{"id":1916,"date":"2012-03-05T23:09:09","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T13:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=1916"},"modified":"2012-11-28T18:32:56","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T08:32:56","slug":"paris-2011-part-3-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=1916","title":{"rendered":"Paris 2011 part #3 – Shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Nike - Paris<\/p><\/div>\n

Ah Paris, one of the well known fashion and shopping capitals of the world… if you’re the type to frequent Rodeo Drive and the like, otherwise you have to venture further out to find outlet malls like La Vall\u00e9e Village<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We only had one day of shopping so we decided to keep it central and stick to the “must-see’s” which meant we gave the hoity-toity malls a miss and looked for boutique sneaker and toy stores instead \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Les Halles<\/strong> metro station was the closest stop to most of these shops and conveniently part of the Forum des Halles<\/strong> shopping center which has a sunken open air section and the rest completely underground. Stores vary from high end brands to small boutiques. The few selling sneakers were more along the dressier side of things, coupled with the ever wallet punishing Euro, they were even less appealing. There’s a McDonald’s which is always a welcome sign… for free WiFi \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

Entering the mall was fine via the metro station but exiting? Well that wasn’t quite so easy. It wasn’t till we were outside that we realised the whole thing was underground and from what we could see there was only one set of escalators out (that’s if we weren’t having another travel brain fart, which was highly likely with fatigue and jetlag clawing at our heels).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Fountain monument... thing<\/p><\/div>\n

Up on the surface, there’s a small nature area with a fountain structure, no doubt with some historical significance like many random relics around the city… oh look Footlocker<\/strong>! It definitely doesn’t have the same presence here as it does in London but this store was quite large with a dedicated boutique styled store attached, specialising in basketball related apparel and sneakers – which wouldn’t look out of place in LA or NYC. The punishing Euro once again left us breezing passed a lot of items but coming across some unique pieces like a Yankees bomber jacket in hot pink with multiple team patches or a Yankees New Era cap in an illusive army green and orange colourway were too hard to resist \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Couple doors down there’s Skechers<\/a> and Dr. Martins<\/a>, if you didn’t get enough of them in London.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Unknown sneaker store<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Opium<\/p><\/div>\n

A short walk down some narrow cobbled Carnaby<\/em> styled streets sees a handful of small sportswear and street wear styled shops, many sport Diesel<\/strong> logos on the front, whether or not they’re all authentic is another thing. A few notable spots, Zoom flight sports<\/strong> – mostly lower end sports based model sneakers coupled with Diesel products and a signless sneaker store next door to Joe Allens<\/strong> which had an ok selection of Nikes<\/strong> and Vans<\/strong>. However THE store most heads will be here for is Opium<\/a>, a store almost solely dedicated to the Jordan brand. There are a few “dressier” Nikes but predominantly Jordans, a couple region exclusive colourways like these J1’s in Torquoise<\/a> and many were no longer in production so it was a fine opportunity to see some classic history in the flesh. There were also a bunch of boxes stacked to the ceiling in the back corner, possibly new stock, possibly deadstock but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to even ask ):<\/p>\n

\"\"

Shinzo<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

SBPro<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Espace Kiliwatch<\/p><\/div>\n

Heading north west along Rue Etienne Marcel<\/strong> will lead you to Shinzo, SBPro and Espace Kiliwatch<\/strong>. Shinzo<\/a> is probably the pick of the bunch for the slightly limited releases but take notice if there is any “cleaning” going on. Turns out if there is, you’ll be told they’re “closed for cleaning” and ushered out even if you had already been browsing for a good couple minutes. I however have a sneaking suspicion that it was just more French hospitality since we didn’t look like we were going to buy anything since their prices are hardly favorable. SBPro<\/strong> tries terribly to latch on to Nike’s SB skateboarding<\/a> range, even to the extent of incorporating a Tick like symbol in their logo, they do however have a decent selection of skate related brands and products. Espace Kiliwatch<\/a> is more like City Beach<\/a> or Universal<\/a> with a broader selection of casual brands and styles.<\/p>\n

\"\"

artoyz<\/p><\/div>\n

Last stop in this area was Artoyz<\/a>, the Giant Robot<\/a> of Paris. As much as we love Kidrobot<\/a>, it was refreshing to see fewer pieces from them. Instead there is a nice selection of toys and apparel from local (city and regional) artists and what can only be described as a Posca marker<\/a> vending machine! Definitely has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately prices again were bordering on cringe worthy.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Nike - Paris<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Nike - Paris<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Adidas - Paris<\/p><\/div>\n

With a couple hours to spare we decided to make a pass on Paris’ Rodeo Drive, Av. Des Champs Elysees<\/strong>. If you’re like us and can’t fathom how someone could charge, let alone spend $100 on a ratty thin t-shirt then the only points of interest will be the Adidas<\/strong> and Nike<\/strong> flagship stores. Both encompass more than ample real estate for their location and both come complete with eye catching quirks, Adidas with its Trefoil live photo wall (your photo is taken webcam style and then displayed along with other customers from the day) and Nike with a Bill Bowerman (original co-founder) collage of button pins featuring Nike and sub brand logos to form a mural. In true French fashion, the Adidas store also has a separate section for its “designer” range which wouldn’t look out of place in Jay Kay<\/a>‘s waredrobe \ud83d\ude09 Other than those few points, most of the range and styles are almost identical to those found in London.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Toyota<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Toyota<\/p><\/div>\n

While you’re here, check out the Toyota<\/strong> showroom, most notably for its open wheeled F1 style concept car and wall mounted Yaris<\/strong>. Across the road is the Louis Vuitton<\/a> store, perfect op to add some photographic proof to that knock off bag purchase :p<\/p>\n

\"\"

Louis Vuitton<\/p><\/div>\n

And we’re done! As they say, a quick game is a good game and we were out of there! Next and final stop, Beijing!<\/p>\n

Travel tip: To get to Paris’ airport – Charles de Gaulle aka CDG, find a RER station and purchase a ticket from one of the machines.<\/em><\/p>\n

Paris 2011 part #1 – Arrival<\/a>
\nParis 2011 part #2 – Sight Seeing<\/a><\/p>\n

Paris photo gallery<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah Paris, one of the well known fashion and shopping capitals of the world… if you’re the type to frequent Rodeo Drive and the like, otherwise you have to venture further out to find outlet malls like La Vall\u00e9e Village. We only had one day of shopping so we decided to keep it central and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1538,388],"tags":[1006,181,576,1589,1593,1595,1594,1596,1602,1604,1557,1601,1588,1584,1583,487,535,122,1582,1603,1591,1556,179,1585,1539,1592,50,1590,1605,525,1587,1288,1586,1598,1293,100,378,488,770,1597,2775,391,1600,444,1599],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1916"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2541,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions\/2541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}