Another Hero (of sorts!)

You may remember a long-ago post I wrote on Heroes. This morning, reading the newspaper, I found someone else to add. I vaguely remember hearing about this some months ago when it was introduced to the world at large. Stephon Marbury, a professional basketball player (former Timberwolf), introduced his personal brand of sneakers. Following the likes of Michael Jordan, with one very significant difference. A pair of Jordan sneakers costs $179. A pair of Marbury's costs you just $14.98.

He grew up very poor, and can remember, he says, what it was like to not be able to afford good shoes for playing ball. He claims (and all the articles I can find agree) that his new show is basically the same as other "pro shoes" - in fact, he wears them himself when playing games. The standard seems to be that a decent pair of sneakers costs about $12 to make.

So the difference in profit, and the difference that Marbury makes vs what Jordan makes, is quite clear.

When the shoe was announced, many said no one would want the shoes since they were so cheap - that kids would be embarrassed to wear it to school for fear of being teased. That was August. I couldn't find any statistics as to the truth of that, but the article I read this morning was about how difficult it is to find the shoes, and how fast they are selling any time a store gets a shipment. So maybe there are some kids that are embarrassed, but it sure seems that there are plenty who aren't.

Apparently Marbury is not exactly the world's best role model as a professional sports figure, and apparently he isn't even that good of a basketball player. But this effort of his places him, at least for now, on my hero list.