Shoes Can Put Spring In Your Fashion Step!

Source:

The editors at Lucky magazine say shoes should be at the center of your spring wardrobe.

Shoes and accessories set the tone for an outfit. While someone’s clothing style may not vary, because their body type is what it is, people can be wildly experimental with shoes and use them to change the whole look of an outfit.

Story Link http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/01/earlyshow/living/beauty/main3984853.shtml

Video Link http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3985842n

WEDGES/ GLADIATORS PEEP TOE BROGUES / CRAZY HEELS of the season

Complete Story: shoes-can-put-spring-in-your-fashion-step

 

The woman who made a fortune off Crocs

Source: Printed in Times UK 19 July 2008

Sheri Schmeltzer is the woman behind Jibbitz, a Crocs accessory that started as a way of amusing her children

The flowery button thingies on her Crocs are called Jibbitz. They are a presently a global craze created accidentally by an American housewife in her basement, and are worth $20 million (£10m). The American housewife in question lives in Boulder, Colorado, and is an attractive 43-year-old called Sheri Schmelzer. The idea originated three years ago.

For those still blissfully ignorant, they are pieces of coloured rubber-like buttons, selling for around $3 (£1.50) a pop, in 1,100 different patterns.

According to website, Jibbitz “allow Crocs consumers to personalise their footwear to creatively express their individuality”, which is perhaps over-intellectualising it a bit.

Read More : Complete Story Click

Related Links: http://www1.jibbitz.com/

Story Download: jibbitz-and-crocs-times-uk

Heidi Klum’s Sackful of Shoes

See Models, what they project and what they follow

read more | digg story

Zappos CEO Built a Footwear Empire One Shoebox at a Time

Source: abcnews.com on July 08.2008

HOW ZAPPOS BUILD THE FOOTWEAR ONLINE BUSINESS

Online shopping Web site Zappos is doing for shoes what Amazon did for books: trying to revolutionize not only how business is done but how people work.

The name is an adaptation of the Spanish word for “shoe.” This year, nine years after going into business, Zappos is on track to sell $1 billion worth of shoes.

Read the complete story http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=5326827&page=1

See the video
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5328179

Download story: zappos-ceo-built-a-footwear-empire-one-shoebox-at-a-time

CrocsRx – Custom Cloud Molded Shoe gets CMS approval

Source:

Link: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/daily-textile-industries-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=60239

Custom Cloud Molded Shoe gets CMS approval

July 23, 2008 (USA)

CrocsRx, the medical division of Crocs Inc, announced the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has accepted the Custom Cloud model into the diabetic shoe program. Acceptance by the CMS validates the superior benefits of Croslite material, Crocs proprietary closed-cell resin, as the Custom Cloud is the first molded shoe to receive an approved code verification from the organization. Effective immediately, medical professionals can fit the more than 23 million Americans suffering from diabetes in the CrocsRx Custom Cloud. The approved shoe comes with three pairs of heat moldable orthotic insoles and is fitted by a professional practitioner, to offer long-term relief for foot ailments related to the disease. Recognized by the American Podiatric Medical Association with its distinguished Seal of Acceptance, the Custom Cloud offers diabetic patients several advantages over traditional specialty footwear. Among the most notable benefit is the customized fit that stems from the Croslite Ag+ material. Croslite Ag+ material expands upon the comfort attributes inherent to Croslite material while adding anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and odor resistant nano-Silver ceramic crystals. Moreover, patients find the Custom Cloud to be easier to slip on, easier to keep clean and that the shoe weighs less than other specialty medical footwear styles accepted by CMS. The Custom Cloud is available in three color combinations including Navy, Black and Chocolate in men’s size 4-13.5 and women’s size 6-13.5, with four width offerings. “We are thrilled with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid’s decision to include CrocsRx footwear in the Medicare program,” stated Eddie Scott, Director of CrocsRx. “CMS acceptance is an enormous accomplishment as this governing body completed an extensive review of clinical and historical performance data and found Croslite material to be a suitable alternative to existing specialty leather footwear.”

Crocs Inc

Crocs, Inc. Launches Escalator Safety Awareness Initiative

Source:Marketwatch.com

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/crocs-inc-launches-escalator-safety/story.aspx?guid={B2103EC4-5541-4C66-AF76-F15C50E504BC}&dist=hppr

Jul 22, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Crocs, Inc.

CROX announced plans to launch an escalator safety awareness initiative over the course of the next year. The first steps will include the addition of consumer education messages regarding escalator safety to hang tags on Crocs(TM) shoes sold worldwide as well as supporting organizations that further the cause of safe escalator maintenance and use.

Hang tags with educational escalator safety messages will begin to appear on Crocs shoes sold through Crocs retailers and company-owned outlets, including its online store ( www.crocs.com) within the next few months. The company plans to have the educational hang tag fully implemented by the rollout of its Spring 2009 line.

Existing hang tags affixed to Crocs(TM) shoes already explain how to care for and clean Crocs(TM) footwear, and also provide information on the company’s SolesUnited(SM) shoe recycling and donation program ( www.solesunited.com). New language added to the hang tags reminds consumers to use care when riding escalators and moving walkways, while providing these specific tips:

– Stand facing forward in the center of the step

– Step on and off carefully

– Do not touch sides below handrail

– Avoid the sides of the steps where shoe entrapment can occur

– Supervise children at all times

“Consumer safety is very important to us,” said Ron Snyder, President and CEO of Crocs, Inc. “Escalator entrapments have occurred for more than 40 years, far longer than Crocs has been in business, and these accidents often are preventable. Because the Crocs brand is so visible and so popular around the world, we have an opportunity to reach millions of consumers of all ages, including parents, with educational messages that will help draw attention to this important issue.”

Although tens of millions of pairs of Crocs(TM) shoes have been sold in the United States during the past five years, an analysis of nationwide safety data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, conducted by Crocs, shows there has been no corresponding increase in the frequency of escalator shoe entrapment injuries.

Industry experts believe many entrapments can be easily prevented by implementing safety requirements in the area of escalator design and maintenance. For instance, as has been documented in testing done by others, including the CPSC, shoe and foot entrapments can be prevented by proper routine escalator maintenance, including periodic lubrication of escalator side panels with silicone or other lubricants.

Additionally, industry experts such as Joseph Stabler, a St. Louis-based escalator inspector and consultant, believe entrapments would be greatly reduced by requiring utilization of existing safety technology. “A number of escalator entrapments occur at the side of the step,” Stabler said. “These can be dramatically reduced by requiring the installation of step safety sideplates. Some escalators already utilize step safety sideplate technology so it’s something that simply would need to be implemented as a matter of course.”

Therefore, one of the future goals of this initiative is to push for changes in elevator/escalator safety code regulations regarding the design, installation and maintenance of escalators. Crocs hopes to work with or support organizations that share this important safety objective. Any organizations fitting this description can contact Crocs at publicrelations@crocs.com for further information.

Crocs is hopeful its efforts in this area will help further the cause of escalator safety and ultimately reduce the number of escalator entrapments around the world.

Flirty footwear can flirt with pain

Source: thebrooklynsun

July23. 2008

Do you have your eye on that ultra-flat, strappy sandal? Think flip-flops are simply the most comfortable shoe ever invented?

The article by Dawn Aulet in Brooklysun looks at this issue

Link: TheBolingbrookSun.com

Read Article:flirty-footwear-can-flirt-with-pain-herald-tribune-23-july08

Greece theatres threatened by chewing gum and high heels

Source:

July 4, 2008

According to a article in Times paper – Greece threatres threatened by high heels

Read complete article – Link

COMPLETE STORY BELOW

Chewing gum, high heels, booming amplifiers and other modern plagues are seriously damaging Greece’s 2,500-year-old outdoor theatres and should be banned, according to the country’s powerful archaeological establishment.

As the shows become more elaborate, with bulkier sets, highvolume speakers for acoustic shock effect, and high heels clattering on the ancient marble, experts fear that theatres such as Epidavros, built 2,400 years ago for men in leather sandals and relying on natural acoustics, are under threat.

“When the ancient Epidavros theatre, above, was built 2,400 years ago most of the audience wore leather sandals”

Add the countless wads of used chewing gum that regularly stud the old terraced marble seats, requiring painstaking removal, and the Central Archaeological Council has declared war on modernity. “We find ourselves regularly cleaning kilos of chewing gum from the Herod Atticus theatre,” said Kathy Paraschi, an architect working on the Parthenon restoration. “It’s an amazing and awful situation.”

She added: “Speaking as a woman and an Athenian, I like my fashionable spiky heels.” But wearing them to Epidavros is “like taking a hammer and splitting the blocks apart”.

The Central Archaeological Council is considering a ban on chewing gum and high heels, though the Herod Atticus theatre on the south side of the Acropolis is made of tougher Attic marble and can better stand up to modern footwear fashion.

As if that were not enough, avant-garde directors are being blamed for damaging the sites where ancient writers once performed their plays. “Despite repeated warnings,” the council said in a recent statement, “stage sets seem to be getting bigger and decibel levels louder. This could inflict damage on the ancient structures.”

Some see the archaeologists’ complaints as part of a conservative campaign. At Epidavros last month Matthias Langhoff, a German director, interrupted his production of Sophocles’ Philoctetes, revamped as a modern antiwar play. In mid-performance he harangued his audience to denounce what he called “Greek culture-politics”. The council had previously objected to Mr Langhoff’s large set and avant-garde interpretation, which they said took unacceptable liberties with Sophocles’s original text.

Mrs Paraschi complained that many modern directors “don’t respect the rules about keeping the theatres safe and clean”. “Is Greece really protecting its antiquities?” wrote a reviewer in Kathimerini newspaper.

“We love them, of course, [but] in any other way, in all the other crucial ways that actually matter, we don’t really pay them that much attention.”

Adidas football boots among boycott list in UK

Source: http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/Boycotts/currentUKboycotts.aspx

www.ethicalconsumer.org, a not-for-profit research co-operative alternative consumer organisation has placed adidas among boycott list for using kangaroo skin to make some types of football boots.

Ethical Consumer’s boycott list is widely regarded as the most comprehensive English-language list of progressive boycotts. We report on all the boycotts which have a registered headquarters. Inclusion in the list does not constitute an endorsement.

The boycotts list was last fully updated in May 2008. For the most up-to-date information on any boycott please get in touch with the listed contact.

Read further http://www.savethekangaroo.com/adidas/index.shtml

Shoes designed and handmade to fit the feet that wear them

Source:

July 2008 • Vol. 14 • Number 10

Word of foot puts Benzie company on the map – Read complete Story

By Danielle Horvath

Owner Tim McKay outside his shop at the top of the hill in Benzonia where he makes custom, handmade shoes. Photo by Danielle Horvath

BENZONIA – In this technology-crazed world we live in, Fernand Footwear makes shoes that are designed and handmade to fit the feet that wear them.

In his small, but airy Benzonia shop just off the main drag, owner Tim McKay traces his customers’ feet and creates a one of a kind pair just for them. He hand cuts the insole to the foot shape, hand stretches and works the leather over a piece of iron, and using just a sewing machine and small grinder, assembles each pair by hand. The entire shoe is then dunked in water and pushed out by hand to the final shape, all for less than $200 a pair.

With a “Made in America” Vibram sole, vegetable-tanned full grain leather insoles and water-resistant oil-tanned top-grade cowhide uppers, the shoes are lightweight, flexible and laminated to fit the curves of your sole. The oil-tan uppers are supple, durable and breathe through the grain.

McKay can build around any shoe inserts or orthotics and is often told by his customers that they have been unable to find a pair of shoes commercially produced that fit and feel good. They also service what they make with resoling and reconditioning.

“There are people walking around with Fernand’s made in the late 1980s that have been reconditioned,” said McKay.

In a good week, McKay and his part-time assistant can make about 15 pairs. He has a four-month backlog of custom orders and admits, “I’m always looking for interested and able assistants. It is very physical work and requires craftsmanship, strength and attention to detail, but it beats swinging a hammer.”

McKay is a former construction worker who worked and learned from the original owner Steve Fernand, and then bought the business in 2006.

“The learning curve on just what it takes to run a business has been huge,” he said. “But it was a logical progression once I learned from Steve, and he was interested in selling and moving on to other things.”

“The Fernand brand name is well-established and we get customers by word of “foot” as Steve used to say,” said McKay.

Fernand started the Comfoot Shoe line in 1978 and the business has been in Benzonia since 1987. There is a large file of “shoe love letters” from satisfied customers raving about their shoes and often wanting another pair and catalogs to pass onto their family and friends.

Although the 60-hour workweeks have been a surprise to McKay, he sees the business as an important link to his personal beliefs of sustainability and concerns about the environment.

“It’s been a pleasant surprise that people are more conscious of where and how the products they buy are being made. I’m really glad to see that. The product sells itself. I could probably move the business anywhere and customers would find me.”

McKay chose Benzonia for its small town qualities. “I ride my unicycle a few blocks to work all year around, it’s a good place to raise my 15-year-old daughter, I play music in a local band when I can and, for now, that all fits. I’m hoping in a few years to run the shop with alternative energy and go off the electrical grid, and that’s entirely possible here.”

For those wanting to forgo the custom shoe wait time, there are several styles available in the “shoe room” including loafer and oxford styles and sandals. McKay is also expanding a line of handmade leather purses and pouches. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Saturday year-round, he will also take appointments if customers call first.

Check out www.fernandfootwear.com, or call 800-419-8621.BN