Our good pals over at +41 recently took a swing designing their own interpretation of the Nike Airmax 1, a timeless classic. The tongue and insole of each sneaker has a pair of cartoon eyes looking back at the viewer– with the intention of switching the ordinary role of the shoes: Instead of people looking at the sneakers, it’s the sneakers looking at you. This back and forth vision allows the sneakers to get a “view of the sneaker heads.” However esoteric this might sound, I totally dig the lollipop candy-esque design. All but one of the 41 pairs in the limited edition series sold out immediately at the Thomas Punkt store in Hamburg. Fans will have one last chance to win a pair at an international auction in Zurich at the end of October– stay tuned for more details.

BA-Reps, an illustration agency based in New York launched a limited edition collection of designer toys last week by artist Tristan Eaton, Gary Baseman, Stephen Bliss, Dave Needham, and Andrew Rae. This collection is an addition to the popular Thundermutt Series and is particularly special in that each of the 100 figurines have an added bonus, a hand made or hand painted object that has been inserted into the hollow heads of each little figure. One artist stuffed their Thundermutt's noggin' with hand painted bottle caps, another with hand painted peanuts, one set even includes glass vials of captured rain water straight from the NYC skies! This, the 14th series in the Thundermutt lineage should prove to be of the most detailed and personal, if not the most unique, sets of toys ever crafted by Thunderdog Studios Inc. The project will be released in two waves, the first was September 29th at Neo Studios NYC (628 Broadway, between Houston and Bleeker), and you can look for the second release in February 2007. Only 50 pieces will be available to the public with the remaining being reserved for the Mutt Club. Full flyer after the jump!

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