776 by Kyle Lewendon

ION

MAGAZINE ISSUE

INTROSPECTION EDIT

AUS | USA

RA SMITH

WINTER

AUTUMN, NO. 1

FEATURING CLA

776

Masthead

Editor: Kyle Lewendon

Writing: Kyle Lewendon

Illustration: Kyle Lewendon

Creative Director: Kyle Lewendon

Photography: Kyle Lewendon

Contents Page imagery:

Art Director: Kyle Lewendon

Typographic Design: Kyle Lewendon

Getty Sports

Letter from the editor

Sport is without doubt a corporate

and untold stories, the job of 776 is to talk

performance industry. Especially now— A

about the conversation and the culture that

monolith of money, advertising, boardroom

keeps sports and athletics for the everyman.

deals, and diva–like celebrities permeate all areas of professional sports. This

In this issue we explore mental health

corporatisation has led to the absolute peak

particularly in young athletes, through the

of human performance both technically and

journey of a young footballer trying to make

physically, but everything has two sides,

it to Europe. (pg. 30/32) And pay tribute

and with more polished, truly elite levels of

to a little known phenomenon of womens

competition comes a loss of something we (as

running and a pioneer of the sport. (pg.

fans) consider much more important— Soul.

36/39) and explore some of the great muses and icons of global sports. (pg. 40/50)

Despite all of this, at the top end of the spectrum, the game remains the religion

We hope you enjoy,

for so many of us, the stadium our church.

Kyle Lewendon — Editor At Large

the soul of the game will always exist, if

sometimes in flashes. This publications mission is to seek out that soul of sports and athletics, and curate it here. From authenticity in design and aesthetics, to unique and groundbreaking performances,

2

No. 1 Contributors Illustration:

Writing:

Styling:

The image of the New York

The editorial piece on Bobbi Gibb

The clothes in the editorial

Yankees baseball team caps was

and Kathrine Switzer was heavily

photoshoots were provided

appropriated from a designer and

researched through several espn

by: @pjohnson tailors

illustrator @groteskito

articles by Jen A. Miller, the book

(suiting) @acnestudios

The Boston Marathon by Tom

(coats), @Unwntdfc

The Illustration of Serena

Derderian and writing by the two

(jerseys/kits) .

Williams’ legs was appropriated

runners themselves.

from a photo found on

writing:

the instagram account @

writing:

Editorial piece and

victoryjournal and taken

Editorial piece on Kobe Bryant

interview featuring Serena

by @jodyrogac

was written and conceived by

Williams was by Aminatou

Bryan Stevenson jr. on Medium

Sow for Here Magazine.

The illustration of Kobe Bryant was done by Kyle Lewendon using a photo by Walter Iooss Jr

Writing: writing:

Editorial piece on

Editorial piece on Paul Pogba was

uncertainty was by Karan

from Victory Journal by Peter Macia

Singh for Wordform.com

3

776

PG 16 THE JOURNEY OF PERSISTENCE, ANTHONY POLJAK

CONTENTS

PG 06 261 THE LEGACY OF WOMENS RUNNING

PG 24 KOBE FOREVER

4

PG 36 SERENA WILLIAMS

PG 34 PAUL POGBA DESERVES BETTER

PG 32 TRANSITION GAME

38 THE LONG GAME 5

776

Katherine Switzer,

Bobbi Gibb

6

Clara Smith

7

Model: Clara Smith @clara_smithh

This is an editorial piece and profile on the lifes and careers of two of womens running’s most iconic and influential names: Katherine Switzer and Bobbi Gibb. The first two women to ever run in the Boston Marathon, itself one of the most storied distance events around the world, also one of the first.

The profile is a dichtotomy of the legacy Switzer and Gibb created for the world of womens running and athletics, and the result of that legacy as Clara Smith begins to train to compete in racewalkig for the next Olympics in Japan.

Styling: Pants: Issey Miyake.

Shoes: Nike, Socks: Uniqlo, top: 2XU

Styling, photography & writing by: Kyle Lewendon

THE LEGACY OF WOMENS RUNNING

776

O

On April 19, 1967— Katherine Switzer was almost tackled from the course of the Boston Marathon

women’s

particularly

rights, in

advocating

athletics

and

running. She went on to win the women’s division of the New York Marathon and come second in the Boston Marathon with her best time of 2:51:37. She also successfully lobbied for the women’s marathon to be included in the Olympics, then won an Emmy for her commentary performance on the same event.

Switzer continues to write and speak about her experience and remains one of the most influential figures

in

women’s

sports.

by none other than one of it’s

Only a year prior to Switzer’s

own race officials because he was

legendary

of the belief (and not alone in

contrary to some poorly researched

thinking) that women, not only

news reports and books, it is

were not capable but should not

important to recognise that Switzer

even be afforded the opportunity

was the first woman to register

to race long distance. And when

for the Boston Marathon, but

I say people thought they weren’t

not the first to ever run it. Bobbi

capable— I mean that, the real

Gibb is mentioned in Switzers

medical

for

memoirs and has an equally

women’s distance running in the

amazing story about how she

60’s suggested that

made it onto the Boston Marathon

over their

recommendation

1.5

miles

ovaries

distances

would fall

performance

and

make

track in 1966, as well as what

out.

she went on to accomplish after.

Not only did Switzer retain all of her body parts, but the following day she was on the cover of almost every paper, as the first woman registered to run the Boston Marathon.

From there she became a very public and well recognised face

8

of

9

776

10

The Boston Marathon it seems, has been the

run back, the high tide she noticed, no longer let

proving ground for some of the most remarkable

her run along the beach, past the barbed wire— and

figures to ever grace the sport of running. From

the US customs officers also noticed and detained

Geoffrey

the

her. Gibb had run about 25 miles, straying across

Marathon world record in a time of 2:03:02:00, to

the border into Mexico, and without ID, it took a

Switzer who was not only a champion herself, but

call to Ewing Mitchell (an actor and family friend)

moved mountains for women’s distance running.

to verify her identity before they could let her go.

Bobbi Gibb is no exception. Somewhat of an

Accidentally running into a different country would

athletic phenomenon, Gibb had recently married

usually be the highlight of any running either

a Navy man and moved with him to San Diego,

training or event. But this was 1966. Women didn’t

from her native Massachusetts. Running there was

run, and definitely not long distances, for obvious

a new and somewhat jarring experience for her.,

aforementioned reasons. Gibb says: “The thought at the

“I was not a competitive runner, but I felt connected

time was that women weren’t capable physiologically”

to the earth and air and sky,” she says. She

So when her application to run that year’s Boston

was fascinated with the “silvery white” of that

Marathon was rejected, she still showed up realising

beach after coming from the New England cold

that her run “was going to become more of a statement

and snow. “I was completely lost in the day.”

than just my personal satisfaction” she says.

So she didn’t think much of it when she settled into

She dressed in a black bathing suit, her brother’s

a long run on the beach, at low tide. Only on the

Bermuda

Mutai

Who

(unofficially)

broke

shorts

and

boys’

running

shoes.

legal

it, pulled it back and covered her head with a blue

artist and sculptor, while also studying and

work

hoodie. She hid in the bushes, and when half the pack

assisting

went by, she stepped into the race and joined them.

neurodegenerative

the

turned

to

University

become of

diseases

a

successful

Massachusetts such

THE LEGACY OF WOMENS RUNNING

She’d clipped her hair shorter than she usually wore

as

in

ALS.

The rest is history. Sort of.

Both of these women paved the way for female athletes Kathrine switzer who finished the race with a

globally in distance athletics and running. One such

number the year after, went on to a much longer

athlete is the model in this editorial: Clara Smith is

and more publicly influential career afterwards,

currently training for the 2024 Summer Olympics

and the photo of her being attacked by an official is

in race walking for the Australian national team.

a searing one. Gibb is much more representative of

She is now sponsored by companies that wouldn’t

a typical runner, a solitarian, and a shy soul. Tom

know about her, in an event that wouldn’t exist, for

Derderian, author of “The Boston Marathon” says:

a distance that people thought wasn’t physically

“She had a rhythm and an athletic ease that not

possible— because Bobbi Gibb and Katherine Switzer

many people have, but that champions do”. “Had

chose to step out onto a cold stretch of road in Boston

there been an olympic marathon at the time, she

to do what they loved, what they trained for and

would’ve been an olympian”. Although Gibb never

what they knew they could, leading the way for so

did become a professional she still runs every day,

many of the next records and barriers to be broken.

and became no less of an inspiration than Switzer.

She

became

a

lawyer

and

after

years

of

11

776

12

THE LEGACY OF WOMENS RUNNING

13

776

14

THE LEGACY OF WOMENS RUNNING

15

776

16

T E

J

H U

Y

17

E

OF PERSISTENCE

O

N R

by Kyle Lewendon Anthony Poljak

776

18

Professional athletes are often thought of as superheroes because we only ever see them when they’ve reached the peak of their careers. But the reality is— no one was born on the

Nothing else really ever interested me, except sports, and football.

top of the mountain. And although there are exceptions, i’m a romantic at heart, so to me: regardless of religion, class, race or upbringing, sports remains the great equaliser. All that matters is ability, technique, and mental strength— things that anyone

I dont know what else I would do.

can possess. That’s what makes it so enchanting, is that anyone at any time can achieve greatness if they do the work, and get some luck of course. However something that is seldom seen in sports is the story told from the perspective of halfway on the journey. Someone who hasn’t made it to the top. Yet. Anthony Poljak was born in Split, Croatia. A European football hotbed, known for producing world class international talent such as current stars such as Luka Modric and Mario THE JOURNEY OF PERSISTENCE

Mandzukic. Understandably his passion and hunger for the game was instilled at a young age, so when his parents moved him and his sister to Brisbane, Australia as children, this passion for football, along with a natural charisma, is what helped him fit in, and make friends in his second home. As he says “If I didn’t have football I genuinely don’t know what else i’d do, nothing else ever really interested me except sports”.

Fast forward to highschool and Poljak has become one of the best football players in Queensland, his footwork, finishing quality and incisive runs in behind, drawing the attention of the academy of Brisbane Roar. The European-esque blueprint for this academy being to develop players, in order to provide a platform for them to move into the first team and professional football. However anyone familiar with the domestic football situation in this country will quickly tell you that the Australian player development leaves a lot to be desired. Whether justly or not, Poljak was cut from the Roar academy program at 16 and suffered his first real setback to a professional career.

19

776

20

21

776 A period of time he doesn’t like to talk about “It was

there was replaced, and the club no longer interested.

the first time i’d really been told no, and at the time

“That was fine, it happens all the time, and I still had

it was hard to take, my confidence became lower,

other place to go. That was one of the first places i tried

but in the long run i think it made me tougher,

anyway” he says of the three week stint at the club.

and a better person, so i don’t regret it”. However disappointing,

him

From there Poljak went on to Italy, where he wasn’t

towards something even more challenging. After

this

experience

propelled

exactly received with open arms. The environment in

graduating highschool Poljak decided to, like so

Italy especially in the Serie B is particularly ruthless,

many others before him, go to Europe and try his luck

staying alone on his team mate’s couch, in a small

in the most elite footballing continent in the world.

town, with little to no Italian, he would have to wait till he got to training to be able to eat every day.

He got himself an agent. And, at the age of 17, flew

Walking to the bus he would see players in his team

to Europe, alone, to begin trials with some of the

being driven right past him, not a second thought

biggest clubs on the continent. First up England. To

about offering a lift, because the less competition

understand the world of professional sports, you also

the better. “Italy was definitely one of the lowest

need to understand how political it is. Football clubs

points, I couldn’t even talk to anyone, for months.

are essentially large businesses— to stay afloat they

And no one wants to help you, because they’re afraid

need to be profitable, and like all businesses staff

you’ll take their place. It was a solitary life over

move in and out, often at the mercy of executives. At

there man”, he says those months in Italy affected

Wolverhampton Wanderers, just west of Wales, he was

his mental health the most, and who’s wouldn’t.

promised a contract, before the director of Football

22

His agent came back to him and told him that they

movies on his laptop. But in his mind he was there to

couldn’t agree terms. Okay fine, let them negotiate a

work, and so he powered through “All i was thinking

bit more it can’t be that hard right? Wrong. At the end

about was that i had to play well, that’s all there was to

of the five months, the club’s sporting director was

think about, otherwise you get in your own head and

replaced and the new one wasn’t interested in a kid

that’s never good”. The italian journey came to a climax

from Croatia, much less Australia. Another dead end.

when at the end of three months the team decided

“Yeah Spain really hurt me, especially at the time

they didn’t need him, it was both good and bad news.

because i couldn’t understand why they didn’t want

THE JOURNEY OF PERSISTENCE

All he would do is play football then go home and watch

me, when i was playing so well and getting told by the So on to Spain, his agent tells him that he’s secured

coaches that they liked me ”. Of course the confusion

him a 5 month trial with one of the top clubs in

was replaced with anger and disappointment when he

spain— LaLiga giant, Athletic Bilbao. The first few

finally found out that the reason the contract wasn’t

months went well. Exceedingly well, actually, he had

signed in Bilbao was because his agent was asking for

friends in the team, a group of african players that

too much money from the club. “I dropped him the

had been brought over by the club, he was better

next day, i was so upset” So agentless he left for his

at Spanish than Italian too. Most of all, the coaches

home city in Croatia, finally getting to see his family.

liked him, and he was playing out of his skin, which

And eventually back home to Australia at the end of

saw them offer him a professional contract. The

the year. And after the toughest year of his life, having

reason he was here, it had finally come through.

to crawl back with his tail between his legs, Anthony’s

Anthony Poljak was finally going to be a professional.

outlook is still overwhelmingly positive. “It was

And at one of the best teams in Spain no less.

definitely tough having to come back without having

All that was left was for his agent to sign

done what I wanted, but there are other ways into the

the paperwork. Or so he thought.

professional game and I’m okay with that.

23

KOBE FOREVER

KOBE FOREVER

776

8

winners,

24

but never been more heart.

architect of the modern day

Never

been

crossover.

a

better

Better

gave more to me, personally.

We’ll forever know him as the basketball ceiling, vaulting as it

Never been a better offensive

might be, but fashioned a lot like

threat. There have been players

the Sistine’s, in that his artistry

more suited for the long haul,

stood out of reach but always

but never quite the inspiration.

projected downward. We know

And

guy:

what captivating is, because Kobe

Never been a better hooper.

“Bean” Bryant showed us. We

Better

never

talk a lot about his misses and his

been someone more exciting.

mistakes. Fine, noted. We also talk

these

Yeah, that’s right. Kobe Bryant is

about the accolades and the rings,

cross-generation games, and

the most exciting player to ever

as a counter-argument. But those

instead cling steadfast to our

lace them up. The most exciting.

binaries fade and give way to the

Vinces and our AIs and our

Kobe was the absolute best at

ultimate truth about legends: we

T-Macs and our Kobe Bryants.

finding what made our heads

only remember the highlights.

And to the basketball era of

turn and our eyes wide and

The Remix. The best era of

crafting an entire game around

And put anyone else’s list of

the best wing players ever.

that. His will to get better was

highlight

Ultimately, the moment where

proportional to our will to want to

my

man

I fell in love with basketball.

see more. In fact, those two ends

find

a

Words by: Bryan Stevenson Illustration and design by: Kyle Lewendon

Let’s

stop

playing

then

there’s

players,

this but

plays Kobe, more

up you sizzling

against won’t reel.

are functions of one another. Kobe Because,

26

real:

was responsible for guiding my

There’s never been a better dunker.

to

be

100%

generation on a tour around the

No one does it like that anymore,

There are better “leaders”, but

Basketball Innovation Museum.

let alone in one player.

never been more brash bounce.

No one gave us more. No one

27

776

Because,

expensive.

And that’s winning. Winning is the definitive “most

Awe is expensive. I contrast this notion of

to

be

“exciting”

is

exciting” artifact we love to sit around and gawk at.

most exciting with Michael Jordan as the

It’s also the most undisputable. It’s what we want

game’s most artful, its most graceful, and

for our idols, in any industry. It’s what we all want

hands down its greatest and most incredible

for our lives. We end up truly loving players because

player. Kobe was not that, he was different.

they use their tricks of captivation to ascend; to

Kobe specifically balked at efficiency in search of

catapult their narrative into mattering to all of us.

the path less traveled. The path less traveled to

For what it’s worth, Stevie Franchise was a bad dude

make a shot. The path less traveled to make the

at one point, too. And Chris Webber was one hell

right play. Essentially, the wrong play. The path

of a player. Man, Jamal Mashburn was kinda real,

less traveled to get some extra rings. He usurped

too. And come to think of it, Jason Williams was

our day-to-day definition of “difficult”, on the day-

the best-show-in-town. Yet, in all their splendor,

to-day. He straight up ransacked our notion of what

they have a way of melting from our memories.

was even noteworthy. And it seemed he sought it

The

out, because he wanted us to know he could do it.

ticket into those cross-generation discussions.

winners,

however,

have

a

permanent

KOBE FOREVER

Kobe’s double decade, high-wire hoop act was equal parts mounting his own drama, and equal parts

Kobe will always be there, as a winner, and

overcoming it. Kobe wielded his own existential

as a basketball monument to my generation.

hype. And I would never be the same because of it.

No one ever took more difficult shots on a

basketball

court.

Kobe

packaged

the

inhumanely difficult into something seemingly mundane.³ He’s the basketball fan’s bridge to the impossible, and to the wildly dexterous.

No player has made you say “Oh, shit.” more.

Even aside from the hypotheticals, there’s nothing short of legendary about what Kobe actually

did

do

on

the

basketball

court.

Because an addendum to this notion of “exciting” is what just so happens to trump everything else.

28

KOBE WILL ALWAYS BE THERE, AS A WInnER, AnD AS A BASKETBALL mOnUmEnT TO mY GEnERATIOn. 29

ICONS,

776

Basketball,

30

Baseball,

PaulPogba,

SerenaWilliams

Basketball,

Baseball,

PaulPogba,

SerenaWilliams

31

A SERIES OF SHORT ANECDOTES ABOUT PLAYERS AND GAMES WE LOVE

AND MUSES

776

32

It’s no surprise that basketball’s shift from an all-white game into one dominated by African-Americans evolved alongside the implementation of Civil Rights. Athletes engaged with selfexpression and actualization, changing both the game and the culture at large.

In 1968, Sports Illustrated sent artist Howard Kanovitz to college campuses to photograph the country’s best NCAA players. The resulting hyper-realistic, life-size painted sculptures, rediscovered

by Adam Shopkorn and shown alongside work by Richard Avedon, Lorna Simpson, and Lucien Smith, made up the April 2014 exhibition Transition Game.

Staged at the New York City gallery Salon 94, and curated by Shopkorn and Bafienne Stephan, the show deftly explored the connections between basketball and Civil Right in the 1960s.

This series of photographs explores the impact of some of those players, that affected the game so much that they are identifiable, just by their personal affects.

33

M

776

Stare at the ceiling. Stare at the screens.

See Paul Pogba dab along to Stormzy, publicity

stunting

for

Adidas.

See

Paul Pogba social network with Zlatan Ibrahimovic,

fellow

summer

transfer.

Pogba continues to be a player who demands and rewards your attention. In his favored role, freely roaming from box

Most of the last 24 days have been the same: wake

to box, whether he has the ball or not, he

up, get out of bed, crutch to the living room, lie

appears to be carried along on the wires of

on the couch, elevate left leg, knee on ice. The

Yuen Woo-Ping, his long legs not so much

apartment is small, my view either the bedroom

moving for locomotion as for dramatic

ceiling, the living room ceiling, the television

effect. His feet seem to coax the ball from

screen, the laptop screen, or the iPhone screen.

the pitch’s earthly surface so that he may

Alternate between these views from 7am until 9 or

grace it with a series of touches that are as

10pm, or whenever it becomes too tedious to lie

unpredictable to spectators as they are to

in one position any longer. then move back to the

nearby defenders. And while he has been

bedroom to lie in a similar position until dawn.

criticized for not consistently collecting these touches into a masterful body of

Fully blown anterior cruciate ligament, grade 3 medial

work (trolls call him a “Vine player,”

collateral tear, and a lateral meniscus that was, in my

implying he’s all style, no substance),

orthopedic surgeon’s expert words, “totally trashed,” all

Pogba is still only 23 years old, an age

because I thought I could still be my Sunday beer league

when many top players are just breaking

team’s complete center midfielder. Subsequent surgery

into the starting XI. The overwhelming

proved otherwise. Patellar autograft, meniscectomy,

feeling has always been that, in time, the

vertical and mattress sutures, anchors, etc. Absurd

mastery will come, and Pogba will stand

leg brace and crutches for months. Muscle atrophy.

alone as the ultimate post-millennial

Brain atrophy. Stare at the ceiling. Stare at the screens.

complete center midfielder. Until then, we are privy to his playful, prodigious studies.

A perfectly decent body destroyed for fun makes one reconsider many life decisions and reassess many long-held a

assumptions.

contemplative

exercise,

Convalescence especially

becomes

when

said

convalescence falls in the void of late summer, when there is little soccer on television for vicarious enjoyment.

34

While he was with Juventus, Pogba was easy to appreciate. He could only hurt my club, Arsenal, in the Champions League, and even that seemed fairly unlikely as my club annually flamed out of the competition before his club rumbled through the bracket. Juventus also tended to play its league matches later in the day than the Premier League, meaning that, depending on Arsenal’s result, I could watch Pogba either as a victorious apertif or drown my sorrows in his Bianconeri competence.

Even the transfer windows brought a brief glimmer of unsubstantiated hope that my club would put in an unprecedented bid for Pogba, and my adoration for him could then be fully realized. On international duty with France, he was the burgeoning talent who would soon follow in the midfield footsteps of two of my all-time favorites, Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira. It was all so uncomplicated.

His prodigal return to United changed everything.

• Manchester United is not only the dominant club

PAUL POGBA

of the Premier League era, it is the dominant club of the post-Premier League era. It is rich beyond competition. It is worth billions and publicly traded, a brand whose value could not even be damaged by the team’s on-field mediocrity of the last few seasons. In the transfer market, United is often the only buyer. With Pogba, the fee seemed to have been calculated primarily to break the world record as there were no other clubs capable of matching it. That this was all done as part

DESERVES

of the recruitment campaign of United’s new manager and evil genius, Jose Mourinho, only made it hurt that much more, but on August 8, 2016, day 10 of my convalescence, it was done.

Words by: Peter Macia

BETTER

35

A

WILLIA WILLIAMS

SERENA 776

SERENA

SERENA

SERENA

SERENA

Serena Williams, tennis champion, sits down with tech entrepreneur and podcast host Aminatou Sow to discuss home, travel, and redefining success.

AS: I want to switch gears a little bit and

WILLIAMS

talk about how you are defining success.

I’m curious how you define success for yourself and how it felt for you when you

AS: As you’ve built your career and really

realized that you had found it.

established yourself as a champion, were there particular challenges that you faced

SW: I don’t think about success like that.

because of your gender or because of your

I think I try to continually just be humble

race?

and I can’t tell you when I found it, so I don’t think I’m the right person to ask.

For us fans, I think that we’re having an

WILLIAMS

ongoing conversation about how you are AS: Are there really not days where you

portrayed in the media or how different

wake up and you’re like, okay, the thing

outcomes are affected because of your

that I was born to do, maybe I’m doing

gender and your race. But I’m curious what

it right now? Without bragging, like, I’m

your read is on the situation.

doing exactly what I was born to do and I am throwing all of my resources and my

SW: I understand where the world is and

mental energy and my physical energy

I understand where the world needs to go

towards doing that thing.

and I understand that they’re not there

WILLIAMS

yet. You just have to continue to strive

WILLIAMS

A

SW: Uh-huh… Yeah… Nope. [Laughs.] I just

and hopefully they’ll be there for the next

work very hard at what I do. I don’t think

person that looks like me.

that I’m in a position to say I’ve made it.

There are so many things I’m still working on and want to do.

SERENA 36

SERENA

SERENA

SERENA

SERENA

A

37

776 Another year, another Opening Day, and with it another, this time even more insistent, public push by the baseball commissioner to speed up America’s pastime by urging or instituting rule changes: a pitch clock, limiting the use of relief pitchers, eliminating the need to throw actual pitches to intentionally walk someone; and even starting extra innings with a runner on second base.

Words by: David Hollander and Robert Gurland

38

Why? Because, the commissioner believes, the young people are disinterested. The “pace of play,” league brass assumes, has to mimic the pace, content and quality of Millennials’ digital habituations. The next generation’s field of dreams is content on demand! Yet recent trends in consumer behavior demonstrate the commissioner is wrong. The kids, it turns out, want exactly what baseball is and has always been. Slowness, the kind that baseball offers and inherently demands, is the relief from digitalism, a need state so widely recognized that content makers and game developers are embracing it in digital formats.

To anyone who thinks seriously about it, baseball’s inherent virtue of slowness is really its greatest marketing asset. Marketing is, in large part, about making your product memorable, making it stand out.

In Slowness, Milan Kundera writes: There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting.

A man is walking down the street. At a certain moment, he tries to recall something, but the recollection escapes him. Automatically, he slows down.

Meanwhile, a person who wants to forget a disagreeable incident he has just lived through starts unconsciously to speed up his pace, as if he were trying to distance himself from a thing still too close to him in time.

In existential mathematics that experience takes the form of two basic equations: The degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting.

MLB’s constant marketing of baseball as anti-slow and digitally accessible (buy the convenient AtBat app, hail the commercial supremacy of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, also called “BAM tech”) may be the reason why it’s becoming a forgotten game for the generation its executives so badly want to court.

Baseball’s very identity, what makes it not only marketable but an indelible part of American memory, is the feel of going to the park and experiencing something pastoral, summerlike, indifferent to time, a sanctuary from the constant bleat of digital updating. That’s the game’s value proposition which should be marketed, not bludgeoned or masked or shunned.

39

776

40

ONE HUND

an

d

n co

iction can be a positive influence. trad

Visuals, design and photography by Kyle Lewendon

• Written by Karan Singh

A short editorial piece on how uncerta inty

DRED PERCENT CERTAIN

41

776

• combining sports, tailoring and film photography

42

Uncertainty is bad, or so we’ve been taught.

Our ideals are built upon the idea of certainty and the lifestyle it facilitates; comfort and security. It’s an idea we’re taught young and one which is positively reinforced as we grow.

Certainty is a stitch in time. Certainty is not counting your chickens before they hatch.

Certainty is a degree, a job and a house.

Certainty is power in numbers and is an idea which is tried and tested. Sometimes it’s an obligation to others, sometimes it’s because we feel we don’t have a choice, but mostly it’s a formula we call upon in the hope of reassuring

• Suiting by P.Johnson Tailors, Shoes are models own Nike Jordan VI, football jersey by Unwnted

ourselves when dealing with the unknown.

43

776

This isn’t necessarily a bad idea — but I don’t believe it’s the only idea. Perhaps our attraction to security is out of a sub-conscious acceptance that the world is uncertain, or maybe we’re just control obsessed and are afraid of leaving things to chance. But not all uncertainty is bad.

When I began working for myself, the absence of a secure and regular income was a necessary evil.

In retrospect, finally committing to full-time selfemployment was more about making peace with the uncertainty than the creative freedom which accompanied. I liken it to pushing away from a floating pier in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night.

It was a little terrifying. However, through embracing a new found freedom, laced with a heavy dose of panic, this uncertainty compelled me to act. It challenged me to experiment in order to solve problems in ways I had never considered before, as a matter of survival.

44

Initially, mistakes early on only punctuated my

but in more consequential ways such as relocating

concerns, but they soon began to subside as I grew to

cities on multiple occasions. Admittedly, I don’t

accept that despite my best efforts, things will always

necessarily do any of these things with more confidence

go wrong. These mistakes epitomized uncertainty but

than before, they still scare me. But assigning to that

shifted its sentiment from a negative to positive light.

fact that unpredictable things will happen regardless

Instead of being disregarded, they were celebrated

of what I did made these decisions easier to make.

and in many instances became trophies themselves.

The idea of imposing control over every facet of a Allowing for this has since been factored into my

process robs us of spontaneity, so why do we impose this

process because its role evolved from a fear, into a tool.

on our day to day lives? We thrive on the unpredictable and I believe that allowing for uncertainties allows us to

All of this culminated in developing a better

grow. The older I grow, the illusion of certainty pales in

understanding of the world around me, of myself,

comparison to the vibrancy of uncertainty because it’s

and how much or rather little power I had over

something I struggle to prove exists. The reality is it’s

circumstances. It dawned on me that these ideas

not necessarily a question of our belief in certainty and

actually transcended the boundaries of my professional

whether it exists, but instead if you’re comfortable with

life into aspects of everyday life such as relationships

accepting that it doesn’t. Sure, accepting uncertainty

and travel. It encouraged me in trivial ways such as

isn’t necessarily for everyone but by no means do less

walking down a street I had never been down before,

unpredictable things happen to more certain people.

45

776

46

47

776

48

49