Urban Air Market

To be completely fair (Miriam & Maria: I'm looking at you), yes there were lots of overpriced "screened tees". In fact, I rolled my eyes when I overheard through the crowd a vendor going on about his "CERTIFIED ORGANIC NATURAL MILLED COTTON" t-shirts. As Vivian C once pointed out and I quote: "I don't care if it's shade grown, organic, cold processed, eaten by mountain goats, shat out by said mountain goats on Peruvian mountain tops, then collected thousands of years later by wandering gypsies in an all-natural roasted state." end quote. $45 for a simple cotton tee (esp. with a weakarse design) is too steep for me! But that isn't the whole story!! I picked up bargain basement, but top notch tees (last year's designs) for $10 from groovy local designers, Que Lastima(tm) and some early Xmas presents (FroBot!!) for the brothermangs from Fucking Adorable Tees(tm). None of these broke the bank or the environment and I got to support the local artist economy while sporting limited run styles. 5 Stars !!

Over 100 local designers and shops hosted booths along Octavia and Linden on 28 May 2006 to showcase (sell) interesting accessories, clothing, art, etc. It was neat to have so many vendors, some that don't even have a physical store, all at one place. Found many unique items, mostly clothing, and it sure wasn't just another Art Festival. I'm not sure when the next event will be.

Just came home from the 2011 Spring Capsule. Many of the little stand were selling similar products with a few unique set ups in between. The 57/33 booth was great, and had awesome t-shirts. I also very much enjoyed "the girl and rhino" booth. Very unique prints. There were a lot of glamor/goth booths, and typewriter key/cameo jewelry.It was a beautiful day, and there was some fun funky music in the middle of the park area that added to the atmosphere. I walked away with a funky new wallet, and an awesome t-shirt. I'll definitely go again just to look around, and of course stop at Smitten Ice Cream.

I saw the Urban air market on Yelps Events, so glad I ended up going out to SF and checked this Market out!MARKET:I love Urban markets, farmers market, and etc. the urban air market was so cool! I loved it, definitely recommend it. This market has everything: Art, glasses, clothes, hygiene and hair products, backpacks, bikes, food... I didn't know where to look when I first got down there. Everything has Apple Pay which makes things easier to purchase. Everyone who has a booth is super friendly, and you can tell they are passionate about what they are doing making the product their selling even easier to purchase. Thanks to Yelp Events for introducing a new event/ Market for me to attend on a slow weekend.

This review is for the Urban Air Holiday Market in/on Pier 70. The more I think about my short-lived experience here, the more annoyed I get. I've helped friends at festivals, and this was by far the WORST venue for an event like this. It's cold, it's dark, and it's very, very dirty. By the end of it, you had to walk around with a flashlight (read: iPhone light) in order to see anything, or even get out of the dank building without stepping on something. If I was a vendor, I'd be pissed. If I sold clothing, anything that dropped on the ground would be destroyed. (Folks that sold clothing had drop cloths and dark towels everywhere, but it was pretty much too cold to try anything on anyways.) I don't think Pier 70 is maintained anywhere near the level of any of the other exhibition spaces (or even the streets, which are swept regularly), so walking around in the pitch black (puddles everywhere, who knows what on the ground) was simply awful. The vendors at this holiday market are also not, as a whole, up to par with the other holiday fairs here (Renegade, Bazaar, even Etsy). It's not to say I didn't get anything, but I definitely did more walking than browsing. But then again, it was too dark to see any of it. Why bother showcasing local makers if you're going to cast them in such a poor light? Please choose a better venue next year. Or I'll just go to the non-holiday Urban Air Markets.

I was bummed to miss this event when it was in Portland, but it happened to be going on when I was home visiting CA! I was short on time before heading to another event, but I could have easily spent HOURS here. I LOVED meeting the faces behind such great work. A lot of the designers sell online and on Etsy. I'm still a big fan of trying things on in person and I also really enjoy interacting with the artists and hearing their stories.Big fan of this event and will be back with more time to peruse.

You are evil Capsule. Truly, truly evil!So a few weeks ago my friend, Michael E of Yelp Creative Designer Fame, called me up and invited me to hit up some crafty street thing called Capsule. He said it's a place for local designers and what not and it sounded like a cool way to kill a few hours, so I threw on some acceptable public attire (aka, not my Hooters tracksuit) and walked down to meet him. Once I got there, I just about fainted.Local designers is a friggin understatement if I ever heard one!! This is a land of plenty. A land of paychecking suckage. A land of purses, oh sweet, lovely, lemme take you home and love you all night long purses, along with cute new and vintage looking dresses, wallets, hats, Gallagher baby clothes, did I mention purses and probably every single attractive person in this city! You have got to be kidding me, this exists?!?!! EVIIIIIL I tell you!!If you haven't been to this event before, you are an idiot. And before you get those panties in a bunch, just make me the promise that you will go next year and support local and all will be forgiven. Deal? Cool beans.

Capsule was the tipping point for me... I must move to Hayes Valley! Capsule is a twice yearly festival where indie designers come show their hip and eccentric creations on the Hayes Green and little alleys surrounding. I was workin' the Yelp booth there today, outfitting doggies in bandanas and giving out totes and schwag. We were luckily situated right next to the crack, er, uh, Blue Bottle, so our booth was pretty popular.I had a couple of chances to steal away and go chat with the street vendors and look at all of the cool stuff they were selling. Oh my! I got a couple of pairs of feather earrings (a major weakness of mine I'm realizing), a vintage necklace and a cute diary, made from an old worn and loved book. I also saw several other fun things, including hoodies, retooled vintage dresses, snap ties and satchels.Heart and soul, these peeps are putting the YES in Hayes Valley.

I love this time of the year in San Francisco. There is something happening every freaking week-end!!This Sunday, I wanted to check out the Carnival. As soon as my friend got back from work, we jump on our scooter and bombed down Gough to reach the Mission. Just a few blocks further, in Hayes Valley, I thought, whooa, what is going on here?There was tons of people, little booths everywhere, music was playing...LET'S CHECK IT OUT!And Oh, was it worth it. A real celebration of design.-clothes-jewelry-paintings-art goods-stuffed animals-head bands-frames-sunglasses-magnets-and all kind of lovely stuff!I kept strolling around and being amazed by all this talent and originality.Check out some artists:ViViDot: www.vividotonline.comBeebalalou: www.beebalayou.etsy.comSprout Studio: www.sproutstudio.netMedium to Masses: www.mediumstomasses.comOnly negative point:I did feel poor, obese and completely out of style at the end of the day.But after begging my friend to tell me like 50 times i was the most sexy and fashionable thing walking around, i felt better. (YES, I do have a self-esteem problem)*sigh*

Yelp Apparel was lucky enough to be a part of Capsule's latest festival this past Sunday. It's a great collection of local artists and designers, all sorts of clothes and jewelry, the assorted hot accessory (think belt buckles, garter belts with flasks, etc.).Since we "worked" the festival, my perspective is also on the type of person who strolled through. Eclectic at times, but always friendly, and definitely hip to new things. That pretty much sums it up. Good people all around, right in the middle of Hayes Valley, it's hard not to swallow this capsule. Special thanks to Harris and Scott, the founders of Capsule, for making the day go smoothly, and for being super hosts throughout.