Lots a great comments to me personally (though none posted) about Andrea's Winged Sunglasses art project from Happy Hour last Thursday. Here's a few more! Steve, Andy, Chris Jerry, Brian, Meg, Brett, Richard, Thad and Tony himself! You're all ready for Bingo Night at the Trop!

So, Andrea.... what will you be doing for the next happy hour?

Andrea C. brought these spiffy sunglasses to the last Zappos Happy Hour and managed to get shots of many interesting people wearing them. This series is of members of Merchandising's Casual Lifestyle time (C-Life). At the happy hour there were many things to celebrate, one of which being Shyloh's promotion to Buyer. Another one: Galen, Mr. Capital G himself, was promoted to Senior Director of both Casual Lifestyle and Performance! Way to go, boss!

More sunglasses photos will follow! I understand there's one or two of our VP of Merch as well as our Senior Corporate Counsel. Great job, Andrea!

There are countless reasons why people move to Las Vegas and, while each of our justifications are wildly different, here are my top five:

1) Zappos.com

2) The weather from October thru May

3) 24/7 partying

4) The Shopping

5) You can get a direct flight to almost any location from
here and vice versa.

My top two reasons for living in Las Vegas came into perfect harmony on Sunday afternoon at a Kids’ team tailgate prior to the Las Vegas 51's game. Members of the Kids team and their families came together to eat, drink, and be merry while cheering on our local team.

Zappos has made community involvement a huge priority, and in
the small realm of baseball, we not only sponsor the 51’s, but we are also active
sponsors of the Henderson Little League program! Moreover, we have a team of Zappos folks that get together weekly for a softball league.

We sure serve up a fine balance of work and play around
here! Everyone had a great time at the tailgate
and at the game (the proof is in the pictures B-) ).

BEFORE

AFTER

Thank you to everyone involved in this great event!

Today we handed out our 2008 Zappos.com Print Ad Creative postcards
to Vegas employees! They are a sampling of some of the visuals being
used in our print ad campaign, which hit the newsstands this week!

All employees received five cards to send anywhere to anyone in the world! (I suggested we send them all to Val Kilmer. I don't really know why. First person that popped in my head.)In true creative service/marketing style, we just wheeled them around the office in a wagon and dove headlong into the seas of madness that are the CLT and Merchandising Floors.

Our Creative Service and Marketing crazies filled the aisles in a very non-disruptive.....well, ok, rather disruptive manner to hand bundles of postcards to the un-suspecting masses. Every employee has been given free reign to do what they want with them...who knows, you may be receiving one yourself!
These cards are a part of the 2008 Zappos.com Print Ad Creative, which is also coming along the same time as our brand spankin' new television commercial that began airing a few weeks ago. It is airing on multiple networks throughout the U.S. T.V.-O-Sphere, maybe you've seen one....if not, and if you're nice, I'll post it right below. I'm considering it......I'm considering it.....alright, you won me over. But barely. : )
It's a great new direction for us and we are very excited about it!
Anyway, back to filling out postcards, I'm sending one to my favorite
New Kid on the Block! (I won't say who)

In the spirit of Zappos Core Value #5, Pursue Growth and Learning, Jeanne and I took a group of Assistant Buyers, Merchandising Assistants and members of our Product Information team from Casual Lifestyle on a one-day, turn-around round trip to Southern California to tour the Magdesians shoe factory. One of only a few left in California, the Magdesian family was gracious enough to open their doors to us.

They have an incredible laser cutting machine that eliminates the need for costly dies and is also 30% more efficient in terms of raw materials. For those of you who don't know, a die is, in essence, a metal "cookie cutter" traditionally used to cut the upper pattern from a sheet of leather or other material. As each size and width combination required a separate die, this is one of the highest costs to a manufacturer in production. By using this new technology, Magdesians can keep the costs, and in turn, the retail prices of their U.S. made shoes significantly more affordable.

Thank you VERY much, Magdesians! It was a great trip and very educational for all!

Let’s play a quick game of word association with the operative word being princess. For me, the following things come to mind: princess cut diamonds, my new title when Prince Harry decides to marry me, glitzy tiaras, etc. Others may think of Disney princesses and go-to Halloween costumes for the Infant/Toddler crowd. However, on rare occasions events take place which require us to reevaluate our internal definitions of given words.



A pivotal event took place here at Zappos.com in March that forever changed our idea of what we associate with the word princess. During the first ever Kids Expo, an event put together where brand reps from a given category commence at Zappos to enhance brand awareness among our Customer Loyalty Team (or CLT if you will), a couple members of the Kids team decided to redefine what it means to be a princess.

I present to you Matt and Stephen from Kid’s Product Information…

Ohhh how they dazzle in pastels!! Thanks for the memories guys! Matt and Stephen are available for hire on a
case-by-case basis. I know for certain they accept bribes in the form of Zollars and Grey Goose for anyone that is interested! ;\