I hear that on the eve of a Cavs-Knicks game, Lebron James took some shots at Stephon Marbury's shoe line, saying that he would never stoop to sell his shoes for a tenth of their current price tag, because his corporate paymasters Nike set such a high standard for their product. Stephon Marbury's shoes sell at a 90% discount to Lebron's, $14.99 for a pair of Starburys, against about $150 for the Zoom Lebron Force or whatever it's called (despite being such a salesman, Lebron's online store is down, so I couldn't verify the name of his shoes). Marbury responded, but to put his response in context, let me briefly explain what Mr. Starbury's shoe line is all about. Shoe companies throw an incredible amount of money into basketball at all levels, sponsoring camps and events, and a lot of NBA stars get a truckload of cash in exchange for slapping their name and image on a pair of shoes. This puts a lot of pressure on poor kids and their parents to buy $150 shoes, or steal them. Some people, like Marbury and Ben Wallace, have decided to instead promote and wear affordable gear, and Marbury wears $14.99 sneakers in NBA games, to prove to kids you don't need to let King James and Phil Knight to pocket the $135 markup. Poor mothers have come to Marbury to tearfully thank him for making it possible for them to give their kids quality gear with superstar cachet, and ending a juvenile arms race over expensive shoes. To a segment of the population that few care about, the Starbury shoe line makes a difference, and he's the one who sought out a partner and put this venture together, using his own money as capital. So when corporate shill Lebron James sneered at his affordable shoes, Marbury said "It's better to own than to be owned," then took the game-winning shot in his $15 Starburys. I'm so sick of King James, who's great at selling Sprite but not so great in the fourth quarter, and as it stands, he'd be facing another affordable shoe baron in B-b-b-Big B-b-b-Ben Wallace and the Bulls.
I also love that Coldwell Banker has struck a deal to sell property in Second Life. In a game where there are no construction costs and the amount of land is impermanent and controlled by a video game company, this definitely sounds like a rock solid move. The entire virtual property market is getting insane, as people are actually capable of amassing assets in excess of $1,000,000 by trading proprietary video game assets. I keep saying there's got to be a way to securitize a World of Warcraft gold-farmer's revenue, and I think I know the man to do it. Unfortunately he's too busy working on putting together a business trip to Antarctica to pitch his CDO^3 scheme to naive scientists and crafty penguins.
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