Carla (our sock buyer), Janelle (one of our customer loyalty representatives), Jay (our Product Info guy for Athletic) and I had a great opportunity to go out to Burlington, North Carolina, to see the life of a sock – Well, how a sock is crafted anyway. We were fortunate to go on this trip because of the good heart of the Wrightenberry Mills peeps. Tom Weber, our main man at Wrightsock (Tom R O C K S!), came to our ‘Treat your Feet Expo’ (an expo we hold for our employees that gets them familiar with all the brands and products we have on the site) we had at Zappos the end of last year. Tom offered up a trip to NC for us and a lucky raffle winner – TOTALLY AWESOME and really, really generous – So, Thanks Wrightsock!

You have no idea how crazy the whole process of making socks is until you go to a sock mill. WOW! The machinery, the rolls and rolls and rolls and rolls and rolls and rolls and rolls of yarn, the amount of people that physically touch a good quality sock- All of it, absolutely unreal. Wrightsock is a double-layer sock that adopts the idea of two pieces of fabric that rub against each other rather than one piece of fabric rubbing against your skin AND it wicks moisture away from the foot – BLISTER FREE, and it totally works.

Just about our entire Zappos team used them for the JanSport 8000m Challenge last fall and I personally have become a HUGE believer in the product for running. Wrightsock Double-Layer Rocks!

Attack of the killer Baby Jogger! It reminds me of stories my mother would tell me about throwing me in the car and driving loops around the block because being in the car just made me fall asleep faster. Every time I throw my girls in this sleep contraption called a Baby Jogger, they fall asleep – completely funny. They go from being completely excited and energized about going on a run to falling into a deep sleep within three or four miles…super funny. In any case, it happened again today – Just thought I would let you know.

BTW, I just learned that we’ll be carrying Baby Joggers on the site soon!!!! For all you runners out there that want to drain the energy out of your kids in a single bound – you too will now have the chance! WooOooOOoooOoooo-HoooOOoOoooOoooooo! Three cheers for Baby Joggers!

The Coin Count

Nada today :(

Running Total: 42 cents

Come on People!!! It’s only common courtesy to say hi to people as they pass, right?!?!?

During my run today, I passed two people that kinda just didn’t bother. One put his head down just as I was passing. The other looked across the street as I was passing. That’s one of the reasons I run at night – Sheesh! Well not really, but it sounded good…Right? ;)

So after this whole ‘politeness catastrophe’ (and another thought that I was probably just whining about it…because that’s just what I do) I decided I would put this thought to the test. Do people just go out of their way not to say hi? Mission: Go out of my way to say HI to all the people I pass! The Results: The next six or seven people I came across all said hi. Oh well…So people are kinda nice overall. But then I came across this guy that ‘overly’ smiled and waved excitedly. Hmmm…Weird. Maybe he was just a really, really, really happy nice bubbly guy – Or perhaps he’s just not used to some insane runner guy yelling HI to him.

The Coin Count

Or should I say, the coinage super slump :(

Running Total: 42 cents

Goodness! If I could afford it, I would put on a new pair of running shoes before every run. I just got a new pair of kicks from Zappos this morning and MAN, I LOVE NEW RUNNING SHOES! The smell of new rubber and synthetic meshes; the wondrously wonderfulously bouncy rides on your first few runs; the incredible shimmer of the brightest of all white meshes in the sun – Ahhhhh! Running shoe heaven, I tell ya! SWEET!

I’ve been running in ASICS for the last 14 years – The ASICS GEL Nimbus has always been my Go-To shoe. I’ve been running with them since the one model before that, a shoe called the GEL Marko for all you ASICS connoisseurs out there. The only thing that sucks about getting a new pair of running shoes and going for that first run in ‘em is that you won’t get the same feeling, or THAT smell again until you buy a new pair 4-months later. You think someone will ever come out with one of those ‘new car smell’-like fresheners for your shoes? Not like those anti-bacterial sprays that smell like the check-in counter at the bowling alley – I mean an honest to goodness ‘new shoe smell’. There wouldn’t be a moment in the day when you wouldn’t catch me smelling my shoes. Better yet, how about a ‘new shoe bounce’ spray – Spray it on and BANG, or should I say BOUNCE! You have a brand spanking new shoe feel…Ohhhhh, shoot dawg! I just thought of something else – Combine the two!!!! Now you have something :D

The Coin Count

Nada again today :| Either I’m blind, or people are getting real lazy dropping their coins on the street.

Running Total: 42 cents

Ever fall asleep at the wheel? I mean the ‘running wheel’ of course. Today, I did. I was running along a very familiar route and viola! I was suddenly three miles down the road on the corner of Warm Springs thinking, what the? Looking around, I really had no clue how I got to this point on my run. I spent the next couple miles thinking about this though. Seriously, if you know me, you woulda said that Peake was drinkin again – It was just water, people! What is this memory loss called runnumus blackouttamus? I ran the same way back to just try and jog (no pun intended) my memory, but nothing. I guess time, and memory, really does fly when you’re having fun J

The Coin Count

Nothin today :(

Running Total: 42 cents

Okay, Seriously…If you didn’t think I was weird by this point, you’ll officially change your mind after this. I LOVE music on my runs, whether it’s an iPod cord dangling off my head or a pair of Oakley Thumps , I can’t do without it. There’s a ton of music I like to listen to. If you’re lucky perhaps you’ll learn about what kinda of music REALLY gets me going, not that you care ;)

Today I found that Marvin Gaye really IS the man, no doubt about it – I mean anywhere from just jammin’ out writing shoe orders to chillin’ on the back porch with your buddies – Not to mention getting in THAT mood (cover your ears) – forget about that, we’re not gonna go there. So I’m on my run today and Marvin Gaye’s and Tammy Terrell’s, ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ comes on and it’s crazy – for some odd reason this music is really getting me in the mood – No no no no no no no…not for that, silly…Eww. I mean for running! It starts off slow, but then gets a whole lot faster paced and it just really made me feel like running – So I repeated the song three times and the rest of my run today was completely awesome. Thanks for getting me in the mood, Marvin and Tammy!

The Coin Count

Nada today ?:|

Running Total: 42 cents

What? What? WSA is wrapping up and we had our traditional meeting scheduled tonight with the Brooks boys. Rather than meeting at the hotel room as we historically have, dressed to the nine in suits and uncomfortable shoes that don’t have any sort of cushioned, running, shoe-like technology, we decided to hold the meeting at the Zappos offices. Much more comfy!

We had this meeting with Rick, Dan and Jim, our representatives from Brooks (and some of the greatest guys in the shoe biz – These guys rock!). One of the coolest things Brooks has done for our buying team here at Zappos was last November when they took us to New York to check out the NYC Marathon and the Olympic Trials. It was a chance of a lifetime and we certainly were very appreciative of the opportunity! Rick had not been to our new corporate offices, so it was cool having him come in to check out the operations and the Zappos culture. We had preemptively scheduled a run after our business review (a good one, thanks to all you incredible Brooks and Zappos customers out there!) around the Green Valley area, but ran out of time, so we settled for our ‘on-time’ appointment for drinks and dinner – don’t be jealous!!!

We went to Battista’s Hole in the Wall – a fat little Italian joint off the strip in here in LV. We love this place! If you haven’t been there, try it out on your next trip here for sure! When you come make sure you make a point to see Gordy and his accordion – Good Stuff!
So to the Brooks Boys, as always, thanks for the evening and a little something from Gordy: “Where ya from!?!?!” :D

This should probably go under the “top weird things on my run today” Blog, but nah!!! This stuff is just too weird NOT to tell the complete story, so here it is. The top weird thing started off with two brand spankin’ new firefighter license plates just lying in the middle of the street. I was gonna pick ‘em up and try to drop them off at a firehouse, but I decided not to – thinking about the days that my mother told me if I ever get lost – Stay in one place…So perhaps the owner would retrace his/her steps and find them – Right? Not so weird, but check this out…About a half mile down the road I noticed a fire station that wasn’t there about five months prior (I hadn’t run this route in about that long)…Man, they build things quick here in Vegas! I ran back to where the plates were, scooped them up, then ran them back to the fire station and left them at the front doors. Cool! My good deed for the day :) I continued my run. About a mile away from my house was a fire truck with its lights swirling around. I’m like, “Weird! Huge firefighter theme today! What’s going on?!?!?” As I passed the truck there were four firefighters standing against their truck watching a hydrant blast out water. I mean, there was some serious water was gushing out of that hydrant! I had no clue what they were draining the hydrant for. Oh well, weird
stuff!