Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Saturday

My parents wanted to meet me and my sister halfway in Little Rock. My parents live in south Arkansas, they had about a 2 and a half hour drive as did I. On the way there I picked up a hitchhiker. This one was the quietest hitchhiker that I have ever given a ride. His name was Paul. When he first spoke, I thought that he was mentally handicapped. His voice sounded weird, the more I talked to him I begin to think he was from the north. I found out later that he was from Montana. I have met a few people from Montana, and they did not sound like him. The closest thing I can compare his accent to is that it sounded like what the dumb chicks on golden girl voice would have sounded like. I dropped him off at the love's. There is a large amount of traffic around that place, I hope he found a ride.

On the way to little rock, I saw two guys is a very, dirty, and small truck skinning, or at least picking up a deer. Only in a red state.

Also, it seems to me that Mexicans make unholy use out of our interstate system. For every single car I see, it seems that nearly half of them are Mexicans with everything inside of an old truck. I do not think that is a bad thing, it is just interesting.

Another interesting thing that happened, was my sister bought some running shoes. She is training to run a half marathon this coming December. She went to athlete's foot, and they had the most amazing shoe system I have ever seen. The have a "state-of-the-art FitPrint" system. It sounds like a lot of bull crap on their site.

"The FitPrint System is a state-of-the art computer system that measures pressure points in the feet, providing detailed information regarding foot characteristics and proper fit. After stepping onto the FitPrint System, the customer receives a complimentary personalized hard copy analysis within minutes! The Athlete's Foot has exclusive rights to this cutting-edge technology. "

This is what all that mumbo jumbo equates to. You step on a pad, which is connected to a computer. That computer has a screen which displays a static map of the pressure points of you feet, it also shows you your balance points. While a static map is good to get a general idea of your foot type, it only gives specific clues to what shoe fits you best. They take it one step further. After you get a static map, you then walk over the square sensor with you left foot. Turn around. Then you walk over the square sensor with you right foot. These two steps take a dynamic, moving scan of your feet, showing you balance curves and power curves.


The most impressive thing is that they have broken down their product line to three or four different types of feet. So if you have high arch, they have a shoe and insert line to fit your general foot type.

While the technology was impressive, I found the use of technology to drive the customer selection process more impressive.

cube

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