Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Running with the Pack

I read a news article today that claims if you buy more than 3 pairs of sneakers a year, you are more likely to have the qualities of a modern leader.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080401/lf_nm_life/sneakers_leaders_dc

Wow, I guess I'm the minority. I would consider myself to be someone who has demonstrated leadership capacity and continued leadership potential and I rarely wear sneakers, let alone buy 3 pairs or more a year!

I bought a pair of sneakers last year when I started a new workout program and my old ones just weren't supporting my feet anymore. I got my old shoes probably 7 years prior, in 2000 I think, when I moved out to Arizona. The pair I wore before that I got in 1994 when I was going to Europe with a choir. I have worn those sneakers all over the world. I still wear those sneakers! Without question they are the most comfortable tennis shoes I have ever worn. 14 years old and they still do it for me, when I wear them.

Most women have this love affair with shoes. Now, I like shoes, and I wear sandals or heels pretty much year round. Black or brown, strappy at times. I try to have a sense of some style with them, but I don't get the whole shoe love affair. I definitely break from the pack when it comes to shoes. I would bet I've worn my sneakers out in public, other than going to the gym or working out, maybe 3 times in the last 2 years.

Based on that, according to this study, I am less likely to have ideas and vision. NOT! Who funds these things? Where can I get that job, make up crazy stories and theories, test them out on a small sample of the population and then make some sweeping statement about all of humanity which some people will buy into and then it further shapes their idea of who they are, or aren't and can limit what someone may say that they can do?! (I know, run-on sentence, but I am ranting here) What gives the media and these think tank organizations the impetus to even check out a theory like this? Oh, wait, MONEY. When they get something more important and that affects more of the population (like all the theories on what causes autism) I'll see if the thoughts have weight. But this, it's ridiculous in my world.

1 comment:

R.A. Porter said...

First off, take everything on the internet you'd normally take with a grain of salt with a much larger, saltier salt grain. April Fools and all.

Secondly, Mindset Media is an online advertising agency. They put out crap like this all the time in a sad attempt at legitimizing themselves to the market. This particular "press release" is intended to either attract the attention of a major athletic shoe maker to give MM money, or justify the money one of those firms has already bee suckered into paying them.

It's the least meaningful "research" I've seen this week.