The meeting was held in a local fire house, and the place was packed. College kids wore bright t-shirts, promoting their favorite candidates. Local yokels passed out flyers—some glossy, some handmade. Candidates walked up and down the rows, shaking hands, introducing themselves and mopping their brows.

You see, it was hot in there. Sweltering, even. But people had come out to choose the candidates they’d endorse in the upcoming primary, and they weren’t going to leave until the results were in. The whole atmosphere reminded you that it might be small, casual, and local—but it was important. And people knew it.

But perhaps the candidates didn’t.

(Read More . . .)

by Stephanie Dray

Technical advances have made athletic footwear bouncier, more flexible and weather resistant. The 13 billion-dollar athletic footwear industry has so transformed the athletic shoe through technological innovations that choosing one can be a confounding adventure. A bewildering array faces the average consumer. If you don’t know whether or not you’re an overpronator or what goat traction is, you may be at a severe disadvantage. So how can you select the best shoe?

Understanding the anatomy of an athletic shoe is the first step. First, there’s the upper. That’s the fabric, leather, or plastic that covers the top of your foot. Next, there’s the outsole, which forms the outer and bottom sole of the shoe. And in-between is the midsole where most of the magic happens. But major athletic shoemakers have concentrated on improving all these parts of the shoe. For example, Reebok has developed weather resistant uppers. New Balance has developed The Walking Strike Path™, designed to follow the center or pressure path that occurs during the walking cycle gait in the midsole. And Nike has developed goat traction: a unique dual density rubber outsole engineered for supreme traction and stability.

Once you understood the anatomy of an athletic shoe, you’ll need to learn the biomechanics of your own foot. More than half of all people overpronate (their feet roll too far to the inside and push off the inside edge of the forefoot) or underpronate (their feet don’t roll in quickly enough, so each stride finishes on the outer edge of the foot). People with a low or flat arch usually overpronate, whereas those with a high arch tend to underpronate. To find out if your feet fall into either category, look at your most worn pair of shoes. If your shoes show wear on the outside heel and inside forefoot, you’re an overpronator. If you see wear on the outer edge of the heel and the little toe, you’re an underpronator. Underpronators need more flexibility in their shoes whereas overpronators need a firm heel counter (that’s the part that cups the heel) and more stability.

Next, you have to determine how much cushioning you’ll need. Shoes provide cushioning for a very simple reason: to protect the human body from the force of impact with the ground. These impact forces can be substantial. A jump shot on the basketball court exerts a force of up to 10 times the jumper’s body weight upon landing. If you’re an older exerciser, weigh over 150lbs for women or 180lbs for men or have a joint problem, extra cushioning is especially important.

Until 1978, shoes featured sponge rubber wedges to provide cushioning. These sponges were heavy, dense, and tended to compact over time and usage, resulting in reduced cushioning benefits as the shoe wore down. Nike was the first company to solve this problem when they decided to use a pressurized gas inside a tough, flexible urethane bag that compresses to absorb the force of impact, then immediately recovers its original shape and volume. Thus, Nike Air was born and Nike has dominated the athletic shoe industry ever since, controlling 35% of the market.

But Nike isn’t the only company using technology to benefit our feet. Reebok features DMX technology comprised of air cushioning in a single unit that moves the full length of the shoe, and delivers the cushioning and stability precisely where and when the athlete needs it. By tightly constricting the channel as air flows from heel to toe, the speed of the airflow is controlled to match the pace of an individual athlete. Moreover, Reebok has 3D Ultralite, which is a proprietary blend that they use for their outsoles so that their shoes are 10-20 percent lighter than those made with conventional construction. Yet, Reebok’s reputation isn’t stellar. Jimmy Algarin of the Athlete’s Foot in the Owings Mills Mall went so far as to say, “The Reebok Classic is just a bad shoe. It wears out quickly; it forms to your foot; it looks bad. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone and especially not to older people. If you want a comfortable shoe, check out New Balance.”

New Balance started out as an orthopedic company and perhaps that’s why they’ve maintained a focus on making a comfortable shoe that corrects for various foot problems without the hype of space-age promotional design. They don’t even come out with exciting names for New Balance shoes. New models simply have numbers. But all of the athletic shoe experts I spoke to agreed that if you weren’t interested in flash and wanted a good solid shoe, New Balance was the brand to look at.

New Balance has a shock attenuating, cushioning component that they call ABSORB®. They’ve also developed the Rollbar®Stability System that keeps the foot in a neutral plane so that you don’t over or under pronate. Their N-ergy S.C. System™ is a lightweight blowmolded cartridge engineered to provide maximum heel cushioning and medial and lateral stability while also providing superior energy return and maximum resistance to compression. India Murrain of the Owings Mills Mall Finish Line explained, “Nike has style, but New Balance is straight up what runners need.”

Until this year, innovations have all been variations on the same theme: lighter soles, new air bubbles, and improved cushions. This year, however, Nike has revolutionized the industry yet again with their new Shox technology. The air bubble is gone, replaced with cylinders of what appear to be coiled springs!

“The Shox freak everybody out,” says Jimmy Algarin told me. “Everyone wants to see how it feels. And you can feel the difference.” So I decided to put them to the test. My extremely scientific method was as follows: I walked around the mall until my feet were tired and sore, went into every athletic shoe store in the mall and harassed the staff into letting me try on all their newest, and then jumped up and down to test each pair for comfort.

When there wasn’t an available pair of women’s Shox in my size, the nice ladies from the Finish Line, Nikki Mitchell and India Murrain, patiently brought me a springy size eight men’s. (They assured me that men’s shoes are exactly identical to the woman’s version except in color and size.) Without a doubt, my flashy Nike Shox had the strangest feel of any shoe that has ever been on my foot. The coiled heel compressed and sprung as I walked. It literally put a bounce in my step. The uniqueness of the sensation alone was enough to make me fall for the shoe. But at $150 per pair, I had sticker shox!

Algarin assured me that the new technology was pricey, but not overpriced. “It takes a lot of money to develop an entirely new shoe. Nike got tired of the air bubble and they finally came up with something new to revolutionize footwear. And I tell you, Nike’s expensive. But Shox is the most innovative and technically sound shoe around. So Nike is still going to be your best shoe for the money, depending on your sport.”

Consumer’s obviously agree with Algarin, since Shox sneakers now vie with Air Jordan for top billing and there is evidence that retailers are having trouble keeping the shoes on their shelves. For 2001, the Shox sneaker is the No. 5 selling shoe in the country even though it’s the most expensive of that group.

Next, I moved on to the Nike Air Spectre. The Spectre is a space age shoe that comes in attractive metallic shades. Many sneakers now feature zippers, magnetic closures, or no closures at all. The Spectre slips on, but it took me several tries to stuff my foot into it while the ladies at the Finish Line looked on and laughed. The Spectre will both stay on your foot, and help you use up quite a few calories putting it on. The foundation of this running shoe is rigid with a visible air mattress in the heel and rounded cleats on the bottom. The shoe sells for about $60 and is a tempting buy.

After the Spectre, I took a peek at the Nike Air Flightposite III’s. These basketball shoes are the strangest of the bunch. The sides bulge out with an iridescent metallic pattern that deceives you about the shoe’s shape. But the Flightposite seems to be all flash. Every pair in the store had glue marks that made for a cheap and ugly appearance.

I also tried on Reebok, New Balance, Adidas, and Puma. But ultimately, Nike’s technical innovations and style has them all beat. Their focus on constant improvement and scientific research propelled Nike to the top of the market, and it looks as if it’s going to keep them there.

Once plagued by falling sales, family board games like Monopoly and Clue are top sellers once again. According to Adrienne Lester, Manager of Kay-Bee Toy & Hobby Shop in Owings Mills Town Centre mall, old favorites are making a comeback, in part, due to the rising price tags of video games.

But the renewed popularity of board games may also be due to an increased emphasis on family activities. “People don’t want the television baby-sitting their kids anymore,” Lester explains. “And board games have an advantage over the shoot ‘em up video games in that they engage the kids’ minds in an interactive situation. Board games make them use their heads instead of their fingers.”

Deborah Wurzburger agrees. Wurzburger owns the Toy Chest, a specialty game store located on Reisterstown Road. She says, “Board games give a family the time to sit down together and socialize. You have to make family game time a priority from when they’re young, though, otherwise it’s going to be too hard to keep teenagers involved.”

Both Lester and Wurzburger also agree that “Sequence” and “Match’em” are the best games for families with older kids. These two games, both by Jax Ltd., are reputedly two of the most challenging intellectual games on the market. “Sequence” and “Match’em” capture the attention of teens, and, even better, each game can be found for under fifteen dollars. Kay-Bee carries another bargain for families with teens — the combination “Deluxe Seven In One Game” by Cardinal. “You’ve got chess, and checkers, and all kinds of games in there. A little something for everybody,” Lester says.

For families with little kids, old standbys like the economically priced “Mr. Mouth” is always a good choice. Moreover, now that Milton Bradley is making travel versions of popular games like “Clue”, “Perfection” and “Crocodile”, the games are selling quite well. Travel games are compact, are easy for the kids to handle, and help to silence that age-old question, “Mom are we there yet?” If you’ve still got a family road trip ahead of you this summer, you’ll definitely want to give these games a look.

Wurzburger recommends taking into account the special interests of a child when picking out a game. She’s quick to point out that employees of the Toy Chest play test all their products and that they give high marks to a game called “Footloose.” Designed by a teacher, this interactive game keeps younger kids moving by giving them tasks such as giving mom a hug, or jumping up and down on one foot.

Another excellent choice is the reasonably priced and innovative series of games by Binary Arts. “Safari,” a jungle escape game, comes with fun animal pieces and includes a travel bag. The other Binary Arts games, “Rush Hour” and “Rush Hour Jr.” are traffic jam puzzles that will hopefully immunize kids to road rage by the time they’re old enough to drive. In the “Rush Hour” games, players try to navigate an ice cream truck through the crowded streets in an effort to outmaneuver the other vehicles. Toy pieces in the “Rush Hour” games are shaped like cars, fire trucks and buses.

But games aren’t just for kids. Baltimorians ought to get a kick out of the Orioles Checkers game. Instead of checker pieces, the game provides players with a set of miniature Orioles helmets and a set of opposing miniature Yankee helmets. The game itself is played on a delightful customized baseball-themed board. There’s also a gimmicky but entertaining version of Monopoly that is based on Baltimore landmarks and scenery. Both these games can be found at the Toy Chest or other specialty or novelty stores.

When asked to name the best game on the market, Wurzburger chose “The aMAZEing Labyrinth” by Ravensburger. She says, “Labyrinth holds the interest of adults because it offers a different scenario to players each time they play.” Made for one to four players, ages eight and older, “The aMAZEing Labyrinth” depicts complicated mazes in which players can find treasured objects and accomplish individual goals. Ravensburger also makes a junior version of the game for children.

When all is said and done, however, the old favorites may really be the best bet for the money. Lester explains, “The newer games really aren’t as popular. Take the ‘Who Wants To Be a Millionaire’ game for example. It’s a new game and should be a hot seller, but people expect it to be tense like it is on the television, and it’s not. And then you’ve got the new Star Wars game, but the expense can discourage people. But you can’t go wrong with a game like Scrabble. That’s the best game we carry at any price range.”

Trading card games and video games are not likely to vanish from the toy store shelves in the near future. Still, it’s nice to see a resurgence of family games that give adults a sense of nostalgia and introduce younger players to years of enduring fun.