Monday, November 23, 2009

nooka x music skins



nooka and musicskins llc team up to bring you the latest in gadget fashion. the skins will be available in 3 different popular nooka patterns: string theory, creatures of the night camo, and time shards. the iphone (2g, 3g, and 3gs) ipod touch 2 (8, 16 and 32GB), ipod Classic (80 and 160GB) blackberry curve (8300, 8320, and 8330), and pc and mac laptops both 13” and 15” are compatible with the noo nooka skins.

laptop vinyls: srp $35
phone and music player vinyls: srp $18

to custom your gadget, click here!

follow nooka on twitter and become a facebook fan from this page.

Friday, November 20, 2009

nooka gallery event



in honor of the release of nooka's very own mini nookanookas, nooka hosted a celebration to kick off their one-day gallery show. the nookanooka is an urban vinyl collector’s toy, but more importantly acts as a representative for the nooka brand. 16 nookanooka's were given to various world-renowned artists to apply their own ingenious creativity.

over 400 people graced the red bull space with their presence, sipping on red bull and vodka as they chatted and took an exclusive peek at the art. In attendance was Chad from KidRobot, Dustin Canalin from Undrcrwn, Carmindy from "What Not to Wear", Mark Graham from ilovedust, and DDCLab to name a few.

special thank you to all of the artists who graciously participated in the event, as well as mark graham and the whole ilovedust team and "release the hounds" for providing nooka with two amazing animated videos that were shown during the event! also, special thanks to Adrian Michna from Ghostly for dj-ing!

to learn more about the artists who participated, click here!

follow nooka on twitter and become a facebook fan from this page.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

mtv X nooka

text by michael a. traverzo

nooka and mtv seem to be at the epicenter of youth culture around the world. recently, we joined forces with mtv to produce a line of limited-edition, high-end timepieces as part of mtv’s streetmuse fashion initiative. the new mtv products will utilize the zub zenh 20 and zot leather—and feature graphics highlighting abstract urban landscapes. the cities of berlin and moscow are the subjects of our 2 designs. make sure to pick yours up here!

ZUB ZENH 20: srp$150us
ZOT: srp $285us

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

One Club Education Presents: An Evening with the Client... NOOKA

NOVEMBER 19TH
6:30-8:30PM

Come join us this Thursday, November 19th, and spend an evening with Matthew Waldman, the founder and owner of NOOKA. NOOKA, an up and coming fashion accessories brand, is the for profit client for the 2010 College Competition. This is a unique opportunity for students participating in the Competition to learn more about the company, see the products and ask questions face-to-face.

For those unable to attend, a video of the evenings proceedings will be posted to the one club site here a few days after.

NOTE: Students are NOT allowed to bring any of the pieces they are working on for the competition.

Location: One Club Gallery
21 E. 26th St. 5th Floor
New York, NY 10010

RSVP: education@oneclub.org

Click here to view the 2010 College Competition Briefs.

Friday, November 13, 2009

bc1




on november 18th, breakdancing is coming back to its birthplace and nooka is coming along for the ride. this year, bc one, an event where 16 of the world's best break dancers from all over the world compete in one on one battles to see who will be crowned the ONE, will be held in the hammerstein ballroom in new york!

for the first time in the events 5 year history, the worlds most important competition for breakdancers will be held in the city that started hip hop and its culture (breaking, djing, mcing, and graffiti art)

nooka will be sponsoring the event. all the competitors at the event will be receiving custom designed limited edition nooka zub zot 38's, featuring new york city scenery.

for more information regarding bc1, visit here!

nooka is available at fine shops all over the world and online here.

also, don't forget to vote for nooka at pulchra. the voting process may seem a bit tedious, but it is actually really simple. simply drag nooka to the number 1 spot, if that's your choice of course and choose the other 9 objects until you have completed your list. In order for your vote to be valid, you will need to complete the details form. remember you can only vote ONCE PER DAY, so make sure to log on the next day and do it all over again. link is here!

follow nooka on twitter and facebook!

nooka press: taiwan funs want magazine


great article in funs want magazine in taiwan. they took a fun photo of me when i was in taiwan. i LOVE this magazine. they have a perfect mix of streetwear, music scene, local and foreign celeb coverage, and now with me: design visionaries.

strangely, even though they have my business card and my name is all over the web, asian magazines can't seem to spell "matthew" correctly – but that's cool – the nooka brand is more important than my fragile ego [right?]. another strange thing about this article is that they reference the nooka fragrance as being based on marijuana, which is totally not accurate nor anything i said in the interview. hopefully it will be a case of all press is good press and a 2 page spread is actually GREAT press. i guess the taiwanese press didn't plan on me being able to read a bit of chinese:)

follow nooka on twitter and become a facebook fan from this page.

Monday, November 9, 2009

nooka sightings: joko of MTV germany!



joko [pronounced yoko just like yoko ono] is a handsome german MTV VJ. great to see him in action with his very lovely MTV limited edition zub [backstage tour of the european mtv music awards from their berlin news segment]. unfortunately it's not for sale but perhaps you have some friends working at MTV/Viacom. of course, you buy a similar model at your local nooka dealer or if in north america, here. more on the mtv EMAs here.

follow me and nooka on twitter and on facebook with the link on the blog.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

nookanooka gallery event

text by michael traverzo

in celebration of the artist designed mini nookanooka toys, nooka will be hosting a one-day gallery showing of 16 nookanookas that have been designed by renowned toy artists and designers from around the world. the gallery will be open to the public only on november 11th at the redbull space in new york city from 12pm to 7pm.

the 16 artist will include: Matthew Waldman, Mad Toy Design, iLoveDust, “Plus” Design Studio, Michael Vadino of Bureau, Dustin Canalin, Blank, Eding: Post, Mikiko Minewaki, Ogawa Atsuo, Takahashi Hiroco, James Liu of Veggiesomething, Taku Anekawa, T9G, Shin Tanaka, and Zarigani Works.

in addition to the customized nookanookas, original artwork will be featured by Shin Tanaka. zub zot inspired art, entitled “Night and Light”, as well as the popular paper vinyl, T-Boy, re-designed with custom nooka artwork will be displayed in commemoration of the mini nookanooka release.

*artists subject to change

the mini nookanookas are available online here!

also, don't forget to vote for nooka at pulchra. the voting process may seem a bit tedious, but it is actually really simple. simply drag nooka to the number 1 spot, if that's your choice of course and choose the other 9 objects until you have completed your list. In order for your vote to be valid, you will need to complete the details form. remember you can only vote ONCE PER DAY, so make sure to log on the next day and do it all over again. link is here!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

nookasia tour summary 2009


it's been a while since i posted a "real" blog entry. even though the recent press gets better and better, nooka is still a small self-financed start-up with all the problems associated with such an endeavor in the current economic environment. we have felt the changes in the economy like everyone else the past year, and more so in asia than other areas we sell our products in. part of me feels that we are still too small to successfully penetrate some of the markets we're in, and another voice says it's important to be as global as possible when our core value is "universal communication". all of these issue combined to necessitate a trip to some key areas in asia.

i was in tokyo, taipei, seoul, manila, and singapore with the goal to research/promote/reassess nooka in those markets [japan is the only country i have a nooka office in, the other countries are via distributors]. as you can see, china is not on the list for this past trip as unfortunately, nooka really is too small a brand to tackle that market successfully. that said, we are in lane crawford in hong kong, shanghai and beijing, and the nooka strip is soon to be in all hong kong bauhaus locations!

well, 5 weeks is a long time, and 5 days in most cities was hardly enough to make me an expert, especially since i directed most of my energy to meeting with press people and i used any free time to visit shopping areas to learn more about the markets..

tokyo tokyo and japan are one of our best overseas markets and functions the most similar to the US – a nice mix of small independent boutiques, larger select shops and department stores that understand how to sell independent designer brands. our gallery event for the nookanooka art collabs was a success and i look forward to seeing the press from that. i enjoyed the food and catching up with my friends. being in tokyo feels like being home for me. that said, we need to double our efforts in japan, especially as it seems the nooka strip and AO are on their way to being hit products. on a negative note, we couldn't have predicted how difficult and expensive it is to import fragrance into japan, even with having a proper office on the ground.

taipei taiwan is a market we've had some missteps in, and i hope we'll do a better job this time around. i was a bit disappointed with the turn out buyer-wise for the event our distributor planned, but i know these things are hard to predict. my feeling is that taiwan will need a lot of nurturing to be a successful market for nooka and i hope our new distributor there can make that happen. here is a link to one of the press pieces that came out of it here. if you have a cool shop in taiwan that could do well with nooka, send us an email so we can make the intro to the people handling the brand there. i'm glad i got an afternoon to soak in a hot spring all the way up the picturesque and very volcanic yangmin-shan mountain with my brother-in-law and also had time to see all my extended family in taipei. i also met with a factory to work with on some new nooka electronics...

seoul design boom seoul, what the korean government was calling the design olympics was very well prepared but seemed under-attended as the scale was so huge. well, the scale of seoul is quite huge! i spent a lot of time learning the city and covered a lot of ground. seoul is a challenging city and will require a lot more energy to reestablish the brand. again, this is a challenge i hope our current distributor is up to. if not, more trips to korea is in the cards. like i wrote before, if you are a cool shop in korea and love nooka, shoot us an email from nooka.com

manila the philippines is not what one thinks of as an international fashion market, but i was pleasantly surprised by what i found – it was by far the most democratic display of capitalism i ever saw [i am talking about commerce, NOT the overall sociopolitical situation]. major european brands shared the floor with asian brands, mid-market american brands AND local philippino brands. even the food courts at malls have a mix of major US chains, japanese chains and local/regional chains. it doesn't hurt that i LOVE philippino food and my hosts were very diligent at setting up press interviews – i spoke with writers from over 10 publications/media outlets! here is one of those interviews. another great thing about the philipines is that they use asian models in their advertising more than other asian countries i've visited. i even got to hang out with many of those models at the event we had!

singapore we just signed with a new distributor in singapore who handles malaysia and some placements in thailand as well for us now. he is a very cool and very smart guy named mack who took very good care of me my few days in equatorial singapore. i had so many fun things i wanted to do, like the night zoo, but was down with food poisoning my first night from a bad coconut at the night market [i did get to experience the excellent affordable singaporean healthcare at one of their hospitals!]! i need another trip to catch up on those things as i was sick my only free weekend the whole 5 weeks. i did a nice interview with a style blog, happyesque in blackmarket, a cool shop in SG that sells nooka. the interview is here. the blackmarket website is here. nooka is also available at TANGS, and they did a funny feature on me you can see here, and a top ten list here. i was not in my best form for the monologue series, but it may be more entertaining that way. i also had a great on-air interview with lavinia of LUSH 99.5 radio. i will post the audio file when it becomes available. my friend chris toh, a genius designer as well [i visited the university he teaches at and met some students], was a great tour guide as was mack. i also squeezed in a visit to the red dot museum and met the director! needless to say, my feeling is that nooka is very singapore, and singapore is very nooka.

back to tokyo, i met up with one of my designers, alex, and showed him tokyo [presentations at our tokyo office, meetings with potential partners] as well as checking out the museum shows leading up to design week. it was unfortunate that i couldn't stay long enough to see design week this year, but my apartment lease is up this month and i need to now find a new place to live! any landlords out there want a cool rising design star in one of their buildings?

don't forget to vote for nooka at pulchra. the voting process may seem a bit tedious, but it is actually really simple. simply drag nooka to the number 1 spot, if that's your choice of course and choose the other 9 objects until you have completed your list. In order for your vote to be valid, you will need to complete the details form. remember you can only vote ONCE PER DAY, so make sure to log on the next day and do it all over again. link is here!

follow nooka on facebook and twitter.