Enjoy life and take a hike into Downtown Boulder's Pedestrian Shops

For over three decades, the Pedestrian Shops has been selling the world’s most comfortable footwear for men, women and children. In 1969, Richard Polk started the business in Denver out of the back of a pickup truck. Shortly thereafter, he traded in the pickup truck for a bookmobile and headed to Boulder and began selling Earth® footwear to local workers. In 1971, Polk signed his first lease in Downtown Boulder at 1334 Pearl Street. The store moved to its current location at 1425 Pearl Street in the mid 90s. In addition to the Pearl Street location (which is also the Pedestrian headquarters), customers can purchase shoes at the Pedestrian Shops in the Village Shopping Center as well as online at comfortableshoes.com. Polk says that the family owned business has flourished in Boulder thanks to the simple fact that people love to wear comfortable shoes!

In addition to providing over 20 brands (including Earth, Birkenstock, Crocs, Dansko, Reef and Teva to name a few), The Pedestrian Shops mission is to help make the world a better place. Every day, Polk, along with his General Manager & daughter, Lauren Polk and their employees take steps to ensure that they are operating in an environmentally responsible manner. Pedestrian Shops has been offsetting its energy usage with Renewable Energy Credits for several years, making it one of the first virtually wind-powered shoe stores in the United States. This past March, the downtown location may have become the world’s first solar-powered shoe store when its 10.32-kilowatt photo voltaic array went into service. (Solar panels and supporting equipment are located on the flat roof of the 1155 Canyon Building.) The system is owned and operated by the Pedestrian Shops as Pedestrian Energy and will provide clean electricity, preventing 28,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year from entering the Earth's atmosphere. "I'm really excited by the notion that we now can sell shoes without leaving a carbon footprint,” says Polk. The stores other earth-friendly business practices include recycling / reusing shoe boxes, offering employees Eco Passes and using energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.

For more than 20 years, the Pedestrian Shops have been giving back to the community through shoe drives held each Thanksgiving and in celebration of EARTH DAY. During the drives, customers are encouraged to recycle their shoes for people in need. As a thank you, the store gives a 10% discount on any new pair of shoes, sandals, clogs or hiking boots (including footwear already sale priced). More than 30,000 pairs of reusable shoes have been collected for distribution by the First Presbyterian Church Deacon's Closet and other community partners. This year's Thanksgiving holiday shoe drive starts tomorrow (November 15) and runs through December 7.

Recently, the Pedestrian Shops was named Best Shoe Store in Boulder County from the Boulder County Gold Awards. From ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to experience the joy of comfortable footwear to Green business practices and giving back the community, the Pedestrian Shops is making the world a better place…one step at a time.

Nov. 14th Open-Mic Poetry Slam

Calling all language lovers, users and abusers! The Boulder Book Store (1107 Pearl St) invites you to an open-mic poetry slam on Friday, November 14th at 7:30pm. Poets, readers, writers and listeners: this is the place to put your poetry.

-Sign-ups begin at 7pm and will be distributed first-come, first-serve.
-A crowd favorite will be selected at 8:30 and showered with glory, fame and books.
-Delicious refreshments provided.
-Bring warm coats and winter clothes to donate to the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless!

What is a 'hipster' anyway?

According to Wikipedia a ‘hipster’ is a term that developed in the late 90’s that “became a blanket description for middle class young people associated with alternative culture, particularly alternative music, independent rock, independent film and a lifestyle revolving around thrift store shopping, eating organic, locally grown, vegetarian, and/or vegan food, drinking local or brewing beer, listening to public radio and riding bicycles.” Sure, that sounds like a comprehensive definition of a hipster to me. It is also a pretty canny summation of most of the Boulder-ites I know.

So, I thought to myself, why exactly are all these hipsters here? Downtown Boulder served as an easy answer to my question because it is a hotbed of hipsterdom: the perfect place to be or become a hipster. There is the local, independently run Boulder Bookstore to browse both hard to find and popular titles. There are dozens of coffee shops, each with its own distinctive cup of black coffee offering innuendos into its corresponding personality (my favorite is the cup-of-joe served up at Saxy (on 10th) with Trident (Pearl and 10th) coming in as a close second). New to Pearl Street is Goldmine Vintage (on the pedestrian mall), a vintage store that guarantees that you’ll walk out more hip than you did when you walked in (IF you’re willing to pay for their selective and premier taste). Pearl St. begins and ends with bike shops as bookends with University Cycles on the West end and Full Cycle at the East. Plus, Pearl St. is crawling with organic and local fare: Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, the new (and delicious) Crepes Ala Cart, and Lolitas’ market (Pearl and 8th) to name a few. But, all of this comes at a price and it leaves me wondering: can you really buy your way to wearing the title of “hipster”?

To see if there was something beyond consumer interest in the term, I looked into its etymology. ‘Hipster’ is a term meant to convey a sense of alternative originality, but the term itself is both borrowed and bought from 1940’s beat culture. Among those who helped determine the term’s territory is Boulder’s own Allen Ginsberg, founder of the Jack Kerouac School for Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, centrally located on Canyon St. Back in their day a hipster lived in “an amorphous movement without ideology. It was [sic] more a pose than an attitude; a way of "being" without attempting to explain why.” If you weren’t hip, you were square and if you were hip you were a hipster.

Being a hipster is not just living in a culture of cool. It straddles a dangerous line between being something and being a shell that contains nothing. Critics have gone so far as to accuse the hipster of “appropriating styles of counter cultural movements while discarding everything that the style stood for.” While I suppose that it is possible for someone to be a borrowed shell that holds nothing, I have not yet met someone who is entirely unsubstantial. Boulder-ite hipsters are no exception. Pearl St. offers a context to find the inner hipster in you. To see people, mannerisms, styles, art and to adopt it. To try it on and take it for a spin. It’s a safe place to play, to see new things and to literally become part of the local scene. Try on the word hipster and see if you can redefine the word in the process of redefining yourself.

Downtown Boulder celebrates CU Buffs with the Pearl Street Stampedes

For the past two months, the night before every CU home football game, the Pearl Street Stampede has marched through Downtown Boulder as hundreds of Buffs fans line Pearl Street to enjoy the sounds of the Golden Buffalo Marching Band and to cheer on the CU football team. The past two Stampedes have drawn some of the largest crowds in Stampede history with two more to go - tonight (November 7) and next Friday (November 14).

The Stampedes are “a great shot in the arm for downtown Boulder," said Jake Puzio, chairman of the Downtown Boulder Business Improvement District. Downtown restaurants have felt the incredible impact of Stampedes as many people have been enjoying the vast array of fantastic culinary offerings that downtown Boulder has to offer both prior to and following the Stampedes.

In its fourth year, the Pearl Street Stampede continues to grow in popularity as fans of all ages head to downtown for an evening to celebrate community and to show their black and gold pride. The Stampede is a wonderful collaboration between the University of Colorado, the private sector and Downtown Boulder. “This spirited event was the brainchild of CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn,” said Jane Jenkins, the executive director of the Downtown Boulder Business Improvement District. “The Stampedes have brought the community together to celebrate CU athletics and will hopefully be a local tradition for years to come. Downtown Boulder appreciates the efforts of everyone involved who has helped the Pearl Street Stampede become an exceedingly energetic and enjoyable event for CU Buff fans year after year.”

Led by Stephen Tebo’s vintage 1948 fire truck, the Golden Buffalo Marching Band performs for fans starting on the 1300 block of Pearl Street moving west, stopping along the 1200 block and 1100 block to entertain. Along the Stampede route, fans have the chance to cheer on the CU football team. The Stampedes start at 7 p.m. in front of the Boulder County Court House on the 1300 block of Pearl Street. The Stampedes’ finales take place in the Camera parking lot (1048 Pearl St.).

What's happening in Downtown Boulder this holiday season

Downtown Boulder is getting ready for the holiday season. Twinkling lights are being strung from the trees and holiday displays are quickly going up. (Powell's Sweet Shoppe has a tree in their front window cleverly decorated with yummy ornaments on display.) In about three weeks, Downtown Boulder's Switch on the Holidays will happen followed by weekly Saturday visits with Santa during Downtown Boulder's St. Nicks on the Bricks. In a little over a month, Downtown Boulder's Lights of December Parade will get everyone into the holiday spirit.

Between now and then, come up here to enjoy our amazing fall weather. Newly planted flower beds add a splash of color (and a fond reminder of summer months) along the bricks. Experience for yourself some of the best shopping in the state (where 85 percent of the businesses are locally owned and operated). See why the Pearl Street Mall received recognition from the Camera's 2008 Boulder County Gold People's Choice Awards as Boulder's Best Shopping Destination. For the next two Fridays, enjoy a stampede like no other when CU's Golden Buffalos Marching Band and the CU football team get fans fired up during the extremely popular Pearl Street Stampedes.

Over the next several weeks there will be plenty to see and experience as Downtown Boulder celebrates the local and prepares for a festive holiday season!