Archive for November, 2008

After working hard, we decided to hardly work

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

Flew back yesterday from The Summit with 70 other totally ADD serial entrepreneurs. Man, what a trip. In addition to the odds being in the girls’ favor (1:11 girl:guy ratio) ha! jk! the crew was amazing; there was an amazing cross-section of entrepreneurial minds, especially from the tech space. I normally don’t hang with that crew, so it was just a total blast. Viva la Mexico!

Summer Rayne Oakes, David de Rothschild, Graham Hill, Catherine Levene

Catherine Levene (Daily Candy); Graham Hill (Treehugger); David de Rothschild (Adventure Ecology) and I chill poolside in Playa del Carmen in between mingling and more mingling.

Scott Harrison at TOMS Shoe Drop in Mexico

Scott Harrison strikes a pose outside of Cancun, Mexico where Jake Strom (TOMS) arranged a last minute shoe drop. Scott later went on to give a presentation on Charity: Water that touched the whole crew. So forget what I said before, I’m postponing my trip to go the the Charity: Water ball on December 15th. It’ll be a whole Summit reunion too – as I think the whole NYC crew and some of the left coast contingent will be coming too.

Scott Bailey, David de Rothschild, and James Siminoff

Scott, David and James chill out during dinner. Images compliments of H. Rowland!

Stay tuned for more down the road. I’m certain after this event they’ll be more biz collaborations. As I said, most of us will be re-uniting at Scott’s event on December 15th, so come out, buy some wells, and have a good time.

What I learned at the Summit:

  • Tech entrepreneurs are not as dorky as you think they are
  • West Coast can’t win at tug-of-war unless they cheat :o )
  • Don’t tackle Tim Ferriss unless you want to be broken in half on your back in the sand
  • So many good ideas, so little time

Charity: Water benefit NYC 2008

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

Charity Water, December 15, 2008 ball

I won’t unfortunately be able to swing by Charity: Water this time around, but all of you should go. I headed to Esther’s and Sean’s photo exhibit/story time the other week and Esther was preparing for her journey throughout Kenya to document the Charity: Water wells being built. Definitely go if you are in the city, it’s always a great event and gets so much clean water to so many people. They’ve currently raised $7 million and have funded 890 water projects in 13 countries. That translates to giving 460,000 people access to clean water. That’s monumental! 100% of all public donations directly fund water projects…You can check out the locations over at Google Earth. Enjoy!

Sustainable shoes for under $30? You got that right.

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

Summer Rayne Oakes & Payless launch Zoe & Zac, green footwear line

Summer Rayne Oakes & Payless launch Zoe & Zac, green footwear line

A couple weeks ago Payless and I opened up the showroom doors to over 100 magazine editors (and a few lucky bloggers) to grab a sneak peak at the sustainable footwear  and accessories line we’ve been developing under the label, Zoe & Zac. Around 2PM we had a bit of a lull in traffic, so I snuck back into the design area with Nancy to work out some accessory ideas. It’s safe to say that the editors liked what they saw, which is always a good lithmus test.

Summer Rayne Oakes & Payless launch Zoe & Zac, green footwear line

chatting it up with editors at the Payless showroom. Clothing shout-outs: Dress – Beau Soleil; Sweater – Lara Miller; Ring – Dandi Maestre; Necklaces  – Ombre Claire, and the shoes “coming soon” compliments of Payless.

We’ll be starting off with women’s casual footwear, jewelry and bags; release some children’s looks; build up to women’s dress shoes; and then launch a men’s collection. We’ve begun to incorporate organic cotton,  linens, hemps, water-based glues, reduced-metal dyes, PET, recycled rubber (minimum 20%), eco-foam beds (a super cool alternative to conventional PVC foams and similar in chemical composition to Kevlar). The name Zoe & Zac came to be after some quant/qual studies on names Payless customers loved and that one quickly rose to the top. We all loved it too because it’s so young, fun and fresh and sure as hell doesn’t scream “GREEN!”  It also indirectly states that any girl or guy can do the green thing when it comes down to it, (especially when it’s so damn affordable).

Summer Rayne Oakes & Payless launch Zoe & Zac, green footwear line

A sneak peak at one of our cute ballet flats due out in April 2009.

It’s been awesome working with the Payless team to develop the brand. We’ll be updating the looks a few times every year and we’ve got some on-trend, fresh looks that will totally be on point for the coming season.

Keep an eye out for the Zoe & Zac launch this April 2009 and your eyes here for some of the latest developments–both on the style and sustainability front. We’re already looking ahead to the summer line and other environmental efforts, so stay tuned. Things are moving forward quickly!