Check out these painted shoes!

Shoe artist Chris Toombs has been busy painting shoes and raising money for charity. He painted 4 pairs of our hemp Sno Tires for an auction to help raise money for a youth homeless shelter in San Diego.
He painted the Greek gods of 4 elements.
Gaia, the goddess of nature.

Zephyrus, god of the west winds.

Poseidon, god of water.

Hephaestus, god of fire.

He painted a pair of hemp Toe Foo flip flops LIVE at the event, too
 

He's really good. You can see more of his work or order a pair at his Web site, playgroundshoes.com

Awesome work, Chris! Thanks.

A new, simple fan

I've been looking for an excuse to write a relevant blog post about my roommates dog DJ. Nothing came to mind so we took some pics of him wearing shoes.

This is what DJ looks like when he's happy!

High Five!

DJ has been a fan of Simple Shoes since he was little.

Ruf!

new joe curren pro model: the even keel

Joe was in our offices the other week and was telling us about his new pro board... the Even Keel.

It's made by Channel Islands Surfboards here in lovely Santa Barbara, CA.

Joe has been riding Channel Islands boards since he was 9 so it's pretty fitting that a pro board with them... not to mention it's called the Even Keel.  I can't think of a better description of Joe-- I don't know that I've ever met a mellower person.

All photos here by Chris Orwig.

Tempted?  Go check out the board at the Channel Islands website... and be sure to check out the video of Al Merrick talking about the board here.

Also, Joe just got back from a two month trip down in South America... he posted a couple of digitized photos on his blog you should definitely check out here of his trip in South America and a couple of shots of Santa Barbara pre- and post- Jesusita Fire.  The Bull Kelp pictures are really fantastic. 

For those of you not familiar with Joe's pictures, he works completely on actual film-- something you don't see all that often these days with all of the digital cameras out there.  We're lucky enough to have a couple of his shots here in the office and they are really amazing.  Go check out his website if you have a minute: joe curren photography.

hugs,
cielo

Healing Time by Josh Charles

Our friend Josh Charles recorded a new song called Healing Time and is donating ALL of the proceeds to the Preservation Resource Center in New Orleans to help restore the architectural history and rebuild the local culture and character of the city after Hurricane Katrina.
Healing Time hits the radio today.

Here he is at SXSW tickling the ivory and wearing his Carloads.

Keep up the good work Josh!

Playground balls for happy kids

Remember those rubber balls everybody played with in school? We found a bunch in our warehouse.
While Simple is a fun place to work, playground balls belong on a playground, not in an office so we decided to put them in the hands of people who know what to do with them.

We learned to share a long time ago.

            

             O
         o--[] /*
             []
            /  \    

up to our ears in shoes.

no, seriously.

Pic of the litter

Check out these really cool one-of-a-kind Kitty Cat shoes! They were painted by a talented young artist named Gabriela Taccir for our co-worker's sister Kitty.

 

If you're interested in your own customized Simple Shoes check out her Web site

 

Ellen, Simple Shoes and Earth Day

Ellen rocked Simple Shoes on her show for Earth Day, looking extra sharp in her natural colored hemp Satires.

http://tinyurl.com/dxjx2y

Thanks Ellen!

We got a neat Earth Day gift from Chris Toombs at playgroundshoes.com.
He turns our already beautiful shoes into masterpieces. This time he made us an old school pedal car using a shoe box, wire hangar and a nail...and it works! His attention to detail is amazing!

Check out his website. He does awesome stuff and is working his way through college.

www.playgroundshoes.com

Happy Earth Day!

JWT (our creative agency) is having an Earth Day Fair at their offices today.  They have a Simple booth set up and are playing this video that they made.  Our favorite creative team put it together for us- Jose, John, Graham, Blaise and Claire... thanks guys!!  It is super cool, so check it out!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N18OkuHFE_A

hey joe

Last week, our buddy Joe stopped by the office before heading out on a trip to Chile.  We did a collaboration with Joe last year using a collage of pictures he took around Santa Barbara (get them now for a steal-- 15 bucks here and here and here).

This year we did something a little different.

We worked with Joe to pick two pictures to feature on a shoe and settled on a shot he took of a sunset here in Santa Barbara off of a road called Camino Cielo and a shot of the beach in Taiwan during a typhoon.

 

and here is Taiwan:

hugs,
cielo