The Susan G. Komen Foundation is celebrating it’s 25th Anniversary.

They are renewing their promise to continue their plight to find a cure for Breast Cancer.

One woman 25 years ago lost her sister to breast cancer. She made a promise to end breast cancer which launched a global movement of millions who are lighting a way for a cure. Could one woman really make a difference?

Read the Susan G. Komen story.

Then go to the 25 Komen website and create your own Promise Circle.

- Michele

Even us runners in Florida will be needing a running jacket this week.

Is the cold keeping you from running?

Check out these running jackets that were reviewed by Running World testers. The New Balance Kaspian Half-Zip Running Jacket was reviewed as feeling as cozy as a pair of pj's.

Check out the reviews at RunningWorld.com

- Michele

The Winter X-Games start today. They run from Jan. 25-28. Check out the action.

You may remember back in August the NB Zips were introduced at the Summer X Games. NB loved the summer games so much, looks like the NB Zips will be touching some snow in Colorado for the 11th Winter X Games.

Here's the TV Schedule for the X Games.

- Michele

Do your running shoes look like this?
Maybe its time for a replacement!

Running in old or worn out shoes can lead to an increase in injury. As the support and cushion begins to wear in a shoe the stress on the feet and legs greatly increases. A lot of times the cushioning and support of a shoe wears out before the harder rubber outer sole.

Shoes normally need to be replaced between 300 and 500 miles. This greatly depends on the runner, the shoe and the terrain.

Check out this site for more tips! Sports Medicine

-John

What an incredible feeling! Hitting the finish line after 13 miles was a moving experience for me. I can honestly say that the Half Marathon was a pinnacle moment in my life.

After training for 5 months and seeing it all come to fruition was amazing. The weekend was a great experience. My running partner Ashley and I arrived on Friday and registered at the Health and Fitness Expo at the Disney Wide World of Sports. We got our race numbers and the chip that tracked our time. Then we went to the Dolphin Hotel where Chick-fil-a was paying for us to stay for the weekend. We got our Chick-fil-a running shirts and then went to dinner to get some last minute carbs in before Saturday morning. We shaved my hair into a Mohawk that night and then we woke up at 4:30am on Saturday and headed out to Epcot for the start of the race. Our wave of runners started at 6:30am! The first 3 miles were the hardest because we were running faster to go around the slower runners, but after 4 miles I felt great and ready to run the rest. Running through the Magic Kingdom and Epcot was a lot of fun. We stayed at a consistent 10:20 mile, which is very close to what we trained at.

After running this race, I know that I can't stop here. I have decided that next year I am going to run the Disney Full Marathon, so I have started training already. Knowing that I can set a goal and make it only motivates me more. I want to thank New Balance Tampa for providing my clothes and shoes for my training and run. Having good gear has been essential to my experience. Also, I would like to thank all of you out there who supported my goal by reading my blog and for all of your prayers. The last few months have been incredible and I look forward to the other great things that I get to do.

Thank you! - Daniel

I just added the following New Balance shoes to our site. The free shirt deal still applies for one more week until January 28th Midnight.

Men’s Running
MR1061OG - $104.99, original price $119.99 - $15.00 Savings
MR902LW - $89.99, original price $109.99 - $20.00 Savings
M825SO - $79.99, original price $94.99 - $15.00 Savings

Men’s Tennis:
CT1200WB- $119.99, original price $129.99 - $10.00 Savings

Men’s Cross-training:
MX716BK - $64.99, original price $74.99 - $10.00 Savings
MX716WN - $64.99, original price 74.99 - $10.00 Savings

Women’s Running:
WR902MS - $89.99, original price $109.99 - $20.00 Savings
WR810GB - $74.99, original price $84.99 - $10.00
WR810BP - $74.99, original price $84.99 - $10.00
W755SO - $74.99, original price $89.99 - $15.00

Women's Cross-training:
WX716WG - $64.99, original price $74.99 - $10.00
WX716WP - $64.99, original price $74.99 - $10.00

Women’s Tennis:
WCT1200W- $119.99, original price $129.99 - $10.00 Savings

- Michele

Guess what? You're in luck! We have located more large size quantities of the Free Shirt we are giving away. However, we are out of stock on XXL now.

Many of you have already taken advantage of our Free New Balance T-Shirt offer and we hope you're enjoying the shirt! The inventory for this item in Large was completely depleted today. So it's a good time to remind everyone that this is a while supplies last promotion.

Another new arrival is the New Balance criss cross thong sandal, SDW230BY. Take them with you on your winter vacation to the beach.

- Michele

In my last post I covered how to achieve individually separate Shipping and Billing Address records for New or First Time Customers. So, how does this work for Returning Customers?

You've more then likely seen this when Checking Out on our site:


New Customers are offered the option of creating an account with a password and when doing so can return to New Balance Tampa and login using the Returning Account Holder option that you see in the image above.

Take a look at the next screen shot. Because this is my account I've blurred my address records. What your looking at is the single page checkout that Returning Account holders currently make their purchases from. You can see that our systems maintain (securely I might add) the default Shipping and Billing Address records for Returning Account holders.


It's important to note that our systems do not save customer credit card numbers. For Security reasons we will always ask customers to enter their credit card at the time of Check Out.

For Customers that wish to ship to a new address simply click the change link that is located directly below the default Shipping Address. This will cause the page to re-draw itself offing you the ability to create an additional Shipping Address:


Now, just complete your purchase and you've achieved Shipping to an Address that is different then the Billing Address.

Earlier this week we received a couple of inquiries regarding our checkout process. More specifically, some customers wanted to know how they'd send their order to an Address that deviates from the Billing Address.

Our systems do support this and so I thought it might be a good idea to blog about it for everyones benefit. Too, we're making a new Category on our Blog titled How Stuff Works. We'll begin to catalog these types of helper posts in this new category.

When Checking Out as a New or First Time customer you can expect to go through a very simple 3 step process:

1. Enter Shipping Address Details


2. Select a Shipping Option


3. Enter Billing & Payment Details

From the "learn something new everyday department"... We received 2 emails today from fine folks that are currently serving in the Military regarding our shipping policy to the ARMY Post Office (APO) boxes. New Balance Tampa does indeed ship to an APO address box but we quickly learned today from our customers that our Shipping State selectors didn't quite offer proper options so that packages could be routed to the right area of the Globe.

Basically, this really depends on where the person is stationed:

• APO AE is used for folks stationed in Europe, Canada, Africa and the Middle East


• APO AP is used for folks stationed in Asia Pacific


• APO AA is used for folks that are stationed in the Americas

We're happy to announce that our Free UPS Ground Shipping Program has been extended.

You'll recall that we ran this program through the Holiday Shopping Season and we've decided to extend it through January 31st. 2007!

This is probably a good time to remind everyone that our Free UPS Ground Shipping does have some important program details:

• UPS Ground can only be used for orders shipped in the Continental United States.


• New Balance Tampa ships orders Monday - Friday.


• Our Shipping Policy answers many frequently asked shipping questions: Shipping Policy.

In case you missed it we're giving away more free stuff. Last Month is was the free Lanyard; this time its New Balance Sleeveless T-Shirts. We normally sell these shirts for $14.99 but we've decided to give them to our customers with each order! Every order placed on our website while supplies last will receive one of these free shirts.

When completing your order our system will ask you to select a desired size:


Select your size and we'll do the rest. Enjoy the shirt!

If you have never heard of Exercise TV On Demand, let me tell you about it. In 2006, Comcast along with Jake Steinfeld of "Body by Jake", developed an On Demand based program on exercise. New Balance is a sponsor and an equity partner. You can read more about that partnership from this past post.


I haven't checked in on this for awhile so I decided to take a look and see what they are doing for the New Year. Sure enough I found some great info for your 2007 Resolution to get in shape. Check it out here.

- Michele

Happy New Year's from New Balance Tampa! Thank you for your patronage in 2006.

In 2007, we look forward to continuing to provide to you - low price, first quality New Balance products. Feel free to drop us a comment and let us know what we can do this year to better serve you.

All of us here at New Balance Tampa wish you a Happy and Healthy 2007.

- From the team at New Balance Tampa