

I’ve tried to write something witty to go along with this video and I just can’t! Just watch the damn clip.

Sorry Mike…. this one’s FTW

that’s how we roll in North Cak

Live version

I know Patrick and Michael are with me here…

This dude plays Guitar Hero.

P.S. There are too many categories. Proceeds from this picture will go to all the charities and benefits found on the bloglin.

P.S.S. Feel free to protest. :D

Last week I flew over to the Nordic Motherland known as Sweden to wade through tall fembots and snowy streets. I was told that I had missed the “nice” weather by a week and since it was Easter and the Swedes celebrate the fertile bunny rabbit-holiday like it’s Christmas, most of the shops I wanted to check out were closed. Luckily for me, the Mishka family in Stockholm is strong. A lot of shops carry Mishka and since Greg and Mike were just over there a few months ago, the shop owners were familiar with the NYC crew. They took us in like family and showed us all the local spots.

Luckily for me I had met a dude who works at Caliroots and has ties to Odd Number, Stockholm’s only Track Bike boutique. Richard took us to all the essential shops and showed us around on his day off. We hit up Weekday, Caliroots, Six Feet Down, Black Market, Sneakers n Stuff and a few others. Our last shop was Monkey Bizz and after we spent about 30 minutes looking for it, we found it. Tarek, the owner, was a great host. Monkey Bizz carries a lot of NYC brands and other staples like Flying Coffin and Actual Pain and Tarek had put Greg up in the crackhouse a while back, so he had a lot of stories.

Enough chitter-chatter, here are some pics!

A restaurant called Bauer

Keep Watch!

Parra x Caliroots

Six Feet Down

Nike’s Be True

Monkey Bizz!

Garlic and Shots’ HUGE fucking burger…

“hey man”

Haberdashery, another Mishka account with the finest selection of denim in Sweden!

… and these Mackdaddy x Madfoot collaborations!

… my last night there Tarek took us to Pelikan for fist-sized meatballs!

Those of you living in the UK that have a little extra loot lying around should consider taking a once in a lifetime trip on Ed Force One, with none other than Bruce Dickinson as your trusty pilot. If you’re wondering what you get for the £349-399 fare, then scope out the kick ass travel package.

- Exclusive themed Bruce Air ED FORCE ONE goodie bag
- Personally signed photo of Bruce in Ed Force One
- Standing ticket to the Iron Maiden concert
- Bus transfers at destination to venue and to and from hotel where trip includes hotel.

I think it’s obvious that we’re a bunch of headbanging Maiden fans, and we can only pray to Satan that Maiden expands the U.S. portion of their tour. Unfortunately, we probably won’t be flying Bruce Air 666 if Maiden decides to add more east coast dates.

We all liked to get ’spaced out’ once in a while, get a lil’ ‘cosmic’ - see ’stars’ or what not. So this is a top 10 list of my astronomy photos of 2007 while ’space traveling’ YA HEARD!

10. A Comet Bursting Forth

Apparently comets are very hard for the naked eye to see. I say this is probably what Belushi and Farley saw before they took a permanent dirt nap. Pretty innit?

9. Black Hole on Mars

If I was a rapper and battling someone on Freestyle Friday on 106 & Park or some shit, I would carry a picture of this and claim that my guns could blow a hole as massive as this black hole on Mars. Science Thugzzz

8. A Giant Red Star Named Mira

I dunno if this shit is giant or red even, but I do think that ‘mira’ means come over here in spanish or something? Raekwon says it in ‘Ice Cream’

7. The Lover’s Embrace of ARP 87

Reminds me of British people saying, “The Lover’s Embrace of HARP 87″ I picture popping a few valiums to feel like how this looks.

6. Lightning at Weikerscheim Observatory

Doesn’t this look like one of those motivational posters you got as a kid at the book fair or something?

5. A Meeting of the Moons

You know it’s a gangsta party when Jupiter’s moons meet up like the after-party is just gettin’ started. There be some dusty mirror’s, solar system groupies, ice sparklin’ from light years away, COSMIC BALLIN’

4. Dark Matter Makes an Appearance

2 words, CHUCK ANDERSON

3. Chaos in Vela

This image shows the devastation wrought when a star explodes. The Vela Supernova Remnant formed when a massive star 800 light years away blew up 11,000 years ago. That’s some ‘Holy Shit’ action, son. Believe that.

2. Stereo Eclipse

When I was in highschool, the older kids would tell us how if you did more than three grams of shrooms, you would go to ‘the gate’- and how going there would change your life forever. I picture this before entering the gate, the eye of psychedelia saying, “You fucking think you are so awesome don’t you? Real proud that you got to the gate, you braindead fuck up”

1. The Beautiful Face of IC 342

This picture is pretty rad, but really, the real number 1 for ALL of my lists for 2007 would be this:

So due to our hectic work & travel schedule, I think we overlooked making a post about adding our recent trip to Asia to our Gallery. Hell I even forgot about these pictures until I just noticed they were in our gallery. I pulled a few that I thought some of our readers might like to see.

We got to spend some time with our friends over at Mackdaddy, and they showed us a few projects they had in the works. First of which is this track bike in this wicked color way. For the life of me I can’t remember who is manufacturing these for Mackdaddy, but perhaps it’s W-Base like their previous bike collaboration.

Next up we have Mackdaddy x Reebok Reverse Jams. The Reverse Jams (If you didn’t know) were featured prominently in White Men Can’t Jump on the feet of Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson).

These will be available in the White, Yellow & Hot Pink, delivering to shops (Mostly in Japan) in January & May of 2008.

We were also informed that White Men Can’t Jump was called Hard Boys in Japan! How homoerotic.

If you havent had a chance, make sure you check out the GALLERY section of our website to see a buttload of photos from our recent trip to Stockholm!

One of the main reasons we were out there was to spend some time with our friend Tarek and his store Monkey Bizz!

Monkey Bizz was one of our first international accounts and has had three locations in it’s lifespan. At one point Tarek ran Monkey Bizz out of the back storage area of Stockholm’s premier Hip Hop urbanwear shop, Recognize. Needless to say, he has gone a long way since opening the shop.

The new Monkey Bizz is huge. The design is very clean and extra care is taken to presentation. This is not one of those shops where another t-shirt or hoodie is just sitting on a rack. Great care is taken to display the items so that they all work together and make nice outfits.

Tarek handpicks the brands that he carries, and is the exclusive retailer in Stockholm for some of the hottest brands out there, including such favorites as Rockers NYC, PegLeg, Flying Coffin, and Actual Pain.

Monkey Bizz is not the easiest store to find if you are ever in Stockholm. Its in a basement on a side street. You’ll probably have to take a train to a bus and then walk about 500 meters, but its well worth it.

Maybe if you come by late enough, Tarek will take you to Snow White for some cheap beers and loose slots!

Speaking of Sweden I wanted to point out this treasure of a discovery… The Tunnbrodsrulle, Swedish street food at it best! What is a Tunnbrodsrulle you say? Well it’s a hot dog, or two hot dogs, or maybe a sausage wrapped in a pita with some butter, mashed potatoes, ketchup, mayo, fried onions and the piece de resistance… shrimp salad! I’m expecting you to now make a face in disgust as most everyone we were traveling with did when we explained what we ate. But trust me, this wild concoction is sooooo worth it! I have no clue what wild swede invented this but I have to assume it was some tripped out stoner metal dude and this was all that was left in his fridge when the munchies hit! So tasty!

I just posted a shitload of pics from our trip to Sweden in our Gallery.

Going to make a few posts this weekend, with some details of the trip. Enjoy!

Yesterday I mentioned that we were heading to Sweden for a big bash, well here is the info for said big bash! Click the flyer for details! And if you happen to be in Sweden, or are from Sweden and reading this, drop by!

Yesterday I also mentioned our recent collab with Monkey Bizz. Below you’ll see said collab which consists of a T-shirt and a crewneck sweatshirt featuring Monkey Bizz’s unmistakable style which always reminded me of old Factory Record sleeves.

Not 100% certain but I think we’ll take back a few tees and crews for sale on our site and the Pop-Up Shop.

I totally skipped on Shanghai, and haven’t even touched Osaka, but wanted to post a pic of the MISHKA crew with Big-O of Swagger/Phenomenon at the Mackdaddy Offices for their Summer 08 tradeshow called Messen Jah. Some sick sick sick shit indeed!

Mike and I are in Asia for the next 10 days, you know doing the stuff people like us do. Meetings, production, eating weird (good) foods, catching up with international friends etc. People love to post pictures of their trips on their blogs so I thought, why not. The only problem is I NEVER take enough photos, and I kinda refuse to take pictures of the food I ate with the cool kids that I know.

Here is the obligatory shot outside my hotel window. Jackie Chan son!

Oh shit, behind the scenes! You saw it first!!!

OK, I lied, here is Eugene (left) from a little website, called um, HYPEBEAST , and Jason (right) also from The Beast, BUT he gave a card for his newest venture, FAM, if you don’t know, now you know!

Eugene took us to this part of town I had been two before, but I can never remember the name. It basically the tourist part of town where all the white people go. We fit right in! This cover band was amazing in the not so amazing cover band kinda way.

I guess smoking cigs turn you into a hipster skeleton! I am so witty!

This seriously made my jaw drop. I loved Mac Tonight ! Someone needs to put this on a t-shirt….

Ok, see I suck, thats seriously all the photos I took two days in Hong Kong, …stay tuned, Shanghai is next!