G-SHOCK celebrated its 35th Anniversary on November 9th at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden.
G-Shock held an exclusive press conference describing what’s in store for the future of the company as well as product exhibitions giving us a chance to test their new upcoming products.
The press conference began with an introduction from the Vice President of Casio’s Timepiece division, David Johnson. He described the past 35 years of G-Shock and how the brand has grown and being able to proudly say that since 1982 G-Shock has sold 100 million watches, which is a huge accomplishment.
From there he introduced the panel consisting of Founder of G-Shock, Kikuo Ibe, G-Shock athlete, Louie Vito, Founder of Kith, Ronnie Fieg, Red Bar Group Founder, Adam Craniotes, and Editor Matt Hranek to discuss their experiences with the brand so far and what G-Shock has meant to them. Louie Vito described G-Shock as the only watch he can wear while snowboarding since it can endure different types of extreme climate conditions. Ronnie Fieg who ironically is also 35 years old, was able to witness the evolution of the brand right before his eyes, and also described the watches as being “timeless and classic, and just living forever”. Ronnie also stated that many people collect watches but with G-Shock you only need one since they last forever.
Kikuo Ibe, the founder of G-Shock revealed the first ever-sapphire crystal G-Shock, which is the most fragile material, used for a watch. He described his thought process for this watch and other upcoming G-Shock watches and how they wanted to continue to innovate and push boundaries.
G-Shock has always been known to be a tough watch and they showed us an example of how tough the watches were by inviting former New York Rangers Star, Mark Messier to slap shot some watches into a goal. These watches looked brand new even after that, and this type of toughness is what G-Shock has always prided themselves on. Some new products in the G-Shock line that will be releasing soon included the Rangeman and GA700. The brand has also collaborated with popular street wear brand Pigalle, to work on a collection of watches. G-Shock was here to celebrate the past 35 years but was already looking forward into the future on how to continue to grow the brand.
A celebration couldn’t be complete without some music and G-Shock made sure to invite some notable performers to give the crowd a great experience. Designer, DJ and founder of Off-White Virgil Abloh, was getting the crowd ready for A$AP Mob, with his hour-long set.
Virgil Abloh performs onstage at the G-SHOCK 35th Anniversary celebration inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Invision for G-SHOCK/AP Images)
From there the energy only increased with the A$AP Mob coming out to some of their recent Cozy Tapes Vol. 2 songs. From there A$AP Twelvyy performed “LYBB” and A$AP Nast with “Nasty’s World”. A$AP Rocky brought out U.K. Grime artist Skepta, to perform “It Ain’t Safe” which was a very unexpected surprise for the crowd. Rocky and the Mob also performed “Yamborghini High” and even had T-Pain on stage enjoying their performance.
Cozy Boyz arrives at the G-SHOCK 35th Anniversary celebration inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Invision for G-SHOCK/AP Images)
A$AP Ferg came out and did some of his stand out hits such as “Shabba” and “New Level”. To finish off the show A$AP Rocky said he only wanted to hear one song and that song was Ferg’s “Plaine Jane” song. With the energy already being so high, Ferg decided to join the crowd and perform in the middle of the crowd.
A$AP Ferg performs in the crowd at the G-SHOCK 35th Anniversary celebration inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Invision for G-SHOCK/AP Images)
G-Shock definitely made it a night to remember and is looking forward to celebrating their 35th Anniversary year with even more innovation and new product releases throughout the year.
