You may have heard of Ukrainian, Leonid Stadnik? At 8-foot-5 he's the world's tallest human. I read about Leonid a few years ago in the USA Today. Back then he was only 8-foot-4. Amazingly, he's still growing. According to his Wikipedia entry, at the age of 14 he developed a pituitary gland tumor that secreted large amounts of growth hormone, resulting in gigantism.

Leonid is back in the news because he's been given a new giant sized bicycle and he's also received a giant car by President Viktor Yushchenko.

I knew this from reading about him previously but you might not. Stadnik unfortunately had to quit his job as a Veterinarian on a cow farm due to frostbite on his feet. Leo was walking to work in his socks because his shoes didn't fit. He has a 17" foot.

Hmmm, I think I know some folks that manufacturer and sell size 17 shoes. This is the kind of story that New Balance should jump at. Leo needs some size 17's and New Balance is looking to expand their marketing horizons by tripling their marketing budget. If Leo can make the front page of every major media outlet on the planet with a new Bicycle I think I'd be getting him some new shoes. It's a good deed and that kind of coverage can't be bought.

If you happen to wear a size 17, we can help you out. Did you know that we carry up to size 20? I tried our Size Finder for Mens, Width D, Size 17. We currently have 27 different models across 5 categories available in that Size and Width.

Oh and guess what, we don't just carry size 17 in a standard D Width. Nope, we have them available in 2E:

And 4E:

We even have them in 6E:

We feel strongly that carrying this wide variety of Sizes and Widths helps support our value proposition to you the Customer.

We are delighted to announce that Free UPS Ground Shipping has returned to New Balance Tampa. It's an important part of our value proposition to our customers which includes:

• Free UPS Ground Shipping in the contiguous U.S. UPS Ground service is not offered to Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico from Tampa.
  
• 8 Years running we've had $10 off any model priced over $59.99. This includes the latest New Balance releases too!
  
• We offer daily Clearance Sales. 
  
• And we've given away everything from Socks, Lanyards, T-Shirts, Hats, Jackets... heck; we've even given away Free Ginsu Steak Knife sets!

The Ocean Drive 5K was last Saturday, though no time in South Beach is a bad time. It did rain quite hard that morning, which lead to soggy and cranky runners. By noon the race was over and the sun was out. We raised funds for Mount Sinai Canter Research Center and in the end had a great time. I hope that next year the sun will be on our side and my running mates and I will cut some time off this race.

New Balance has teamed up with sportswear designer Eyan Allen on its new autumn 08 running collection. The line takes inspiration from the Shanghai skyline, but the functional components are the most interesting. That  includes ipod/mp player features on the forearm for ease of use in motion, hand snugs, watch ports, zoned venting and '360 degree reflectivity' for night runs. With great style and function it should be a good fall.