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Nike Put an Air Bubble in a Dress Shoe
Zuck's hilariously awkward live demo
Andrew Safranko
September 19, 2025
In partnership with
This Week in Dulture…
Approx 5 minute read:
👞 Nike dress shoes
💰️ Kawhi’s kawhack-tus company
🌴 Shouldering into travel
🥸 Zuck failed on stage
Dulture weekly mix
This week’s mix is going to make you want to move a bit, which you should be doing anyway. If you listen to these mixes while you work during the day, get up out of your seat and move around. It’s good for you - something about getting your lymphatic system moving.
That or you just get distracted easily and like to take breaks from the work you don’t enjoy doing. We’ve all been there, nothing to feel ashamed about.
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If you went to a club in Toronto in the mid 2000’s they looked at your ID first.
And then your shoes.
This one time I’m standing in line for a club I didn’t even want to go to (girls…sigh) and I’m wearing a button down with a respectable pair of chinos and CLEAN all white casual sneakers - these but all white.
The bouncer looks at my shoes and says, “You’re not getting in with those shoes”
I ask why and he says because they’re running shoes. And then I see someone go in with SB’s, and someone with Vans. So I knew little man syndrome was fogging his brain (he couldn’t have been more than 5’5).
I just walked in when he wasn’t looking and had a miserable time.
Nowadays it’s almost expected you show up to the function with a clean pair of chillers - AJ1 low’s being the default. I’ve seen corporate execs do the jeans with the blazer thing and rock a CLEAN pair of AJ1’s while talking about their corporate quarterly blah blah blah’s.
Working in the corporate world for 10+ years meant I had to wear dress shoes all day, everyday. The second I didn’t have to wear dress shoes anymore, my kick collection ballooned with Air Max’s.
I then realized Air Max’s are a bit over the top at times for functions where you want to look more presentable, so now the collection is currently overflowing with clean AJ1 lows.
Nike just announced the office shoe.
Cole Haan eat your heart out
The Nike Air Afrique is supposed to be the shoe you wear to travel on a plane in style. I think it’s a shoe you can rock in the office though - or in the club if you’re prone to wearing sneakers.
Or if you’re down with the chunky dress shoe movement then this could become your staple.
Releasing in October, just in time for that fall fashion upgrade you say you’re going to do every year but never do - or maybe it’s just me.
Annnnnnd on the other side of the spectrum, Nike x Costco comes out this holiday season.
As if Costco didn’t have enough reasons for its chaotic mess already.
Mr No-Show NBA Contract
Put your hand up if you’ve ever said:
I wish they could just pay me to do nothing.
My wife’s hand is up FOR SURE.
And if it were $28M, everyone’s hands would be up.
Welcome to Kawhi Leonard’s world, where his uncle Dennis throws out demands and Steve Ballmer says, SIR, YES SIR…at least that’s what it feels like.
So here’s the story, to the best of my ability:
There’s some company called Aspiration that was this financial institution, kinda like a bank, that tied its transactions to doing good for the environment. So for instance, if you rounded up the change in a transaction they’d go plant a tree - or something along those lines. They did other stuff but it doesn’t matter!
Here’s what matters:
Steve Ballmer (LA Clippers owner) was an investor in this company to the tune of $50M - so you’d think he’d be doing his due diligence. He did not.
Ballmer introduces Kawhi to Aspiration. Aspiration does a $28M ensdorsement deal with him, as well as a $20M stock deal
Ballmer and the Clippers continue to invest in Aspiration, and sign a $300M deal with them as the “founding” member of their stadium, the Intuit Dome (sick stadium btw)
An un-named employee of Aspiration comes out and says this $28M deal with Kawhi was actually to circumvent the salary cap so the Clippers could sign him, the only stipulation of this “endorsement” deal is Kawhi has to remain a Clipper.
We now know:
Uncle Dennis had tried some bogus nonsense with the Raptors when they tried to resign Kawhi after the 2019 season - including asking for a private jet, endorsement deals where Kawhi didn’t have to do anything, and ownership stake in MLSE, the org that owns the Raptors (LOL).
And since all of this, Aspiration has filed for bankruptcy with $170M in debt and their co-founder has been charged with financial fraud.
Steve Ballmer claims he knew none of this (obviously he’d say that) even though he made the initial investment of $50M in 2021, another $10M or so in 2023 while shit was going down.
The league is currently investigating Ballmer and the Clippers.
Kawhi working for a tree planting company…this guy knew all along.
It’s MF’kn Shoulder Season!
If you like to travel then I guess there never really is a bad time for you to travel.
But for the rest of us, there’s a bunch of months that just flat out suck when you’re dealing with busy airports (ok they’re always busy, I get it), busy tourist attractions, and walking rammed streets just to see a Torii gate, been there, done that.
I’m here to tell you it’s Shoulder Season.
WTF IS SHOULDER SEASON?
It’s like that window of time where peak travel season is over and off-peak season is kind of, sort of starting but no one’s really talking about it being off-peak season so you aren’t getting hoards of people trying to book deals yet.
Shoulder Season is supposedly the perfect time of year to go without getting bombarded by crowds like that time I was at HK Disneyland in August aka a month ago:
According to everyone’s favourite travel agent, Mr. ChatGPT…
🌍 Top 10 Shoulder Season Destinations & Months
Italy 🇮🇹
Best Shoulder Months: April–May (spring bloom) & September–October (warm but fewer tourists)Japan 🇯🇵
Best Shoulder Months: May (after Golden Week) & late October–early December (beautiful foliage, smaller crowds)Greece 🇬🇷
Best Shoulder Months: April–June (warm but not blazing hot) & September–October (sea is still warm)France 🇫🇷 (Paris & South of France)
Best Shoulder Months: March–May (spring) & September–October (fall weather, wine harvest season)Portugal 🇵🇹
Best Shoulder Months: March–June & September–October (great for Lisbon & Porto exploring)Thailand 🇹🇭
Best Shoulder Months: April–June (after dry season peak, fewer tourists) & September–early November (before high season starts)Hawaii 🌺
Best Shoulder Months: April–June & September–mid-December (best combo of price + weather)New Zealand 🇳🇿
Best Shoulder Months: March–May (fall colors) & September–November (spring, fewer hikers on trails)Spain 🇪🇸
Best Shoulder Months: April–May & September–October (pleasant temps, festivals without the summer rush)Bali, Indonesia 🌴
Best Shoulder Months: April–June & September (dry season weather without peak tourist traffic)
Good Ol’ Live Demos
It was a big week for Mark Zuckerberg and Meta as they held Meta Connect 2025, or at least it was supposed to be?
Zuck introduced the 2nd generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses this week with all these new AI capabilities. Except the glasses started functioning like the Google Home in my kitchen…
IGNORING my commands to turn the damn music off
But more on this botched demo(s).
So you wear this wristband with the new glasses which allows you to interact with the screen that gets displayed from the right lens - super cool, ngl.
Zuck was on stage messaging with his fingers, looking like he was writing on nothing to respond back to messages, def a cool lil feature.
But when he received a WhatsApp video call, he profusely tried to answer it twiddling his fingers but nothing happened and it just kept ringing while he stood there helpless.
Dawg - who’s getting fired for this?
Haha the phone just kept ringing while Zuck awkwardly tried to move along with the presentation.
Earlier in the presentation Mark had a chef on screen who was supposed to make a sauce for his steak sandwich. Suffice to say, that sandwich never got its sauce and he blamed it on the WIFI lol.
These glasses are supposed to be available for purchase come next week at $379 USD.
Are you buying Zuck's new glasses?(Even as the demos fail) |
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