New Balance footwear and apparel

Rumors also spread that the abductions might be the result of one of Mexico's major drug cartels trying to break into the lucrative black market of Tepito, traditionally controlled by local mafias and families.

Officials have said that Mexico's major drug cartels sometimes move money or drugs through Mexico City, but don't really base themselves or operate from the capital, in part because the crowded streets and 70,000member police force make it hard to do business. As a result, the city until now has been largely spared from the mass abductions and killings going on in other parts of Mexico, where the cartels are at war.

But street crime is bad in Tepito, where strangers can't enter without local guides for fear of being robbed. Local businessmen now fund a 17member security force made up largely of tattooed excons, who patrol the streets looking for thieves. Once caught, suspects are turned over to police.

2 Million Is Just The Right Fit For Shoefitr's Series A Round Led By Vital Financial And Bluetree Allied Angels

Shoefitr has been growing steadily since spinning out of

Carnegie Mellon University and from AlphaLab, one of the country top accelerator programs which is run by Innovation Works. investment will allow us to accelerate our momentum, said Shoefitr CEO

Matt Wilkinson. currently have a number of great customers and partnerships with shoe manufacturers such as New Balance, Saucony, Brooks and other top brands. fact, we onsite right now implementing several new customers. round of funding will help us get the message out about our offering to more potential customers and partners. We are just scratching the surface with what kind of virtual fitting implementations we can offer consumers and this funding will help us achieve our full capability. company easytouse fitting application has been embraced by the running community which accesses Shoefitr on the sites of popular media like

Runner World. is also rapidly expanding to other footwear categories. Financial is very pleased to make this initial

$500,000 investment in Shoefitr to help them finance the company rapid customer and partnership growth, saidReturns of online shoe purchases are a huge downside of the industry in 2008, one in three shoes purchased online was returned, costing retailers over

$600 million in lost sales. Shoefitr uses 3D scanning technology to scan the insides of shoes from various manufacturers. Each scan provides measurements pertinent to fitting a shoe to a foot. online shopper finds a shoe he or she wants to buy and Shoefitr automatically compares the measurements of the shoe the customer currently wears to the correct size in the new shoe. Fitting tools show how the new shoe will fit so shoppers personal preferences are accommodated.