New Alden desert boots!!!

If, like me, you feel that socks should be worn but not seen, then you'll understand why I've always preferred boots to shoes in Second Life, mainly because pants tend to be too short unless you like bell-bottoms. Boots keep socks out of sight, and for this reason alone, the humble desert boot is a winner. As always, I found that I could improve on the previous shape, and with a nip here and a tuck there, a new shape was born. Another thing I changed was the fastening. Gone are the laces, instead there is flexible lacing looped round leather covered buttons, that sit on the contrasting facing that extends down from the ankle collar. 

New Strike 2 bowling shoes!!!

From time to time, I get the urge to revisit some of my older designs. My gaze recently fell upon my Strike! bowling shoes, and I decided that they needed a complete makeover. I began with a new shape, while keeping the familiar rounded toe of the original. Then I completely redid the textures. I kept the archetypal Red and Blue color scheme, but all the other colors are new.

"Strike 2" presents the bowling shoe in a wide range of exciting new colors! Feast your eyes on Black & Gold, Black & White, Blue & Yellow, Green & Gold, Orange & Black, Pink & White, Red & Blue and Red & Gold.

These shoes are UniSex and are fitted with a low-lag ReSizer from XS to XXL. Copy OK, Transfer OK, DEMOs and Fatpacks are all available at Jeepers Main Store. Free shirt and bowling ball with every purchase!

New Clifton and Savannah saddle shoes!!!

Hold onto your hats shoe fans, this week we're releasing not one but TWO new shoes!!!

Jeepers has taken the traditional "saddle" shoe, named for the band of leather that sits like a saddle across the middle of the shoe, and re-invented it with stunning new colors and exotic leathers. The perfect summer shoes with a comfortable rubber sole, they can be worn with jeans, slacks or shorts, with or without socks.

First off is "Clifton", with a plain rounded toe, leather saddle and heel strip, and it's available in two-tone Brown; Gray with a green saddle; Navy with a white saddle; and Olive with a dark brown saddle.

Then there's "Savannah" with a slightly more pointed toe featuring a brogued toecap. Available in two-tone Blue; Buckwheat hessian with a brown saddle; Linen hessian with a dark brown saddle; and Mushroom hessian with genuine ostrich leather saddle!
   
These shoes are Unisex and are fitted with a built-in ReSizer from XS to XXL. Copy OK, Transfer OK, DEMOs and Fatpacks are all available at Jeepers Main Store.

Sebastian shoes re-released !!!

The Sebastian shoes were built on the same lasts as the highly polished Colbert men's dress shoes, but they never achieved the same popularity. Now that Jeepers new Main Store is settling in to its new location, I decided to give Sebastian a second look. The first thing that struck me is that these shoes need a polish! A good high gloss polish brought the colors to life, so I added two more colors: Bronze and Black & White. These, plus the original Red, Chalk White, Olive, Mustard and Midnight Blue and a plain old Black suede version completed the do-over. All Sebastian shoes are perforated for coolness. Sebastian - a selection that would please any Rock Star.

Jeepers moves to new Main Store location !!!

Jeepers @ Shoes 183, 187, 37
A month ago, I was informed that the sim that Jeepers has called home since August '08, was going to be converted from commercial to residential use. Frankly we were not sorry to leave. The calm and natural beauty disappeared with the arrival of the adjacent "Disneyesque" fairy castle. That was the reason for Jeepers ascent to its present floating store. But no more! Jeepers is back to earth! 
By an extraordinary stroke of luck (or karma), a perfect location suddenly became available in the sim dedicated to Shoes:  (http://slurl.com/secondlife/shoes/183/187/37/) - I kid you not, there is a sim called "Shoes", and Jeepers has a prime location on the square. 
Fortunately (again), I had a free weekend and it rained, so I got to spend hours and hours and hours, building a new store, installing the vendors, and changing the Landmarks in a ton of Notecards. There is still lots to be done, but the store is open for business and seems to be benefitting from its proximity to so many other fine (women's) shoe stores nearby.

New Chukka-Booty insulated boots!

The Duluth Boot Co. Ltd., of Minnesota, USA, has been making boots since 1841, and Jeepers Shoes is proud to present their Chukka-Booty insulated boots. Yes sir, Chukka-Booty insulated boots are the official footwear of MIFCA (the Minnesota Ice Fishing and Curling Association), so don't you know they're good! Presenting the latest in faux-fur technology, and non-slip tread engineering, the Duluth Boot Company is the leader in insulated footwear*. Chukka-Booty is available in black, olive, sanguine and umber.
    *Not liable for leaks due inclement weather.
These ankle boots are Unisex and fitted with a built-in ReSizer from XS to XXL. Copy OK, Transfer OK, DEMOs and a fatpack are all available at Jeepers Main Store.

Honestly, I don't know what I enjoy most: creating the actual shoes, their shape and appearance, or creating the mythology and marketing of them. As part of my policy updating of old shoes (in this case Rigger boots), I knew I wanted to make an insulated ankle boot with a fur cuff or collar around the top, and a simple side zipper with a hanging tag to make it easy to grasp with gloved fingers. Instead of the usual sole with the arch in front of the heel, I created a flush sole like a sneaker. This would improve grip and traction on slippery surfaces e.g. ice. Ice made me think of the newly popular Olympic sport of curling, where large granite stones are slid across a sheet of ice towards the target area. Somewhere, in the northern latitudes of the US, an old-fashioned (fictional) company would produce such footwear for local consumption. Thus was born the Duluth Boot Co. Ltd. of Minnesota. When it came to choosing the name, I started with Chukka and added Booty (note to self, keep mind on job at hand). But what would advertisements for Chukka-Booty look like? I'm guessing they wouldn't have changed much since the company was founded in 1841. So I found an ancient winter scene and embossed it onto a planked background. I added a scroll on which to display the name "Chukka-Booty". Then I had the idea that this particular boot would become the Official Footwear of local curlers, which lead me to the creation of MIFCA (Minnesota Ice Fishing and Curling Association), and their endorsement required another scroll. I had earlier decided that the hanging tag on the zipper should look like a commemorative plaque for the Duluth Boot Co. This reminded me of those old ads where companies display the medals they'd won at various events. So I added two medals between the two scrolls. Now it was looking really old-fashioned! All that remained was to add the words "Free Curling Stone with Every Purchase" (can you imagine buying shoes and finding a curling stone in the box?), and the Ad was complete.

New Digger work boots!

I sell my shoes in a couple of period sims set in the 1920's and 1930's, and for a long time I didn't have any plain boots, the kind of footwear the average man in the street would wear to work, whether the factory or the farm, and after a quick brush up, could wear to church on Sunday.

Jeepers is proud to present Digger work boots. The most versatile footwear you can own. Five eyelets, a robust toecap, lugged sole and matching laces. Made from authentic period leather, cracked from long exposure to weather, in four subtle colors: Carbon (black), Sanguine (a sort of dried blood red), Umber (umber) and Swamp (straight out of the Okefenokee Swamp, the deepest darkest green you've ever seen).

Choosing the name of a new shoe is always fun. Since these boots will replace my Rigger line of work boots, the name Digger came quickly to mind. I knew that in Australia, "digger" is a friendly form of address for a man, but the word has a much older meaning. In England in 1649, the Diggers were an independent group with an agrarian lifestyle based on their ideas for the creation of small egalitarian rural communities. The Diggers' beliefs encompassed a worldview that envisioned an ecological interrelationship between humans and nature, acknowledging the inherent connections between people and their surroundings. But like all groups with radical ideas, their movement was crushed by those it threatened: the State. I think the world today would benefit greatly if there were a few more Diggers around.

These shoes are Unisex and fitted with a built-in ReSizer from XS to XXL. Copy OK, Transfer OK, DEMOs and a fatpack are all available at Jeepers Main Store.