Newton Running Shoes

"in the name of science" and my aching metatarsals, I ponied up and bought the latest of the greatest running revolutions aka fad. The Newton Running shoe.

Promoted by all the big names in running, it aims to create a forefoot/midfoot runner out of the average age-grouper and eliminate injuries. With a world champion price tag (although less expensive than the Asics Kinsei I have been running in), I'm going to try these shoes out and do a full review on their benefits. I'm really excited about these shoes, the research, science, and design seem to be right on track.

The package came from Colorado via the brown santa aka UPS. Now I have a particular loath for UPS because of the absurd "brokerage" fees they charge for US to Canada shipments. They appear to be the only shipping company who is still ripping off their international customers with blatantly unnecessary charges.

Newtons: 186.00
Shipping: 11.23
Brokerage: 44.21

55 bucks in shipping....Assholes. "What can Brown do for me?" - kick me square in the groin.

Too bad Newton is too inflexible to offer alternative shipping methods when I called them.

Anyway back to the shoes. The site describes your calfs will be tight after the first useage and they were right. My metatarsal were very comfy in these shoes though. I only ran for 40minutes and it was a fast one.

Some more wear and testing to come this weekend and a full report to come soon.

In the mean time support this.

b.

Blatantly Albertan

The one thing I don't want my blog to be is another page of negative rants. I believe in being positive, every situation can be a win if you look for it.

However...the Federal government should be absolutely ashamed of themselves to call into question the ethics and motivations of the captain of our national team, Shayne Doan. He was accused in 2005 of derogatory comments toward a french official. The NHL aquitted him of any wrongdoing, case closed.

With all the crap that is ongoing in the world, the world hockey championships is just one small way to find a positive way to exist in the international community. For our government to bring one of our own into question about something he didn't say in 2005 while he is working his ass off in Moscow right now FOR OUR COUNTRY...

Layton, Harper, Dion, Duceppe, and all the rest of you clowns in O-Town...get a beer, have a glass, pop some bubble wrap, get laid, or do whatever you need to do and get serious about leading our country. Stop wasting my time and taxpayer money on yet another "we're so hard done by" drivel by the French separatists.

I would love to hear of one person in Montreal that is still offended by what Shayne Doan didn't say in 2005.

Give me a break.

We would have better direction under monkeys.

Ok...I feel better now.
b.

Ramblings on accountable business practices...

My practice is based on a number of simple principles including:
- Accountability
- Win-Win solutions
- Ethical transparency

We make sure that the people that come through our door are met with sincere kindness and depart with sincere appreciation. People enjoy coming in, hearing their name and being thanked for their valuable business. They feel valued.

It's hard to not be frustrated at times with other businesses in the city. I purchased a new TV on the weekend at Best Buy, a floor model (that had been out for a day). The TV was missing some hardware to hold the base in place. The sales guy said he fixed it with hardware from another TV. When I got home with it, I found that he used one oversized metal screw in one of the holes, no hardware in the other three holes. The metal screw stripped the threads in the TV and now the screen wobbles back and forth.

I went back in on Monday to chat with the Manager, who was accomodating in person, (as opposed to when we were on the phone) and wanted to find a solution. The salesperson tried to tell a "we sold it As-Is" tale, even though the stand problem was not disclosed. I was able to poke significant holes in that story with the manager.

The other crux of the issue is that they told me that I would have to pre-pay for a replacement TV or I could wait for them to get the proper screws and just use 3 of them.

Now, let's put this in context. If your mechanic breaks something in your car, doesn't tell you about it, jerry-rigs a solution which you find out doesn't work after the fact. You go back to the shop to find a solution and the store makes you pre-pay for the replacement part that they broke or you're out of luck.

Exactly what happened at this store. This is not a rant against how the store "screwed me", it's more of a commentary of where business practices are centered. Are they customer centered or are they self-centered?

Thankfully, the manager understood my hesitancy toward putting another huge pile of money down on my credit card to fix their error and found a work around. My question is: If your business is about customer service, the "buying experience", etc... how can you violate these three principles:

Accountability - as company policy, the customer takes accountability for the error and the replacement?
Win-Win solution - obviously not.
Ethical Transparency - the sales person tries to cover his mistake and insults the customer's ethics by fabricating a story.

So, in the end I get a replacement and everyone is happy. The problem for Best Buy is that it took a few hours and no less than 5 different employees and managers to remedy their own error. If you look at profit margin compared to lost productivity in simple problem solving...the business model needs a tune up.

b.