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AMERICAN INSIGHT A A .COM/FINAL APPROACH BUCKETFEET: JANA CRUDER AAdvantage Member Spotlight For public speaker Jon Pritikin, frequent flying is a family affair. • What type of work do you do? "I started my nonprofit, Feel the Power, 20 years ago. I speak to kids at school assemblies about teasing and bullying and being nice to each other." • What's that experience like? "I speak to about 150,000 students a year in the U.S., and we go overseas about every other month. We just got back from an Asia tour. We did schools in Bali, Cambodia, Singa- pore, India and then Hong Kong. We also do a lot in the Middle East. The first couple years of our marriage, I was gone a lot, so my wife quit teaching and started traveling with me. In 2003, our daughter was born, and we decided to just travel as a family. All three of us have been Executive Platinum members for almost a decade. There are times when they don't go, but we travel about 280 days of the year." • What are some of your favorite perks of being an Executive Platinum member? "I get to meet so many people. I've had people come and watch me speak in Japan and other places. We make friends in the Admirals Clubs. The flight attendants know us. If I travel alone, they'll ask, ' Where's your family?' American Airlines is now the biggest airline in the world, but to us, it feels like a family." • Do you relax or work when you fly? "I usually try to relax. I just fall asleep or watch something. My daughter does her schoolwork, so my wife helps with that. The airplane is almost like a classroom for us." • How often do you fly for leisure? " We go to Hawaii twice a year. When we do the trip in December, I speak at schools. After 14 years of going to the Big Island, I've got to give back a little bit." • Do you have any destinations on your bucket list? "We've never gone to Australia or New Zealand. There's a place in Australia where you can hold koalas. My wife wants to go to Chengdu [China], where you can hold pandas. How cool would that be to do those on the same trip?" • Do you have any tips for fellow road warriors? "I use the website Expert Flyer to look up flight loads and track my flights. I also con- stantly watch the weather. Another big asset is an Admirals Club mem- bership. It's worth the investment. They watch out for their members." • What does your family enjoy at the Admirals Club? "My daughter is 11, and her favorite thing is when we play chess at the L A X Flagship Lounge. With a long layover at DFW, I do cardio at Terminal A ." Learn more about Jon and Feel the Power at Feelthepower.org. Wear Art on Your Shoes with BucketFeet These shoes are never a fashion afterthought. Black flip-flops featuring white pineapples, designed in Colom- bia. White canvas shoes with red-and-green skulls, designed in Mexico. Splotchy teal, pink and gray lace-ups, designed in Miami. When did footwear get so multicultural? It all started in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Raaja Nemani was beginning an 18-month trip around the world and connected with photographer Aaron Firestein, who sold Nemani a pair of his custom-designed shoes to wear on his travels. Those shoes sparked an idea: BucketFeet. "People in this world want to feel connected to something or someone, and we thought it would be a really powerful concept to create products that were designed by different people all over the world," says Nemani. " We wanted to tap into the creativity and diversity of the world and share people's stories." Today, BucketFeet works with artists to create and sell shoes and wall art. For example, the pineapple shoes were made by an architect and plastics artist who loves to use stencils. He helped publish the first Traveling together keeps the Pritikin family close and connected. BucketFeet aims to keep people connected through art. As a loyal American Airlines customer, get your own pair of BucketFeet at Bucketfeet.com/aa and receive a 25% discount off your first purchase over $50. American supports entrepreneurialism and small-business growth through its Innovators Initiative, which focuses on working with startups and small-business customers to empower their success. Visit aa.com/innovators to learn more. book dedicated to urban art in Bogotá, Colombia. The splotchy lace-ups' creator says, "I paint as a way to document my story, to introduce simple visu- alizations of brutal truths. Through my paintings, I want people to real- ize that there is much more beyond their own lives; to open their eyes and think beyond themselves." Based in Chicago, BucketFeet has grown to 20 employees since 2011 and works with more than 3,500 artists from more than 50 countries. Their products are sold in their own stores in Chicago and New York, through retail- ers like Nordstrom and online at BucketFeet.com. "Our mission is to connect people through art," says Nemani. " We believe art is for everyone." Written by Frank Gruber, CEO of Tech Cocktail, one of American Airlines' small-business part- ners. Gruber is the author of the book Startup Mixology. Learn more at www.tech.co/book. A A .CO M/A M E R I C A NWAY O C TO B E R 2 01 4 91

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