With the show wrapped up we pinpointed a couple of decent sneaker and streetwear stores to check out and set off from our home base at The Mirage in the centre of the strip.
The journey would take us via the poncey Cosmopolitan down to the south end and Mandalay Bay. The Las Vegas strip is literally one hotel stacked on top of another. Some of the newer ones such as The Aria and Wynn are clearly aimed at the upper end of the market where as others cater for your spring breakers/student market - basically rubbish. One thing you cannot ignore are those original hotels that have been around since the sixties.
They may not be top of everyone's list but The Flamingo and Harrahs definitely have a look and feel of the traditional Las Vegas with iconic branding and fascias that make you think of the days of the brat pack and crooners such as Frank Sinatra.
Of course there are some seriously god awful places such as Paris and Excalibur which just smack of Blackpool on acid, but each to their own i guess.
Caesars Palace cannot be ignored. Its like a city in itself with pretty much everything you would ever need and i'm pretty sure some people never leave it when they stay in Vegas. In fact they probably never move from in front of the slot machines.
Unfortunately the stores we hit up were pretty disappointing although one did stock a rare pair of Air Max Thea sneakers, but they only had one size?! (I tracked down and purchased them from ebay when i got home. Bosh!) Clearly from what i could gather, for 90% of Vegas visitors, drinking Jaegar out of a two foot long fluro pink tube whilst shopping for tacky Italian high fashion brands is higher up the list of their priorities than getting the best sneakers and streetwear fashion...knobs.
Having started to get Vegas cabin fever, it was fortunate that we had a flight to catch, so we hailed a cab, loaded up our samples and headed to the airport wondering what it will be like in August when we head back for the next show?! God help us...