Individual Sole

Bike riding is part of our San Francisco culture.  Upper Playground brings two of their resident artist, Jeremy Fish and Sam Flores, to team up with messenger bag specialist Chrome on these new messenger bags.  Jeremy Fish’s “Fowl Mood” design elaborates on the owl wallpaper pattern while Sam Flores’ “Angel of Death” work features one of his signature characters riding a bicycle made of skeleton amongst the clouds.  Available in limited numbers through Upper Playground stores, online store and Chrome retail stores.

via Freshness

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Upper Playground is proud to announce several collaborative projects, releasing this week, with Mister Cartoon. Inspired by the city of Los Angeles, New York graffiti, and low rider car culture, legendary West Coast artist Mister Cartoon has gained grand scale notoriety through tattooing several hip hop artists and celebrities.  Mister Cartoon’s work has also appeared in a number of magazines, album designs, clothing lines and product collaborations.

Mister Cartoon created a signature can for Montana Colors and Upper Playground’s limited edition artist cans.  The first in a series of four, the Mister Cartoon MTN x UP can depicts a stylized vision of LA, complete with downtown storefronts and the Virgen de Guadalupe.  Angelo Lospinuso from Montana Colors exclaims, What I can say about this man? He’s a living legend, from LA to the rest of the world; actually I think he is one of the greatest ambassadors of the West Coast life style worldwide. Words are not enough to express the respect we have for Mister Cartoon!

In addition to the Montana collaboration, Mister Cartoon has designed his first t-shirt graphic for Upper Playground with an image that combines his classic iconography with impeccable lettering.

In conjunction with these releases, Mister Cartoon will be in San Francisco for an in-store signing. The signing will take place this Friday, August 28th, from 5 to 7 PM, at the San Francisco store located at 220 Fillmore Street. Finally, be sure to watch the Mr. Cartoon interview from “The Run Up,” available for the first time to the public for free, on Walrus TV.

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Juxtapoz Magazine is celebrating its 15th Anniversary by hosting “The Big Payback,” a charity art auction. The art auction is presented by Upper Playground in collaboration with Power House Project of Detroit, and will help raise funds to purchase and renovate foreclosed and abandoned homes in the Detroit area.

Upper Playground is excited to announce a partnership with Japanese artist, Usugrow, in the creation of a new line called :SHINGANIST:.  Derived from the Japanese word “Shingan,” (meaning mind’s eye), “the line represents those people who create by seeing things in their mind’s eye, and are not bothered or influenced by things around them.”  Inspired by underground Japanese lifestyle, :SHINGANIST: will feature the art of Usugrow, as well as, guest artists including Mozyskey, Toshikazu Nozaka, Bene and Jun Kaneko.
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Bay Area art purveyors Upper Playground and Fecal Face have gotten together to offer art lovers the trip of a lifetime to San Francisco.  One lucky winner and their guest will have the chance to visit San Francisco, have dinner with artist Jeremy Fish and get a personal tour of the city with the founders of Fecal Face - all while staying at Upper Playground’s FIFTY24SF Artist Studios.   Details of the trip include:

•    Round trip to SFO for winner +1;
•    5 night stay at Upper Playground’s FIFTY24SF Artist Studios;
•    Dinner and a historic Barbary Coast mini tour with Jeremy Fish;
•    Meet artist Mel Kadel at her show opening on 9.10 at Fecal Face’s Dot Gallery;
•    Personal tour of San Francisco with Fecal Face founders, John and Jessica Trippe.

The “Upper Fecal San Playground Francisco Face” trip is scheduled for Wednesday, September 9th to Monday, September 14th.  The contest is open from August 3 - August 31, 2009, and to enter all you have to do is fill out a registration form online.  Good luck!

Contest Registration Form
Contest Official Rules

Upper Playground, The Loyal Subjects and Sam Flores have teamed up to produce Kid Dragon a unique 3-piece vinyl figure.  The main colorway went up for pre-sale a month ago and sold out in just a few days.  Now, Upper Playground presents an exclusive purple tonal colorway.

Unlike most other vinyl figures, the Kid Dragon is made up of 3 pieces creating the illusion of the dragon floating through the clouds.  Manufactured by The Loyal Subjects, the 10” tall figure has vibrant gradient blends and comes housed in a double-sided window box with a scenic insert card.  Limited to 200 units, the Kid Dragon Upper Playground color way is slated to release in late September but is available for presale beginning Wednesday, July 22nd, on the Upper Playground web store.