The Pedestrian Shops are supporting Meals on Wheels of Boulder by raffling their Comfortable Shoe Tree, worth over $3500, as part of the Meals on Wheels Festival of Trees. They are also once again holding their annual Thanksgiving Shoe Drive to help neighbors in need.
This holiday season, the Pedestrian Shopsshoe stores are once again helping neighbors in need. They are supporting Meals on Wheels of Boulder by participating in their Festival of Trees and holding their Thanksgiving shoe drive to collect footwear for local assistance organizations.
The Pedestrian Shops will be raffling off their holiday Comfortable Shoe Tree, adorned with over $3,500 worth of footwear, socks, and accessories, as part of the Festival of Trees benefiting Meals on Wheels of Boulder. Raffle tickets can be purchased for $5 each on Meals on Wheels of Boulder’s website, mowboulder.org, beginning November 18.
The tree’s lucky winner will be able to choose any shoe style from Pedestrian’s inventory, from each brand represented on the tree. Their winnings will include over 26 pairs of shoes from Dansko, Keen, Merrell, Wolky, Ecco, Clarks, Acorn, Jambu, Kalso Earth, El Naturalista, Aravon, Blundstone, New Balance, Crocs, Birkenstock, Chaco, Teva, Cushe, & Patagonia. The winner will also receive 20 pairs of socks from Smartwool, Injinji, Point 6, and Goodhew, handbags and accessories from Osgoode Marley, a BackJoy Back Orthotic, and 8 pieces of Omni-Heat base layer from Columbia Sportswear.
This is the sixth year the Pedestrian Shops have participated in Meals on Wheels’ Festival of Trees and the second year the event will be held in Downtown Boulder. “It’s really fun to have this beautiful tree full of comfortable shoes in the middle of our store,” said Richard Polk, owner of the Pedestrian Shops. Many Downtown merchants are participating and displaying their trees in their shops throughout the holiday season. Meals on Wheels will hold the drawing for each tree on December 18. The Pedestrian Shops’ tree can be viewed at their Downtown location at 1425 Pearl St.
The Pedestrian Shops are also once again encouraging customers to bring a pair of new or slightly used shoes to either of their locations between November 23, the day after Thanksgiving and December 10 to donate to people in need. As always, a 10% discount will be provided to customers who donate shoes; however, a purchase is never required. Customers often use the discount to stock up on the Pedestrian’s most popular styles like the Dansko Professional clog or a warm Columbia jacket.
For 25 years, Pedestrian has collected used shoes for distribution by local assistance organizations. This is the 47th shoe drive, as a second is held each April to celebrate Earth Day. The Pedestrian Shops have collected over 35,000 pairs of shoes for reuse by people in need. The Pedestrian Shops also support a wide variety of local schools and non-profits by donating countless gift cards to silent auctions and fundraisers.
The Pedestrian Shops began doing business shortly after the first Earth Day in 1970. Its first shop was located in a repurposed 1950s bookmobile. Its first bricks and mortar location was opened in 1971 in downtown Boulder, Colorado. Its humble roots are memorable for the story of its first store fixtures, carved from tree trunks; their first months of use required daily spraying for ants. Today, 42 years later, The Pedestrian has become widely regarded as one of the world’s leading retailers of comfortable shoes, operating two Boulder, CO stores and a website, http://www.comfortableshoes.com.
