This past year has been a whirlwind of traveling, bikes, modeling, and life. I could not be more thankful for the amazing things that I was able to accomplish and experience over the past year. I am really proud of a lot of the things that happened, so I wanted to write a post that involved some of the most memorable things in chronological order.
Click Image to be taken to the entire lookbook.
This first big event was getting to shoot for the Fall 2011 Stussy Lookbook down in LA. While I stayed in the model apartment for one night, I was lucky enough to get down and stay with Matt Spencer (wolfdrawn) for a few days and ride. Had a lot of fun, and thanks to him for hosting me!
Barspin- Click to be taken to Prolly's full story.
Click to read the rest of “2011- A Look Back”
Just a couple weeks later was the first ever Red Bull Ride N Style down in San Francisco. It was the first time I’d been to San Francisco with my bike, and unfortunately I was there for such a short time that the only thing I got to ride was the course. I had such a fun time with it though. The amount of spectators was nothing short of amazing. I qualified first landing a big gap to pedal feeble on the hip, and placed 3rd in the finals after two runs. I cannot wait to see what they do next year!
Click for Hedi Slimane's website
In May, I was able to not only meet but work with my biggest idol, Hedi Slimane. Hedi was the reason I decided to go to school for fashion design. I still remember the day that I stumbled across Dior Homme’s FW 2005 collection on men.style.com, now GQ.com. I was shocked to see that there was high fashion clothing that was COOL. For this shoot, I flew out to New York. It was the first time I had been to New York alone, but I was able to manage my way around pretty well. You can find all of the shots from this in the current issue, issue 13, of AnOther Man Magazine.
The next stop: London!
The following week after shooting with Hedi Slimane, I was flown to London to shoot for the TopMan fall campaign. Alister Mackie, the stylist from the Slimane shoot, and editor of AnOther Man, requested me for the campaign.
This awesome ad was shown to me by Terrance Patrick, The Heavy Pedal. It was emailed to him. Turns out they really ran these ads, it could be found huge in all of their stores, as well as all over the city of Chicago.
While I was in London, I stayed with Andy Ellis of Fixed Mag. It was the second time I had met him, the first being Red Bull Ride N Style. Super glad he offered up a spot to crash because he is definitely one of my good friends now! Andy and Dave showed me around London, loaned me bikes and skateboards to ride, and really made the trip amazing. While I was there, I also got to preview my interview in Issue 8. Read the interview here.
I then flew back home and just hung out for a few weeks. While at home, I was promoted to buyer for Blackbird. The promotion sent me off to Paris for fashion week to view brands spring 2012 collections. This was the first time I was able to watch a fashion show, typically I am in them.
Click to go to Stockholm Street Style
While in Paris, I made an AMAZING friend, Marie. She showed me all over the city and really made the long trip pleasurable. It’s always tough in another country where you don’t speak much of the language, but because of her I had an awesome time!
Following Paris, I traveled back to NY to finish the buying for the Spring 2012 season. Only to return a month later, for Fashion week. Luckily, James let me crash with him for 3 weeks so I didn’t lose money even though the season was a bust for me shows-wise. While in NY, SKYLMT launched the SL-1 frameset and Skyscraper bars that I had designed at interbike.
Photo by John Prolly. Click for full post.
After NY, being pretty much traveled out, I took advantage of being home for a few months. I was able to get in some riding before the rainy winter months. Once, I received my SKYLMT, my life then turned to just trying to go out and film for that. Purchasing a GoPro and Steadicam to help with filming, the ZLOG crew and myself hunkared down for a month and a half of winter shred.
The final product launched on Xmas-
WHEW, what a year. I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart every one of my friends and family for their support over the past year. Without them, none of the experiences would have been possible. I am really lucky to be surrounded by such amazing and driven people. For the people, who had an impact this year but are no longer in my life, I sincerely wish you the best, and thank you for the time we shared.
Heres to 2012!
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