:: BerDerp™ ::

Incontestably an abandoned set of shoes often appears as if straight out of a C.S.I. rerun. What is it about abandoned shoes — the one part of the wardrobe that tends to appear more than any other item — that makes them seem so eery? Littered often by highways, ponds, railroads… their ability to persist in outdoor elements longer than say a shirt or cap, leverages the shoe as a prevailing item to find amongst a trash heap or otherwise area you wouldn’t sit and picnic in.

With more than 1.5 billion shoes sold annually in the US alone (although 99% is imported), abandoning a shoe is dissimilar than shoe tossing that pair of dunks over the power lines.

On another note, the Affordable Footwear Act of 2007 is starting to build some initiative — ulitmately, this bill would provide some common-sense tax relief by eliminating the import tariffs collectively known as the shoe tax that has been in effect for about 75 years. Effecting mainly the lower-to-moderately priced footwear (and all children’s shoes), which comprises only 60% of the 1.5 billion aforementioned, this would prevent US consumers from forking out exorbitant dollars: the 2006 figure collected? $1.8 Billion