The Ave Venice – Made in Los Angeles

The Ave x Tauntr: “Breaking Bad”, “Walking Dead” and “Dexter” Custom Chuck Taylors

HOOPS!

THE NBA IS BACK! We're stoked. Finally. The Owners and the Players figured out how to add and subtract and now those who really matter (us, the fans!) get our beloved product back out into the marketplace. And one thing that creates such appeal to this sport? The RIVALRIES.

To many, the best rivalry of all time was in the 1980's. The Country was divided. Families were divided. This rivalry wasn't just about the players, either. It was about style. The flashiness and coolness of the Showtime Lakers versus the Fundamentally Sound, less for show and more straight to business Boston Celtics. And you really had to pick one. It wasn't like the rivalries of today (Red Sox vs Yankees) where it is completely OK to hate both teams. You were either one or the other. Your choice wasn't even necessarily who you preferred on the court. It was more about your lifestyle. That rivalry was pretty dead in the 90's but was somewhat rekindled back in 2008 when the Celtics stomped all over the Lakers. Unfortunately, The Ave had yet to be opened. When we did open, in the Spring of 2010, it was in the midst of an intense NBA Playoffs. The Lakers and Celtics would ultimately face each other again.

And when that happened, we made our first banger. One that even Rick Fox himself would come to appreciate. The classic "Boston Sucks" shirt, which we sold over 500 of (Hey, not bad for a 450 Square ft store that just opened):

In all reality, Boston didn't actually suck, it ended up being a pretty intense 7 games series which the Lakers ended up winning, bringing home the Title 2 years in a row.

All of this made us think, wonder, and reminisce on our old T-shirts we had from back in the day. Our neighbor, Sean, the Owner of Bike Curious Rentals, is a die hard Boston fan. So as we thought of a "Throwback 80's meets Today's styles" shirt, we couldn't leave Boston out. And since we don't have the rights to use official NBA Logos (The Boston Sucks shirt was massively altered), this is what we came up with.

A tribute to the starting lineups of the best Lakers and Celtics teams of the 1980's, in their respective colors. These can be purchased by clicking the photos, which will take you to our online store.

NOTE: We did not leave Michael Jordan out of this intentionally. It's just that his and The Bulls rivalry with the Pistons was pretty one sided. Jordan pretty much ran over everyone. But if you wanna get a custom Bulls shirt made, hit us up.

Its Black Friday….omg

Let the Holiday Madness begin! It's Black Friday, so what does that mean? It's time to wake up early or stay up all night, fight the crowds, and wait in line for hours just to save $100 on a new TV? Well we hate waking up early! So we plan on being open normal business hours, which is 11-8, seven days a week. However, just because we aren't forcing our employees to come in at 4am does not mean that we won't be participating in Black Friday. In fact, we're stoked to be entering our second Holiday season, so stoked that we are offering HALF OFF ALL T-SHIRTS, ALL DAY LONG! Yes, that is correct. We might be crazy. Or we might just be doing it to see if anyone will come, since there isn't a WalMart within 20 miles of us (thankfully!). But you heard right.........Any color shirt, any size or style (even custom) will be 50% off for the entire day of business on Friday, November 25th, 2011. Come on in and grab some custom tees which make GREAT gifts, or, come check out some of our designs. Our cheapest T-shirt which is high quality and printed in unlimited colors is $17, 364 days out of the year. But this Friday and this Friday only, that same shirt will be marked down to $8.50 as we celebrate the begining of the Holiday Season. So whether you're shopping for yourself or your loved ones, your T-shirt game could be seriously improved this Friday. Want a custom made shirt that says "I Hate Black Friday"? You got it. That'll be $9.50 please. And if you want that at 5:30 PM after you slept in because you drank too much Whiskey with your Grandma on Thanksgiving? That's cool. Because we probably did, too.

This could be you on Black Friday. You could avoid this by sleeping in and getting everyone T-shirts for the Holidays. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Note: This only counts for people who come IN the store. No, it won't work on our website, sorry. No, you can't call and pay over the phone and come pick them up next week. And NO, sorry, but this offer is not good for shoes, hoodies, or hats. And if you don't live close enough to come in and take advantage of this special, we are sorry. Move closer!

Vans are Awesome

On April 7th, 2010 we opened the doors to our tiny but mighty shop in the heart of Venice Beach. We were a small crew to say the least - a two man show. Now you'll find a team of smiling faces when you stop by. When we first started, we spent hours - days - even nights finalizing and fine tuning the process of printing images on Converse All Stars.  Over the last year we have created thousands of custom made Converse All Stars for people and have shipped Custom made pairs to dozens of countries around the World.

Well.... the time has come to introduce a new product into our catalog, using a new Patented Device that only we built. The classic Vans Slip On, introduced to the world in 1979, gives us a wonderful amount of printing space right on the top of the foot - much different than on the sides and tongue of the Converse All-Star. The past couple weeks have been exciting to say the least. Below are just a couple of designs that we made just for the people who work here. Give 'em a look

Made these for good ol 'Merica. Using our original F-Ya Flag Design made last 4th of July. This was our best selling design this summer!

Van5?

We'll give ya one guess who these were for. If you read our theavevenice.com/meet-the-ave/ page, you should know

Miyagi vs Daniel-San!

The first rule of Fight Club is....... TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THESE SHOES!

The Ave News: Nas, Paramount Elementary, Entourage

Autumn is finally underway at The Ave and we couldn't be happier with our second summer in business! Unless you're a fan of The Ave on Facebook, you may have missed a few of our summer highlights but luckily, we have a recap for you.  From rappers to elementary students to television, this summer has treated us well!

Our fearless leader and owner of The Ave, Nick, had the opportunity to present hip-hop legend Nas with a pair of kicks bearing the album cover design from his 1994 classic debut album, Illmatic, at one of the most coveted annual music festivals, Rock the Bells.  Nas absolutely loved his creations from The Ave and we were more than happy to salute one such a legendary force in the music industry.  Nick also had a chance to give Dj Premier of Gangstarr a custom set of Vans, but we'll tell you more about that soon!

All of us at The Ave love kids (as a young entrepreneur himself, Nick has been on a roll visiting schools and inspiring students this year) and we sent over some awesome custom hats to lucky students at Paramount Elementary School in Azuza, California.  In fact, we can print on anything you'd like and have printed our one-of-a-kind designs on everything from onesies to baby tees.  If you would like to hook up the amazing kid in your life, please shoot us an email at custom@theavevenice.com and we'll be happy to help you.

Recognize this guy?  It's no other than Johnny Drama (played by Kevin Dillon) from HBO's hit series, Entourage.  The shot above shows Drama rocking a custom t-shirt printed by The Ave during an episode of Entourage that aired in late August.  While Entourage may have reached its last season, we're excited to work with the production folks in the future.

To check out our custom tees, click here or shoot us an email at custom@theavevenice.com and we'll outfit you with custom gear fit for television.

The Ave Venice X The X Label – A Tribute to G.U.R.U

...from www.thexlabel.com

In 1986 MC Keithy E (now known as GURU) completed a demo tape that featured the early members of GangStarr; DJ Mikey Dee and Damo D (Beat Box). The tape that was recorded at “Radio One” studios in Boston, includes eight tracks featuring the young Guru rhyming and displaying his singing voice over a bare drum machine.

The demo tape was clearly made and sent directly to Magnus Johnstone (a local DJ/Radio Host in Guru’s hometown of Boston) for his show. Both the demo tape’s cover and the actual tape are labeled “for Magnus”. Magnus Johnstone founded Lecco’s Lemma radio show in 1985. It was a groundbreaking hip-hop radio show, the first of its kind in Boston and one of the only rap radio shows in the world at that time. What made it even more revolutionary for the emerging Boston hip-hop scene was that Magnus encouraged local rap groups to come down to the station and perform on the air. Since the show was Boston’s outlet for up and coming hip hop artists, it was a big deal to appear on the show. This demo tape earned MC Keithy E and crew the right to be on the show and share their talents to the listeners.

The X Label is bringing to you this collaboration with The Ave Venice, located in Venice Beach, CA. The Ave Venice specializes in custom design utilizing cutting edge technology mixed with their own creative engineering and software development. The X Label in conjunction with The Ave Venice will be releasing 50 pairs of the limited edition Keithy E Demo Tape Shoe. Like the Keithy E Demo Tape t-shirt, the shoe consist of the cover of Guru’s first demo tape on the outer and inner parts of the shoe. The tongue of the shoe holds Guru’s signature “Keithy E” imprinted across the upper flap. This exclusive yet personal item will not only be marked by the shoe number but also our favorite Guru song 1-50. These exclusive kicks will sell out quickly and are only available through www.thexlabel.com and www.theavevenice.com.

To order yours now, click here.

Shoes.TV x Casey Bond from Moneyball The Movie x The Ave Venice

This Friday, September 23rd, the movie Moneyball, which is laced with an All Star cast of Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Casey Bond, and more, comes out in theaters nationwide. We had a chance to catch up with Casey Bond, who stars as Chad Bradford in the film, and also happens to be a Converse fanatic. ShoesTV came down with their camera crew with their host Charlie to film an "Off the Rack" segment, where Casey and the Owner of The Ave Nick Romero made a pair of "MoneyBall" kicks. We haven't seen the film yet, but after talking with Casey, who's a really cool down to earth dude, we get the feeling that it's more of a movie for underdogs than a typical 'Baseball' movie. The film centers around Brad Pitt, who plays Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane, and the story of his successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

Casey came to The Ave and wanted to get some custom kicks made. He had three images on his phone, one of him as Chad Bradford making a 'Submarine Pitch', on the outside. The inside of the shoe has the "Moneyball" logo, with a picture of the Bay Bridge super imposed in the background. The number "53", which is Chad Bradford's number, is on the top of the tongue. Casey just let us do our thing with the design, check out the video below to see how they came out!!

Make sure you link up with Casey! You can do so via his Website, Facebook, and Twitter!

thekeenone – Shine (Ft Adil Omar – produced by Fredwreck

The Ave's very own thekeenone dropped a new one, and this one is HOT. This track features the up and coming Adil Omar, with the amazing Fredwreck on production. Video shot by Jon Buch. Set in Venice Beach, CA. Catch a sight of The Ave Venice at :26 and an Ave hat at :50 worn by thekeenone herself right next to skate legend Jay Adams

You can download the full track, "Shine" for free by clicking here

You can read more about thekeenone on our "Meet The Ave" page by clicking here

The Ave on TV

MNET, which is an Asian Pop Culture Channel that broadcasts all over the world, came through and shot a segment at The Ave, which aired in millions of households. We've got the segment here, which shows the Beats Per Mnet host PK coming in to The Ave, and working with the Owner, Nick Romero on getting a pair of custom kicks made.

We were stoked to see the footage, and really stoked that they wanted to feature us on TV! MNET really did a great job of shooting and editing, and the segment really shows how easy it is for anyone to come in and get something totally custom made, while they wait!

Wanna check out other BPM episodes? You can do so