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| Baltimore jails ban boots and Nike shoes that inmates use to make weapons |
| By Baltimore Sun |
| Published: 07/02/2001 |
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Some Nike athletic shoes and all work boots are being banned from Baltimore's jail complex because inmates were found to be fashioning weapons from the shoes' steel and plastic parts. LaMont W. Flanagan, state commissioner of Pretrial Detention and Services, said correctional officers discovered about a month ago that inmates were cutting open the footwear and removing the parts to sharpen them for weapons. Although Flanagan said the makeshift knives have not been used in any attacks at the jail complex, searches for contraband have turned up weapons made from the steel and plastic parts. He said recently that the staff has confiscated some of the shoes but did not know how many pairs. 'Any opportunity an inmate has to acquire a weapon concerns us a great deal,' Flanagan said. 'They are here 24-7. They are very creative, and their creativity meets their needs - and one of those needs is violence to solve their problems.' The commissioner signed an order last week banning certain types of Nike shoes and work and outdoor boots from the Baltimore City Detention Center and the Central Booking and Intake Center, which make up the jail complex his agency oversees. All the shoes - the Nikes and the boots - contain a 5-inch-long piece of steel that is a half-inch wide, either in the sole or around the heel, Flanagan and shoe manufacturers said. Those parts can be sharpened on the jail's concrete floors, the commissioner said. The Nike products in question are three types of cross-training shoes that carry the name of basketball great Michael Jordan - the Jordan Trunner LX, the Jordan Trunner 2000 Mid and the Jordan Trunner Bubble, Flanagan said. A plastic shell that cups the top of the Nike shoes' laces also poses a security risk, Flanagan said, because it is can be used to cut someone without being sharpened. Sharpened, he said, the plastic can become as sharp as a razorblade. Banned shoes will be confiscated, and inmates will be given temporary footwear, such as foam slippers, until someone can bring a replacement, the commissioner said. Flanagan plans to display examples of the banned footwear in the jail visitors' room to notify friends and relatives who might bring them to inmates. |
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How Shoes of Prey Design Technology Could Change the Way We Shop Customization in fashion has nevermore been hotter. Pins and patches have made a huge comeback; brands like J.Crew also Marie Claire St. John have created the monogram cool again; Burberry's Scarf Bar provides customers to get an It item that's all their own. Also, Gucci is getting in on the game, giving customization options to its several popular bags. Shoes of Prey, an online-native shoe customization brand, was leading off the customization bandwagon. And rather than use customization as an additional option for customers, the whole business is founded on it. Australian Jodie Fox launched the brand in 2009 after finding someone with who she could commission her own shoe designs, which were a huge hit amongst her friends. Alongside CEO Michael Fox and Chief Technology Officer Mike Knapp, Fox produced a customizable shoe company from the ground up. Unable to find any existing technology that met the criteria they were looking for, the in-house team at Shoes of Prey built the site from scratch. The brand states that over six million sets of shoes have been designed since launch. Irish setter boots also have this term. "When someone is building the technology for you, it's not as personally connected with your target and your business," she explains. "I think technology has the potential to make things so seamless — the trick is, you have to know precisely where those conflict points are to take full benefit of it." But the whole point of the technology is that the consumer doesn't also notice it. "The best feedback we can possibly get is, 'I'm having so much fun.'" Fox says. "It's about really being able to focus on the shoe itself, and the creativity they need to put into it, and the technology should serve them in a way that they don't also notice that it's there." There's no deficit of ideas, either. Fox's ultimate dream project includes bringing her customers a fully spontaneous shoe wardrobe they can create with a 3-D printer at home. Though the technology of 3-D printing is still developing, footwear lends itself to the medium more easily than other apparel parts, albeit in a limited way. But, Keegan Schouwenburg, CEO of 3-D printing company SOLS, told Fast Company last year that we could begin seeing mass-marketed 3-D printed shoes in "three to five years" — so Fox's dream may not be so far off. Till then, though, Shoes of Prey is concentrating on using technology to find different ways of making its customers happy. "I think that as prolonged as you have imagination, the technology is something that is a process to do fun things," Fox says. With handbags, boots, and accessories — not to consider a potential IPO — on the limit, Shoes of Prey has plenty of imagination left. And plenty of funding to arrange there, with a range of investors have shown their confidence in the company's concept. Last December, Shoes of Prey raised an extra $15 million, back in the division by Nordstrom.