The opening of Qubic was a massive success with the whole gallery/store space jam packed with peeps all night long. With beats provided by New Zealand's hottest party Dj Sirvere and the free beer flowing, not to mention the crisp new proddy and dope art work adorning the walls, this was one event you should be kicking yourself if you missed. Frank Liew aka customizer UHF and Qubic store owner, sent party pics over the very next day, so you can tell his excitement and pride in opening this baby that took years of planning and loads of sweat and tears, has all paid off very nicely indeed.
As Frank explained, "The opening was bananas, hundreds and hundreds of people came through the shop (considering how much drinks and food we had on site disappeared as quick as it did!) in the three hours and it was packedout. Sirvere rocked it, the MCs were off the hook and it was just a great night"
The gallery set the mood with art work provided by Smash 137, Flying Fortress and curator Askew One. Make sure you keep an eye open for many more exhibitions coming very soon. The art work will all be available to buy and any artists interested in submitting works should hit up the guys at Qubic, at the website address at the end of this article.
All the shelves were lined with only the best proddy NZ could feast their eyes on, including Nike, Adidas, New Balance and Mike wear. Its a real wonder that the shelves weren't emptied on opening night, because the footwear and apparel you see instore is of premium quality and quite hard to locate in Auckland. These pictures below were taken literally just minutes before the mayhem was about to start. The top left shoe in the pic below is just one of the JB classics that Qubic were able to get a hold of instore and taken as Frank says "another way to say thank you to Mdot, haha."
Come around 7:30 pm the crowds started making their way over to the store to see what had just landed in Newmarket, Auckland...and the crowds just kept coming and coming. By 8pm the place was packed to the walls and below you can see random shots of the crowd at various times, and if you look close enough you can see DYLE52 and the mysterious EXIST (facing away with
beer bottle in hand) from TMD. Dj Sirvere features in the top left hand corner keeping the joint jumping with his serato packed jams!
Also on show were customs by Melbourne's own Sekure D with his Chamillionaire joints. Sekure has seen his name go from strength to strength, more so this year than any, because of his submission into the National Gallery of Victoria with the art exhibition, From Classics to Customs. You can see how much attention to detail he puts into each shoe, and the painstaking efforts to make them oh so perfect! Peep the Kustoms part of the Sneaker Freaker forums for more of his works. These babies were definitely a neck breaker!
Also on offer were Frank Liew aka UHF's customs made especially for the store opening. The Dunk Hi symbolizes the front décor of the store with the light woodgrain against the dark oak, and the fire red/white of our logo while the NB 574 reflects the rear of the store with the light boxes and the dark woodgrain shoe shelving! As owner of the store and a massive promoter of customizing, you can be sure that there will be a tonne of customized sneakers being showcased in the store and gallery at any given time, so be sure to contact Frank if you have some kicks you want to submit!
The highlight of the night was the live screen printing of the limited edition Qubic store tshirts, only available on the night and in limited numbers. As Frank explains, "we ran a competition on our forums http://www.solejam.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1228 and when we picked the winner, we just told people that the first 30 peeps into the store opening would receive the tee. However, we didn't tell them until they got there that they could choose between one of four tee colours, and one of four print colours to customize their own teeshirt on site, where it was screened immediately and flash cured/heat pressed for them to take home. It was pretty crazy". Check out the print below and you can see why the folks got so excited!
So all in all it was a fantastic success, and we here at sneaker freaker salute all the guys n gals at Qubic for opening up such a fantastic new spot for not only sneakerheads and street wear lovers but for artists and customizers trying to get their art to a bigger audience. Please make sure if you are ever in Auckland to visit Qubic!!!
QUBIC
154-160 BROADWAY
NEWMARKET
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
