Nothing But Shoes

Nike Basketball Air Force Commercial

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Steve Nash’s new basketball shoes are pure trash. And he’s proud of it.

The environmentally conscious Phoenix Suns star unveiled his new Nike “Trash Talk” shoe at this weekend’s all-star game, and it’s made entirely of manufactured scraps.

“I think it’s a great project,” Nash said. “I think it’s great for creating awareness, and whether this shoe goes a long way toward curbing global warming or not, it’s the idea, it’s a step in the right direction if you will, and I’m excited about that.”

He wore the shoes Saturday for the Western Conference team’s practice in preparation for Sunday’s NBA all-star game.

The shoe is modelled after Nash’s current shoe, the Nike Zoom BB II, and sells for about US$100.

Nike says the Trash Talk is the first performance basketball shoe made from recycled materials.

The 34-year-old Nash said Nike approached him about the idea.

“I think they followed the fact that my foundation and myself personally has been interested in conserving, and being careful of carbon footprint and all the different things that are a threat to our planet and its sustainability,” Nash said. “So they asked me if I was into because of all the other things I’ve into, and I said ‘Of course.”‘

The shoe’s top is constructed from leather and synthetic leather waste from the factory floor. The midsole uses scrap-ground foam from factory production, while the outer sole uses a type of environmentally-friendly rubber that reduces toxins.

The shoes, of course, come packaged in a recyclable cardboard box.

“I think it’s exciting,” Nash said. “I think it also sets a precedent for the future, not only for Nike but for other companies to explore conserving, reusing and recycling.”

Nike, based in Beaverton, Ore., said the shoe meets its “considered design standards” in terms of durability.

Source The Canadian Press

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Footwear is the one thing you had better get right when you meet the god of shoes. Louboutin, a short, balding 43-year-old Parisian, is the designer of the “it” shoe: fabulously sexy skyscraper heels with $600-plus price tags.
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Even if you don’t know him by name, you probably know his shoe. His trademark is a red lacquered sole, which is flashed on the red carpet by Hollywood devotees from Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie to Hayden Panettiere and Ashley Olsen. Even Oprah Winfrey wears a pair on set. (It’s said Louboutin makes every celeb pay for her shoes. No freebies!)

When Louboutin appeared recently at Neiman Marcus at Scottsdale Fashion Square to greet his fans and sign the soles of their newly purchased shoes, I got to interview him one-on-one.

For the uninitiated, this would be like biking with Lance Armstrong. Making biscuits for Paula Dean. Throwing a party for Martha Stewart.

Naturally, I assumed that I’d be judged by my shoes and that if things went really, really well - I mean, best-case scenario - I would be invited to go with him to Paris, where I’d get wrapped up in his crazy world of footwear. I could pen his biography or put his shoes in alphabetical order or drink espresso with him at a cafe on the Champs-Élysées - whatever needed to be done.

My most fashionable friends told me I should wear Louboutins, but I thought that was a bit brown-nosey. Regardless, I don’t own any, and, in the four years since I graduated from college, I haven’t amassed a mortgage-size stash of cash to buy any.

Aren’t we heading into a recession, anyway?

If the shoe fits . . .

I’m the kind of girl who’d rather buy eight $80 pairs of shoes over time, rather than one $640 pair, which is about the price of entry-level Louboutins.

I surveyed my closet: simple black leather pumps (look like they’ve been through a wood chipper), brown suede kitten heels with pumpkin-colored patent leather and little animal-print belts across the toes (too crazy), and Tory Burch ballerina flats (OK, they’re knockoffs).

The pair with the most promise were black patent pumps from H&M, which didn’t look cheap but, as it turned out, were. The poor dears broke two weeks before the interview, crippled, perhaps, by the stress of meeting a man who works magic with patent.

I realized I needed a new pair of shoes, which was horrifying because I have been known to spend years finding a pair that I like. Just ask my mom.

I never planned to buy Louboutins, but I wanted to know what the fuss was all about, so I went to Neiman Marcus, where the nicest shoe-department manager, Arleigh Balizado, helped me try on nearly a dozen pairs.

In my role as a fashion reporter and stylist for the Yes section of The Arizona Republic, I’ve slipped Louboutins on models’ feet, but never my own. When I stood up wearing Louboutin’s famous 5-inch heels, with soles that slope like waterfalls, I felt like a baby giraffe taking her first steps - awkward, with no balance.

But then I got the hang of it, and strutted around in pointy and round-toe pumps, black patent d’Orsay heels (a style with the sides cut away, leaving just the heel and toe covered) and magenta satin slides. Other women who were trying on shoes fawned over mine.

“Look at your calf muscles,” Balizado said while I stood in front of a giant mirror. “You’re walking sexier already!”

(I wanted to take him shopping with me everywhere!)

For the first time, I tried on a pair of shoes with a comma in the price tag: Louboutin’s $1,735 pink satin booties, covered in rhinestones. I looked like Barbie.

I wanted them all, including the booties, which I would leave near my front door to freak out my friends.

Skyscraper heels aren’t the only thing Louboutin designs, but I feel like I’m among friends here and can say that it’s what he does best. Espadrilles, kitten heels and sensible flats are also part of his collection. He designs handbags, too.

Louboutin began making shoes after being inspired by showgirls. He grew up in a working-class Paris neighborhood and hung around music halls as a teen, according to his official biography. When he was 16, he tried to sell his first shoes to the women there. Eventually, he went to work for an important shoe designer named Robert Vivier and then opened his own boutique in Paris in 1992.

He still prefers to see his shoes on performers, such as Tina Turner.

Well-heeled, for a day

It’s true what Balizado said: You walk differently when you’re wearing Louboutins. Sure, they’re fun and sexy, and the red sole is eye catching. But there’s something about the height of the heel and the curve of the arch that sets up the rest of your body in this fantastic way.

Louboutin put it into words when we met: Great shoes must be able to appear, then disappear.

After my research at Neiman Marcus, I headed to other stores, where I tried on orange patent wedges, strappy high heels with purple fabric roses and loads of black pumps.

I found an incredible pair of black patent wedges, with a twist, at the Michael Kors store at Scottsdale Fashion Square. The heels have triangular cutouts - a huge trend for spring - lined in shiny metal. At $230, they were also a splurge, but I knew Christian would want me to have them.

They are appropriately named Danger. Google them. Buy them immediately if you have $230 to spend on shoes.

Back at home, where the wedges sat still in their box inside the shopping bag at the foot of my bed, I began to feel guilty. I do have $230 to spend on shoes, I reasoned, just not on a single pair. I thought about the gladiator sandals, summery espadrilles, new gym shoes and basic black pumps that I’d have to deny myself in order to have Danger in my life.

I mindlessly ate most of a stack of Ritz crackers while I imagined the near future with this pair only. At the beach. At the grocery store for an ice-cream run. On a treadmill at the gym.

If you’ve ever had to return something that you really like but for whatever reason can’t have, you know how much I was dreading going back to Michael Kors.

They’re just not in my budget, I said, as I handed my receipt to the store manager, who knew why I had bought them.

Then I went next door to the Steve Madden store, where I unceremoniously bought a pair of peep-toe T-strap heels that I had tried on a few days before. Called the Pascha sandal, they’re classy black leather heels in a manageable height and cost $90. I’ve worn them every day since.

On my toes

On the morning of the interview, I am led to a private room at Neiman Marcus, where Louboutin is sitting on a couch, surrounded by shoe boxes. He is signing his name and drawing hearts on the soles of shoes that have been pre-purchased, before he heads to the shoe department to make his public appearance.

He doesn’t look at me when I walk in and sit next to him, but he eventually warms up. For a second, we are just two friends chatting about shoes.

“I love new shoes,” he says, taking a break from signing. “I must have something like 300 pairs, at least.”

I learn that he has delicate feet and hates to wear sneakers because he finds them constricting. He tells me that he looks at a woman’s face before her feet.

I don’t ask him what he thinks of my face, but at the end of the interview, I stand up and ask him what he thinks of my shoes. I have to know.

He leans back into the couch.

“I think they’re very nice. They fit you well,” he says, which isn’t what you say when you love someone’s shoes.

He touches his toe to mine and says, “I really started this construction.”

It’s true - a covered platform is one of his signatures, but I hadn’t thought about that when I bought the Steve Maddens. I can’t tell whether he is flattered or annoyed.

He says he expected to see bows on my feet, which is strange because I hate things with bows. Even stranger: On the day that I tried on Louboutins at Neiman Marcus, my favorite was the black patent d’Orsay heels with architectural, squared-off bows on the toes.

Then it’s over. No invitation to Paris.

I didn’t ask him about the shoes he was wearing, but later I found out his was a much better story than mine:

His flight to Phoenix the night before had been delayed, and his luggage containing all of his shoes never made it here.

He wore Prada sandals that he got from Neiman Marcus that morning. The man has more than 300 shoes - he probably had a specific pair in mind for that day - and all of them were thousands of miles away.

No wonder he wasn’t all that concerned with mine.

Source The Arizona Republic

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