Shit Worth Checking Out: Great article in the New York Times on the state of the shoe industry in the United States.

The New York Times published an interesting article the other day profiling the decline and moderate resurgence of American-made shoes.  Titled At Their Feet, Crafted by Hand, the article notes that only 1% of shoes bought in the United States last year were produced in America, and focuses on homegrown brands like Allen Edmonds, Alden, and Florsheim. 

Shit Worth Checking Out: WSJ article Man Shops Net

The Wall Street Journal published an article the other day on the rise of online shopping sites for men.  What was initially very much a female-driven market has recently seen huge growth in male shoppers, and this has lead to the success of sites such as Mr. Porter and GiltMan.  While I can't relate to the author's portrayal of men as shopping-averse, it's an interesting read.  Check it out here.

Too little, too late? Almost 15 years later, FBI finally releases their files on the murders of Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace.

After releasing the files on the 1997 murder of Christopher Wallace (aka The Notorious BIG) last week, the FBI today followed up with the release of the files on Tupac Shakur's murder a year earlier.  The release "consists of a 1997 investigation into allegations that extortionate death threats had been made against Shakur and another rap artist [apparently Eazy-E] by a domestic terrorist group."  I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't gotten around to reading the files yet, but I've posted the links below.  What do you guys think? Too little, too late?

Christopher Wallace

Tupac Shakur

Shit You Should Be Aspiring To: The entrepreneurial success of Tony Hsieh

There was a great article in the New York Times a couple of days back on Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com, the online shoe retailer that grew to success under a business model of providing free shipping and free returns to its customers.  Hsieh sold Zappos.com to Amazon in 2009 for $1 billion, a tidy sum that he added to whatever stash he had left over from his first enterprise, LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million when he was the tender age of 24.  Champ.

Head over to nytimes.com to check out the story; it's definitely worth a read.  Or, if you prefer, you can go right to the source; Hsieh wrote a book called Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose that spent almost six months on the NYT bestsellers list last year.  Get it here.

Interesting article from Esquire on the fine line between inspiration and mimicking.

In Kill Your Idols, an excerpt from Esquire's Spring 2011 installment of The Big Black Book, Josh Peskowitz discusses a common problem in fashion: lack of originality.  McQueen, Newman, and Brando should inspire your style — not define it.

The shitty state of the film industry ... and why it's our fault.

Mark Harris's excellent article for GQ, The Day the Movies Died, was published back in February, but I just started this frickin blog, so gimme a break.  

A must-read for anyone who's ever allowed themselves to be dragged to see Twilight with their girlfriend.  You are all culpable.