Tampilkan postingan dengan label shoes. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label shoes. Tampilkan semua postingan
Happy Earth Day Tennis Fans!
For me, I'm once again finding a home for my worn-out-beyond-safe-use tennis and athletic shoes. (And how do you know if your tennis shoes are too worn to use on court? Check out this post for the answer - Quick Tennis Fix: New Shoes.) My shoes are the most valuable piece of tennis equipment that I regularly churn through. Right now, I have 4 pairs in my closet that I'm not wearing only because I have worn through the outsole and am worried about slipping on court (very doable by me). While I use one of these for just kicking around or the occasional bout of yard work, the other 3 pair are in great shape but just sitting there.
So I've found several wonderful places where you and I can donate these types of athletic shoes. Check these out:
Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program takes your gross old athletic shoes, tears them apart, grinds them up and uses them to make all kinds of sports courts, including tennis courts. A donation locator on the site can help you find drop-off locations that are in many athletic shoe stores in your area.
Soles4Souls donates gently used shoes to needy individuals around the world and coordinated relief efforts for such natural disasters as the Asian tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike. Their website has a great donation site locator - just enter your zip code and you'll see nearby stores where you can drop off your donations.
Hope Runs is a charity working in Kenya and Tanzania, using athletics, education, and social entrepreneurship to empower AIDS orphans. They accept donations, including running shoes, and especially are in need of monetary help.
One World Running collects new and gently used athletic shoes to send to needy individuals in the United States and around the world. The majority of these shoes are donated by individuals, running clubs and Girl Scout troops (for example) that put on shoe drives. Shoes that are too beat up for use are sent to Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program. A donation locator can be found on their web site or maybe you can help your local Girl Scout troop to run a shoe drive!
For more great Earth Day ideas and activities, go to the official website: www.earthday.org.
© Kim Selzman 2011 All Rights Reserved
Blog Action Day '09: Climate Change
Climate change and tennis? What's the connection? You know that everything you do has some kind of impact on the environment. Even your tennis game has an effect. So here are some easy choices you can make to ensure that your tennis game is as "green" as possible.
1. Kick the plastic water bottle habit. That's right. Instead of drinking from plastic water bottles or disposable styrofoam cups at matches, bring your own reusable water bottles from home. Set the example and encourage others to do the same. And if your team is providing the water, make sure to use plastic bottles and recycle them. Avoid throw away cups at all costs!
2. Recycle your tennis balls AND tennis ball cans. We've talked about this one here at Tennis Fixation before: Recycling Tennis Balls and It's A Tennis Party! I've also found a great company that actually takes old tennis balls and "refurbishes" them into practically new tennis balls. Check them out at rebounces.com. There are plenty of ways to use those old tennis balls and cans. Make sure these things are happening at the matches in which you're playing.
3. Put your old tennis shoes to good use. You know its important that your tennis shoes be in good shape to keep you moving well out on the court. So what to do with those old shoes? Besides wearing them to garden in or to wash the car, consider giving them to Nike. Nike has developed a great recycling process for grinding up old shoes and using the resulting material in tracks, playgrounds and other athletic surfaces. Supposedly the foam midsole of your shoe can be ground up and used to surface a tennis court! Find out the details and see how you can participate at their website: www.nikereuseashoe.com. And find out if its time for new shoes by checking out this post: Quick Tennis Fix of the Day: New Shoes!).
4. Ride your bike to the courts! OK, I live in Houston and I'll admit, this would be a big challenge for me to undertake. But I did just get my bike tuned up. I did get a rack put on the back of it that I can bungee cord my ball hopper onto. And I have ridden down to my neighborhood courts with my son to hit some balls. I haven't yet taken a ride over to my club to play a match which is really pathetic on my part since my club is probably a less-than-15-minute bike ride away. I resolve to ride my bike to a match next week, however, and do my small part to have a positive impact on climate change.
© Kim Selzman 2009
All Rights Reserved
Quick Tennis Fix: New Shoes
Is it time for new tennis shoes? Your shoes are what give you support, cushioning and traction on the court so wearning good shoes is important. To see if its time for a new pair, look at the bottom of your shoe. The "outsole" of the shoe is the bottom covering that contacts the court. It should be patterned with waves, grooves, herringbone, etc., to provide traction. If the outsole is starting to wear away so that you can see layers and the traction is losing depth, its probably time to get a new pair of shoes. Another rule of thumb - if you play 2 to 3 times a week, you probably need a new pair of shoes every 5 to 6 months.© Kim Selzman 2009
All Rights Reserved
Cleaning My Closet Of (Tennis) Clutter
As I told my good friend and tennis buddy Paula, this is my summer to clean out my closet and get rid of all of those clothes and shoes I never wear. I need to admit the mistake of some of my purchases (too big, too small, too hideous) and just get rid of them. Paula responded that she would not only like to do the same thing, but she also has several tennis outfits that she would like to just throw out. Well, I too have quite a few things in my "tennis closet" that I can't stand and, inspired by Paula, I am finally going to dispose of them:- the very cute Nike top that shows just a little bit too much cleavage (OK - way too much cleavage)
- the two white skirts and the gray skirt that were such bargains but come down to my knees (I'm 5' 4" and look like a granny in these skirts.)
- the couple of tops that are "old favorites" but are so worn out that I appear to be just in from Tennis Hobo Camp when I put them on
- the black Nike skirt that fits - as long as I don't move (And you know how tennis is one of those games where you never really need to move, right?)
- the 4 (yes, 4!) pairs of tennis shoes that are too worn out for me to wear but which I surely must have some other use for (What? Vases?)
- the tennis dress that I bought on eBay that has never, ever fit me properly (Lesson learned - never buy something as hard to fit as a tennis dress without trying it on first.)
- etc.
So, all of these things, plus many others, must go. My shoes will go to Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe recycling program (click HERE for more information). My clothes - well, I'm looking into the "freecycle" program as a place where I might find someone who could actually put the clothes to good use (click HERE for more information). And, I'll also go through all of my old equipment too (racquets, bags) to see what else needs to move on to a new home.
I hope you'll join me and Paula in the summer purge of bad tennis purchases! Clean out your own closet of tennis clutter! You'll not only feel better about yourself but maybe your game will actually improve (certainly mine will if I can quit pulling and tugging on my ill-fitting skirts)!
© Kim Selzman 2009
All Rights Reserved
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