The Daily 5 – All about the good news!!

Magela Crosignani, director of photography for “The Imperialists are Still Alive!,” stops by the Timberland Retreat to try on a pair of boots in the Earthkeepers collection. Credit: Stephen Holt)

Timberland is redirecting support to the Haiti’s massive earthquake relief effort. As part of the partnership with Yele Haiti, Timberland will make a donation to the organization for every pair of Earthkeepers Yele Haiti boots and Yele Haiti T-shirts sold through stores or online. She said while the original intent for that donation was to support Haiti’s reforestation, donations will now go to the country’s massive earthquake relief. Donations of $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund can also be made by texting the word “Yele” to 501501.

Jessica Simpson is raising money to send shoes to earthquake victims in Haiti. Simpson has teamed up with the Nashville-based organization Soles4Souls. The footwear charity had already collected 750,000 pairs of shoes from footwear companies and consumers across the country. Simpson is urging people to “do everything that we can for the victims in Haiti. Just five dollars will buy two people a pair of shoes.” The charity says Haitian survivors need shoes to protect against broken glass, twisted metal and raw sewage. People can donate at http://www.50Kshoes.com.

The Paris men’s-wear shows just ended, and it’s too early to say, but several key fall 2010 trends are already clear. For example, you could tuck your pants into boots — pretty much every designer has shown a version of long johns tucked into rugged explorer footwear. Or, see if you already have a floor-grazing coat, like the ones at Dior Homme, or a cape like John Galliano’s. Please, take a look and let us know what trends you think will actually stick…

A great interview with Derek Adams about Orchid Footwear. Derek talks about the decision to start Orchid, the shoe-making process, Orchid’s guerilla approach to marketing and much, much more. Plus, there’s also some classic photos of Derek riding Magic Skatepark that are actually shot by Jamie Bestwick, so really, you can’t go wrong. “With a name inspired from a Black Sabbath song and a goal of making comfortable riding shoes, Orchid Footwear was born.” -Derek Adams.

Check the top 10 stocks in 2009 as tracked by Footwear News. It was a tough year to play the market, investors who bet on the  footwear sector were likely pleasantly surprised. Many stocks saw strong gains in the last few months of 2009. “Buy low, sell high” was the mantra of the year, I guess they really follow the sentence.