We’re back from Austin, and more than a little sleep deprived from trying to see a thousand live bands all over town!  Of course the highlight of the week was our dual parties on Thursday with online indie music store Insound and Death+Taxes Magazine.  SXSW veterans were excited to see Saucony O’s back at the festival, many of whom were sporting their favorite concert-going Jazz sneakers.

We played washers in the courtyard at Club De Ville, signed people up for a free shoe raffle and outfitted everyone with the popular Winner! and Loser! headbands.  Under the packed tent, new buzz bands Surfer Blood, Delorean and Small Black played along with established indie rockers Liars and Vivian Girls.

Across town our Perfect Pairs party with Death+Taxes Magazine was jammed all day while awesome indie rock duos No Age, Japandroids, Best Coast and Eternal Summers entertained the crowd.

Whether you were in Texas for the fun or not, you’ll soon be able to download exclusive tracks from Japandroids and Best Coast recorded at our Perfect Pairs party.  Stay tuned!

You’ll have two chances to party down in Austin with Saucony Originals at the SXSW Music Festival.  Of course your chances increase if you have the ability to be in two places at once, because both these excellent parties are happening the afternoon of Thursday, March 18th!

Insound is throwing their annual, and always awesome, SXSW party, and Saucony O’s is excited to be a part again this year. Check out this line-up, and if you’re into that kind of thing, RSVP on Facebook.  Entry is open to anyone, no RSVP necessary, but it’s first-come-first served so don’t dilly dally over your breakfast tacos that morning.

Liars

Vivian Girls

Small Black

Surfer Blood

Delorean

Free/ 21+, $3 for unlimited beer, games and giveaways from Saucony Originals!

Death+Taxes Magazine is happy to announce its party at South By Southwest 2010, presented by Saucony Originals and produced by Rock Steady Music and Waxs.”Perfect Pairs” – a party to celebrate duos. Featuring:

NO AGE

JAPANDROIDS

BEST COAST

and more, including DJ sets by twin-brother tag team FINGER ON THE PULSE.

RSVP only for this one. RSVP early and get there early, as admission is subject to capacity. RSVP NOW >> rsvp@dt-mag.com   You can also share with your friends on Facebook.

We’re looking forward to party hopping with you in Texas!

Exciting news! Starting today we are doing a contest with Journeys.com where you can win a $5,000 gift card from Apple just for being witty and original. I know what you’re thinking — it’s about time someone finally came along to reward you for all your snappy comebacks and one liners!

Click on over to www.CaptionOriginals.com where every week from now until December 25, Saucony Originals and Journeys will give you a chance to write captions for fun photos from our collection. We’ll award the most Original entries each week with a special prize pack from Saucony Originals.* At the end of the contest, we’ll randomly pick a winner from the pool of caption writers and award that wordsmith with a $5,000 gift card to Apple.

And that’s not all, right now when you purchase a pair of Saucony Originals shoes from Journeys.com, we’ll throw in free shipping AND a $10 iTunes gift card, while supplies last. New shoes and new tunes. Excellent, right? Or should we say it sounds good? Hey - you come up with the witty remarks.

Check back weekly for a new photo to caption!

*Prize packs could include a Saucony Originals t-shirt, headband and duffle bag.

Starting this Thursday, November 5th through November 15th, Saucony Originals will be auctioning off a sneaker signed by more than fifty of indie music’s favorite artists on eBay’s charity auction house MissionFish.org. Proceeds will benefit Saucony’s Run for Good Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to combating childhood obesity.

Shoe stampers include Yo La Tengo, The Walkmen, The National, Jesus Lizard, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, M83, Frightened Rabbit, Pharoahe Monch, Killer Whales, and a slew of who’s who artists on the indie music stage. Signatures were collected on a size 15 Saucony Originals Jazz sneaker this past summer while Saucony Originals was helping Pitchfork Music Festival revelers set any world record they wanted with the Universal Record Database.

More details on URDB.

**UPDATE** Ebay auction live through Nov. 15th — just click HERE.

We’re back from San Francisco! We had such an amazing time at Treasure Island Music Festival! Over 130 records were attempted over the two days which could be a record itself! URDB organized a consistent waiting list of anxious record setters both days and records like “Fastest Time to Cut a Mullet” and “Most Sporks in One Hand” were not only popular but attempted more times than we anticipated. On Saturday we set the record for “Most People to Sing ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey” and got an enthusiastic crowd of over 120 people to participate!

The weather was fantastic on Saturday while an unexpected chill slammed us on Sunday but that did little to prohibit potential record setters. The record for “Most T-shirts Put on in a Minute” became popular and we’re assuming it’s because people wanted to layer up!
Obviously there was more than just world record breaking at this two day festival, Grizzly Bear, Beirut, Yo La Tengo and the Flaming Lips killed it! I was still pulling confetti out of my hair on the plane ride back from the Flaming Lips show. Those guys are insane and therefore one of the best live shows you could attend. It was icing on the cake of a great weekend in San Francisco.

Check out all of our photos from the weekend here and check in with URDB.org who will be posting video of the records shortly.