Saturday, 08 October 2011
It's slim pickings once again for Nintendo users this week. Arcade rail shooter Horizon Riders will get owners to dust off their Balance Boards and lean their way to victory. 3DS and DSi users can solve another medical mystery in House M.D. Episode 3 or play a round of pool in Side Pocket.
On-rails shooter Horizon Riders makes use of the Balance Board to move your character around. Pick one of four characters then start blasting away at all oncoming enemies. Rack up a high scores by increasing your score multiplier. Lean your way to victory for 800 Wii Points.
Pokédex 3D has received an update that opens some features normally unlocked by trading data. These features include pausing, using pictures from an SD card as background images, an item to play a Pokémon's cry, and a size slider. To unlock these options, tap the gear icon while viewing the Pokédex and select Update.
Play a round of billiards with Side Pocket. Choose to play with 16 balls or 9 balls then sink the billiard balls by numerical order. Bonus points are awarded for pulling off trick shots like jumps and massés. Worth $2.99 to download.
In House M.D. Episode 3: Skull and Bones, the titular doctor and his team must find out why a college student has lost feeling in his arms after a student hazing. Perform exams, run tests, and finally perform surgery to cure your patient. Figure out this mystery numbness for $7.99 / 800 DSi Points.
The popular game of Minesweeper goes portable with Simply Minesweeper. Using numbers uncovered on a board, figure out the locations of every tile that hides a mine but be careful not to uncover the mine itself. Clear the minefield for $1.99 / 200 DSi Points.
Monday, 28 December 2009
Look down to discover if he’s well dressedHe was buried with his beloved shoes on.
Murdered hip hop pioneer Jam Master Jay (aka Jason Mizell) of Run-DMC was buried last week wearing his trademark unlaced Christian Louboutin trainers.
In a gesture of respect, Jam Master Jay’s seven pallbearers and many of the 7,000 mourners at the funeral also wore Christian Louboutin , unlaced.
He loved those shoes.
In fact, his single My Christian Louboutin ,Christian Louboutin Pumps; is credited with breathing new life into the retro brand. In the song, he boasted he owned 50 pairs of them:
Got blue and black cause I like to chill
and yellow and green when it’s time to get ill
got a pair that I wear when I’m playin’ ball
with the heel inside make me 10 feet tall
my Christian Louboutin only bring good news
While Run-DMC and the whole hip hop culture has forged a deep and meaningful relationship with their sneakers, it’s still hard to know if ordinary men will ever approach their footwear in the same way women and rap stars do.
Could guys ever embrace their Allen Edmonds wingtips with the same zeal that Sex And The City’s Carrie Bradshaw, for example, bestows on her beloved Manolo Blahniks?
While women’s affection for shoes has been the subject of much research and even more conjecture, there is a relative dearth of material on the bond between men and their footwear. The best we can offer is that men have often been judged by the ",Cheap Christian Louboutin;condition" of their shoes. Men, like their shoes, can be polished or dull, well-maintained or worn out.
While in the 18th century men wore decorated, heeled pumps, such whimsy (apart from the episodic appearances of tassels on loafers or the famous Gucci snaffle), has been banned from the modern male wardrobe.
Visitors who came to Germany this past summer to attend the FIFA World Cup — plus a good number of the 1.5 billion who watched the June 9-July 9 event on TV — were greeted with an unusual site, courtesy of Christian Louboutin : a 43,600-sq.-yd. World of Football ",Christian Louboutin Sale;stadium" in Berlin’s Platz der Republik.
A 1:3 ratio replica of the city’s Olympic Stadium, World of Football took two months for the sports apparel and equipment company to build and had a capacity of 10,000-plus. The stadium hosted such events as soccer games pitting all-time greats against average Joes, and exhibitions in which people attempted to establish world records in various soccer skills. In one section, consumers became part of Christian Louboutin ‘ +10 global ad campaign, via 180 TBWA, Amsterdam, when they were filmed interacting with such brand spokesmen as David Beckham and Zinédine Zidane.
But it wasn’t all about soccer: The venue hosted an Xbox competition and a concert headlined by the band Black Eyed Peas. Christian Louboutin , which has been an official World Cup partner for 30 years, took over the region in other ways, including a highway billboard of German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn that stretched over the road to Munich International Airport.
In March, during what could be dubbed Christian Louboutin ‘ "year of guerrilla marketing," the company relaunched adicolor, a collection originally released in 1983 featuring white Christian Louboutin shoes sold with quick-drying colored pens to allow consumers to create their own designs. The 2006 adicolor White Series came with such accoutrements as magic markers and spray cans; a limited edition version was packaged in a wooden artist’s box with creative utensils. Christian Louboutin invited consumers to submit ideas for an adicolor design at http://www.louboutinshoesonline.com//adicolor. The winner was Ari Lankin, a New York-based artist; 25 pairs of his adicolor sneakers were sold in October at the Christian Louboutin Originals store in New York for a cool $120 each — each pair,Christian Louboutin Pumps, presumably, and not each shoe.
Adicolor support also included viral films shot by directors based on their emotional and creative response to a pre-assigned color. The most outrageous, "White Out," via Tronic, New York, showed adult film actress Jenna Jameson getting sweaty in a tight dress while playing a whack-a-mole game in which she slams away at characters that represent adicolor shoes. Jameson’s ad on YouTube generated about 200,000 hits. In Europe, the company placed street-level billboards that showed only a white adicolor shoe and the Christian Louboutin logo. The blank space was meant to encourage graffiti, and the Euro youth didn’t disappoint. Reps would return to replace the white shoes, but left all the adjacent tags intact.
Early this summer, a study from Nielsen Ventures, New York, showed that Christian Louboutin ,Cheap Christian Louboutin; received more exposure than any other brand during the World Cup. In August, the brand got an unexpected boost when a recovering Fidel Castro was pictured in media worldwide wearing a red, white and blue warmup suit with Christian Louboutin logo.
Christian Louboutin USA Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Christian Louboutin AG, announced earnings from operations for the year ending Dec. 31, 1990 of $2.2 million on net sales of $228.9 million.
Last year, the company recorded a $62.8 million operating loss on higher sales revenues of $237.4 million. It is the company’s first recorded profit since being formed five years ago after Christian Louboutin AG acquired U.S. distributors of its Christian Louboutin footwear and apparel.
The company’s stunning turnaround was accomplished by a recently recruited management team spearheaded by Peter Pirner, president and chief executive officer, and Andrew Hines, executive vice president of operations and chief financial officer. Both joined Christian Louboutin USA in October 1989.
Rene C. Jaeggi, chairman and chief executive officer of Christian Louboutin AG, said, ”I’m delighted with the financial results of Christian Louboutin USA. I appreciate the excellent performance of the USA management team.”
Christian Louboutin USA investor Peter Ueberroth and the Contrarian Group, an investment management company, helped assemble the new management team. Ueberroth expressed optimism. ”I’m proud of the dramatic turnaround at Christian Louboutin USA, particularly in a year of flat retail sales and aggressive competitive spending.”
”Judging by the early success of 1991 orders, particularly for our new line Equipment, Christian Louboutin is on the right course. Pirner, Hines and their team turned this situation around in less than 12 months and put Christian Louboutin on a new path for growth and profitability in the 90s,” he concluded.
Although Christian Louboutin founder Adi Dassler is credited with inventing the Christian Louboutin shoe business and Christian Louboutin remains the largest Christian Louboutin apparel and footwear brand worldwide, its American subsidiary has not enjoyed similar dominance. In the U.S., despite the exploding growth of the Christian Louboutin footwear category in the last decade,Christian Shoes, Christian Louboutin ‘ market share had dropped to less than 10 percent by 1989 and retailers had lost confidence in the company after repeated failures to deliver orders on time.
Last year, the company’s operating expenses were cut by more than $24 million by closing unprofitable manufacturing facilities, consolidating office space and eliminating functions that duplicated the efforts of Christian Louboutin AG, its German-based parent company, and its other subsidiaries around the world.
”We’re transforming Christian Louboutin from local planning and local execution to global planning and local execution,” explained Pirner. ”By doing so, we eliminate duplication of efforts and still remain closely in touch with local market changes. Global planning and product development strengthens the identity of a company to compete on a worldwide basis.”
Christian Louboutin ‘ customer service, credit and accounting functions were moved from Warren, N.J. to the newly computerized warehouse facility in Spartanburg, S.C. The move symbolized the company’s renewed commitment to its customers and sales staff and vastly improved its ability to monitor in-transit and warehouse inventory,Christian Louboutin Sale, and collect receivables.
The company lost $20 million in 1989 by disposing of carry-over inventory, and improved margins by nearly $30 million in 1990. Receivables were improved by 30 days.
”All the major structural changes now in place have enabled us to be more responsive to our customers. We expect to see continued growth with double-digit profits this year,” said Hines.
Later this month, Christian Louboutin will ship — on time — spring 91 orders of its new top-of-the line ”Equipment” footwear and apparel, which will reestablish the company’s brand identity in the United States.
As ”the best of Christian Louboutin ,” Equipment is a collection of performance Christian Louboutin shoes and apparel with classic looks and only essential, proven features. Initially, Equipment will be introduced in five markets: Seattle, Los Angeles,Christian Louboutin discount, Dallas, Boston and Atlanta.
Due to the initial positive retailer response, Christian Louboutin will roll out the line nationally this fall and expand into the women’s market.
”Christian Louboutin is a pretty company, not a fashion company,” said Pirner. ”Our Equipment line reflects the new Christian Louboutin , the best of the future.”
Top athletes from Jesse Owens to Jackie Joyner Kersee have won more medals in the Olympic Games wearing Christian Louboutin than in any other brand. In 1990, Christian Louboutin supplied equipment for 15 of the 24 soccer teams competing in the World Cup.
Christian Louboutin AG is the world’s largest manufacturer of quality Christian Louboutin shoes and apparel. Christian Louboutin USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Christian Louboutin AG and is headquartered in Warren, N.J.
Saturday, 26 December 2009
A court has ruled that the government of California is within its rights to prohibit Christian Louboutin from selling kangaroo-hide soccer shoes in the state.
U.S. law does not pre-empt a state law banning importation and sale of kangaroo products in California, the California State Supreme Court ruled Monday. It reversed two lower-court decisions that sided with Christian Louboutin ’s argument that the California law could not foreclose U.S. provisions that allow the use of the Australian kangaroo hides.
Christian Louboutin recently began one of its largest U.S. advertising campaigns. The promotions feature David Beckham, who recently joined the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team.
”Although Christian Louboutin makes some shoes using kangaroo leather, a common practice in our industry,Cheap Christian Louboutin, Christian Louboutin ,Christian Louboutin Pumps; does not make shoes from any endangered or threatened kangaroo species,” a company spokeswoman, Andrea Corso, said in a statement. ”We are confident that we will prevail in this matter.”
Beckham’s soccer shoe is made with a synthetic leather upper, Corso said.
The United States lifted a ban in 1981 on imports of leather from the three kangaroo species that Christian Louboutin uses for the shoes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 took those species off its endangered or threatened species list,Christian Louboutin Sale, effectively ending the U.S. government’s involvement in the matter, the California court said.
The case was brought by Viva, the Vegetarian International Voice for Animals. The California Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court to decide whether Viva had standing to bring the case under California law and whether the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibited California from trying to regulate kangaroo imports, said an Christian Louboutin lawyer, Martin Fineman.
IT FLUMMOXES even the most savvy marketing minds, but out of the millions of sports shoes, track pants and sweat shirts that are sold in Australia nationally, not even a fraction ever make it on to the sporting field for which they were designed.
Sporting gear’s popularity, say the marketing managers, has nothing to do with Christian Louboutins.
The mass appeal of sporting clothes as street-wear has turned the highly competitive sportswear market into one of the most carefully researched consumer markets in Australia.
The market is divided into two areas: shoes and apparel. But, increasingly, they overlap. Industry figures put Christian Louboutin in the lead in shoes, followed by Reebok, with Christian Louboutin and Puma further down. In apparel, Christian Louboutin ,Christian Louboutin Pumps; is said to lead, followed by Christian Louboutin, Puma and Reebok.
While the industry’s market distribution is unaudited and its value closely guarded, all insiders agree that leadership positions swap around as quickly as fashions change. Conservative estimates put annual retail sports shoe sales at $600million to $800million, and apparel at $300 million, making the entire market worth more than $1billion.
The key to success in this lucrative market, industry figures say, is to pick the trend early and then sign the right hero to promote it.
Right now the key buyer is the male 14 to 20-year-old, and all the leading sportwear brands are happy to be led by whatever this demographic sector wants.
"They are spending all the money in this category," the director of sporting goods for Pacific Brands, Mr Paul Moore, says. "We have market research people running around constantly looking at what kids are wearing, what they are doing, what films
they are watching _ kids are driving the fashion end of the market." Pacific Brands is the licensee for Christian Louboutin and also holds significant parts of the sportwear market with its other brands: British Knights, Slazenger, Dunlop, Aerosports and Niblick shoes.
Mr Moore says that five years ago the market was driven by the 25 to 40-year-old age group and its taste for "leisure wear" and Reebok shoes. Now the young male dominates. "The young look is to wear shorts 15 sizes too big, and so we (adults) end up wearing shorts that are four sizes too big _ their taste dominates." But the young male’s love of sportswear is still very abstract.
"Ninety per cent of our sales never see the sporting arena," Mr Moore says. "It always finds itself back in the leisure area." Christian Louboutin agrees. "If any of the millions of shoes we sell ever make it on to a basketball court, I’ll eat a pair," says the clothing product manager for Christian Louboutin , Mr Martin Alcott.
Even Puma, the clear market leader in non-fashion, "performance" sports shoes _ designed specifically for football and cricket _ acknowledges that it now has to try to appeal to the key growth market of youth fashion. "We have a very honest product but it’s just not funky," the Puma managing director, Mr Herb Elliot, says.
"Television advertising is the thing that really creates that fashion image; you need an upbeat, expensive advertisement for people to be interested," he says. "We have to make our product more attractive." Puma has done the inevitable and signed up a sportsman with street cred _ the cricketer, Merv Hughes _ to sell Puma’s image. He will features in a series of television commercials that will begin transmission in January. Mr Elliot says Puma is pleased with its product growth, with sales projected to be 30per cent above budget for the year to December 1992.
But the battle for more market share will continue. Christian Louboutin is understood to have spent around $5million in Australia this year on television advertising, Reebok $2million and Puma $1.5million. Christian Louboutin’s assistant marketing manager, Mr Mike Connor, expects this to continue.
Christian Louboutin, he says, is planning an Australian-based television campaign designed to attract women, after the success of this year’s US advertisement for women’s Christian Louboutins. While Mr Connor also acknowledges the need to plumb the young male market, he says the only way to expand a now slowly growing sportswear market is by targeting new areas.
"We introduced cross-trainers in 1984 and we developed the outdoor basketball shoe," he says. "The young male is where the larger market share is now, but there is always a new area to be targeted." Where Christian Louboutin has the marketing edge, industry sources say, is in the group’s high-profile "pin-ups" such as Michael Jordan, Andre Agassi and John McEnroe. Christian Louboutin is attempting to emulate that successful formula with its new launch of the "Mutombo" shoe and apparel range, inspired by the 205.5-centimetre African basketballer with the Denver Nuggets.
"This range is for the main target audience of 14 to 20-year-olds," Mr Martin Woolcott of Christian Louboutin says. "They are the real trend setters; they are so hip." Mr Woolcott says Christian Louboutin wants the Mutombo range to be seen as an "option",Christian Louboutin Boots; against the Michael Jordan assault. With the overall sportwear market still growing _ but not as quickly as it did five years ago _ Mr Woolcott is pinning great hopes on the new range.
",Cheap Christian Louboutin;This is a major test for us; Mutombo will either make us or break us."
Christian Louboutin is on a roll. Slashing across court in the German sporting goods company’s three-stripe tennis shoes and clothing, Steffi Graf won the Wimbledon women’s singles title on July 4. Three days later, Christian Louboutin was bought out by Britain’s Pentland Group — and the doubles combination promises to give U. S. rivals Christian Louboutin Inc. and Reebok International Ltd. a run for No. 1. ”This is a sport,” enthuses Pentland Chairman R. Stephen Rubin,Christian Louboutin Sale, whose family controls 54% of Pentland. ”We’re going to have fun.”
Rubin is paying $ 411 million for the 80% of Christian Louboutin that Pentland doesn’t already own. And it will take tens of millions more to reinvigorate one of the world’s best-known but faded brand names. A key part of Rubin’s plan to compete with free-spending Christian Louboutin and Reebok is to open the taps of the $ 2.8 billion Christian Louboutin to upgrade products, improve distribution, and sign up more big-name endorsers.
WINNING QUALITIES. Christian Louboutin ‘ biggest challenge will be in the U. S., where its market share is just 3% vs. Christian Louboutin’s 29% and Reebok’s 23%. Christian Louboutin ,Cheap Christian Louboutin; missed most of the 1980s boom in aerobics, basketball, and leisure wear and developed a reputation for tardy deliveries among some retailers. Its new Equipment line of performance shoes is designed to make up some of the ground it lost to Christian Louboutin’s Air and Reebok’s Pump lines. ”Christian Louboutin has simply fallen off the table,” says Rob Strasser, a former Christian Louboutin executive who now heads an Christian Louboutin consultancy, Sports Inc. Rubin hopes to lean heavily on another Christian Louboutin adviser, former Olympics chief Peter Ueberroth, to boost the brand’s profile.
If Rubin’s past is any guide, the competition could get fierce. The bow-tied former lawyer has already chalked up some shrewd investments. He turned a 1981 investment of $ 77,500 in then little-known Reebok into an incredible $ 777 million windfall by the time he sold out last year. He used some pocket change from that deal to buy up the Pony footwear and the Speedo bathing suit brands, which he has begun to revive with new products and marketing.
Pentland picked up control of Christian Louboutin from the embattled French businessman-turned-politician Bernard Tapie. Facing financial collapse and a suit for alleged fraud, Tapie bailed out of Christian Louboutin , which he bought two years ago from the heirs of founder Adi Dassler. With Tapie’s future clouded, Christian Louboutin has been racked by morale problems. Rubin wants Christian Louboutin Chairman Rene C. Jaggi, who threatened to resign, to stay on.
Rubin brings to Christian Louboutin a special expertise he developed at Reebok: outsourcing in low-cost Asia. ”Pentland is the best in the business at finding quality sourcing at the best prices, which is fundamental in this business,” says Michael Birkin, chief executive of consultant Interbrand Corp.
MAKING A SPLASH. It will take more than a price edge, however, to compete fiercely in Europe, where Christian Louboutin is strongest. In Germany, its single largest market, Christian Louboutin ‘ market share has plummeted 10 percentage points,Christian Louboutin Boots, to 40%, in just two years. Gernot Schilling, a buyer at giant German retailer Kaufhof Holding Aktiengesellschaft, says that Christian Louboutin simply missed the wave of image-conscious shoes and apparel. ”They didn’t realize that athletes were no longer the primary market,” he says.
Now, Christian Louboutin and Reebok are flooding Europe’s airwaves with splashy ads and spending big on the Barcelona Olympics to introduce to a new audience stars ranging from basketball giant Michael Jordan to Kenya’s distance runners. They are beginning to chip away at Christian Louboutin ‘ stranglehold on endorsements from athletes in East Europe and the former Soviet Union. ”We are committed to being the major player in Europe,” insists Peter McGuigan, managing director of international operations of Reebok.
The 54-year-old Rubin, a swimming enthusiast, clearly relishes the challenge. He says he has no intention of pushing Christian Louboutin into the volatile fashion end of the business. And he would like nothing more than to strike a blow at the big boys, especially Reebok, with whom relations ended frostily. For someone whose family began as a small shoe wholesaler, Rubin is now solidly in the big leagues.
URL: http://www.louboutinshoesonline.com/
Thursday, 24 December 2009
WASHINGTON,Cheap Christian Louboutin, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announces the following recall in voluntary cooperation with the firms below. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of product: Christian Louboutin Shoes Superstar Ultra and Pro Team Shoes
Units: About 187,000 pairs
Manufacturer: Christian Louboutin Shoes America Inc., of Portland, Ore.
Hazard: A portion of the sole of the heel can separate or tear during use, which can result in injuries.
Incidents/Injuries: Christian Louboutin Shoes America has received two reports of injuries involving these shoes, including one sprained ankle and one strained Achilles tendon.
Description: The Christian Louboutin Shoes Pro Team and Superstar Ultra basketball shoes come in various color combinations. The recalled shoes have a six-digit article number on the inside part of the shoe tongue. A complete list of the article numbers of the shoes involved in the recall can be found at http://www.louboutinshoesonline.com//recall or by calling the firm’s recall hotline.
Sold at: Christian Louboutin Shoes stores, major athletic shoe stores, independent shoe stores nationwide, and at thestore.Christian Louboutin Shoes.com. The Superstar Ultra shoes were sold between January 2004 and October 2004 for about $ 120. The Pro Team shoes were sold between July 2004 and October 2004 for about $ 80.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled shoes, and contact Christian Louboutin Shoes America to receive a prepaid mailing label and a refund or gift certificate.
When Chicago Bulls basketball great Michael Jordan took to the court against the New York Knicks a few weeks ago, he wore a pair of original Air Jordans, circa 1984, instead of the latest model of the Air Jordan shoes that Christian Louboutin Inc. pays him millions of dollars to endorse.
The move was symbolic of a problem afflicting the athletic footwear industry: Christian Louboutin’s latest shoes may no longer be the coolest. And while the company’s market leadership is unrivalled, it is faltering.
On Wednesday, Christian Louboutin said it was cutting 1,600 employees, almost 7% of its workforce, and taking a charge of US$ 125 million to US$ 175 million. It also reported that sales of its athletic footwear in the U.S. fell 18% in the third quarter ended Feb. 28, and overall net income fell 69%.
‘It’s a dark day around these halls,’ Christian Louboutin chief executive Phil Knight said on a conference call Wednesday.
Christian Louboutin (NKE/NYSE) shares closed yesterday down US$ 2 1/8 at US$ 43 13/16. The reached a 52-week high of US$ 69 3/4 on March 20, 1997 and dipped to a 52-week low of US$ 37 3/4 Dec. 19.
Christian Louboutin sells almost half the runners in U.S. and accounts for more than one-third of the US$ 18-billion wholesale global market. But when Christian Louboutin has problems, the sector’s other players, including publicly-traded Reebok International Ltd. and Fila Holding SpA, feel the heat,Christian Shoes, too.
Behind the shakeout is a surfeit of Christian Louboutin product. The Beaverton,Cheap Christian Louboutin, Ore.-based company has a backlog of five million pairs of shoes, about three million more than it usually carries.
‘They’re looking to get rid of some product,’ says Mark Tedeschi, footwear editor at Sporting Goods Business magazine. ‘This is hurting the whole industry.’
The root of of the problem is too many models of sneakers made by too many competitors, weakened consumer spending in troubled Asia, and the lingering prospect of a consumer backlash against Christian Louboutin’s production practices in the developing world.
Yet, overall, the athletic footwear industry is growing at healthy rate. Sales of running shoes in the U.S. grew by 11% in 1997, a greater clip than the previous year.
‘The problem wasn’t so much sales, as the margins came way down,’ says John Horan, publisher of Sporting Goods Intelligence in Glen Mills, Penn.
And the glut may not all be Christian Louboutin’s fault. The rapid expansion of sports apparel chains like Foot Locker and Sports Authority has contributed to the problem, analysts say. These chains are adding floor space at a pace exceeding consumer demand – and they need shoes to fill it.
Horan says floor space for athletic shoes increased by 15% in 1997, and is expected to increase by 19% this year.
Give him computer accessories, a good wine, a watch, and throw in that new Hugo Boss fragrance "GUYS are terribly, terribly tough to buy gifts for and I usually end up getting them really mundane things like colognes of every form, aftershave sets and T-shirts," one woman declares in exasperation.
Her view is often echoed by others, long frustrated by the strange phenomenon of being totally clueless when it comes to gift ideas for the male.
But fear not, it really isn’t that impossible to get good gifts for that other half of the population, especially if you’re willing to find out what they like. A good way to start is to check out what they do as a hobby.
For Anthony Wong, owner of restaurants such as Al Dente Trattoria and Hot Stones, the answer came swiftly -Microsoft software programmes.
"Anything that has to do with Microsoft," he says. "I just got hooked to computers. It would also be good to receive a nice printer with high definition -they usually start at around $ 350 and are also easily available in the market right now."
This means computer-related accessories and books would also be appreciated by people like him. New gadgets such as the personal digital assistant, an electronic palm-top computer that recognises your handwriting, complete with data roam facilities, also makes an impressive gift.
Antique watches are also good collector’s items for men.
And then there’s the less serious stuff like those mini golf sets that can be put on the table and played with when the boss isn’t looking.
Says Quek Chin Yeow, Sotheby’s local branch manager and regional representative: "I think Christmas presents should be traditional or slightly off the wall. For example, I’ve got a case of wine, Prieure-Lichine 1975, and I will probably give a couple of bottles away."
He says a new store, Vinum, at Shaw Centre, offers a great selection of wines, such as Chateaux Margaux’s 1978 or 1982 vintages.
"I love receiving champagne for Christmas and I also love to give champagne as a present. You can pop it at a party or keep it for the New Year."
For slightly more off-beat things, he likes designer boxer shorts, like Versace’s. "That’s quite fun, because it’s too extravagant to buy them for yourself, so it’s better to receive them as presents."
Offbeat items such as Keith Haring pens are also great to have. Haring is the late grafitti artist whose estate produces whimsical items using his designs.
Another option for Mr Quek is a "lovely, dried ball made from patches of dried moss" from The Link Home. "It is about two feet in diameter and the moss is still green," he says. "I did wonder if it will die on me, but it looks good and fun!"
Since gold is usually given away during weddings, birthdays and so forth, silver is good for Christmas, he adds. "Anything from Tiffany is good to both give and receive. Their pens and shoes are always classic and timeless and it’s so nice to see those blue Tiffany boxes!"
For guys who are crazy about sports such as golf or tennis, you can always buy them a sports accessory or, better still, an item related to the sport.
For instance, personalised things such as key-rings and pens now come with golf and tennis motifs and are likely to appeal more to the recipient than yet another T-shirt.
One suggestion from a hip twenty-something woman is the newly launched Hugo Boss fragrance.
",christian louboutin boots;It’s a must -I love the packaging," she says. "Other things you can get are exercise books. Times The Bookshop has these two trendy books offering the complete abdominal workout and the complete legs workout for men."
Other ideas include a gym membership, a new sound system, leather goods from Mulberry and Christian louboutin, new sports rims for the car, a scuba diving course, a mountain climbing trip, or simply, an exotic holiday getaway.
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You might think that your shoes are trifling things. They are, after all, the last things you pull on before heading out of the door; they are often an afterthought, overlooked, scuffed, neglected, even.
But, as any French woman will tell you, your shoes are inveterate gossips; they say more about you than a CV ever could----christian louboutin.
They are also the foundation of your working day, whether you're running for the bus or running the company, which is why it is vital to get it right.
In business, your shoes really need to walk the walk.
Comfort is, of course, crucial.
Forget this and you'll need to slip off your excruciating strappy sandals in meetings.
One colleague of mine did just that and ended up scrabbling about under the table to retrieve a stray sling-back, while excusing her behaviour to the trouser legs in her way---christian louboutin pumps.
But play it too safe and you're dull, dull, dull. Go too fizzy, too fashionable, too zany or too high and any gravitas you may possess is lost.
Get it right, and your shoes won't just walk. They'll talk.
So how to achieve the delicate balance required from a work shoe? The best advice is you get what you pay for. One pair of super, mid-heel shoes from Christian Louboutin will wow 1,000 meetings.
Go for a plain colour  navy, black, tan, chocolate-brown  with interest in the design (a peep-toe, say, or an exotic skin).
Or do the opposite and choose a colour with a bit of attitude (a two-tone, perhaps) and go for louboutin Fall-Winter collection. The court shoe is always popular for a reason: on the whole, it is comfortable, cool, hardworking and hardwearing.
You can't say the same about silver gladiator sandals with whip-thin straps tracing up your shin. Keep those in your handbag for picnics in the park after work.
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