ecoburgh

I've already posted a much smaller version of this on Twitter and Facebook, so it's kind of redundant, but I'm doing it anyway because I think it's just great.

Tonight as I drove to Subway to get a cheap dinner (finals = no grocery shopping and awful eating habits) and to the store to get a bottle of wine (finals = brain is fried), I listened to 91.3 WYEP, the only station worth listening to in Pittsburgh. This environmental program was on that I've never heard before, called the Allegheny Front, and it mentioned this eco-friendly store that's in the South Side. I Googled it when I got home, and ran across another eco-freak store in Lawrenceville. After browsing a bit, I found these awesome shoes on sale called Veja Volley.

I think they sorta look like my Onitsuka Tigers, but they are designed in Paris and made under strict fair trade, fair pay regulations with organic cotton and natural latex rubber from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. The company goes through so much to make sure they are not only quality, but are made under conditions that do not exploit the worker or the environment.

BUT THIS IS THE KICKER: they are only sold in four stores in the United States: two in New York City, one in Los Angeles, and one in our very own Pittsburgh, at Equita on Butler Street.

Is it weird that this makes me feel like one might when seeing a son or daughter perform in a school play for the first time? I need to pat the city on its head or pinch its cheeks.