I ordered another pair of shoes

I know, I know...

But these are so cool and they're green.

I read about END Footwear in a recent issue of Runners World that my friend gave me and my interest was piqued. The company's story is worth checking out.

Beyond the environmental impact, I was most intrigued by the minimalist design. I'm a big believer (as a result of my own injury experience) that many of today's running shoes are overbuilt. My current shoes (Vitruvian) are about as spartan as you can get and work great for me, but I wanted to try a "racier" shoe (in terms of weight, not sex-appeal). I'll be honest though -- the Vitruvians are not the coolest looking thing out there and the END shoes are pretty sharp.

On top of all that, these are $60 sneakers. For some reason, that's my "this is an awesome thing to try and if it doesn't work out, whatever"-price point (my Vitruvians are $60 -- and those worked out great). The more solid trail runners and light hikers are a little more, but the entire range is less than $100 -- that's almost unheard of in today's footwear marketplace.

Oh yeah, I ordered Hannah a pair too. Because -- clearly -- now I no longer only get excited about my own running shoes.