I looked for weeks for a new pair of comfortable kicks, and finally settled back on the black on black old school vans. I seem to through the years cycle through converse and vans. I’m not entirely sure if the vans are made in sweatshops or not, but I’ve never been a big fan of nike, and their ownership of converse swayed me to vans again. (Yes, the pair of converse are that old.) Well…ok, not that noble, it also helps that these vans (which have more cushion than the more popular ones) don’t make you feel like you’ve been literally hitting the pavement as much as when wearing the chucks. The second runners up were a pair of pumas, which looked really great but really just weren’t all that special, and a pair of tsubos that were pretty comfortable but weren’t quite as all-purpose (great for walking but try to slide those weird nubbly soles into bike pedal cages…).

You can now visit the PlasticWare [Wear?] Shop at cafepress.com. After getting tired of the ordeal of going through the “contest” approach of getting a t-shirt made through Threadless, I decided to forego all that in the interest of getting what I wanted, which was a t-shirt that I had been wanting for a while. I know, CafePress is kind of over-priced and the selection isn’t stupendous, but hey, I can now have my shirt. Featured right now is the spanking old Commotari design, which is a mash-up of a couple of old geeky logos. I put up a few different shirt selections in case anyone other than me happens to be interested…