Jonah’s Blog

I’m no fan of Stephon Marbury. His inconsistent play and me-first approach to team sports has helped bury the Knicks in their current rut and nearly made me a Nets fan. And now I add to my grievances the fact that his strategy for social justice comes right out of the pages of Sam Walton’s play book.

Marbury (or Starbury, as he - alone - likes to call himself) decided to make his own line of sneakers, using the same Chinese sweatshops that Nike uses to make their $175 Michael Jordan basketball shoes. He also claimed to be using all the same materials, but his shoes retail for a fraction of Nike’s prices, $9.98 to $14.98. It’s a nice idea, but seems more like a slap in the face at Nike than an actual solution to the problem he was trying to address, that poor kids can’t afford decent basketball shoes.

But I was curious. So I went to every shoe store I knew of, including Modell’s in the Fulton Street Mall, until I was finally directed to the only story in New York City that sells the Starbury Ones, an ultra-cheap sports clothing store called Steve and Barry’s. It’s on 34th and 6th in Manhattan, a far cry from Marbury’s hometown neighborhood of Coney Island.

It was clear that the shoes were made for tall basketball players. At the store there were tons of sizes 11, 12, 13; I even saw a 15. But there were only about three 9s and only in one style. Fortunately it was the style I wanted: the pseudo running shoe. There are several colors and styles of high-top, but using my hands, I could feel that they were all basically the same on the inside.

Trying them on, I immediately noticed that they felt nothing like the Nike running shoes I used to own. The arch support was minimal, the fit was strangely wide, the laces were way too long. But I paid my $9.98 and carried them out, prepared to be wowed by the comfort and support.

The next day I put them on and walked the 20 or so blocks to my yoga class (we’ll discuss that another day). As soon as I left my apartment I noticed that my heels felt like they were being coaxed off the shoe to the inside. It was like there was a gentle inward slope to the insole. It felt weird, but I kept walking, secretly hoping someone would stop and say, “Hey, aren’t those the new $10 Stephon Marbury sneakers?” To which I could answer, “Why yes. They are,” and lift my feet to show them off.

But no one noticed.

I’ve now had the shoes for a week, and I can safely say the fit like $10 sneakers. My feet hurt when I wear them. I thought I was getting a bargain, but these shoes will actually end up costing me whatever it costs to replace them, plus $9.98.

Marbury tries to play himself off as some champion of the working class, selling his shoes for social justice. He’s selling inner-city kids inexpensive basketball shoes that he claims are as good as the pricey ones.

But if he had even had the common sense of a basketball, he’d know that what poor kids all across America need is not more cheap clothing. What kids in Coney Island and places like it need is hope. They need jobs to look forward to getting when they graduate from their crappy neighborhood public high schools. (They also need better schools, but that debate is some murky water to wade into.)

If “Starbury” really wanted to help the community at large, he would sell his sneakers for $50 to $60 and make them at a factory in Brooklyn. He’d hire union workers and pay them union wages. He’d set up a pension system and honor it. He’d lobby for universal health care and provide free on-site daycare centers where his employees can safely leave their children when they work.

So, put more simply, “Hey Marbury, we don’t need another fucking Wal-Mart and more cheap crap. We need well-paying jobs, and quality shoes.”

Take that to the hoop.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.