Air Markazis, chatting up Will.I.Am; more from Vegas

                    

	Michael Jordan's Brand Jordan party at the MGM was just one of the star-studded events during NBA All-Star weekend in Las Vegas. AP
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LAS VEGAS -- I must be dreaming. I haven't slept in over a day and I'm finally lying down on a comfy bed and about to fall into a deep sleep when a voice in the distance softy asks, "Hey Arash, do you want to design your own shoe?"

Now, this might not be a big deal to some of you, but to a "sneakerhead" like myself this is certainly an eye-opener. Getting to customize every color of my shoe from the tongue to the sole and getting to personalize it with my name and number is a dream come true.

But there's no way this is really happening. Not as I walk down the stairs of the Hardwood Suite at the Palms, a 10,000-square-foot pad complete with a basketball court, giant whirlpool, poker and pool tables and a dance floor.

But it is. Unless my dream includes eating a slightly stale egg sandwich and downing a Red Bull in the suite's kitchen next to the hardwood court.

I'm calling the ultimate party suite my home away from home at the moment because Nike has taken over the $25,000-a-night pad during All-Star weekend to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Air Force 1, still the most popular shoe they've ever dropped. To celebrate its silver anniversary Nike is releasing the Air Force 25, a new shoe playing off the look and feel that made the Air Force 1 so popular.

"Air Force 1, in its day was state of the art," says Tracy Teague, Nike's head of footwear design. "That's what put Nike on the map from a performance standpoint."

• After shooting around on the Hardwood Suite court and designing the first and likely last pair of Air Markazis, I decided to check out a few other suites at the Palms. I stopped by the Director's Suite where I got hooked up with the new D-Wade Limited Edition Sidekick 3 from our Sportsman of the Year and took in the views from the oversized windows of the 1,500-square-foot, $3,000-a-night room. I then headed up to the Sky Villa, a sprawling 9,000-square-foot pad that was going for $35,000 per night, where Sony was hooking up celebrities with customized PS3s and Air Force 1s. I walked in after Regina King, who isn't much of a gamer but came to get a system for her 11-year-old son, Ian. "I don't know how to play," she says. "But he could play all day."

• While I was at the Sky Villa, I got to hang out with my main man Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas, who is a major gamer and probably the coolest computer nerd I know. In fact he got on the computer, just inside the glass doors to the outdoor pool, and designed the logo that would go on his PS3 and his shoe. "I've never seen anyone do that," said one Sony rep. "Usually celebs come in and tell the designer what they want and they do it, but Will's taking over."

Dressed in a sharp black suit and showing off his diamond-encrusted Bluetooth earpiece, Will.I.Am was navigating around the Adobe Illustrator like a pro, clicking fonts and typing up, "I.Am!" into a black shield. "You know I know how to work this," he says after I complement him on his designing skills. "I used to design all of our flyers back when the Black Eyed Peas started."

Despite being one of the most well-known performers in the music industry today, Will.I.Am told me one of the main reasons he came to Vegas was to network with other artists, like Prince, who he met up with the night before. "I'm always networking," he said while we chatted in the Sky Villa living room. "The Black Eyed Peas got to where we're at by networking at all the clubs. I'm hoping we can change the music industry. The next Black Eyed Peas record that comes out in 2008 will be our last regular record that we do. That [stuff] is dated, the kids don't like it. I'm tired of that [stuff.] I'm thinking what we do after that will be video game based or live animated. I just want it to be more; something that people can really experience while they're listening to it."