Skins Footwear is a revolutionary two-part, footwear structure consisting of an outer collapsible “Skin” and an inner support section called the “Bone.” The design allows consumers to purchase one inner Bone and numerous outer Skins, resulting in multiple style variations from one pair of shoes, with the same feel and fit no matter what Skin he or she wears.

“Given the nature of this innovation, people have been talking about Skins for over a year, and the demand is such that we needed to create a pre-launch outlet,” explained Isack Fadlon, co-owner of Sportie LA.

In March of this year, Skins Footwear announced an alliance with SLAM (Sportie LA Media), the media marketing division of Sportie LA. SLAM provides nontraditional marketing and consulting for select brands. SLAM’s first effort under the arrangement with Skins was a partnership for the brand with GenArt to host the March 5th closing night of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Skin Bones exhibit.

With four stores in the Los Angeles area, and a clientele that reads like a Who’s Who of fashion-conscious celebrities, Sportie LA is considered one of the chief influencers on today’s sneaker scene. This past November, the company was listed #3 among Independent Retailers on Footwear News’ Power 100.

WALDOBORO, Maine - With more Americans planting their feet in throwaway shoes and athletic footwear, the neighborhood shoe repair shop might seem like a relic from the past and a candidate for extinction.

But don’t tell that to Bill Wheeler. He entered the business four months ago at age 56, pumping new life into a collection of machines and hand tools that he purchased through eBay from a defunct repair shop.

The opening of Coastal Cobbler, sandwiched between an appliance business and a cellular phone office, means Waldoboro’s 5,000 residents no longer have to travel 35 miles to Brunswick or 50 miles to Lewiston for shoe repairs.

It also bucks a decades-long decline in the number of repair shops. While cities still support multiple repair shops, many towns have none.

The number of cobblers has dropped from roughly 100,000 during the Great Depression to about 7,000 today, according to the Shoe Service Institute of America.

And the trend continues.

For every repair shop that opens, two or three are closing their doors, but the rate of attrition appears to be slowing, said Jim McFarland, who serves on the board of the Shoe Service Institute, an industry trade group staffed by volunteers.

“By 2020, unless we see a radical change, there will be around 5,000 or 6,000 shops,” said Mr. McFarland, who operates a shop in Lakeland, Fla.

The cause of the decline is plain to see.

Last year’s average retail price of a dress shoe - men’s, women’s and children’s - was $32.59, according to the NPD Group Inc., a market research company in Port Washington, N.Y. Dress casual shoes were even cheaper, averaging $30.46 a pair.

That’s considerably less than the $40 to $45 that most shops charge to put on a set of half soles and heels.

Also, dressier shoes make up a dwindling percentage of footwear sales. Last year, dress and dress casual shoe sales were $10.7 billion, roughly half of what Americans paid for sneakers and other athletic footwear.

Many of today’s consumers have no familiarity with repair shops, and some are unaware that old shoes can be made as good as new, Mr. McFarland said. He cited estimates that only 10 percent of Americans have their shoes repaired.

Despite those worrisome figures, Mr. Wheeler decided to take the plunge. Skilled in the use of tools and machinery, the former shoe factory worker liked the idea of a trade that enables him to extend the life of a product that would otherwise be discarded.

“In a throwaway society, this is a really valuable thing,” he said. “It does something for the environment, maybe make a bit of an impact.”

Shoe repair has traditionally been a father-and-son business, in many cases begun by immigrants. Mr. McFarland, for example, stitched his first full sole when he was 16 and now runs the business his grandfather started.

But these days, fewer sons are following their fathers into the business.

In Mr. Wheeler’s shop, the rates for full soles and heels are $70, half soles and heels $45, heels $21 and women’s high heel lifts $12.

So far, he said, the customer response has been enough to keep him busy. Gunilla Broman of Friendship was delighted to learn that she could get her shoes repaired without having to travel to Brunswick.

“A lot of people don’t repair their shoes, but I do,” she said.

(c) 2007 Augusta Chronicle, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

WASHINGTON–Scientists have found clusters of new gene variants that raise the risk of Type 2 diabetes _ and how the researchers did it is as important as what they found.

In one of the largest studies yet of human genetic variability, the scientists tested the DNA of more than 32,000 people in five countries to pin down spots that harbor genetic risk factors for this complicated killer.

This type of research _ called a “genome-wide association” study _ promises to usher in a new era of genetics. Most breakthroughs so far have come from finding a mutation in a single gene that causes illness. But some of the world’s most common killers, such as heart disease and diabetes, are caused by complex interactions among numerous genes and modern lifestyles _ and teasing out the genetic culprits until now has been almost impossible.

“We have been for all of the last decade or more looking under the lamppost to try to find those genes … and lots of times the lamplight was not actually where we wanted it,” said Dr. Francis Collins, genetics chief at the National Institutes of Health, a co-author of the research unveiled Thursday.

This new approach “allows us to light up the whole street, and look what we find.”

What? Four previously unknown gene variants that can increase people’s risk of Type 2 diabetes, and confirmation that six other genes play a role, too.

The work, by three international research teams that shared their findings, was published online Thursday by the journal Science.

Next, the researchers will have to figure out just what those genes do, in hopes they’ll point toward new ways to treat or prevent a disease that affects more than 170 million people worldwide, and rising.

With Type 2 diabetes, the body gradually loses its ability to use insulin, a hormone key for turning blood sugar into insulin. It is a major cause of heart disease, as high blood sugar damages blood vessels, and leads to kidney failure, blindness and amputations.

Obesity and lack of exercise are chief risk factors. But heredity is involved, too: People with an affected parent or sibling are at 3.5 times greater risk of developing diabetes than people from diabetes-free families.

The new work scanned DNA to find patterns of small gene variations known as SNPs (pronounced “snips”) more common in diabetics. SNPs can serve as signposts for tracing disease-promoting genes. To be certain the implicated SNPs were involved, the researchers then checked for them in still more volunteers, ultimately testing DNA from 32,500 people in Britain, Finland, Poland, Sweden and the U.S.

The highest-risk variants can increase by 20 percent someone’s odds of developing Type 2 diabetes, the teams reported.

Among the genes implicated:

_One that helps pump zinc into insulin-producing pancreatic cells, raising questions about the metal’s role in insulin secretion.

_A pair previously linked only to certain cancers, another brand new area for diabetes researchers to probe.

_A region of chromosome 11 where genes of any sort had never been described.

This aptly comes as a time when large sporting goods companies, who had been sitting on the sidelines quietly, watching this industry grow, are now coming in with the intentions to take substantial market share away from those that built this industry.

With sporting goods companies like Nike, Adidas, and Reebok, among others, now making such a strong push into the board sports industry, Consolidated feels the urgency to take action more than ever. As Steve “Birdo” Guisinger states, “There is a reason there are no football, basketball, baseball, or soccer player-owned companies…and there should be. Don’t let this happen to surf, skate, and snow. Your decisions shape the future and we encourage you to be conscious of what you support.”

This footwear line comes on the heels of introducing “The Level Playing Field.” The crux of this theory questions volume discounting given to the corporate mall and sporting goods chains, which comes at the expense of the smaller, “Mom and Pop” shops, which are the backbone of this industry. Consolidated feels the pricing structure is backwards, and that by putting “too many eggs in one basket,” manufacturers are forfeiting control of their distribution to the retail sector. Consolidated argues the need to break out of this paradigm in order to foster a healthier, more competitive distribution channel, as well as to help out the core board shops.

To help compete against these corporate mall and sporting goods chains, Consolidated encourages skateboarders to start their own shop, even if it’s out of their own garage or trunk of a car. They have a link posted on their site to help facilitate this process.

For more information regarding this campaign, here is a link to a recent interview: www.consolidatedskateboard.com/birdo.interview.php.

Look for Consolidated Footwear in a core skate, surf, snowboard shop…or the trunk of a car, near you.

For more information, visit: www.consolidatedskateboard.com and www.myspace.com/dontdoitarmy.

WASHINGTON — Whole-grain crackers, low-fat yogurt, fruit and water could become the school snacks of the future, driving out fattening fancies such as cola and fried chips.

The Institute of Medicine this week recommended new standards for school snacks and foods that sharply would limit calories, fat and sugar while encouraging more nutritious eating.

Concerned about the rise of obesity in young people, Congress asked the institute to develop the standards. Lawmakers now will consider them, as will state and local school officials.

“Making sure that all foods and drinks available in schools meet nutrition standards is one more way schools can help children establish lifelong healthy eating habits,” said Virginia A. Stallings, head of the committee that prepared the report.

“Foods and beverages should not be used to reward or to discipline for academic activities or behavior,” said Stallings, director of the nutrition center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Food sold in school cafeterias under federally assisted lunch programs already must meet nutritional standards. The institute’s recommendations cover items considered competitive with those foods. Examples include snacks in vending machines and other food and drinks sold at school but not under the federal program.

Selling these foods is a money maker in some communities. Janey Thornton, president of the School Nutrition Association, said she expects complaints about losing this source of money if the recommendations are adopted.

“Shame on us if we try to balance the school budget based on the nutritional health of kids,” Thornton said, whose organization represents school food service directors.

The standards would not apply to bag lunches that students bring from home.

Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said the recommendations “offer a tool kit for local, state, and federal policymakers who already know that we need to do more much more — to promote sound child nutrition and prevent childhood obesity.”

Thornton said she thinks the report does not go far enough because there is no system for enforcement.

“We would like to see national standards for (school) food and beverages” that the Agriculture Department could enforce, she said.

The standards would help children learn the principles of good nutrition which they could also apply at home, said Thornton, child nutrition director for the Hardin County School District in Kentucky.

But the Center for Consumer Freedom worried that the report could lead to a government “no child with a fat behind” program.

The growing rate of obesity is caused by lack of physical activity rather than overeating, according to the group, which describes itself as representing restaurants, food companies and individuals.

The American Beverage Association, which represents companies that make and sell nonalcoholic beverages, said it is working with schools to “improve the product mix” sold in schools.

The report lists a first tier of foods that would be allowed at all grade levels during the school day and during after-school activities.

These foods would have to provide at least one serving of fruits, vegetables, whole grains or nonfat or low-fat dairy. There would be limits for fat, sugar and salt.

Examples are whole fruit, raisins, carrot sticks, whole-grain low- sugar cereals, some multigrain tortilla chips, some granola bars and nonfat yogurt with no more than 30 grams of added sugars. Drinks would be limited to plain water, skim or 1 percent milk, soy beverages and 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice.

A second tier of foods would be available only to high school students and only after school hours.

These foods would be limited in calories, salt, sugar and fat; drinks could have just have five or fewer calories per portion and no caffeine.

Examples include single servings of baked potato chips, low- sodium whole wheat crackers, graham crackers, pretzels, caffeine- free diet soda and seltzer water.

At the discretion of coaches, sports drinks would be available to students involved in an hour or more of vigorous athletic activity.

(c) 2007 Cincinnati Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

If Barry Kaplan has his way, no public facility in Pennsylvania will serve foods prepared with trans fat. In fact, Kaplan is spearheading the effort to ban trans fat, considered to be the most harmful fat to health.

Trans fats are artificially created oils found most often in margarine and fried foods - that extend the shelf life of snack foods and other processed foods. Scientific research shows that consumption of trans fat raises LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and lowers HDL (good) cholesterol levels, causing clogged arteries and increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

The National Academy of Sciences recommended in 2002 that dietary intake of trans fatty acids be minimized. Since 2005, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) mandated that trans fats be labeled on all food products.

Kaplan, however, says the “FDA doesn’t go nearly far enough for our safety.”

The most vulnerable to the fatty danger are children who are just developing dietary patterns and the elderly in hospital and nursing homes who are captive to it.

“In public places, there’s no information and no choice,” he says. “These are the people who should be getting the best foods and, sadly, sometimes it’s the worst,” Kaplan says.

He’s working with Rep. Jim Wansacz, (D-Lackawanna) to introduce legislation that will virtually ban trans fat in every restaurant, school and health-care facility Kaplan’s mission against trans fat is only part of his story. He’s been a proponent of healthy living practically all his life. In 1985, when he opened.

Everything Natural, an organic food and natural products store in Clarks Summit, health food stores were fringe businesses and Kaplan was considered a “health nut” in popular culture.

But time has a way of resolving indignities. Today, Kaplan is a trim and healthy 50-something with a modulated enthusiasm for healthy living. General society has finally realized “you are what you eat.” And big business is paying attention to him.

Kaplan’s foray into the health food business really began in his teens when he decided he “didn’t want to eat animals:’ Then in the early 1970s, he worked at a downtown Scranton health food store.

“More than being a vegetarian it was eating healthy,” he explains,” Then it was studying, educating yourself, reading voraciously and taking classes.”

Everything Natural was the normal evolution to those years of discovery Twenty years ago most people didn’t pay attention to the fact that they were ingesting the residue of pesticides in fruit and vegetables or that most physical ailments could be traced to diet, he explains. Now people are beginning to realize these things and Kaplan’s mission is to help them.

Last month, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell agreed to support a national health initiative for the state where businesses pledge to provide quality and price information about doctors, hospitals and other medical providers for enrollees in their healthcare insurance programs. The information offers employees information to make educated choices.

“The Pennsylvania Health Initiative can help people have a better lifestyle,” he explains noting that besides the dangers of stress which drains personal health and relationships, had choices in diet cause deleterious physical responses. “Arthritis inflammation is a response to food triggers,” he says.” Everyone has different responses. Another person may get arteriosclerosis. Alzheimer’s is related (to bad nutrition) as well.”

What Kaplan realized all those years ago, science has vatidated.” Now we’re mainstream, people are seeing the value, we’re the authority and big business is listening,” he says, gesturing into the store.

According to wikipedia.org, “organic food is produced according to certain legally regulated standards. Crops are grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers or sewage sludge, and they are processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.”

Animals “are raised without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones. Also, at all levels, organic food is produced without the use of genetically modified organisms.”

According to the same source, “natural” refers to food or food products which are minimally processed and remain as close as possible to their whole, original state. Because they are less tampered with, natural foods are generally more nutritious than their refined counterparts.

Kaplan banned trans fat in his own business 10 years ago and he explains that “there are compelling logical reasons” for eating healthy.

He says he and his partners, wife Donna and her sister, Michele Cooper, as well as his staff of 18, are committed to providing healthy choices.

Childhood obesity and diabetes, as well as missed productivity in industry, are just some of the adverse effects of eating badly. “This isn’t just a business,” he insists, “it’s a lifestyle. We are not here to get rich. We all live it.”

Lifestyles

When Carol Rinaldi an employee of Burkavage Design, Clarks Summit visited Everything Natural looking for natural remedies to treat her allergies and her daughter’s and her own asthma, she found an educated staff who pointed her in the right direction.”

There are two pluses to shopping there, Rinaldi says, “the knowledge base and customer service.”

Today, after identifying her “triggers” - additives like fragrances and food coloring to name two - Rinaldi is off most medicines. Interestingly, nuts - a huge problem for many people with allergies - was also a trigger, but once she tried organic, “I could eat them again,” she explains. Rinaldi also uses Burt’s Bees products, a natural, fragrance-free product line.

Gwen Kovolenus, 35, of Tunkhannock, the mother of three young children 8, 3 and 4 months makes her weekly trip to Everything Natural on Wednesday or Thursday when the “raw milk order comes in. “Raw milk is the unprocessed (not homogenized, not pasteurized) byproduct of organic grass-fed cows. Everything Natural gets its milk from a supplier in Gratz, Pa.

The Kovolenus family, including husband Daron, 37, came by their healthy lifestyle early on. Gwen grew up on the family farm in Tunkhannock. “The farm was as organic (USDA organic certification) as you can get without being certified,” she explains. “We always ate healthy. My mother and I canned and froze food. Daron’s family had a huge garden. We took it one step further going organic. We make our own soup, and do our own freezing and canning.”

She offers up macaroni and cheese as an example of an easy processed and fast meal many people make for their children. The Kovolenuses, however, prefer to make their own. “We avoid trans fats, hydrogenated oils, monosodium glutamate and dyes and preservatives.” Other than Everything Natural, they shop at Wegman’s which she says has “the largest organic and health food section in the area.”

Likewise, the Ray Parchinski family in Moosic chooses organic. Ray is the owner of Uno Fitness Center at the Icebox in Scranton and works out four times per week. He brings his lunch to work so he doesn’t have to dine out and shops at Everything Natural for his organic foods. Parchinski is not a vegetarian and notes that most other area supermarkets are dedicating space to the natural food market.

“It’s organic or not,” he says. “If you are going to buy commercial meat products you’re not going to get organic food. “He advises people who are becoming health-conscious to start out with organic fruits and vegetables.

Everything Natural is also a gift and department store, stocked with items made from natural food and fibers. Just like in the grocery store, shoppers can find frozen foods suitable for lunch on the run - albeit organic; organic fruit and vegetables and just about every necessary staple.

According to partner, Michele Cooper in company Literature “customers are starting to be more aware of organic clothing and are looking for it.”

Indeed, mainstream grocery and department stores are picking up on the demands of the aging baby boomers who are more apt to read ingredient labels and shop accordingly, but not averse to the occasional cheeseburger out.

Kaplan finds satisfaction in the fact that his business was there first.” Now you see it all over the place, it’s part of all our lives now.”

He also finds his new journey rewarding; he’s eyeing a possible meeting with the governor and hopefully a law to ban trans fat down the road. “This is how we live, with health as the goal, not profit. We want to do the right thing.”

Kaplan is also a realtor with Classic Properties, Clarks Summit.

Copyright Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal Apr 01, 2007

(c) 2007 Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Although multivitamins can easily supply needed nutrients, a recent report from the National Institutes of Health says not enough evidence exists to make a firm recommendation for or against the use of multivitamins for disease prevention, according to the April issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource.

The best source of needed nutrients is a balanced diet.

Doctors continue to recommend multivitamins for people whose health conditions, dietary choices, lifestyle habits or medications impede their bodies’ ability to get or absorb proper amounts of key nutrients from foods. For example, people older than 60 are often encouraged to take a multivitamin because aging can make it more difficult for the body to absorb vitamins.

Doctors need to know the vitamins and supplements their patients take because some may not be recommended with certain health conditions. A doctor also can advise when supplements could provide health benefits based on the patient’s age, health and diet.

CANCER DEFENSE

GETTING CHECKUPS: If you’re 50 or older, seeing your doctor every year or two for a checkup may be a good defense against cancer, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California at Davis, the University of Washington, and Group Health Cooperative in Seattle.

The study, appearing in Archives of Internal Medicine, concluded that regular preventive health exams increase the likelihood that older adults will get recommended cancer screenings.

CPR FACTS

NO MOUTH-TO-MOUTH: Even people who have never been trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation know that it involves a series of chest compressions combined with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

For years, scientists have questioned whether the mouth-to-mouth part was necessary, saying the focus of CPR should be on chest compression, which keeps blood flowing to vital organs after cardiac arrest.

Last month, a study of more than 4,000 cases of cardiac arrest, the largest on the subject to date, found that patients were more likely to recover without brain damage if their rescuers had focused on chest compressions alone. Published in The Lancet, the study found that 22 percent of people who received chest compressions alone survived with good neurological function, compared with 10 percent who received combination CPR.

Those findings echoed those of a study in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2000.

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO

MEMO: WORTH NOTING

(c) 2007 Richmond Times - Dispatch. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

May 2–AYER — A 19-year-old man who attends Nashoba Valley Medical Center for treatment of his diabetes knows his eyesight could deteriorate because his two part-time jobs don’t provide him with a health insurance to pay for an expensive eye surgery.

Medicare patients may have a big allowance for the cost of prescription drugs but must pay for insulin pumps out of their pockets if they have so-called Type II diabetes rather than Type I.

And even if patients can afford all the medicines and equipment they need, the disease can progress suddenly, killing them.

As a nurse at the Diabetes and Endocrine Center at Nashoba Valley Medical Center, Judith Pentedemos says she sees her patients cope with the devastating effects of diabetes every day. And that’s the reason it is so important for diabetic patients to have a voice on Beacon Hill to promote increased insurance coverage and more funding for stem-cell research, Pentedemos said.

“It’s an opportunity for them to become diabetes advocates for the day,” she said

of Diabetes Day on the Hill.

A busload of patients and staff from Nashoba Valley Medical Center are headed to the Statehouse this morning to participate in the Diabetes Day on the Hill, a half-day event put together by American Diabetes Association. The event will feature guest speakers, who will talk to many legislators about the need to step up stem-cell research in Massachusetts and passage of various bills, including one that would train nonmedical staff to administer glucagon to diabetic students in emergencies.

While states across the nation have set aside tens to hundreds of millions of dollars each for stem-cell research, the Bay State has just $10 million in the Massachusetts Life Sciences Investment Fund, which will be used for not only stem-cell research but also for life sciences, nanotechnology and biotechnology researche during a number of years, according to American Diabetes Association.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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