It should be pretty obvious that there are two heavy hitting communities in the PNW: Cars and Sneakers. It’s been a big goal of mine for a while to set up some type of gathering up here involving both since there are many people out there that affiliate with each other, and you know what? We finally made it happen! I was able to collaborate with Kevin Culala for the first-ever “Cars with Sole”! An event where automotive enthusiasts and sneaker heads collide and pretty much kick it. We held it at his shop, SoleSeattle: A well-known concept that delivers legit products at a fair price point. A spot I mainly go to for a lot of my shoe transactions. If you didn’t know, now you do! We collabed & dropped a T-Shirt for the event to commemorate a special day. For those that missed out, we still have some in stock here!
The meet last weekend was nothing, but amazing! Very overwhelming in the best way possible. Quite a few homies showed up from all over including Canada and Yakima. Nice to see a lot of Northend car people show out for the one time since we in their neck of the woods. A great amount of the Southend homies made the effort to cruise up and hang out. There were so many cars that I didn’t get to check out half of those that came through. It was cool to see & catch up with some OG sneaker heads I’ve known for quite some time ever since the old shoe forums such as Northwest Sneakers. The whole show was something you had to be there to witness. Since this was our first event, we had some hiccups, BUT we know what to do better for the next one!
I wanna say thank you to the bro Kevin for teaming up with me on this project! I couldn’t have done it better with anyone else, along with the rest of the SoleSeattle staff! Big thanks to Kells from Exotix Snacking for slanging some fire eats after a long & eventful day, and DJ Berry for spinning those smooth tunes! Shoutout to the homegirl Metree Ngeth for all the help & assistance throughout the entire day, even though she was hungover 🤣 Finally, much love to all of my friends & fam for supporting what we genuinely care about. Y’all are real ones 🤝🏼 Unfortunately I was too busy & productive managing the outside and chopping it up with the attendants, so my coverage isn’t that great. If I didn’t get a photo of you or your car, don’t be a salty hoe. I did my best lol. Might have to hire a media team next time, but we’ll see… Enjoy!

A few special cars staged in front of the store including Kevin Culala’s FK7 Civic Si coupe on Formula Silver TE37s.

Chinh Do sold his black NSX not long ago, and finally acquired his long-time searched Grand Prix White NA1! This car is perfectly executed with the Advance Flatout kit, Taitec GT500 wing, Spoon Mirrors, and staggered RG1s. So fire!

Sean Roh was probably the first person I know locally that purchased a GR86. He ditched the chrome wheels and slapped on some TE37SLs.

Gus Roman trekked out from Yakima with his FK8 Civic Type R. Love the Mugen & Spoon combo along with the Voltex wing.

Gus and his fitted son looking proper for the meet. Peep the kids Hiro’s Hotrods C.R.E.A.M tee!

Duncan Changa’s Laguna Seca Blue F80 M3 and Vinh Tran’s A90 Supra.

Mark Dalisay’s R32 sedan with an R34 front end. This thing gets driven hard on & off the track 🤟🏼

It was a nice treat to have some exotics from Supercar Driven show up!

I’m not too crazy for FRS’/BRZs in general, but I have to say Zoe Washington has built one of the few I actually like. It stands out so good in many ways to where you can’t hate on it.

Properly built 2JZ swap powering this beast.

Chris Rafanan switched up the CEs and slapped on Regamaster Brite IIs. They looked great on his daily Civic Si, but they look even better on his S2K I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen 18s on Chris’ whip. I see you Zaddy! 💥

Not one, but two S2000s with 18” Regamasters. Fuego!

Ajay aka DJ Berry doing what he does best.

Blessed to have my mom & sister pop out and support the grind 🥰

Soufend fam and long time Hawaii homies came out to support as well 🤙🏼

The minty king, Jacob Reyes, is back at it with his low mileage ‘96 Integra GS-R. He added some nice additions ever since I last seen it including a ‘97 ITR front lip, optional side skirts, and 17” BBS LMs. A week has gone by and he just added a ‘98+ rear bumper with rear valences. Looks great pare!

Vu Nguyen’s Phoenix Yellow Civic Type R [yes it’s legit] on MF10s.

The bros cruised in smooth with their VIP builds. Shoutout to Teddie Pequet, Ed Gaborno, and Poges!

It’s rare to have Poges come out with his Mode Parfume Q45. Last time I seen it was the Namsayin x Think Bigger meet early last year. Thanks Ted for convincing him lol.

Cool to see a little FK8 Type R meet within our meet lol.

Tim Pardue’s JDM FD RX-7. I dig the C-West N1 front bumper, RE-Amemiya rear diffuser, and Work CR-Kiwami wheels.

Honored to have the famous Sarah Decker attend the meet with her Millennium Jade S2000 on TE37SLs, along with Caryl Dela Rosa and his imported RE-Amemiya FC RX-7.

Mark Soliven’s Datsun 280ZX always stands out, mainly since he always sets off his damn horn every time he enters/leaves a car gathering LOL!

Russ Neuman’s JZX100 MKII is the perfect daily driver. He also has a JZX100 Chaser that he’s currently building which I’m pretty curious to see after it’s manual swap.

Wooty Nam’s Kanjo style EG hatch that he breaks in hard on the streets. Pretty cool bonus that he’s a dope break dancer too. Wooty has been in the game for quite some time since I’m familiar with his old black EG from back in the day when I was a kid. NA BROS… If you know, you know! DK’s EJ1 is also something I enjoy as well, but mainly because his presence as a person is cool overall.

Tristan Besabe’s R32 GT-R looking clean as always. We’re supposed to do some type of shoot soon, but maybe with a different set of wheels 👀

Holly Phan’s S2K is something I’ll always appreciate. Pretty subtle, but pretty damn good looking. For someone that loves rainbows so much, you would expect to see more colors on her car. I guess her fire outfits and outgoing personality make up for it lol 🌈 Hey Holly, I’m still waiting for that beanie… 😒

Brandon Thai’s Imola Orange S2K sporting a Spoon front bumper & fenders, J’s Racing wing, and OG bronze TEs parked next to BJ Ta’s VSM EK Coupe on Mugen M7s.

You’ve seen Alex Tran’s E36 M3 on here many times. Since we were close to his home, I figured this was the perfect opportunity to gift this print of a photo I shot of him rolling into Wekfest Seattle last year. I used that poster to display at the Namsayin “Time Well Spent” photo showcase a few months ago. I was going to give the print to him at that show since he was part of of it, but he left too early. At least we finally got it done lol. Stay tuned because we got some cool things cooking up 😏

Chelsey Pacheco sold her TEs not long ago and picked up these CE28s. Way to ruin the white on silver theme up front… Just playin. They aren’t Regas, but they clean lol.

Shoutout to Chelsey though for setting up a pre-meet and cruise to our event. She helped bring in quite a crowd, and we’re very thankful to have her part of this project 🤍

The Backyard Boogie fam showed up fashionably late like usual lol. Regardless, I’m blessed to have this group in my life.

Justin Ramos, Mia Hernandez, Caspar Hill [facetime 🙏🏼], Alexis Fernandez, & Holly Phan chillin hard and staying away from the sun lol.

Tony Dau doing what he does best and highlighting everyone’s features 🌚

I gifted another print, and of course it had to go to my Day 1 brother & supporter Ben Malla. If you know about the black EF9 pictured, then you know what went down way before Backyard Boogie was created. I’m sure I’ll have another print of his sick EF2 sedan sometime in the future.

Johnny Hor’s Phantom Grey EG hatch with a Spoon Sports lip, custom projector JDM headlights, and diamond black TEs.

Andreil Belo’s FA5 Civic Si on WedsSport TC105Ns.

Don Nguyen recently picked up this fresh AP2 [WITH A HARDTOP] with Spoon brakes and lowered on Regamaster Marquis Promadas. This is perfect as is.

The Canada homies staying cool in the shade.

Paulo Miranda’s “Stink Eye” Sti on Weds looking clean under the sun.

Eryka Jeanne’s bagged S2000 suited with a Voltex front bumper & wing, carbon Spoon hood, and my favorite 18” Regamaster MPs.

White wheels look good on almost anything.

Umer Khokhar ditched the bronze TEs and copped this aggressive spec’d white set. I was teasing him days before the event that if he showed up with RPF1s, he would have to park in the back 🤣

Even though he had some trouble rolling on the new wheels, the car still looks great.

Umer has brought down his EM1 a few times, but this is the first time I’ve seen his hood open. I dig the polished valve cover, Carbing strut bar, and ARC induction box.

He had to do some minor rolling before making the trip back north lol. Time to dial in everything, homie!

I first met Rich Alejandro at the recent Wekfest Seattle, but it seems like we’ve known each other for a while the way we communicate with each other. His San Marino Blue F80 M3 equipped with a Laptorr lip, wrap matched Voltex wing, and TE37 Ultras is pretty damn sweet!

Thankful to have the extended fam come down and hang out. They left the other homies hanging for a bit to go pick up some wheels lol.

Shoutout again to this real one, Metree Ngeth, for the help throughout the day. Very blessed to have her in my life. I got you with Fogo real soon!

The main crew & vendors [missing Kells 😥] killed it!

Dan Nguyen showed up late with his NSX. He finally got some new wheels for the car and it looks great!

Along with the last minute attendance was Kurt Benirschke with his sick E30 M3. He’s an old fellow sneaker head I met way back in the day. I didn’t recognize him at first since he looked way different lol. Good people though!

Guapo Duo at it’s finest. Best believe we’re gonna run this back 😎

If you don’t know about this Integra, you’ll find out more details about it later down the road. Shoutout to my bro My Pham for letting me take this out and ripping it! It really was enjoy to drive!

Thanks for reading through! Stay tuned for the next one! 🤙🏼

Cars with Sole 7.16.23

Spocom Hawaii 2023

Wekfest Seattle 2023 Part 2