Awaiting Other Shoe to Float Ashore

This a reading comprehension exercise for children. It is writtenby Susan Fineman, a reading specialist in the New Haven, Conn.,school district.

ANCHORAGE -- Enough soggy Nike basketball shoes to outfit everyhigh school team in Alaska drifted through the Pacific Ocean towardthe state recently after spilling from a container ship off NorthernCalifornia.

There's just one hitch.

"Nike forgot to tie the laces, so you have to find mates," saidCurtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer in Washington state who tracksflotsam. "The effort's worth it because these Nikes have only beenadrift a few months. All 33,000 are wearable."

A beachcomber told Ebbesmeyer about the shoe spill after findingtwo new Nikes washed up on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. But theywere sizes 101/2 and 81/2. Both were lefts.

A little research by Ebbesmeyer confirmed that a ship lost cargoDec. 15 during a storm, including three 40-foot containers carryingan estimated 5,500 pairs of shoes each.

"Nikes will be soon in your neck of the sea," Ebbesmeyer said inan e-mail to the Anchorage Daily News.

Over the past decade, Ebbesmeyer has tracked 29,000 duckies,turtles and other bathtub toys; 3 million tiny Legos; 34,000 hockeygloves; and 50,000 Nike cross-trainers that went overboard in thePacific in 1999.

He and government oceanographer Jim Ingraham have published theirresults in academic journals as well as Ebbesmeyer's newsletter,Beachcombers' Alert.

This time, Ebbesmeyer took the serial numbers off the shoes totrace the shipment. Nike told him the shoes were being shipped fromLos Angeles to Tacoma, Wash.

After the two shoes washed ashore on the Olympic Peninsula inJanuary, Ebbesmeyer calculated that they had moved more than 450miles in a month -- up to 18 miles a day. At that pace, he calculatedthe Nikes could bob and weave an additional 1,600 miles by the timethe current eases in mid-April, sprinkling basketball shoes along theGulf of Alaska and Aleutian coasts.

Lee Weinstein, a spokesman for Beaverton, Ore.- based Nike, saidbeachcombers who find soggy shoes can mail them to Nike forrecycling.

Nike has used recycled rubber sneakers to repave basketball courtsand playgrounds, including all the outdoor basketball courts inPortland's parks, he said.

Awaiting Other Shoe to Float Ashore

This a reading comprehension exercise for children. It is writtenby Susan Fineman, a reading specialist in the New Haven, Conn.,school district.

ANCHORAGE -- Enough soggy Nike basketball shoes to outfit everyhigh school team in Alaska drifted through the Pacific Ocean towardthe state recently after spilling from a container ship off NorthernCalifornia.

There's just one hitch.

"Nike forgot to tie the laces, so you have to find mates," saidCurtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer in Washington state who tracksflotsam. "The effort's worth it because these Nikes have only beenadrift a few months. All 33,000 are wearable."

A beachcomber told Ebbesmeyer about the shoe spill after findingtwo new Nikes washed up on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. But theywere sizes 101/2 and 81/2. Both were lefts.

A little research by Ebbesmeyer confirmed that a ship lost cargoDec. 15 during a storm, including three 40-foot containers carryingan estimated 5,500 pairs of shoes each.

"Nikes will be soon in your neck of the sea," Ebbesmeyer said inan e-mail to the Anchorage Daily News.

Over the past decade, Ebbesmeyer has tracked 29,000 duckies,turtles and other bathtub toys; 3 million tiny Legos; 34,000 hockeygloves; and 50,000 Nike cross-trainers that went overboard in thePacific in 1999.

He and government oceanographer Jim Ingraham have published theirresults in academic journals as well as Ebbesmeyer's newsletter,Beachcombers' Alert.

This time, Ebbesmeyer took the serial numbers off the shoes totrace the shipment. Nike told him the shoes were being shipped fromLos Angeles to Tacoma, Wash.

After the two shoes washed ashore on the Olympic Peninsula inJanuary, Ebbesmeyer calculated that they had moved more than 450miles in a month -- up to 18 miles a day. At that pace, he calculatedthe Nikes could bob and weave an additional 1,600 miles by the timethe current eases in mid-April, sprinkling basketball shoes along theGulf of Alaska and Aleutian coasts.

Lee Weinstein, a spokesman for Beaverton, Ore.- based Nike, saidbeachcombers who find soggy shoes can mail them to Nike forrecycling.

Nike has used recycled rubber sneakers to repave basketball courtsand playgrounds, including all the outdoor basketball courts inPortland's parks, he said.