Category: Viral

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Welcome to SNX DLX, your weekly roundup of the best sneakers to hit the internet and where to find them. We’re just about midway through October, which means there are only a couple of more weeks until we’re hit with spooky seasonal kicks. Halloween is the last holiday of the year to get a lot of love from sneaker brands as Nike and Adidas roll out their themed sneakers before we reach that dreaded end of the year slump. After a frustratingly slow start, 2022 has been a pretty strong year for sneakers overall, and while we’re sure there are a few more surprises in the cards, we’ve likely already seen the best the year has to offer.

This week we have a shorter list than usual, topping off at seven notable sneaker releases including the latest from Nike, Adidas, and New Balance, as well as a big collaboration out of Social Status and a new boot from Vans. Let’s dive into this week’s seven best sneakers.

Air Force 1 Low x UNDERCOVER Black/White/Grey Fog

We love when sneaker designers approach silhouettes that are essentially untouchable and try to do something new. This week Jun Takahashi did just that via his UNDERCOVER label with this wild reimagining of the Air Force 1.

Featuring a waterproof GORE_TEX sleeve, full-ankle lacing system, and a speckled midsole, this iteration sports a branded heel wrap, plastic tongue logo, and metal dubraes, giving the sneaker a futuristic and utilitarian vibe that transforms the look of the AF-1 and morphs it into something brand new.

The Air Force 1 Low x UNDERCOVER Black/White/Grey Fog is set to drop on October 12th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $165. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Vans Coastal Colfax Boot MTE-1

Vans is known primarily for its low-profile skate sneakers, but the brand also makes a pretty solid boot in the new Coastal Colfax MTE-1. Featuring a strong utilitarian design, the Colfax sports rubber overlays, a lugged outsole with multi-directional treads, and PrimaLoft insulation to keep your feet warm and supported.

The upper is composed of mixed leather and textile and sits atop a molded EVA footbed for extra comfort. The sneaker drops in five dope earthy colorways.

The Vans Coastal Colfax Boot MTE-1 is out now for a retail price of $130. Pick up a pair via the Vans webstore.

New Balance x Auralee XC-72

For their latest notable collaboration, New Balance has teamed up with Tokyo-based brand Auralee for a new take on the XC-72. Made from premium materials, the XC-72 features mixed nubuck, smooth leather, and hairy suede upper in a monochromatic blue colorway offering something that is both elegant and minimalistic.

The outsole features asymmetric traction borrowed from the XC-15 and 375 sneaker with a 620 herringbone style outsole pattern.

The New Balance x Auralee CX-72 is set to drop on October 13th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $149.99. Pick up a pair via the New Balance webstore.

Adidas Roverend Adventure

Halloween is fast approaching which means it’s the perfect time of year to go on a haunted hike! If you’re going to be hitting the trails, you want to be geared up with some comfortable thick traction footwear and Adidas has just what you’re looking for with the Roverend Adventure. I mean, it’s got ‘adventure’ right in the name, how could you go wrong?

The Roverend, which spell check makes almost impossible to spell without autocorrecting to ‘reverend,’ features a textile upper with a TPU cage serving as a sort of exoskeleton. The inner lining is also textile and the sneaker features a thick rubber outsole with enhanced traction allowing you full comfort over many different terrains.

The Adidas Roverend Adventure is set to drop on October 13th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair via the Adidas CONFIRMED app.

Social Status x Nike Air Penny 2 Playground

This year, Social Status helped to repopularize the forgotten Nike Air Penny 2 and now the collaboration is coming to an end with the final colorway of the set. Featuring a mix of smooth black leather and a wild swirling midsole, the Air Max Penny 2 Playground features dual branding, and embroidered swoosh and bright blue accents.

The Social Status x Nike Air Penny 2 Playground is set to drop on October 13th for a retail price of $200. Hit up Social Status or your favorite aftermarket site.

Nike Air Force 1 Billie Sequoia

Billie Eilish’s Nike collaborations may not inspire the sort of hype that someone like Travis Scott gets, but Billie has been quietly building up a strong roster of sneakers with Nike that seems to get better with every subsequent release. This week’s Sequoia AF-1 features a high-top cut with a synthetic unbuckle leather upper made from recycled content.

Steeped in a utilitarian aesthetic, the Sequoia features four straps and a bulky design that makes it look ready for battle. It’s a dope design and if Kanye made it, people would be going nuts for it.

The Nike Air Force 1 Billie Sequoia is set to drop on October 14th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $180. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Women’s Air Jordan 4 Canyon Purple

The combination of dark purple, orange, and green give this sneaker a sort of Frankenstein’s monster vibe. Maybe it’s just because we’re midway through October and fast approaching Halloween, but I can’t look at this Jordan 4 and not think it would make the perfect final detail of a modern Frankenstein costume.

This women’s size Air Jordan 4 features a speckled midsole and a rich suede upper. It’s a Jordan 4 so it could essentially be any color and worth copping, but luckily this color combination is fresh as hell, whether you rock it on Halloween or not.

The Nike Women’s Air Jordan 4 Canyon Purple is set to drop on October 15th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Back when The Simpsons was at its peak, every joke it made felt like a winner. This is probably why even the most obscure ones are now referred to all across the internet on a pretty consistent basis. This is also how something that was on screen for almost no time at all is now a playable video game.

Kevin Costner’s Waterworld, which came out back in 1995, was known at the time as a massive flop after bombing at the box office despite a massive production budget. All of this led to a very easy joke for The Simpsons at the time about a video game spinoff for the Waterworld franchise, featuring Millhouse pumping in 40 quarters only to be told to put 40 more in the game after taking two steps. The joke is still funny even today!

This 20-second YouTube video is now a playable video game. Someone out there decided to not only remake this joke as a full fledged video game but to go far deeper than surely anyone in the writers room thought would happen at the time. The best part? It’s completely free! So if you’re a fan of The Simpsons, Waterworld, or video games then here’s a fun free game for you to play in your free time.

Trump scandals: Collect them all! The former president has been busy spinning plates, trying to weasel his way out of one legal/financial headache after another. There are so many it can be easy to forget about each one. Recently, the lawsuit filed against him, his company, and some of his children by the New York State Attorney General’s office has taken up some news space. Plus, the Jan. 6 hearings are about to start again. But don’t forget about the FBI investigating his absconding with government documents, because that one has some new dirt that’s gone public.

As per The Washington Post, a Trump employee cooperating with the feds told them that Trump himself ordered staff at Mar-a-Lago to move boxes containing said highly classified documents, after the FBI issued a subpoena in May for their return.

The claim was backed up by security footage, which showed employees moving boxes around the resort where Trump now lives. The combination of the security footage and the testimony from the staffer prompted the feds’ search of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, which turned up 103 documents marked classified and another 11,000 that weren’t.

Since the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump has offered numerous, often surreal explanations for his actions, all while lashing out and even fundraising off of it. Perhaps he hasn’t had time to notice that his legal team ain’t doing so hot.

(Via The Washington Post)

Kanye West’s current crusade to try and talk his way through wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt isn’t getting any better. The hole the rapper has dug for himself — in light of a half-baked promise that he “absolutely” plans to run for president again a few weeks ago — is getting bigger, and he doesn’t seem to care who he leaves behind in his path. Now Van Lathan, ex-TMZ staffer and now host of the The Ringer’s Higher Learning podcast, has accused West of saying far more hurtful and outlandish things in his infamous 2018 TMZ office rant — yes, worse than saying 400 years of slavery “sounds like a choice,” if that’s even possible.

In the episode, Lathan accuses Kanye of saying anti-Semitic things that go far beyond his latest Twitter rant about “Going to death con 3 on Jewish people.” Lathan said that he’s already “heard him say stuff like that before…I knew that that was in him because when came to TMZ, he said that stuff and they took it out of the interview.” The 2018 video of Kanye West on TMZ shows Lathan calling out West for his views on slavery being “a choice.” Lathan can be seen standing up and scolding Kanye, saying, “I think what you’re doing right now is actually the absence of thought…I’m unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something that’s not real. You gotta be responsible.”

Lathan now says in the podcast episode that there was more to Kanye’s rant than just what was captured on the tape in 2018. “What I say after that — if I can remember, it’s been a long time — was, ’12 million people actually died because of Nazism and Hitler and all of that stuff,’ and then I move on to talk about what he said about slavery,” Lathan said. “The reason they took it out is because it wouldn’t have made sense unless they kept in Kanye saying he loved Hitler and the Nazis, which he said when he was at TMZ He said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis.’ Something to that effect.”

It’s getting tiresome saying that things “keep getting worse,” for Kanye. But somehow here we are again.

In August, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay $45 million to families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School gun massacre, after years of him spreading bizarre lies about it, including that it was a “false flag.” If that didn’t seem like it was enough, then you could take comfort that it wasn’t the only lawsuit Jones facing about the same matter. Indeed, on Wednesday, some two months later, Jones has been forced to pay quite considerably more than that. But instead of devastated, he was…elated?

As caught by Raw Story, Jones aired the reading of the verdict from a Connecticut jury on his show Infowars. There were many charges, and each one came with a hefty price tag. The total was $965 million — nearly a billion dollars, all for spreading misinformation that damaged the lives of grieving parents and family members, all while making him all the wealthier.

Jones let viewers see his live reaction to each penalty, but instead of burying his face in his palms, or maybe even coming to grips with the consequences of his actions, he did the opposite. After each penalty, he let out a mock-cheer. He pumped his fists. He screamed “YEAH!”

This led to some surreal incongruities. For instance, it’s a bit troubling that after the words “emotional distress damages, past and future: $30 million,” he let rip one of his “YEAAHHHH”s.

Jones has called the Sandy Hook-related trials against him a “kangaroo court,” even mocking the judge at the trial in Texas over the summer. For this latest, much more severe verdict, he bemoaned, “This must be what Hell’s like, they just read out the damages. Even though you don’t got the money.”

He plans to appeal the verdict, but he also suggested on his show that he’s not paying anyway. “‘Do these people actually think they’re getting any of this money?’” He also warned that being sued into kingdom come won’t stop him from spreading conspiracy theories. “They want to scare us away from questioning Uvalde or Parkland,” he said, adding, “We’re not going away. We’re not going to stop.”

Meanwhile, there’s a third trial en route later this year, also to be held in Texas, which may end with him owing even more than over a billion dollars. Perhaps he’ll be a bit less faux-jubilant then.

(Via Raw Story)

Florence And The Machine are on the tail end of their tour in support of the band’s latest album, Dance Fever. Meanwhile, actor Nick Kroll has been promoting the new season of his animated series Big Mouth, not to mention his role alongside Harry Styles in Olivia Wilde’s much-hyped movie, Don’t Worry Darling. So waddaya know? Both Kroll and Florence and the Machine singer Florence Welch found themselves chatting it up with James Corden on last night’s episode of The Late Late Show.

At one point, Corden turns to Kroll, who admits he’s a “a big fan” of Florence And The Machine, before embarking on a “weird story” about his err….fandom. Kroll explained that during lockdown, he was about to start shooting scenes for Mel Brooks’ new History Of The World, Part 2, TV series and Kroll’s wife suggested he take a dance class with her in order to get pumped up for the shoot. Turns out this was no ordinary dance class, and was in fact taught by Florence And The Machine’s music video choreographer, Ryan Heffington.

“It was me, two other guys and 45 women,” Kroll said about the class. Heffington taught them the dance that Welch and company do on Florence And The Machine’s video for “King” (which Welch performed later on Corden,) and upon hearing this, Corden suggestively asked Kroll, “Do you remember any of these moves?” Right on queue, Kroll got up from the couch and as “King” began to play overhead, he demonstrated the dance for Welch, who was visibly impressed at Kroll’s smooth — and quite frankly, hilarious — moves. “That was it! That was amazing!” the singer said.

Watch Nick Kroll perform the “King” dance for Florence Welch above. And watch Florence And The Machine play the song later on on Corden below.

Over the weekend, some comments made by T.J. Miller about Ryan Reynolds went viral. The actor went on The Adam Carolla Show and claimed that his old Deadpool colleague was “horrifically mean” to him — in character, mind you, not as a person, although it seemed real enough to him to have left him spooked. Miller claimed he would never work with Reynolds again, which prompted some people to wonder if that was an even an option, given that he’s been persona non grata in Hollywood for some years now. Anyway, turns out it was all a misunderstanding and the two are cool now.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Miller went on SiriusXM’s Jim Norton & Sam Roberts, where he provided an update on Reynolds-gate. “It was a misunderstanding,” Miller revealed. “So I emailed him back, and now it’s fine.”

Miller says Reynolds reached out to him after his comments went viral. “It was very cool for him to say, ‘Hey, you know, I just heard on the show that you were upset about this.’ And I kind of said, ‘You know, I’m not,’ and then we sort of just hashed it out really quickly,” Miller explained.

That being said, Miller is upset with the media for not also reporting on some of the “complimentary” things he also said about Reynolds. But he went a little further than that.

“I didn’t think I had said anything that was that negative,” the actor said, days after accusing Reynolds of being mean to him, which we now know he wasn’t. But at least it’s all settled now. “I feel bad that it was picked up and that it was misconstrued. But no, it was the next day — he and I talked, and it’s fine.”

During the Carolla appearance, Miller told a story about how Reynolds seemed to be embarrassing him in front of the crew while shooting a Deadpool scene. “As the character, he was horrifically mean to me as if I’m Weasel. So he was like, ‘You know what’s great about you, Weasel? You’re not the star, but you do just enough exposition so that it’s funny, and then we can leave and get back to the real movie.’” Miller also claimed the comments also freaked out the crew. He then called him “kind of an insecure dude.” But anyway, they’re cool now so this is all water under the bridge and we can move on with our lives.

Miller’s ascending star fell around 2017, when he was accused of sexual assault. The following year he made headlines for calling in a fake bomb threat on an Amtrak train. Anyway.

(Via THR)

Sometimes people do some really, really cool things and they just have to be shared. Musician Jacob Collier has been keeping a secret from his fans but is unveiling the surprise October 12. Over the past year, Collier has been performing around America and asking his fans to send in a clip of them singing one word. No one knew why there were being asked to sing a single word, but they had the QR code and dropped Collier the videos anyway. The results are amazing! Collier got more than 10,000 people to submit recordings of themselves, which he added to recordings made on his concert tour, and the result is a giant base of Collier fans joining together to sing “Can’t Help Falling in Love” a cappella.

During the most recent leg of his Djesse world tour, the five-time Grammy winner would come back on stage for his encore and direct the audience in multipart harmonies. Also, at some point during the night in each city, Collier would have the audience sing one single word from Elvis Presley’s hit single and instruct them to record themselves. This is how so many people from multiple cities and states joined a super-secret a cappella choir that they had no idea they were a part of. The plan worked and it’s brilliant.

The video is equally as cool to watch. At the bottom of the screen you see Collier conducting the “choir” and at the top of the screen you see hundreds of faces in squares singing parts of the song. The group of people switch out with each city that pops onto the screen, focusing on the person singing into the camera.

When asked about his secret project, Collier said, “To bring 100,000 voices together in harmony has been a dream of mine for so long! What began as an experiment evolved into a fully-fledged extravaganza – to record every word in a different city and piece them all together, using encore-based audience choir videos as the harmonic backdrop. The wild thing to me is that it sounds like the same group of people singing the whole song – one big choir. I will treasure this video for the rest of my life.”

If you’re ready to be wowed, check out the video below.

Black Friday was traditionally celebrated on the day after Thanksgiving. But about a decade ago, competition forced major retailers to get a jump on the big day by having blockbuster sales a day earlier on Thanksgiving.

Once the Black Friday cut-off was breached, people feared the holiday season would start earlier and earlier. However, there’s been a change over the past few years with some big-box stores announcing they’ll be closed on Thanksgiving, allowing their employees to spend time with their families.

The most recent announcement was by Kohl’s, a Wisconsin-based company with just under 100,000 employees and more than 1,100 stores in 49 states.

“Last year, Kohl’s served millions of customers both in store and online throughout Black Friday week, and we look forward to delivering that same incredible experience to our customers again this year,” the company said in a statement. “Customers looking to shop Kohl’s on Thanksgiving Day will be able to shop on Kohls.com and in the Kohl’s App.”

u201cKohl’s announced it would be closed on Thanksgiving Day. LINK: https://t.co/xZUTlRYmePu201d

— WSMV 4 Nashville (@WSMV 4 Nashville)
1665590412

This will be the third year in a row that Kohl’s locations are closed on Thanksgiving. The first closure came in 2020, due to the pandemic, as many stores closed on Thanksgiving 2020 to give their employees who were classified as essential workers a much-needed break. It also reduced the chances of there being a COVID-19 outbreak from the crowds.

Now, it seems that closing stores on Thanksgiving has become an unintended positive outcome of the pandemic, much like working from home or ordering food online for contactless pick-up.

Target has been the most full-throated in its embrace of taking Turkey Day off. Last year, its CEO Brian Cornell announced that it would be closed on Thanksgiving for the foreseeable future.

“Today, I’m making it official: we’re going to keep our stores closed on future Thanksgivings too,” Target CEO Brian Cornell said in a note to employees reported by People. “What started as a temporary measure driven by the pandemic is now our new standard — one that recognizes our ability to deliver on our guests’ holiday wishes both within and well beyond store hours.

“You don’t have to wonder whether this is the last Thanksgiving you’ll spend with family and friends for a while, because Thanksgiving store hours are one thing we won’t ‘get back to’ when the pandemic finally subsides,” he added.

u201cKohlu2019s stores will be closed on Thanksgiving >> https://t.co/v20mcOBAeuu201d

— KOLDNews (@KOLDNews)
1665518650

The number of big-box stores that will be closed on Thanksgiving 2022 is pretty impressive. Walmart, Lowe’s, Best Buy, JCPenney, Costco and GameStop will all be closed on the holiday.

Thanksgiving is all about appreciating what you have. Having a massive sale for hordes of shoppers feels like the exact opposite. It’s cool that big-box retailers are realizing the importance of the holiday and giving retail workers a break before the consumer frenzy on Black Friday.

The store closures also put a nice buffer between Christmas and the rest of the holiday calendar, which prevents people from celebrating the holiday progressively earlier. Everyone loves the holiday season but when the holidays never end, they lose their magic.

Utah probably doesn’t come to most people’s minds when they think of places that are champions of marriage equality. Especially in Utah County, where Provo is located, which has the highest concentration of Latter-day Saints (72%) of any place in the U.S.

Latter-day Saints, known as Mormons, can be excommunicated from the church for acting on LGBTQ feelings and have put large amounts of money into campaigns to make same-sex marriage illegal.

However, two loopholes in Utah County law reported by The Guardian have allowed same-sex couples from across the globe to marry in the state. First, Utah does not have residency or citizenship requirements for marriage licenses. Second, Utah County allows for international marriages online.

u201cSame-sex marriages arenu2019t recognized in China. But for some Chinese couples, a Utah marriage certificate could make a big difference. https://t.co/XJxVFSaKDtu201d

— The Wall Street Journal (@The Wall Street Journal)
1665499507

The county rolled out online marriages via Zoom during the pandemic, which made it easy for people overseas to get married. All they have to do is fill out some paperwork, pay $100 and hire a licensed officiant. The paperwork is “to verify who they are,” radio host and licensed marriage officiant in Utah Michael Foley told The Guardian, “to make sure they’re of age, that it’s not part of some kind of scam, that it’s not some kind of human trafficking.”

When word of this loophole spread on Chinese LGBTQ websites, same-sex couples from all over the country began virtually flocking to Utah to get hitched. Rest of World reports that more than 200 same-sex couples from China have tied the knot through the county’s digital licensing system since 2021.

In China, same-sex marriages are illegal and marriages conducted overseas aren’t recognized but couples are happy to have their relationships recognized by a legal authority somewhere in the world.

u201cLGBTQ+ couples in China use loophole to marry on Zoom, inu00a0Utah https://t.co/BLzotdk5wFu201d

— abdil (@abdil)
1665385409

However, the Utah provisions are beneficial to residents of the Chinese city of Hong Kong, which has a little more autonomy given its designation as a Special Administrative Region. Hong Kong residents who get married in other parts of the world can apply for dependent visas for their partners. These couples are also allowed to file their taxes as married in Hong Kong.

Even though same-sex Chinese couples aren’t married in the state where they live, having their relationships legally recognized in Utah has strengthened them. It’s a strange situation when couples can escape the tyranny of the state in a place where religious fundamentalism can be just as repressive.

“Even without legal status in China for now, many gay couples … have told me that marriage has made their relationships feel more secure,” Zhijun Hu wrote in ChinaFile. “And, as one friend told me when he and his husband go to a place where marriage equality is the law of the land, their marriage means that they ‘will be treated like a family and not like strangers.’”

Newlyweds Liu Yangming and Zhu Guangyu believe that their marriage ceremony and Utah license have helped to solidify their relationship. “It made our love stronger,” Liu told Rest of World. “My husband was talking more about our responsibilities. Before, we thought we might break up someday, but now we can’t just break up.”

Foley loves being able to help people from around the world realize their dream of being married, even if it means he has to get up at odd hours of the night to accommodate his Chinese customers.

“It just makes me happy,” Foley said. “That’s the stuff that makes me get up at three o’clock in the morning to do it.”