January 22, 2011 I bought my first pair of skinny jeans a few days ago. I’ve been actively denying that that’s the new style and refusing to get some of my own for quite some time. I still don’t like the look with regular shoes, converse, etc., but I think I’d be ok with flip-flops in the summer and surrounding warmer months, and I’ve definitely become a fan of them with boots. And so, after looking around to find a really good deal that probably would never exist, at least not before it’s too warm to wear boots, I finally found a pair that I liked well enough to actually spend some money on. Now, they were only like $35, but I’m big on getting good deals on shoes in particular, and waiting until I find something between $5 and $15. But that only works because I’m the kind of person who rarely just has to have a certain pair of shoes. If I find something I love and it happens to be a great deal, I’ll buy it, even if it’s something I don’t particularly need. So far it’s worked really well. I was hoping for something closer to $20 for the boots, but in this case I actually did need at least something to make the purchase of the jeans worthwhile. And I guess I’m just not a patient enough person to wait til summer and hope I’m still ok with the flip-flop look. When I came home with the boots Ana was slightly miffed, if you will, because they’re almost exactly the same style of boots she has. In fact, we got them at the same place, and I’m sure they’re the same brand. Hers have one more buckle, none of which you can see in the picture, but there’s one around the ankle and supposed to be one around the top. I actually took that one off, which was easy to do cause it was basically a belt weaved through belt loops. I actually was hoping to find a pair with just an ankle buckle, and I figured it would make Ana a bit happier. Hers also don’t have heals at all. But all the straps are basically the same, they’re both black and the same sort of suede texture. After feeling somewhat bad about it, I come to find out that they’re actually exactly the same as Rachel’s boots, only Rachel’s are a different texture. And she got hers first. No longer feeling bad.

THE CORTEZ Coach Bill Bowerman would try anything to make a better running shoe. Even a pair of flip-flops. He grafted them into a training shoe to create the first full-length midsole. His hybrid became the Cortez. The Cortez changed running. It was 1972. People said it felt like running on the moon. It won races. It was Nike's first shoe--and our first hybrid. Remixing has been part of our DNA ever since. In sneaker years, The Cortez might be considered a senior citizen. It’s been around since 1972. That’s before people had computers, cell phones or the internet. But its nylon and suede construction made it lighter than any shoe that preceded it. And over the years, high-performance technology has kept it fresh with the latest in sport innovation.