My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 6 seconds. If not, visit
http://laneviolation.com
and update your bookmarks.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Money, it's GOT to be the shoes


Oh, the Nike people are going to be working overtime on this one.

Today's Daily News reports that Stephon Marbury is suffering from a minor case of bursitis in his heel and was held out of a preseason game as a result. So of course, one of the first questions from the press corps was "Does it have anything to do with the shoes?"

"The shoes" are Stephon's low-cost basketball kicks, which he's marketing via Steve & Barry's University Sportswear for $14.98 a pair -- and wearing in games this season.


So before this becomes a big to-do about how Steph is putting his image rehabilitation before team goals or some such nonsense, I want you all to embrace a couple of minor points:

  • Basketball players will occasionally fight aches and pains during training camp and beyond. As of yet, no one that I'm aware of has questioned Jerome James' shoes.
  • There is no early reason that basketball sneakers need to cost over $100 a pair. The unit cost of a pair of top-line kicks has been estimated at around $20. (Approximately $.02 of that is for labor.)
As Chuck D once said, "I like Nike, but wait a minute..."

I love the fact that Marbury has lent his name to this effort. I hope his sneaker line, and similar lines from other NBA stars (Shaq's shoe sells for around $40) bring a little sanity to the industry.

And I reserve the right to re-think this entire post of Stephon misses 20 games due to insufficient arch support.

0 comments:

Design by Dzelque Blogger Templates 2008

Design by Dzelque Blogger Templates 2008