Thursday, December 23, 2010

Heels.com is on Santa's Good List this Year!

I'm a member of Heels.com's affiliate program and they must have been reading my tweets and posts on iheartretail.com about last-minute shopping, because they sent me the following email yesterday:
Place your order between 6:00 PM Eastern on December 22 and 6:00 PM Eastern on December 23 and you will receive a free upgrade to overnight shipping. There is no code necessary, and no minimum order size required to receive the upgrade. Just add any item to your cart, proceed to check-out, select a delivery address within the Continental US, and relax! Your order will be delivered by December 24th, just in time!

No minimum order?! Wow!

If you're interested in taking advantage of this deal, I would really appreciate you using the following link: Free Upgrade to Free Overnight Shipping on all Domestic Orders at Heels.com! Get it by Christmas Eve!

As an affiliate, they pay me a small percentage commission on any orders that come from by blog. If you want to know more about how affiliate marketing works and how you can get involved, drop me an email at ncsulilwolf@gmail.com and I'll give ya the skinny. I plan on also doing a mini-series on my business blog soon about this topic!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

More Eco-Friendly Shoes...

I've been telling a lot of people lately about how it's actually not THAT hard to go eco-friendly, and even cruelty-free altogether (no animal skins or furs), with shoes and accessories. (Seriously y'all, it's Easy Being Green!) So I thought I'd share some resources that make it easy-peasy to find eco-friendly shoes - and a few of my favorite recent eco-friendly finds.

Zappos
Best shoe site ever. So of course they make it easy!
http://www.zappos.com/vegetarian.zhtml.
"For those who have tried, finding non-leather shoes can be a daunting, almost impossible, task. Specifically for those kind individuals, here's a collection of vegetarian shoes for secure, cruelty-free peace of mind. With advances in synthetic manufacturing, non-leather materials are now virtually identical to their genuine counterparts, but with none of the guilt."

You can even leave your email on that page to be notified when new vegetarian products are added. Genius! (That's also REALLY smart marketing right there.)

Zappos also has a kick-ass e-commerce feature which allows you to show product results based on categories of your choosing. I chose womens, eco-friendly, shoes and received 476 results - http://www.zappos.com/womens-eco-friendly-shoes~g! The only problem is what flies as "eco-friendly" isn't always cruelty-free. Zappos does do a great job however of describing their products well and detailing what all parts of the shoes (upper, sole, etc.) are made of - and I appreciate that.

I'm really diggin' Timberland's new "Earthkeepers" collection, but they're not leather and suede free unfortunately. Timberland would totally have my vote if they were using recycled leather like they are recycled PET (plastic bottles). I would have no problem buying shoes that reclaimed leather from old shoes instead of using new leather, for what it's worth.

They have a fun ad campaign running for this line, too:



Both shoes retail on Zappos for $194 - see each online by clicking on the images above.

The Timberland Earthkeepers Granby ($174) (pictured below) would also be flawless if not made from suede.


Now here's a cool winter boot from The North Face which is cruelty-free and made from recycled raw materials!

The Nuptse Knee High (pictured at right) retails for $170 at Zappos - http://www.zappos.com/the-north-face-womens-nuptse-knee-high-demitasse-brown-paisley-pastel-orange.

According to the site, the sole's are pretty high-tech, too:
"Durable TNF Winter Grip ™ rubber outsole with Ice Pick™ temperature-sensitive rubber snowflake lugs. Ice Pick™ rubber hardens when the temperature falls below freezing to provide ultimate biting traction".

Keep reading for more shoe finds later in the week!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

For the Princess in All of Us...


If you gotta work, might as well look good doing it, right?
Crystal Desk Accessories - $9.95-$29.95 at ZGallerie.
http://www.zgallerie.com/p-6108-crystal-desk-accessories.aspx



The most overused, but still super cute design of 2010... I have a few design junkie friends who Keep Calm pencils would be perfect for!
Keep Calm and Carry On Pencil Set - $10.95 at ZGallerie.
http://www.zgallerie.com/p-10245-keep-calm-and-carry-on-pencil-set.aspx

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Garmz - For Realz

I'm going to go on the record here and tell y'all that my homie Sonny Byrd actually came up with this idea first, but apparently someone outside of the States beat him to market. (I'm still encouraging him to be first to market here in the US, for what it's worth ;-).) (And in full disclosure, I have no idea if he was really first, but let's just all be good sports and assume he really was.)

Back to the post at hand here, Sonny sent me an email this morning with the following subject line: "FML". He was a little bummed to see the following site making waves in the fashion world before he could.



Garmz
is a site that allows designers to upload their designs to the site, have the population at large vote on them, and possibly some day, see them go to production. Garmz then shares the sales revenue with the original designer. The concept totally breaks down the barriers to entry typically found in the fashion world and can potentially get trends to market seasons ahead of traditional fashion houses and retail brands.

You can read more about this cool new concept on their site at Garmz.com (and vote on the latest designs!) and also join in on the fun on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Garmz/124287380938770.

Two front page looks I love that I voted for already:
Dazzle Me Dress by Willy D. of London


Gold Number by Shibbyinc


Don't let this take the wind out of your sails, Sonny... there's room for everyone!

{Images: via Garmz.com and respective submitting designers}

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Here's the Thing...

I *love* a good heel. Not like - LOVE.

I do NOT love round or platform toe heels. I can deal with round toe for a super cute shoe (I have found and purchased maybe two of these, ever, so they do exist), but I can NOT deal with an overly-platform toe. They just remind me too much of stripper shoes.





There. I've said it.





Give me a pointy-toe (or peep-toe) or nothing at all!

{Images: Bakers shoes - which I do like as a brand, just not all the round, platform toe shoes; Nordstrom; Zappos}

Pantone's Color of the Year for 2011 is Perfectly Pink!

Thanks to the RoomItUp! blog for publishing these details to my Google Reader!



{Image: via RoomItUp, originally via Pantone}

So what do y'all think - ready to see more pink?