Tag Archives: On Point

Berns & Black | Scott Ramos

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Oak and Oar

Scott Ramos from Berns and Black from ranee dong on Vimeo. In the creative field, perspective is everything. The manner in which you approach your craft means everything. Scott Ramos, Famos Ramos as he is known to most, is a glowing example of taking your craft beyond the means of the mundane and elevating the bar for his field. Scott has cut the hair of everyone from Raekwon to the much talked about and followed hair adventures of Mr. Evander Kane. You would think one would be content with an already impressive clientele list, but Scott continues to soak up every industry tid-bit, pushing his work to new levels. Through industry shows, events and a strong social media presences, Scott has built an already impressive global following, being sought out by just about everyone who rolls through town. You can line something up with Scott at Berns and Black at 468 Main. “A barber isn’t just the guy who stands behind a chair and makes you look good. A barber is your consultant, psychologist, and friend”. – Scott Ramos Keep up with Famos on Twitter, Instagram and shortly on his new website http://www.scottramos.com Follow @faaamos  

Local | Winnipeg’s Got Sole

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Oak and Oar

Winnipeg’s Got Sole is the brain child of Frendell Cano. Mixing his passion for sneaker culture and philanthropy, Frendell reached out to Jerry Legaspi and Johann Generao. The crew began formulating a plan that would see the growth of sneaker culture in Winnipeg while lending a hand to local charity and community groups. “Winnipeg’s Got Sole was just an idea that I had simply based on the premise of doing something I’m passionate about while giving something back to the local charity or community. When I had established Winnipeg’s Got Sole, I had 3 missions in mind. First, was to connect and unite all the sneaker connoisseurs or sneakerheads in and around the Winnipeg area through various events, programs, and initiatives as well as via social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Second, was to promote the steady growth of the sneaker culture in Winnipeg and to show how solid and diverse it really is in our city. The third and last goal is a unique one. I wanted to incorporate the charity aspect and be the first non-profit sneaker group in Winnipeg that partners with local charities and communities by giving back gently used/worn shoes collected at all our events and ensure that we donate them at no-end cost to our charity partners.” Their inaugural event will be The Winnipeg Sneaker Swap Expo which is slated June 29th and will be the first ever sneaker convention in Winnipeg’s history. Attendees will have the opportunity to buy, sell, trade and/or showcase their sneakers at the event in a similar format to that of Dunkxchange or Sneakerpimps. What makes the upcoming event unique and different however, is that Winnipeg’s Got Sole will be incorporating a charity aspect in which participants will be encouraged to bring gently used/worn shoes that will … Continue reading →

CONTEST | March Madness Bracket

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Oak and Oar

We are hosting the 2nd Annual Oak + Oar March Madness Bracket contest over at ESPN. It is open to all and the winner will take home their choice of an Oak + Oar Summer Loitering Hood and tee of their choice or three tees of their choice. Not bad considering it will take you all of 10 minutes to put together. Group: Oak + Oar Password: summerloitering Think you have what it takes to take home the Championship? I often wonder what it would be like to put together a perfect bracket. I did some quick research and found out that the odds of you filling out a perfect bracket this year are a staggering 1 in 9.2 quintillion. That’s a nine with 18 zeroes or 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 if you’re not into the whole rounding thing. • That’s one billion, 9.2 billion times. • It’s 500,000 times more than our $17 trillion national debt of the United States. • You’d have a better chance of hitting four holes-in-one in a single round of golf. The 1 in 9.2 quintillion number is straight mathematics. It figures out how many possible ways the 63 game results on your bracket could be filled out. (Two to the sixty-third power.) But it doesn’t account for standard basketball logic, like No. 1 seeds always advancing in the first round or tournament champions usually having a top-four seed or Duke’s dual advantage of having a legend like Coach K and never getting called for a blocking foul. If you know something about the NCAA tournament, the odds of a perfect bracket are more like 1 in 128 billion. So good luck and let the trash talk begin. (via)

Documentary | Big Lake Surf

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Oak and Oar

Film maker Quinn Merkeley set out on a documentary here in Manitoba featuring the Landlock Surf Crew. The Manitoba based crew, consisting of  Tom Stimson, Colin Fuchs, Stephen Carroll and Will Bergmann (whom for the record allowed us the use of his barn to shoot our first Homegrown video with Del Barber), have spent years, not only perfecting the art of lake surfing, but hunting for the ideal surf location on Lake Manitoba that today is only referred to as location X. I would love to know the amount of miles these guys have put on their cars pursuing their passion. The hunt for location X begins. _________________ Quinn Merkeley is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Directors’ Lab and the National Screen Institute’s Totally Televisino program. He studied filmmaking directly under Ron Howard through all phases of production on the Universal Studio’s feature, Cinderella Man. On top of that he has four feature film scripts and numerous television series currently optioned. (via. NiceProductions)  

The Next One | Andrew Wiggins

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Oak and Oar

The hype surrounding Canadian NBA hopefully Andrew Wiggins continues to snowball. We asked our good friend Alex Paterson to shed some light on the Canadian hopeful. Through 2011-12 Alex focused his Master’s Research Project at Carleton on profiling the wave of young Canadian basketball talent migrating to prep schools in the United States. ______________ If there wasn’t enough hype surrounding 17-year-old Canadian basketball phenom Andrew Wiggins before, there certainly is now. Look no further than the front pages of Monday’s Globe and Mail and Toronto Star newspapers, or segments on Canada’s two largest sports networks, TSN and Sportsnet. Wiggins has officially arrived on Canada’s radar. People in basketball circles around the world have known about Wiggins for a few years now because of the numerous YouTube clips that show his highlight-reel dunks and scary athleticism. But until recently, he was largely unknown in his native country. That all changed when he arrived with Huntington Prep (his high school team in West Virginia) to play an exhibition game in Hamilton, ON Sunday against a regional all-star team from the Greater Toronto Area. The meaningless game had the makings of a high-profile US high school contest foreign to Canadian basketball fans. The bleachers were packed. Hoards of Canadian media were on hand. People cared. And they should. Wiggins is a once-in-a-lifetime basketball prodigy. You watch him play and you get the sense he was put on this planet to play the game. Just look at the genetics. His dad played in the NBA, his mom ran track in the Olympics. He’s 6-foot-8 with an imposing wingspan and wiry frame. He’s gangly, but not awkward like most high school boys who don’t know where all their parts go yet. In fact, he’s the opposite. His talent is a smooth balance of power and … Continue reading →

Andy Oliver’s 100 Favorite Sneakers of 2012

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Oak and Oar

Sneaker aficionado and complex contributor, Andy Oliver, put together an impressive list of his picks for the top 100 sneakers from this past year. From the Ball and Buck x New Balance 574 Camo to the Ronnie Fieg x ASICS Gel Saga Neptune the founder of KicksDeals does not mess around, laying out some gems from the past 12 months. “This was an incredible year for sneakers. When I started to mentally comprise my top top 10 sneakers of 2012, my head got so clouded with leather and rubber that I had to start writing it down. Very quickly, 10 turned to 25…which then turned to 50. I soon realized that 50 wasn’t even going to cut it, and so begins my 100 favorite shoes of 2012. If nothing else, this list is a testament to the sheer number of great shoes that released this calendar year.” Check out the list in its entirety on Andy’s blog over on the Kith NYC site to see who he crowned as this years best sneaker.  

Fall/Winter 2012 | The Life After Midnight

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Oak and Oar

The first week of December will mark the release of our second collection entitled ‘The Life After Midnight’. I have had a lot of people asking about the theme and collection so I thought I would shed a bit of light on our Fall/Winter project. The Life After Midnight on the surface is quiet simple. When friends are gathered together at the lake the hours between midnight and the early am are the time when the true colours come out and the time when the best stories are created. The ones that get told year after year and snowball into exaggerated recounts of that evening. Unless they are the ones that feature Kelso, those might sound exaggerated but those ones are true. Whether they are true or grossly exaggerated they never cease to bring a huge grin to your face. For me personally The Life After Midnight transcends beers, poker, bonfires and exaggerated stories. After the midnight hour is when the creative juices, for me at least, seem to flow. Maybe it’s in part to the lack of sleep that I begin to think outside of the box or maybe it is when the world is a sleep and I am in a distraction free setting that things just seem to click. Whatever it is I can credit it with probably 90% of the fall collection. The first time I tossed around the idea came in 2008 while working on a University thesis on streetwear and urban branding. I had snaked my way into a meeting with   Bobby and Ben Hundreds and generously granted time with Benny Gold to ask a few questions and engage in a conversation on street wear, design and music. How does this relate to ‘The Life After Midnight’ and not just a glorified example of name dropping? … Continue reading →

PLANET TORONTO | RYAN EMOND

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Oak and Oar

Planet Toronto from Ryan Emond on Vimeo. Ryan Emond at it again with the time lapse of Toronto. Toronto Tempo. “Over the years I have been inspired by my personal travels and popular documentaries like Planet Earth. I’d watch the various episodes for hours, developing my shooting style from what I saw. After the creation of Toronto Tempo last year I had the opportunity to jump around to many different countries and work on diverse and intriguing projects. When I came back to Toronto I was approached by Tourism Toronto to create a short piece on the city. They wanted to do something entirely different, they wanted to come away from the standard tourism video, so I figured I would step as far away from those videos as possible. I felt like it was the perfect opportunity to push my shooting style by employing a purely observational perspective. I intended to capture the city in distinctive form— I wanted to make this piece different. By utilizing time-lapse photography and slow motion to capture intimate moments, I was able to draw attention to what we might overlook, or only offer a passing glance to. I want to represent how we move through the city; how the weather moves through it and how the city breathes, transforms and grows each day. Much like other cities, Toronto is a place you have to experience to feel the energy and emotion that pulses through the streets and neighbourhoods. I hope that I can give you a brief glimpse of the beauty, and motivate you to come explore for yourself.”

5 Minutes | Herschel Supply Co.

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Oak and Oar

When it comes to quality and timeless product you don’t have to look much further than Canadian brand Herschel Supply Co. Founded in November of 2009 by brothers Lyndon and Jamie Cormack the brand quickly filled a void in the marketplace. Drawing inspiration from vintage mountaineering, American heritage, world travel, fashion and Canadian heritage the team put a fresh take on simple essentials – duffels and backpacks. The brand reinterpreted the classics with a focus on the details and transformed the mundane into great utilitarian design. The concept caught on, and quite quickly, expanding the line from an intimate offering of  bags to an array of travel accessories. Today the brand has accounts in over 35 countries worldwide. The brand continues to grow and expand, offering up new options each season to store your essentials. I never leave for the lake without my Novel and Village in stow. Next purchase, the Desert Storm Outfitter. We caught up with one half of Herschel, Mr. Lyndon Cormack, for a little conversation about the brand, the rapid growth and a good spot to eat in Gastown. ________________________________________ Starting this off nonchalantly. What’s the most interesting thing that has happened to you in the last 24 hours? I’ve been on the road throughout Europe and Asia for the last four weeks. Many interesting things have happened to me and it is difficult to pinpoint a most interesting event in the past 24hrs. This being said, it’s always nice to see the appreciation that people have for our products is always interesting to me. So I scoured the Canadian map and arrived at 51.655 degrees N 108.423 degrees W where the 31 meets the 656, Herschel, Saskatchewan. Explain the role this town played in the formation of Herschel Supply Co. Herschel is not only the … Continue reading →

WEEKEND PLAYLIST | ‘LONE MIGRATION’ – DEMETRA

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Oak and Oar

Our homie Cam (Nice! Productions) released his latest music video project this week with homegrown talent Demetra. Demetra is a Winnipeg based songwriter, painter, filmmaker, yoga instructor and globetrotter. “Her debut album, Lone Migration, was formed through her polar experiences – a musical trial by tundra – and brought to light with the recording prowess of Royal Canoe’s Matt Peters”. The video was shot out at Fort Whyte with emphasis being placed on simplicity, natural beauty, and landscapes. Above is the visuals to accompany a very enjoyable listen. Directed by: Camren Friesen & Demetra Penner Director of Photography: Tyler Funk Editor: Camren Friesen