Video: Filmmakers ‘Make It Count’ By Circling The Globe In 10 Days

by Kraig Becker on

Filmmaker Casey Neistat was recently contracted by sports apparel giant Nike to create a short film about its Fuelband, a high-tech bracelet designed to keep track of our workouts. Nike was hoping to build social media buzz around a new ad campaign that featured the tagline, and Twitter hashtag, #makeitcount. Turns out Casey and his buddy Max “made it count” by using Nike’s money to fund a 10-day round the world adventure that saw them visit Paris, Cairo, Johannesburg and a host of other interesting destinations before running out of money.

The two men filmed their little excursion and the resulting short film can be found below. The video is a fantastic mix of truly great travel destinations interspersed with inspiring quotes from a variety of prominent historical figures. The combination of the two will leave you wanting to make your own round-the-world journey, although figuring out how to get Nike to fund it is an entirely different challenge.


Just Fake It!

by Iva Skoch on

Many folks, these days, are traveling for more than just sightseeing, they’re going shopping. With the dollar lingering near all-time lows versus some major world currencies, many shopping tourists are traveling to the States. However, some real shopping bargains exist elsewhere, particularly in the rip-off goods category.

My trip last year to China was a real eye-opener: the major markets all sold knock-off goods openly, while big, red banners, hang across all entrances, proclaiming “Maintain Intellectual Property” (one of the few signs anywhere in China written in English). (I’m still trying to figure out what the banners that said “Striking Forbid Illegal Management Activities of Soliciting Goods” mean, but that’s another story …)

These huge open-air markets are enough to make brand-name companies fume, with brands like North Face, Nike, Victorinox, and Columbia Sportswear and others all featured prominently, for pennies on the dollar. They don’t even bother with the spelling errors (you’ve seen them: “Addidas”) or mismatched teams (e.g., “Atlanta Braves Football Club”). The rip-offs are so realistic, it’s hard to tell them from the real thing, and it’s all right there in the open. It puts Canal Street to shame for sheer audacity.

But it’s not just China that’s in the big business of selling black-market items. They’re being sold across Europe too, usually in Asian-run boutiques. The shoe pictured above was featured prominently in the window of a downtown Barcelona shoe store just last month. Note the altered swoosh. I can hear Phil Knight screaming …