The pandemic will accelerate trends that were in motion prior to the crisis, as shopping shifts to digital and consumers continue to champion fairness and social justice. BOF Well, it’s 2021. Is anyone excited yet? The capital was stormed this week and we may have a presidential voting conflict like many other countries around the …
![Taking a moment to think about the "great shoe spill" of 1990 and the recent art exhibit "Overboard" by @andyyoderart in #washingtondc , recent storms and container shipments that haven't reached their destinations...
Sometimes referred to as the Great Shoe Spill, the tale recounts an event on May 27, 1990, when, during a sudden violent storm in the North Pacific, five shipping containers were swept off the deck of the freighter Hansa Carrier somewhere between Seoul and Seattle.
Of the 40-foot steel boxes that broke loose and crashed into the ocean, one sank to the bottom and four broke open to spill out a stream of contents that included computer monitors, sex toys and 61,280 Nike sneakers destined for America’s basketball courts and city streets.
The incident went on to become a parable of environmental disaster, as well as a red-letter event in the history of sneakerheads. For months, the buoyant flotilla drifted, carried by wind and currents until, in early 1991, beachcombers reported coming upon batches of the sneakers off Vancouver Island in Canada, pushed north on the Davidson Current. That spring, driven southward by opposing breezes, more of them turned up along the coastlines of Washington (#newtorktimes).
[In 2017 a ship on the East Coast] - the Maersk Shanghai - a 324m (1,063ft) vessel capable of carrying more than 10,000 shipping containers - was travelling from Norfolk, Virginia, down the east coast of the US to Charleston, South Carolina.
On the evening of 3 March - 17 miles from the Oregon Inlet, off the coast of North Carolina - it was caught in a storm. While battling high winds and rough seas, a stack of its cargo-laden containers toppled overboard (#bbc).
The flip flops and NIKE sneakers washed up as far away as Ireland.
Just how many shoes are out there?
It is at least possible in this case, Dr Ebbesmeyer says, to estimate the size of the spill.
"A container can hold about 10,000 sneakers. So if you say 70 containers multiplied by 10,000, that gives you an upper limit [of 700,000 sneakers] that could be out there (bbc)."](https://scontent-ort2-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/241714764_1200704253744992_8349093815763199514_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=dGSksF6DQO8AX9pF0uQ&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=2e6402b7055e670b9d5198f8edbaf131&oe=617979E6)
