These Shoes Better Be Made For Walking

I may have a lot to do before long.

I'm not good at buying sneakers. I don't think I'm a cheap person, but there are certain things I don't like spending big money on. Sneakers are among them.

So I usually go cheap. And have to replace my purchase a few months later. It also takes no time until they start to smell like a friggin' bog, that may be a whole other issue.

The last time I went shopping for sneakers, I said to myself "Self, for once, go all out and spend more than $17 on a pair of sneakers. Live a little, dawg!"

And I did. I spent about $33!

It didn't help. Those sneakers sucked too. They might have lasted a little longer but only marginally so. And some peice of plastic (or something) broke in the back at some point, inside, and is gashing the back of my foot mercilessly. Verily, a walk to my mailbox has turned into a bloodbath.

Ah, but now I'm taking the plunge for real!

I recently came across a site called simpleshoes.com. They sell...huh...shoes. As you might have guessed, they sell "ecosneakers" among other types of footwear made from recycled tires, organic cotton, etc.

I've actually looked into this before. A couple of the natural product stores I've been to have had more "naturally produced" sneakers on display. They're usually a little more expensive than a mini-van and uglier than a bowling shoe. Both of those factors caused my interest to be minimalized.

But I'm pretty pleased with the Simple Shoes selection. So I went ahead and ordered a pair today.




Some details:

Just because a shoe is planet-friendly doesn’t mean that it has to look like a hippie clod-hopper. So we’ve developed a line of sustainable sneakers called ecoSNEAKS™. The men's Sno Tire is made from these sustainable materials:

Washed leather and organic cotton canvas uppers

Organic cotton linings

PET laces

PET pedbeds

Yes, that outsole used to be a car tire

Vulcanized rubber sidewall, toecap, and heelcap

100% post consumer paper pulp foot forms

Your new favorite sneaker.

I'm going to pretend for a moment that i actually knew what PET was and share that peice of information with you too:

...recycled plastic bottles are collected to create PET (polyethyleneterephthalate)...

Gesundheit.

I hope I'm pleased with my purchase because they're probably going to see some severe use. Earlier this year, a lady that works for the same company I do added a link at the bottom of her e-mails which led to her Weekend to End Breast Cancer team page. Remembering how encouraging I found it when people contributed to my CN Tower Climb last year, I decided to make a small donation to one of her teammates.

I happened to speak to that teammate recently and asked about the walk. Discussing it made it seem like an interesting challenge.

The Weekend to End Breast Cancer benefiting the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation is your chance to discover what it means to be a hero. During one amazing weekend, June 6-8, 2008, thousands of women and men will join forces in Ottawa to walk 60 kilometres and make a real difference in the fight to end breast cancer.

60 kilometres over two days. I'm strongly considering it. I heard that every mile you walk adds an hour to your life. After this, I'll be damn near immortal.

That'd be cool.