Im one of those people who, when they were young especially, commits themselves to iconic figures as idols, I wanted to be a stylist from a fairly young age, even though I would never have told anyone, and amongst a few others Judy Blame, was someone who's career i followed very closely.

Theres been something playing on my mind alot recently, and thats the disctinctive difference between what we do with 'blogs' and conventional media and press, much of this confusion has been based on just how different we are to those conventional mediums and how people deal with 'us' as 'press'. Some companies send press releases which are sent to everyone, magazines, websites, and any form of press relevant for that matter, these are generally the bigger more professional outfits and at the same time, the interesting part is that they provide you with the info and trust you know what you're doing with it, they understand that what we do as internet media, is different from other mediums and at the same time something they potentially don't understand to the fullest, they deal with print magazines and PR companies etc and know how to deal with them, and know we are not the same, they don't assume they know better because they have been around longer. They almost assume we know better as we are the ones who are a driving force behind 'this' movement, I mean at the very least, we created sites with no intention of the success we achieved, we must have done something right along the way? and some of us may have even figured out what we did LOL.. of course this doesn't go for all established companies, some have a much worse attitude than what i am about to touch on, but far and wide they are pretty understanding.

This is why it confuses me when young companies, start up ones infact, or people wanting press come to me with demands, and expectations, and tell me how to 'give them press', now surely we can't all be the best at everything right? the same goes for older individuals who may have spent years dealing with other forms of press, and now assume they know better than us when it comes to our realm of media, when in hindsight they possibly know very little, and their demands are often rediculous or actually run against their own goals, but they know best huh?!

We very rarely do harm, we always have the best intentions with what we publish, we started these sites as we were fans of the culture, you can tell the sites that started with this objective and those who jumped on to make a quick buck! I think its fairly obvious, and if you can't see it, email me, i'll send you a list...;-)

I don't think there is any brand in streetwear who could say that the attention they have gained from sites has actually hampered their business, i think there are companies who are extra careful to avoid too much internet hype to co-ordinate their strategic plans, but even when things have been leaked and info has gotten out its never done that much harm. I think they will even admit that. Infact i may be very bold in saying this, but perhaps it would be better for those companies to better align themselves with these sites to ensure they are looked after, I hate to tell you, but the way this industry works, we could almost leak EVERYTHING well before it was meant for release.

I think we're all pretty good at what we do, i may not like the content on other sites, and you might not either, infact you may not agree with the content on here, and sometimes I don't in hindsight either, but the sites are the individual curations of their editors, whether they be for news purposes, its up to them to say whats news worthy, or whether it be for lifestyle or trend purposes, its up to me or whoever else to make the best judgements of whats available.

The reason i mentioned Judy Blame as an idol of mine, is this, often people i look up to or admire email me and ask for their 'whatever' to be featured on the site, its great, but where it goes wrong is when they start demanding they know the best way to do this. Judy Blame did the exact opposite! My level of respect has grown further and it suprises me that someone of Blames stature can be so respectful in the way they go about this, and others who in my opinion haven't done nearly as much as him, can be so arrogant.

Imagine if we were 'real' press, the kind of press that leaks info, digs through information to dispell myths and expose people, the kind of press that gets banned by governments or sued my corporates, of course we don't move in those dire circles but imagine the streetwear equivalent.

My point is simply this.. how can Judy Blame and others be so respectful and others so naive? How can dealing with a legend like Erik Brunetti be so easy and dealing with a small start up tee shirt company be so hard?