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Stephon Marbury Turns Sneaker Logic on Its Head

08/25/2006

Cheap is the new expensive.

The winning luxury branding formula hasn't changed since the time of Caesar: If you want your robes to be worn by the royalty, make them fancy, make them limited edition, and most of all, make them ridiculously expensive. This strategy has been deployed with great success from the Saville Row tailors who trimmed Oscar Wilde's cuffs to the custom sequined sneaker cobblers of the Lower East Side.

Until Stephon Marbury came along this season with his FIFTEEN DOLLAR STARBURY SNEAKERS. Actually they come in just a hair under $15.00--$14.98 to be exact. Available only at Steve and Barry's stores in the NYC area, we suspect these puppies will sell faster than their $150 Nigo-designed counterparts. Who even buys that neon ice cream bullshit anyway? Goateed Tokion-reading douchebags who are trying to like like the kids who can only afford to spend $14.98 on their sneakers, that's who. (We'll allow that there might be a few prosperous midlevel drug dealers wearing Ice Cream also.) Check out this slogan: "We created Starbury so you can stay fly and still stay on budget. It's about maximum for minimum expense." A shoe that tomorrow's NBA stars might actually be able to afford. This is one of the more sincerely altruistic bits of marketing we've seen, not to mention brilliant.