12/02/2018
I live in a fairly small town in Norway. It’s a place a lot of people visit, so it’s well served with hotels, both large and smaller. There is a certain amount of competition in the market, so they all try to offer the best possible experience. Except one, a small and apparently family run establishment. Ideally located in the…
19/03/2016
I’m at the start of a series of posts about companies that for some reason or other interest me. Either due to unique products, some quirky aspect of their business, or because they have a background and history that is interesting. In the case of NPS Solovair, the interest starts with the company name. The NPS part dates all the…
11/12/2015
For me winter means boots. I know some people feel it appropriate to stride through the cold and dark, over the ice and snow, wearing the same flimsy, slippery and chilly footwear they use the rest of the year. Around here though we see winter as an opportunity to boot up. And boots must be real boots, no zips and…
10/07/2015
An expression came to mind last week whilst preparing a new pair of rugged Red Wing boots for use, “tough as old boots”. It got me wondering where such an expression might have come from, and also whether there was any significance in the “old” part of it. Were boots stronger in previous times? I have observed that there has been…
20/02/2015
A while back I posted about how I discovered that my classic Dr Martens shoes had developed split soles (read the original post here!). Although four or five years since I had purchased them, they had seen little use and I was very surprised to find that the soles, while displaying marginal wear elsewhere, had split along the sides, opening…
20/12/2014
Given my recent activism around the probably bicycle related wear on a pair of my tweed trousers, it may be a little early to go on another disappointed consumer rant. Or is it? Heck, we pay good money for our nice clothes and shoes, so isn’t it reasonable to find they live up to expectations, or even exceed them? Should we…
15/12/2013
Over recent years I’ve gotten into the habit of stopping by the local Salvation Army shops nearby when passing. I’ve been lucky to have a fairly decent one both in the small town where I live, and right next to where I’ve been working for the past 4 years. The combination of doing my bit for charity and possibly finding…