Nikeid STudio allows customers to design, personal and customize Nike performance and sport culture footwear, apparel and equipment. NIke has opened pilot NIKEiD Studios in Paris, France and Osaka, Japan with New York being the first comprehensive space which will be followed by Niketown London in November.

Check it out at http://www.NIKEiD.com almost

Perhaps they will extend it to snowboard boots, which my parallel the objectives of this website.

You are probably questioning the relevance of this.  Other than just being interesting, Phil Hansen has created some recent pieces of art that were completely driven by input he received in real time via the internet.  One could call in open source art.

Phil Hansen is a bit crazy, he is a bit of a genius, and then he is a lot like you and me.  The man dropped out art school, works as a x-ray tech, and produces some amazing pieces of art for the love of it. A friend of mine sent me the below article a few days ago.  The guy has amazing creativity and perserverence.  Check out his website Phil in the Circle

From yahoo.com, check the link for a short video of the story

Strokes of Genius

Phil Hansen is not only tearing down the “gallery” walls that keep many people from seeing and enjoying art. He’s also showing us how it’s made -- all on the Internet.

By KEVIN SITES, FRI JUL 13, 11:51 AM PDT

 Phil Hansen stubbornly adheres to one artistic cliche. He's willing to suffer for his art.

Take the giant portrait he made of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a protest against nuclear proliferation. He applied 6,000 adhesive bandages on a plywood backdrop. Then, using a quart-sized bag of his own blood, he painted Kim's face on the exposed gauze. His sister-in-law, a doctor, helped him draw the 500ml he needed.  Hansen shrugs off the experience.

"Five hundred cc's of blood seems like a lot, but it's just nothing," he says from the basement of his brother's house outside St. Paul, Minnesota, where he currently lives and makes his art. "I don't even have scars on my arms anymore from it."

It's not the suffering that really distinguishes Hansen's work (after all, it's hard to top Van Gogh) but his style and method for displaying it. Hansen eschews galleries, preferring to take his art directly to the eyeballs rather than bringing the eyeballs to the art — through the Internet.

Full article here

Here's a video of a chalk recreation of a famous (among some circles) self portrait of Chuck Close using only stick figures.

This one is high speed Bruce Lee

Presentation by Google CIO Douglas Merrill on Innovation at Google. you can watch at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GtgSkmDnbQ

Watch the last 10 minutes; most applicable nd valueable.

I think snowboard boot designers should seek inspiration from boots of other mountain sports, such as climbing boots and all terrain touring boots. After all soft mountaineer boots are basically like snowboard boots allowing for ankle flexation, warmth, and support. In addition, most of these boots use Vibram Ice soles which have durable traction and allow for use with Scottish toe crampons. I know it is kind of going backwards but just a thought.

I feel regular shoes can provide good inspiration for the aesthetics of snowboard boots. There are a million shoes out there, so I'm sure some of them can look good as boots.

Adidas took one of their classic shoes and made it into a neat boot, as well as 32 with the Timba.

So I guess we can just post here some images of shoes that might look good being integrated into the boot's aesthetics.

Tire siping is a way to get better traction for your car in the winter, so why not snowboard boots!

Below is a description from the Discount Tire website.