hyperempowered

Love It: BellyBuzz's Recycled Gift Bows On etsy.com

BellyBuzz creates gift handcrafted gift bows from popular magazines (the one above is the February 2008 Issue of Glamour Magazine featuring Matthew McConaghey and Kate Hudson on the cover). 

More here.

Graph Of The Day: Starbucks and Wal-mart Per Capita

(via)

Smart Aquisition Of The Week: Discovery & Treehugger

In an extremely smart move, Discovery Communications has purchased one of the best weblogs on the planet, Treehugger.com.  Graham Hill writes on the Treehugger site today:

"We had many conversations and concluded that we needed a partner with a sizeable, international audience, a kindred brand and a high level commitment philosophically and financially to green.

Discovery fits these criteria to a T.

* They reach 1.5 billion (yes, billion!) cumulative subscribers around the world with top quality, often nature related non-fiction content

* They have commitment from the top of the company for over $50M to create content including programming for the world's first 24 hr green channel and in addition have allocated significant budget aimed at building the leading green web portfolio on the Internet

* They already have web properties serving hundreds of millions of pageviews per month

* They are looking to the TreeHugger team to help drive the direction of their green efforts online

Discovery elected to pursue making us a core element in their overall green strategy. We believe that this combination will allow TreeHugger to go much further and faster than it would have been able to alone or with another partner. If you believe what the world's scientists are saying, and I do, we have but a few years to make major changes in our relationship with nature. By teaming up with Discovery, we believe we can more effectively play a critical role in this mission.

Did you know that...

"...one in four of all meals bought at a restaurant in America today is purchased at a drive-thru window."

<via>

Origins: Kenneth Cole Productions

I love hearing the stories behind how various companies got their start.  They're often fascinating, and extremely inspiring.

Today at a meeting I heard a terrific story about how Kenneth  Cole launched his business.

Here's the story of Kenneth Cole "Productions"  (nicked from the Kenneth Cole website):

"Twenty years ago, I wanted to open a shoe company with limited money. From experience I knew one had to get in quickly because so often new companies run out of cash flow before they get the chance to conduct business. I also knew it was easier to get credit from factories in Europe who needed the business than from American banks that didn't. So I lined up the factories, went to Europe, designed a collection of shoes, and returned to the states to sell them.

At the time, a shoe company had two options. You could get a room at the Hilton and become 1 of about 1100 shoe companies selling their goods. This didn't provide the identity or image I felt necessary for a new company, and it cost a lot more money than I had to spend. The other way was to do what the big companies do and get a fancy showroom in Midtown Manhattan not far from the Hilton. More identity, much more money too.

I had an idea.

I called a friend in the trucking business and asked to borrow one of his trucks to park in Midtown Manhattan. He said sure, but good luck getting permission. I went to the Mayor's office, Koch at the time, and asked how one gets permission to park a 40 foot trailer truck in Midtown Manhattan. He said one doesn't. The only people the city gives parking permits to are production companies shooting full length motion pictures and utility companies like Con Ed or AT&T. So that day I went to the stationery store and changed our company letterhead from Kenneth Cole, Inc. to Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. and the next day I applied for a permit to shoot a full length film entitled "The Birth of a Shoe Company."

With Kenneth Cole Productions painted on the side of the truck, we parked at 1370 6th Avenue, across from the New York Hilton, the day of shoe show. We opened for business with a fully furnished 40 ft trailer, a director (Sometimes there was film in the camera, sometimes there wasn't), models as actresses, and two of New York's finest, compliments of Mayor Koch, as our doormen. We sold 40 thousand pairs of shoes in two and a half days (the entire available production) and we were off and running."

To this day the company is still named Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. and serves as a reminder to the importance of resourcefulness and innovative problem solving."