I know this is a New Balance blog, but hey when I see something interesting - I need to share it with you.

Nike is encouraging you to make a New Year's Resolution and challenges you to do so. It will show you the consequences of failing to live up to your resolution. Check it out at NikePlus.com.

Here's some other bloggers that are talking it up:

• Nike+iPod New Year’s Resolutions


• Nike Kicks Off New Year's Challenge

Are you planning your New Year's fitness program? Here are some tips to help get you prepared.

Don't forget that achy backs and sore feet are sure to put a stop to your new workout regime. Selecting a good pair of athletic shoes chosen specifically for the activities you will be doing is very important. Running shoes for running, Walking shoes for walking, Tennis shoes for tennis and so on. There is a reason these shoes are listed in separate categories geared toward a particular activity. Much research and testing is done by New Balance to assure that you are getting the best product for your specific sport.

Here are some other tips on making sure you select the proper footwear.

New Balance presented New Balance Tampa and other New Balance concept stores with a beautiful 265 page book called "Enduring Performance" to mark their 100 year history as a shoemaker.

Pagano Media Inc. just won two Davey Awards for producing the book and also a video called "Achieve New Balance". The Davey Award means valuable publicity for it's winners. The Davey is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, based on creativity from big ideas. Congratulations Pagano Media Inc.

- Michele

Tonight on ESPN, Central Michigan University faces it's first college bowl since 1994. Central Michigan University is dressed head-to-toe in New Balance products in the 10th Annual Motor City Bowl.

- Michele

Hey guys! I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. School has gotten really busy the last month and my running has also taken a backseat. But now that school is out, I am back into a full training regimen.

I only have one more month until the half marathon! I am really excited now that it is coming down to the wire. I ran the Turkey Trot 10K on Thanksgiving Day with my training partner, Ashley. She is with me in the picture that you see.

We had a great time and we ran it at a 10 minute mile pace, which is our desired pace for our long runs. It felt good to fun in my first race and made me look forward to January! I will keep you posted over the next few weeks as I finish the home stretch to Disney!

- Daniel

View Daniel's Journal

Check out this new arrival which is a new color combination in the New Balance 767 for Men.

Well, there were 6 customers that shopped with us on Sunday morning that received quite the bargain.

I was sending out my newsletter, letting everyone know that the 843 was soon to be discontinued and on sale for $79.99. Great deal. Well, I was working from home that morning and the kids were on my computer the night before and they had the numbers locked on my keyboard. So when I went to reduce the price, I deleted the 8 from 89.99 and added a 7. Well because the number keys were locked the 7 did not appear. Therefore I submitted the price for $9.99 and switched back to sending out my newsletter. Well the first mistake that I made was multi-tasking and the second was I didn't double check my work.

Well, for about an hour Sunday morning, the price of the Men's 843 was $9.99. Unfortunately, we could not keep it at that price. Sorry! We did need to change the price back to $79.99 which is $25.00 off the original price of $104.99.

I just wanted to let you all know that it was a honest mistake and for those of you that placed the order, we will make good on the deal.

Thank you,
Michele

Remember my post the other day regarding OnlineShoes.com?

Well, I keep finding instances where they advertise a very low offer price in a Shopping Comparison Engine but when clicking into their site to buy the item it's offered at a considerably higher price.

It's offered here at $152.99 on PriceGrabber (12/18/2006 5:45AM):


And look here, it's actually offered to consumers for $169.99 on their site (12/18/2006 5:45AM):


As a consumer how do you feel about something like this? I know it gets under my skin to the point where I certainly wouldn't do business with that particular merchant. What about you?

We've added another search feature to help you find Apparel and Clothing faster and easier. You may have already seen it appear on our navigation menu.

It's very simple and works just like the Shop By Size or Shop By Last features.

Are you wondering how these types of tools are faster? Each option clicked only returns valid results based on available inventory and you'll notice that the pages do not need to re-load with each click. Essentially, customers can figure out what they want (color, size, category, gender) from 1 single page. We are using a technology called AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript w/ XML) so your browser will require Javascript to be enabled.

Here's a screen shot (click it to try it out):


Let us know how we can improve it. I seem to remember the last customer that made a suggestion that we used received a free shipment of Running Socks (hint: we like customer input).

We received an email that indicated one of our longer running Coupon Codes was not working. I just wanted to chime in and let everyone know that I tested this code last night and I'm happy to report that it stills works.

This is probably a good time to remind everyone that during the checkout process we do have tools for you to check the validity of a Coupon Code. Michele has a nice write-up on these tools here. So, for you returning customers that link will appear like this on your Express Checkout Page:


And new customers are offered a very similar link like this:


Why am I re-hashing this? Well, after testing our site I realized that perhaps a slight usability issue may have caused this problem. Here's why. When validating a Coupon Code this will occur in a small Pop-Up window. That utility will essentially inform customers if a code is 'valid' or 'not'. What it doesn't do is automatically apply the code to your order. Customers still need to do that manually (after closing the Coupon Code Validation window).

Thanks for letting us know, we'll see if we can make this a little smoother for you.

Hey all, this is Vic. I wanted to let everyone know that we have made some enhancements to our Product Page.

There are several ergonomic changes and two that are a slight departure from the previous version. You'll notice the Product Image is now located on the left and we've moved and remodeled the Details and Ordering section; that's now on the right.

Here's a sample screen shot from the New Balance 587 Product Page:


Let us know what you think!

So, I wanted to write about this last week but I didn't capture any screen shots; today I have and I'm writing about it because I've noticed this on more then one occasion and so that appears to be a pattern. Too, consumers don't like accepting an offer only to find out that it's not accurate at all.

Like many of you I use the Shopping Comparison Engines to find deals. I even use the advanced features like Price Alerts so that I know when my target price is reached. So this morning I received a spectacular price alert for the Mens New Balance 992 2001. If you've never received a price alert its basically signing up to be notified when an item goes below a desired price point. The idea being "that's when you buy it".

This morning I received this in my Gmail Account (note the price of $152.99):


And when I clicked into PriceGrabber that Engine reflected the offer (note the price of $152.99 for OnlineShoes.com):


Here's where the trouble for Consumers begins. The Price offered to me in my email and on the Shopping Comparison Engine is much higher (Note the price is now $169.99):

Victor is working on building a search for clothing on the site.

This clothing finder will give you the option to pick the gender, male or female, the category that you are looking for such as running shirts, running shorts and then narrow down to your size. You will then be displayed exactly the clothing and apparel items that match your criteria.

His goal is to make shopping at New Balance Tampa easy by helping you find exactly what you need as fast as possible.

Since New Balance prides itself on specializing in sizing, this is a much needed facility.
It's not quite ready yet, but I'll give you all a sneak preview that you can play around with.

- Michele

Still needing to order in time for Christmas?

Your best bet is to call our toll free number to make sure that your size is in stock. Although we monitor the stock online daily, throughout the day sizes may become sold out so please feel free to call our toll free number to check availability.

Our toll free number is 1-877-NBTampa or 1-877- 628-2672.

- Michele

Did you know that New Balance is now a proud sponsor of Sesame Street? New Balance has signed a 4 year deal with Sesame Street Workshop. The workshop is a non-profit educational organization that is trying to address children's developmental needs and make a difference.

Would you like to play some Sesame Street games. Go ahead, I know you want to!!

- Michele