Remembering Where He Came From !

It's nice to see that somebody that has made it big remembers
from which he came from. When I was growing up All-Stars
were the tennis shoe to have and at $8.00 a pop even that
was too steep for my parents who both worked and also had
8 of us to feed. Back then too I can't recall there being any big
time shoe endorsements such as there are today. So Stephon
Marbury should be commended for forgoing the big bucks in
the shoe endorsement game and giving back to the community
and at the same time not sticking his hand deeply into the pockets
of those trying to make ends meet.


Waiting in a winding line for autographs from his favorite NBA player, 15-year-old Brian Cox lifted the lid of a shoebox to show off his synthetic leather high-top sneakers with black sides and blue-and-orange soles. At a price his mother doesn't mind — $14.98 — he got his fourth pair of Starburys this week, a sneaker created by New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury. Joanne Cox brought her two teenage sons to Steve & Barry's University Sportswear after church Sunday for the launch of Marbury's spring line. The NBA star "grew up in a poor neighborhood just like we did," said Cox, who is raising the boys on her own.

She says it is not easy on the wages she earns as a city traffic officer, and she has spent thousands on her sons' shoes over the years. "Now that we got a price of $15, we're not going higher than that."This is the world the 10-year NBA veteran is trying to change with his $15 shoes — a world where parents are pressured to shell out money for expensive sneakers while struggling to pay rent and buy groceries; a world where kids get robbed, shot and strangled over the latest styles. (In January, 10 Detroit middle school students were robbed of their Nike boots and Air Force One sneakers at gunpoint.)

Marbury knows it will take a while to pull off a Michael Jordan impact at a Wal-Mart price. So far, he says, he's willing to do it one sneaker-crazed teen at a time. Starburys have been holding their own in schools and on basketball courts alongside kicks that cost 10 times as much. Marbury is so confident of the sturdiness of his shoes that he is wearing them on the court this season. He says his pair is straight off the shelf, with no alterations or enhancements. Chicago Bulls center and four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace has also partnered with Steve & Barry's to release his own inexpensive sneaker — Big Ben — in late August or fall. Still, sneaker aficionados wonder whether a $15 shoe will change a cultural phenomenon that has thrived since Jordan came out with his line in 1985.

Not all kids are sold on the idea, even if the sneaker is endorsed by someone they admire. "The theory is because an NBA athlete is playing in the shoe, it's a perfect shoe," said Matt Powell, a senior retail analyst with SportsOneSource, a data and research firm for sporting goods. "I could go out and play basketball in a pair of flip-flops, but that doesn't make them a perfect shoe."





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