The story is about two Moms who started their own business serving a need. The main story is how they built their business.
But it is what their business is for . . .
Smelly Soccer Feet.
[A Repost.]
Here’s the full story: Skunkies: Two Boomer Moms Reinvent Themselves Over Smelly Feet.
It’s the usual odor problem from bacteria inside shoes.
Meet New Jersey soccer moms Jill Levin and Annemarie McCartney, both boomers credited with solving the problem of stinky kids’ feet. As a mom myself, I get this problem. In fact, if you want to get it too, just join me when I have carpool duty and half the boys soccer team removes its cleats and shin guards in my car after a practice. Even the dog wants out, and her favorite thing in the world is rolling around in some other dog’s poop. She at least has the option of straining her neck out the window to escape the smell. Moms? We are in the car, windows rolled down to limited avail.
Their solution are these little sachets to control/mask the odor.
Note that these sachets do not eliminate the bacteria. Next time the kids play soccer, they put their feet right back into that bacteriological soup that’s been feeding on the kids’ sweat and old dead skin cells. Mmmmmmm, good.
I have a different solution: why not just get to the root cause and play soccer in bare feet?
It’s played that way the world over (though not necessarily when “organized” by adults). You really don’t need to wear cleats—in fact it is probably safer when cleats cannot be dug (accidentally or on purpose) into another player’s leg.
I also found a couple of barefoot soccer marathons.
Here’s one in Glen Ellyn, IL:
Barefoot Soccer for Barefoot Kids, two indoor youth soccer tournaments, raised funds to send children’s athletic shoes to Africa. Local Scout Joseph Lanzillo, 17, of Glen Ellyn held the shoe collection and soccer tournaments as his Eagle Service Project, to support Coaches Across Continents in their development work in African communities, using soccer as a tool to develop relationships and teamwork.
Sigh. Another charity that seems to think that shoeing kids will help Africa.
And looking at a picture from the event, it seems they don’t even really know what “barefoot” means:
"Barefoot" Soccer in Glen Ellyn
What possible use could those footies serve. As first I thought they might have been playing a version of “Shirts & Skins”, but “Shoes & Soles”, but that’s not it either.
[Update: if you go to the link you’ll see that the pictures have “aged out”.
You can read another longer, version of the story here; again, no pictures.]
Contrast that with another charity, 24 Hours of Barefoot Soccer in Wellesley, MA. These folks were raising money for help prevent AIDS in Africa. Much better.
And the soccer looked much better, too:
Barefoot Soccer in Wellesley
These folks really do know what “barefoot” means.
By the way, such barefoot soccer really is safe, and also really strengthens the feet. It is perfect exercise. And for just a bit of bonus coverage, here’s a link to a short article on exactly that: Barefoot training to prevent injuries.
They are older as well, but these two videos show barefoot soccer matches in Oregon. Unfortunately, several don’t know the meaning of barefoot, but they are working to help HIV/Aides in Africa. At least they show how soccer can easily be played barefoot.
2011:
2012:
[Comment edited by Ahcuah: It turns out that if you put a youtube on a line all by itself, WordPress will embed it (yay!). So, the only change I made was to add newlines before the youtube URLs.]
Joel, many thanks for drawing our attention to those videos!
There is a soccer team of kids in Algeria that is being trained by professionals to serve as the countries future national team, they are called the “Paradou” and play barefoot. The kids played without a goalie and against teams two/three years older (they themselves were 12/14) yet usually won by two or three points (a lot in soccer). Here is one of the videos:
I’m seeing a big jump in agility in those videos. I think someone who had never worn shoes at all would run rings round them though.
Over what I would expect, that is.
Bob.. I remember a few years ago, I think it was on this site, that you showed a video of some kids in a soccer team that were from either Latin America or the South Pacific, that as soon as they started playing barefoot, their skills improved and they made it to the final tournament in their soccer league. As soon as I read this blog, that video just popped into my mind.
Barefooter25: This one, maybe?
That’s the one. Thanks. I was never good at soccer and it’s not one exactly one of my favorite sports but if I would have played it barefoot, maybe things would’ve been different. I read that Pele used to play soccer barefoot when he was a kid in Brazil and that was probably the reason why he became one the greatest soccer players in the world.