Check out some new houseware items and brands that are coming soon to Zappos.com

Our friends at Mizuno came by the office last week to show off their Mobile Running Lab, which houses their signature Precision Fit Machine and every shoe size imaginable. Over 20 Zappos team members received a biomechanical running analysis to valuate several different aspects of their gait, foot arch, posture etc. The purpose of the Precision Fit Machine is to help runners find the perfect Mizuno Running shoe to fit their feet. A big thanks to Mizuno for coming out and helping get us ready for the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon!

We are happy to announce that our Customer Loyalty lead Jean D. has implemented the Internet Vendor Mentor program. This new program allows our vendors the opportunity to listen in on phone calls from our customers regarding questions about their respective categories. For example, if one of our rideshop vendors wants to hear questions that our customers are asking about skate shoes, they can sit in with representatives of our rideshop business unit. We currently have 5 business units: Kids, Outdoor, Running, Comfort and Rideshop.

Great job, Jean!

We have a very diverse culture at Zappos, with many people from all parts of the world. We thought it would be fun to see what accents people would want to have if they had a choice.

We went around the office and asked, "If you could have one accent, what would it be?"

Mike, aka "Soleman" got a new pair of shoes yesterday, and they are whipping him into shape. We got a quick interview with Mike and Myra to see what the Skecher's Shape Ups are all about.

As you may already know by now, the Zappos office if full of pranksters. We've had pranks ranging from olive filled marshmallows to confetti catapults, but today Mikal is bringing back the classics with the old spider from the ceiling trick. EEK! I hate spiders! That prank used to get me every time. Thank you Mikal for bringing prankster back old school.

I'll be having the Spinach and Bacon Scramble with Gouda Cheese, but what do you like for breakfast?

Please Comment Below!!

The wonderful Mayor of Zappos turned 59 yesterday and the help desk team decided to do something extra special for his special day. At Zappos co-workers often decorate each others desks for their birthday, but this one was over the top! Could you think of a much more exciting way to be surprised on your birthday than a cubicle full of balloons and a homemade pumpkin cheesecake?!? I think not.

Happy Birthday Jerry!

Rachael and Ray are usually seen running all around the Zappos office, delivering packages to everyone. The receiving department is constantly busy with deliveries, so when they have a few extra minutes, they like to enjoy a quick game of basketball.

Ray came up with a great contraption for their basketball hoop, and from the looks of things, Rachael is teaching him a thing or two about the game.

What was the best concert you have ever been to? Lets see what concerts Zapponians claim to be the best ever!

Guess what...Lucille's weight!

Over the past five years every visitor that has passed through the Zappos headquarters has left their sticker badge behind and all of those stickers formed our beloved badge ball in front of the 2280 building named Lucille. Lucille was created by our very own Rosalind S. and with her help and determination Lucille grew into the massive sticker ball that she is today. Just by looking at the circular mass of visitor passes, you can clearly see that we've had an insanely large amount of people to come through in the last few years!

In celebration of Lucille's 4th birthday, the help desk is holding a competition to see who can guess the weight Lucille will be on August 31st. It's only a week away, so if you would like to win a super awesome prize, head on over to the help desk and start guessing!

Thank you Roz and all of our visitors for keeping Lucille going. I'm excited to see what she'll look like 4 years from now.

At Zappos, we are all about customer service... and pranks of course! Bill J. shows us, as well as a few unsuspecting coworkers his latest contraption.

KY Content sponsored the Safety Core Value activity in July with hosting the first Safety Idol at the Kentucky location. The focus was to incorporate fun and a little weirdness, and increase the awareness of safety in the fulfillment center.
To enter the contest, teams of up to four employees, were faced with the challenge of putting safety topics in the flow of a rap…...which had to include the word HOOPLA!

HOOPLA is:
H - Healthy work habits equal Healthy Employees!

O - Observing the Core Values!

O - Organization that empowers individuals to be an active part of Safety!

P - Personal Protective Equipment!

L - Learning about Safety is Fun!

A - Awareness is the key to Success!

With a unanimous vote, Andrew Kim, Jimmy Music and Nick Catt, won the Safety Idol and also appeared live and presented their new hit single HOOPLA at the all hands meeting in July. The room rocked and gave a standing ovation at the completion of the rap performance, which was the opening act for Tony, Alfred and Fred to then address the group.

Way to go, Fellas!


written by: Leah Morris

Brett H is many things, a Son, Brother, Musician, Blogger, and social media guru. That wasn't enough for Brett however, so he turned to Pug Love. In the past 6 months a strange transformation has occurred to our lead blogger, and we wanted to sit down with him and find out why. Please know that this interview is raw and completely uncut, and should be taken very seriously. Again, I warn you , this is not for the faint of heart.

On August 10th Boy Scout Troop 868 performed a flag raising ceremony here at our Zappos KY Fulfillment Center. The brief ceremony was observed by several Zappos employees as well as the family members of the scouts. Following the ceremony the scouts and their families enjoyed lunch and a tour of our fulfillment center.

Thank you Troop 868!

Something must be in the water here at Zappos because we have a lot of expecting mothers walking around the office. Sarah from Finance is due in a few short weeks and the finance team thought it would be nice to shower her with gifts and Mexican Food her favorite.

Congratulations Sarah!

The Blogs team is responsible for putting content on the blogs page, but that's not all we do. We are actually known internally as the A/V or "Audio Visual Club" We film product knowledge seminars for our CLT counterparts, as well as create videos for the presentations of our fellow Zapponians. Recently, we were asked by Craig A, our VP of Services and Operations to produce an updated video of our FC to show in the front lobby of our Henderson, NV office. We were happy to do so, and we hope everyone enjoys the new video.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, The Zappos.com Fulfillment Center!

I love Granola! That's why I didn't hesitate to enter in Foozdie's Facebook Granola Bark giveaway! Foodzie posted: Lisa's Cookie Shop, a NY Times reviewed baker, has a new Cranberry Honey Nut Granola Bark we think you should taste. Tell us how you would enjoy it in the comments, and we'll pick a winner at the end of the day!


So I replied, and I won! YAY! Oh, and I forgot that in my reply I promised to make everyone do a jig for a piece or granola...I'll make up for it, promise.

Welcome to the first installment of "What's your favorite?" We go around and ask the serious questions about the serious stuff (Food, Clothes, Cars, Movies, Music, etc.) Today we asked Zapponians what their favorite toy was as a child. We know this is a tough question, so we narrowed it down to your favorite toy when you were 8-10 years old. There are a lot of responses, see if they match yours!

If you want to know what the Zappos Team is crazy about, comment below!

Every year, Zappos teams up with the NCCF to donate backpacks to 100 children with life threatening illnesses. This year Zappos distributed 271 backpacks to kids in need.

I'll let Jamie N. tell you about!

The Kentucky warehouse closed down completely for 2 hours on Wednesday June 24th, 2009, which is almost unheard of in Zappos-Land! Everyone gathered in Sheperdsville, KY for the the 10th Anniversary All Hands Meeting.

One of the hightlights of the meeting was the Time Capsule that was created especially for Zappos. All the departments brought a box filled with treasures to place in the huge metal box.

We watched a documentary created by the video department of team members sharing their stories on how Zappos.com has grown in such a short time. We had food and drinks for all, along with a performance of the winning “Spirit Week” cheer performed by the Photo Department.

All team members were paid to attend this meeting! What? Yep! Paid to party!
THE MOST AWESOME PLACE TO WORK!



written by: Rhonda F.
photographs by: Ashley P.

Here at the KY Fulfillment Center we had the opportunity to give to several families in need by providing children with Zappos backpacks filled with school supplies as well as two new pairs of shoes through our Second Annual Back to School Drive. This drive benefited the Bullitt County Public Elementary Schools. Zappos employees and members of the community donated the school supplies and purchased the shoes through our Outlet Store. Thank you to everyone involved for all the generosity and hard work that went in to making this possible!

We know it's only been two days, but we already miss Renee N. aka @Monkeylove. Renee wore many hats during her career at Zappos, including Trainer, order verification guru, quality assurance specialist, as well as co-creator of Bald, Blue and Tattooed day! Loren B. aka @BigLb, had the opportunity of sitting down with Renee on her last day to ask her a few questions before she opens the next chapter of her life.

P.S. Follow @Monkeylove !

Some people get tattoos to remember something or someone significant in their life, others do it just for something different to do on a whim one day. In this latest video of Zappos employees and their tattoos', several more employees show off their tattoos, and tell some of their stories behind them.

Zappos.com pledged to donate 100 backpacks stuffed full of school supplies for the the children of the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. However, with the help of Zappos employees, we were able to pack 266 backpacks with everything a child would need to get through the school year.

We're very excited to see their faces when they come to pick them up!

Our Zappos Customer Loyalty Department decided to Tune in and Drop out last week when they celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival.

They created tie-dye Zappos shirts, had a baking contest and dressed the part of a hippie extraordinaire straight out of 1969.

Far out, everyone!

That's right. Duct tape is all the rage in the Zappos office and last week we had several Zapponians model these one-of-a-kind handmade couture pieces.

Though all the duct tape outfits were amazing in their own way, only one could be named the winner. Drum roll please. . . And the winners of the first annual duct tape challenge goes to team 6pm for their duct tape kimono! Way to go 6pm!

Since all of the entries were amazing, we have some honorable mentions:

Best Team Design: Clothes.com – Each member on this team created a square for this Zappos themed ball gown.
Best Zappos Theme: Team Helen for their white core value cocktail dress.
Most Amazing Construction: Designer Fashion for their Alexander McQueen inspired dress.
Best Team Theme: Team Canada with their maple leaf fabulous ensemble.
Most Functional Piece: Team Scheduling with their hippie vest and shorts. The shorts came with a zipper and pockets.
Most Likely to Cause Harm: Team Jesse’s Warrior outfit
Most Likely to Cause Happiness: Team Jean’s bee costume (not shown)
Best Non Eligible Entry (judges): Cruise Ships teal and black dress

Merchandise Planning Analyst Ashley M. was pleasantly surprised today with a fruit bouquet from her partners on the Performance Buying Team. How sweet are they! Keep them coming, the entire team enjoys them :) With the buyers creativity and Ashley's smarts and guidance, Performance is guaranteed to be a continued success!

Ashley was also the Merchandise Planning Superstar last quarter – well deserved indeed...Yay Ashley!

The sun rose Wednesday just as it does every day in Henderson, Nevada, but we all knew the day would end much differently than others we've seen before. Several team members had trouble sleeping the night before due to the anticipation caused by the 2009 Zappos egg drop. 16 teams entered to wage war against gravity, and several later bathed in victory. A few on the other hand, cracked due to the pressure of competition. All in all, it was an "Egg-streme" Showdown.

Zappos has 10 Core Values that affect everything we do here at the office. We use these as part of our hiring process, in the way we deal with our customers, the way we treat vendors and also in the way we deal with other employees and everyone that comes through our office. You could say it's just a part of our way of life here at Zappos.

Here at Zappos, our employees are not only empowered to do whatever it takes to take care of our customers, but they are also encouraged to give feedback and show appreciation to fellow employees. The core value trinket program is just one of the ways we can congratulate a co-worker on a job well done.

The Zappos Customer Loyalty Team works 24 hours a day/seven days a week, doing everything they can to take care of our customers. So when they get a chance to get out and have a good time, they sure know how to party, people! This week they had a happy hour to have some fun and recognize their co-workers for a job well done.

We all ate a lot, played games, like beer pong and pool, gave out awards to celebrate some of their accomplishments, and like all Zappos parties, had a few drinks.

The Zappos Coed Softball team placed 2nd in their division last week with a record of 11-3. We Congratulate Coach Patrick S. and all of our players in capturing the greatest season in Zappos Softball History!

The Players (as they appear in the video):
Catie S.
Jessica V.
Jason C.
Rob S.
Sean C.
Latrira S.
Nicole S.
Erin J.
Patrick S.
Lauren C.
Rich E.
Pat W.

That's right! Bill Me Later and Zappos.com have chosen a winner to our $2500 Household CEO shopping spree! We asked: What does it take to fill your shoes as a Household CEO? Lisa Roberts replied with the video below, and it appears as though she has some pretty big shoes to fill. So Lisa, enjoy your shopping spree and make sure you give all your kids an Oscar for their award winning performances.

In second place with a prize of $250 is the oh so funny, Rebecca Gunnell and we have 2 honorable mentions who each get $100 shopping sprees – Devon Fleming and Carla Birnberg! YAY!

A big thank you to all who submitted a video and keep up the good work Household CEOs!

Click HERE to view all of the entries.

In this next video of "First jobs of Zappos employees," we talk to several more employees about those crazy jobs they did when they were young. No matter if it was working for your parent's business or scooping ice cream at an ice cream shop, we all those first jobs and the crazy stories that came along with them.

Lee Jones stopped by the Zappos headquarters while he was in Las Vegas and I decided that it would be a good opportunity for me to sit down and chat and get a few professional tips on the game of poker. I've never been a huge poker player, I blame it mainly on my lack of a poker face and somewhat on my lack of knowledge, but regardless, I need all the pointers I can get.

That's right, I said it. I'm gonna challenge Lee Jones himself in a game on online poker on cakepoker.com. As of right now, the odds aren't looking so good, but after I read "Winning Low Limit Hold'em" and practice a bit (good thing I live in Vegas) I should be able to hold my ground.

iJustine, a good friend of Zappos, stopped in with her two sisters last week and had a big time touring the office and getting into everything!

Zappos is always working on finding better ways to take care of our customers. One of the ways we do that is by continuing to build upon the products we carry, and finding different lines that are customers are interested in.

One of the newest categories we have is our Housewares department. We have several categories within the department that can help you in any room in the house. Here are some of the categories we have so far: Cookware, cutlery, bed & bath, kitchen electronics, dining and home decor. So no matter if you are looking to redecorate your bedroom, or need to find that special wedding gift, we can help.

So, in honor of our housewares department taking Zappos by storm, we gave them their own conference room to decorate!

Having a fun and creative culture like we have at Zappos, employees are allowed to show off their individual personalities. Many of the employees show off their personalities through tattoos. There are a lot of amazing tattoos here at Zappos, and Leilani's are at the top of the list.

With her Pantera and Evil Dead Trilogy tats, Leilani has won multiple awards and has been featured in a few magazines! In this latest edition of Tattoo You, Leilani shows off her work and tells us some of the stories behind her ink.

Geek week has officially come to an end, but the geeks in our lives will continue to stay just as they are. And it's a good thing too, because Zappos.com will cease to exist without them.

In honor of Global Geek Week and The Society for Geek Advancement and the Summer of Social Good charity, I present to you the Geeks of Zappos.

You can check out all the videos in response to mashable.com's announcement by clicking here!

Yesterday, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht filmed episode #215 of diggnation at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV, with their very special guest, Ashton Kutcher. A few of us from the Zappos headquarters attended the event, and I must say, it was pretty awesome! Love the diggnation.

Oh, and thanks Klondike for the free Klondike Bar!

Zappos.com just recently turned 10 years old, and we celebrated with our ten year anniversary/vendor party. During our ten years, we've had several customers that have shopped with us every year since our inception. One of those customers is Mary Ellen. We invited Mary Ellen and her husband, Robert, to join us this week in Las Vegas to celebrate. We really enjoyed having them here!

Thank you both for taking the time to come celebrate with us!

The Mashable Social Good Conference will be held on August 28, and Zappos wants you to go!

Below is a post from Mashable.com.Click here for ticket information, dates and times!

Mashable is proud to announce the first ever Social Good Conference. The Social Good Conference, being held at the prestigious 92nd Street Y in New York City on August 28th, will be a one-day educational event celebrating the finale of the Summer of Social Good charitable campaign. The conference will feature presentations from well known and respected organizations and professionals within the space focused on the theme of “Social Media for Social Good”.

Thanks to our sponsors, Zappos and MailChimp, 100% of all ticket sales will go to our Summer of Social Good non-profit
fund!

Nothing brings a team closer together than good fun and good food, and thanks to Dream Dinners we had both.

Last week the marketing, design and blog team got together for a team building event at Dream Dinners where we all made a 6-serving dinner of our choice that we could then take home, throw it in our freezers and prepare whenever we're craving a delicious homemade meal, but aren't wanting to do the vegetable chopping and shopping before hand.

We also had a boys v. girls cook-off and contrary to popular belief the boys proved to be far more experienced in the kitchen than the girls. The Boys made a southern inspired meal with barbecue chicken, cream corn, garlic mashed potatoes and garlic bread – I must say that I was very impressed. The girls decided to go the Italian route and made a baked penne pasta with pesto and artichoke and baked salmon in a white wine, pesto and lemon marinade. Though the boys won by a few points we all left happy and full – so I'd say it was a tie.

Thanks Dream Dinners for the wonderful outing!

If you're short on time but aren't wanting to go through the drive-thru let Dream Dinners help you out with your next homemade meal. Check out www.dreamdinners.com for the location near you.

Zappos and Mail Chimp are sponsoring Mashable.com's Summer of Social Good, and we have another great series of events to tell you about!

The #Hyatt4Good Tweetup Tour! Visiting New York, Denver, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Boston...come hang out and have a drink for a good cause!

Click below for ticket information:
http://mashable.com/hyatt4good/

We love our Vendors, truly we do. And just to show how much we love 'em for taking a chance on us and for their huge help in making us what we are today, we throw a huge annual party in their honor. Last thursday was our 5th annual vendor party / Zappos' 10 year Anniversary party! The theme of this years event was happiness and if happiness could be placed in a bottle and unleashed at a club, that would have been it. From cotton candy, to hamster balls in the pool to Zappos boxes full of candy, fairy cocktail waitresses, yogis, arcade games and free drinks - the vendor party had it all.

Thanks again to all of our vendors for helping Zappos.com deliver happiness for many years to come.

The announcement below is from Mashable.com, or click here! Zappos.com is a sponsor for the Summer of Social Good, and we are very excited about this!

The Society for Geek Advancement and the Summer of Social Good charity fund are proud to announce Global Geek Week, including a week-long YouTube (YouTube) video competition.

Submit your geek inspired video to the Global Geek Week YouTube Group for the chance to win two roundtrip main cabin tickets to anywhere Virgin America flies, with Gogo passes so you can use WiFi to blog about the experience. Our Judges, including Guy Kawasaki, Shira Lazar, Hank Green of Vlogbrothers, Marina Orlova of TooHotForWords, puzzle champion Wei-Hwa Huang and Lisa Donovan aka LisaNova, will pick and announce the winners on Friday.

In addition, all week long we’re encouraging you to tweet and share how geeks can change the world (include the hashtag “#Geeks4Good”). Donate and keep up-to-date with video submissions, check out the twittervision global #geeks4good map and more at globalgeekweek.com. “Embrace your inner geek and give back!”

What's more fun than good old fashioned fried chicken, potato salad, corn hole games and a badminton match? Add a water balloon fight and the chance of getting struck by lighting and you've got the quarterly KY Content team outing!! Members of the photo, imaging, video and styling teams at the Zappos fulfillment center in Shepherdsville, KY ventured out into what looked like sunshine for an afternoon of fun, food and games at Bernheim Forest. Though we were rained out in the end, we left with full bellies, smiles and another team photo to add to our scrapbooks. See you in Quarter 3 everyone!



written by: Laura S.
photo by: Michele K.

One of the many great things about having a culture class here at Zappos, is that there are so many great culture ideas that come from it. The two teams from this last class each came up with a great way to get everyone involved in building culture.

Earlier in the week, one of the teams put on their "Mad Hatter Tea Party." This gave everyone a chance to hang out, socialize and have some fun together. The other team from the class just rolled out their "Stairway to Culture" project. They took an empty stairway at the office, and turned it into an area that everyone can decorate and show how they feel about the culture.

These types of things show that you don't need to spend a bunch of money to get people involved and having fun at work. Culture is about the people and the environment that is created when everyone enjoys being together.

What is better than having Edward Cullen by your side...NOTHING really, but a birthday potluck comes close! The Merchandise Planning team celebrates their fearless leader's birthday today with yummy dishes and desserts. She will continue the celebration tonight at the XS nightclub, 3000 people are expected to attend her birthday party. Happy Birthday Amara!