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Last week Route One's Ross & Max headed out to sin city Las Vegas for the huge MAGIC menswear/streetwear trade shows.
Upon arriving in the Nevada desert the 44 degree heat hits you straight away - imagine walking round while someone blows a high-powered hairdryer in your face!
Luckily the whole event is housed within the enormous Mandalay Bay hotel/casino/convention center where air conditioning is set to arctic temperatures!
For those who are unfamilar, MAGIC is divided into various sections - the one's we concentrated on were S.l.a.t.e, Street and Project.
Here we had unprecidented access to not only the biggest street/skate/menswear brands but also dozens of interesting cool new labels that you'll be seeing on R1 in the months to come. Magic was definitely the jump-off spot and some big names were in attendance - Pro skaters Tory Pudwill, Terry Kennedy, Ronnie Creager, Moto star Carey Hart, Rappers Ghostface, Raekwon & Cappadonna from Wu-Tang, Pusha T, Fat Joe, Jadakiss & Juelz Santana were all hanging out and taking in the styles and trends of 2012.A new addition, to this year show, was the Maloof Skateboarding Pro-Am Best Line Challenge in the S.l.a.t.e arena. The Maloof Brothers have done so much for skateboarding over the past few years so they were always going to come correct in their home town.The comp pitched AMs against PROs all competiting for the best line (in this case, three consecutive tricks back to back) and the big money purse marked by a celeb judging pannel including T-Puds and TK scoring on iPads.
On day one we saw good runs from high profile Pro's like Joey Brezinski, Jordan Hoffart, Kenny Anderson & Jack Curtin but it was down to FAMOUS STARS & STRAPS' AM ripper Kurtis Colamonico to qualify at first spot to head into the finals.
Despite various casualties from the gambling tables, nightclubs, after parties and strip clubs everyone seemed to have stepped their game up on day two.
Great to see 37 year old veteran (and all-round super cool nice guy) Ronnie Creager take first place and become $10K richer in the process!
Ronnie's winning line included a smith grind 270 out, a switchtail 270 out to a switchcrook half-cab flipout - Pow!
Fellow Blind skater Morgan Smith took second while FMS boy Kurtis came in as third place runner-up (the curse of qualifying first?)
Final Results: 1st Ronnie Creager: $10,000 2nd Morgan Smith: $5,000 3rd Kurtis Colamonico: $2500
It may have been a fourteen hour journey but MAGIC at Las Vegas is an essential part of what we do here at Route One, to be the first in the UK to bring you the latest and best from the world of street/skatewear.
