It might be dubbed a sneaker summit, but you don’t need a fetish for footwear to enjoy Sole DXB, the street-culture celebration that will open the new Dubai Design District this weekend (November 14-15).
Boasting an edgy mix of live music, art and sport – and plenty of trendy trainers – the two-day event will be the first one to be hosted at the new creative hub in Al Quoz, making it a double celebration for organisers.
Stop by on Friday or Saturday and you might see skateboarders showing off tricks, aerosol artists in action, fiery street-basketball games on the courts or B-boys spinning on the floor to basslines dropped by hip-hop DJs.
The thing these cultures all have in common? Trainers.
“There are all these different elements that contribute to street culture across the world,” says the Sole DXB co-founder Joshua Cox, “and Dubai is such a multicultural city that we want to represent all these elements as much as possible.
“We might wear a suit to work – but on weekends we all wear sneakers and denim.”
The concept of a festival based around footwear was the brainchild of a group of four trainer lovers who wanted to share their craze (and shoe collections) with the world.
An initial idea to screen the arty trainer documentary The Mystery of Flying Kicks spawned the first Sole DXB in February 2011 – a one-day street-culture celebration at Dubai gallery thejamjar, which attracted more than 1,000 visitors.
“We all have this fascination with footwear and urban culture, but there wasn’t really anywhere for people to get together,” says Cox, a 29-year-old Australian. “So we said: ‘Let’s do something about it.’ We were surprised to find this huge passion for what we were into that we never knew was in the Middle East.”
The second Sole DXB event took up the whole of Al Quoz’s art hub Alserkal Avenue, with a street-party vibe stretching across eight galleries and two warehouses and attracting about 4,000 people for a single day in March 2012.
Rajat Malhotra, a 34-year-old Indian who grew up in Kuwait and New York and is also a co-founder of the festival, puts the event’s success down to the way underground movements such as hip-hop and street art are gaining popularity in the region.
“You see elements of street culture in everything you look at. It’s no longer something ghetto or something to be afraid of – mainstream culture is looking at the street, it sets the tone,” says Malhotra.
The third outing of Sole DXB is a broader two-day concept. Hosted in a purpose-built 10,000-square-metre space, the area will be dotted with shipping-style containers, with each dedicated to an interactive display brand or concept, while parked Mini Coopers will serve as makeshift stalls.
Among the top attractions will be visits from the Amsterdam designers Guillaume Philibert and Olaf Hussein, plus representatives of the New York City brand Alife will appear at a series of one-hour talks focusing on everything from the latest trends to the effect of urbanisation on hip-hop.
There will also be plenty of beats all day and night from DJs, including London’s Dan Greenpeace and the locals Brooklyn, Shef Codes, Emtee Pockets, Don Corneille and Megadon Betamax, who promise a block-party style feel, while a huge graffiti wall will be decorated by visiting aerosol artists, including the Arabic calligrapher Wissam Shawkat.
“It’s about the vibe,” says Cox. “If you like art and culture, this is a really good chance to interact with people and come and be inspired.
“If you feel your life is lacking something that you can’t normally find in Dubai, this is for you.”
• Sole DXB takes place at the Dubai Design District, Al Quoz, on Friday, November 14, from noon to 10pm, and Saturday, November 15, from noon to 8pm. Register for free entry at www.soledxbregistration.com/register
rgarratt@thenational.ae
MATCH INFO
Burnley 0
Man City 3
Raheem Sterling 35', 49'
Ferran Torres 65'
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MATCH INFO
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Australia 312-1
Warner 151 not out, Burns 97, Labuschagne 55 not out
Pakistan 240
Shafiq 76, Starc 4-52
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The biog
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Hobby: Running and watching Welsh rugby
Travel destination: Cyprus in the summer
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
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'Gehraiyaan'
Director:Shakun Batra
Stars:Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa
Rating: 4/5
