We’re not even going to front: basketball shoes are expensive. Take the newest technology from a big company, be it Flyknit, Boost, or Charged Foam, slap it into a well-designed shoe, and put a famous player like LeBron James or Steph Curry’s name on it, and you can pretty much charge whatever you want for it.
It’s marketing, capitalism, and sneaker design at their finest, and they can’t be stopped. The disadvantage to this is that they can’t always be afforded either. Not every mom/dad can afford to drop $150+ on a pair of signature shoes for their kid, no matter how badly they’d like to.
This is where Starbury came in. In the mid 00’s, if you wanted an NBA player’s signature shoe, all you had to do was head to your local Steve and Barry’s (R.I.P.), and plunk down a whopping $14.98 to get a pair of Stephon Marbury’s latest signature kicks.
This was a big deal to anyone who grew up back in those days. You could feel just as dope as someone who could get one of the more expensive signature shoes for a fraction of the price. There was even apparel like shorts, jerseys, hoodies, and tees too to complete the look, and other players joined in too. You could get Ben Wallace gear from Starbury as well. Sneakers were just as much of a status symbol back then as they are now, and Starbury made it possible for kids from any family to have that status.
Although his NBA career may not have panned out the way some would have expected, and he once ate a giant glob of Vaseline on camera after listening to some Drake, Stephon Marbury will forever be a legend for dropping a signature shoe that literally anyone could afford, and starting a line that made it easy for any kid to feel cool, regardless of their family’s income level. In a materialistic culture, he made his product accessible to the kids who couldn’t afford expensive kicks…and even if you didn’t like the shoes or looked down your nose at them because you could afford something “better”, that kind of move should command your respect.
What did you think of Stephon Marbury’s Starbury line? Did you own any of the kicks or gear? If so, what was your favorite piece? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter, check our Facebook page for daily updates, and, as always, be sure to follow us on Instagram for all the fire sneaker pictures you can handle.
Share KicksOneTwo
