Thrift.Wear.Repeat /  by Alex Young

Clothes are at their best when you can see the character worn into every thread.

In collaboration with ThriftLorde$, InTheRough Style presents Thrift. Wear. Repeat, a look book intended to accentuate the distinct garments curated by Brown Dixon and Tobore Edeki of their burgeoning Instagram hustle.  Thrifted clothing may be old and faded, but the time endured with its previous owners and their cultural significance adds vitality to every thread. 

From the purple logo to the purple brick wallpaper to the purple packaging, ThriftLorde$ is a visual experience spent perusing long lost clothing items your mom labeled "DONATE" and threw into the Goodwill box.  That was, of course, before Brown and Tobore rolled through to resurrect the Beatles 1964 American Tour t-shirt and Charles Woodson's Oakland Raiders Reebok jersey as timeless vintage wear.

There are websites to buy dead stock Supreme and Hood by Air T-shirts, as well as other over-hyped garments.  ThriftLorde$ is not that place.  While scrolling through their more than 8000 posts, it is not uncommon to see some fresh vintage Hilfiger gear or rare vintage Nike silhouettes.  Brown and Tobore aren't about the hype.  Their offering is a tailored closet that is representative of their own style and experiences.  George Mason and VCU garb are staples in the Lorde$ rotation as they claim Virginia roots.  Explore some of the additional content the duo publishes and the context of the style they project becomes clear.  A video of  a Nike basketball commercial of players dribbling and shuffling to create a freestyle beat prompts the nostalgia associated with the retro Ben Wallace Pistons jersey conveniently selling for $18 further down the feed.

Nike basketball freestyle commercial circa 2001🔥🔥🔥🔥 Credits: @kstaxkz⚡️ #ThriftLorde$

A video posted by ThriftLorde$ (@thriftlordes) on

 

Instagram is just the first touch point of the ThriftLorde$ brand.  You'll also find a gofundme link in their bio providing users the opportunity to donate towards the Flint Water Crisis. Their website is another commercial intersection, but it is also home to the more personal side of Brown and Tobore, as their creative outlets--paintings, graphic design work and blogs--take over the foreground.  

DM your email and receive an invoice plus $3 shipping.  An online business doesn't need to have a laborious checkout process.  Before Instagram, Brown and Tobore were using eBay to push their various pickups.  Allen Iverson Georgetown jerseys were hot-sellers, but that didn't keep the auction-style platform from taking its 10%.  After cutting out the middle-man, ThriftLorde$ boasts over 8000 potential customers. 

Browse the selected images above in the look book, and ThriftLorde$ will accommodate you on their Instagram page here. 

Converse Chuck Taylor All Star II Wear Test with 13th Witness /  by Alex Young

Last year, the iconic Converse Chuck Taylor All Star received an update with the revamped All Star II. Converse's classic silhouette was made more simple and more clean cut.

Now, New York native photographer Timothy McGurr, better known as 13th Witness, takes the Chuck Taylor All Star II on a wear test throughout India.

Traveling a total of 17, 774 miles centered around three cities, like Kashmir and Delhi, 13th Witness adventures in comfort from the streets of New Delhi to the foothills of the Himalayas thanks to the Chuck II. Along the way, the photographer captures people, objects, settings, and life in 20,179 photos on seven different cameras.

Watch 13th's eclectic experiences as part of Converse's "#readyformore" series below.

Aimé Leon Dore Draws on 1980s Reggae Culture for Newest Collection /  by Alex Young

Start building your spring and summer wardrobe with Aimé Leon Dore's latest collection.

Entitled 'Kingston 1983,' the New York lifestyle brand's new range takes inspiration from Beth Lesser, a reggae photographer and writer who documented dancehall, musicians, producers, and singers in Jamaica during the '80s.

ALD's 36-piece offering is prime for warmer weather thanks to linen and pleated shorts, short-sleeve mandarin shirts, and lightweight cotton blend T-shirts and tank tops. Shield the elements or keep warm on a brisk evening with the shawl throw over coat or tan cotton knit cardigan. Accessorize any piece with Aimé's silk blend scarfs.

Shop Kingston 1983 now here.

There are Four Colorways of the Supreme x NikeLab Air Max 98 /  by Alex Young

The last time Supreme and Nike joined to collaborate on a sneaker the canvas was an Air Jordan 5 and unveiled by Japanese magazine SHOES MASTER. Half of that process is replicated as the mag debuts pictures of the new Supreme x NikeLab Air max 98.

Initially, red, all-black, and beige snakeskin pairs surfaced on the internet, foremost being the red pair due to its announcement by NikeLab on Instagram. Now, the official nature of print media premieres the entire Supreme x NikeLab collection, which includes another colorway added to the three, navy.

Whenever the special Air Max 98s release, they will feature 360-degree reflective piping, shiny patent leather, and a color blocking scheme contrasted with silver metallic mesh never before used on the sneaker. Supreme detail on the Nike shoe hits along the heel courtesy of the phrase, "WORLD FAMOUS," decidedly appropriate for both brands. 

No news is available yet on when the shoes will arrive. Stay posted for more details on the Supreme x NikeLab Air Max 98 collaboration.

Source: HIGHSNOBIETY

Join InTheRough's Bracketology Pool /  by Maxwell Young

Another year.  Another tournament.  More Madness.

This year's 68-team NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is no more predictable than any of the previous tournaments.  In fact, the 2015-16 college basketball season has been on of upsets and unpredictability from Day 1.  Since the Associated Press launched its first Top 25 poll in 1948, no grouping of top-10 teams suffered more losses than this season with 74.  Moreover, top-5 teams were upset 21 times by unranked opponents, tying for the most ever.

So, how do you predict a tournament where a 3 v. 14 upset, like Stephen F. Austin over West Virginia, has the potential of wrecking your entire bracket?  Thanks to data acquired from the Department of Education, Business Insider filled out this year's tournament bracket based on the total revenues generated by each of the 68 basketball programs.  The average Division-1 men's basketball program brings in an average of $8 million per year, which makes teams like Oregon ($8.3M), Texas A&M ($8.1M), and Utah ($8.3M), who are highly ranked in the tournament, susceptible to upsets by programs generating more revenue.  All three of these teams according to the BI bracket, are ousted before the Elite Eight by basketball heavyweights Duke ($33.8M), Texas ($16.7M), and Gonzaga ($12.2M).  As you can see, the money in college basketball follows the blue blood programs who have histories of winning national titles, recruiting the best players, and having the best coaches, as Duke, Arizona, Syracuse, and Kentucky--the Final Four participants--combine to bring in $107 million annually.

With all of this money being thrown around in collegiate sports and collegiate athletes being viewed as amateurs, is it time to institute a pay-for-play compensation scale? Well, to stratify the data provided by the Department of Education, BI was also able to calculate the value of an individual player on these 13-man rosters of D-1 programs using the NBA's recent collective bargaining agreement, giving players a minimum of 49% of all revenue.  Based on the average revenue of a basketball program ($8M), the average D-1 basketball player is worth a whopping $296,723 per year.  This value becomes markedly higher when players attend the likes of Louisville, a team that has the highest annual revenue of $45.8M yielding a $1.7M per year value for each of their individual players.  Other notable programs with high individual player value include Indiana ($905,185), UNC ($782,927), Northwestern ($567,399) and Pitt ($562,623).

Objectors to the pay-for-performance concept in collegiate athletics often bring up the fact that athletes attend school for free and are provided the opportunity to play on the nation"s stage garnering media exposure and other perks of the trade.  Some argue that this current agreement should suffice.  When regular students are struggling to pay for a school's tuition expenses, the spoils of an athlete seem to be fair.  In reality, the rewards of of collegiate sports have become so lucrative for coaches and institutions that the athletes are wondering where their share of the pie is.

In 2011, USA Today tabulated the scholarship values of that year's Final Four teams' players (Butler, UCONN, Kentucky, and VCU).  The average among them was $38,119, which adjusted for inflation, is equal to approximately $40,182 in 2016.  This means the players at mid-major schools and even in the Power 6 conferences generate roughly seven times the amount of their granted scholarships.  Imagine playing for Louisville where a player's value of $1.7M could exceed an average scholarship by twenty-seven times and not reap any financial gain.  If I'm spending anywhere from 30 to 45 hours per week on athletics, time that's taken away from valuable class sessions, extracurricular involvement and educational learning by the university that, by the way, is also responsible for hanging my jersey in its bookstore windows, I'm not all that agreeable to what's currently given to me.  It sounds to me like I'd be an unpaid university employee.  The marginal cost of not being given a fair and equal education no longer equals the marginal benefit of the multi-millions of dollars that are slipped into the pockets of everyone except the athlete.

All things being equal, there is still time to fill out your brackets in whatever manner you see fit. Join in on InTheRough's own craziness and play in our pool on ESPN.  First round matches begin tomorrow at noon Eastern time. Who ya got?