New LeBron James Shoe Costs $315?

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/82...ice-inaccurate



Let me start off by saying this isn't knock on Lebron in anyway.

How freaking absurd is $315 for a pair of basketball shoes? I'll spend $100 on a pair of shoes but that is where I draw the line. Nike said that report isn't accurate it will be closer to $290.

Complete Joke...

Never had a pair of ball shoes that cost more than $65 and that was only because it was a team shoe. I played just fine and still do with a $40 pair. No point in spending this much.

This is nuts! What should be done is a good percentage of the price of this should go to a program that purchases shoes for underprivileged kids who are playing basketball for schools but who's families cannot afford a decent shoe. I can tell you, growing up in an inner city, if it wasn't for my coach helping us, my folks would have never been able to afford a good shoe that lasted a full season.

Half a house payment.

Look, $120 Jordan's were not worth killing someone over. $315 Lebron's, maybe.

Seriously, the release of these is going to be a mess.

I wonder what the inflation adjusted price is of the $100 Jordans that came out in the late 80's. Almost surely over $200. In that perspective, if LeBron's come in under $300 it isn't as outrageous as it may first appear. No way I am buying a pair but it is a good looking shoe.

Doyel weighs in...

LeBron's pricey shoes? Proof that the King still doesn't get it - NBA - CBSSports.com

LeBron James doesn't need the freakish genetic code that came to him like a lucky lottery ticket. Not today. At the moment he needs something you earn, not something you acquire at birth.

LeBron James needs the benefit of the doubt.

Problem is, he hasn't earned it. Not from me, and not from lots of you. And that's why many of us are sickened by the latest news out of his camp:

The $315 shoes.

The price is in dispute, but not the extravagance. Maybe the highest-end version of the LeBron X will retail for $290, maybe $310. Nike has issued a statement that says the LeBron X "will be launched in the fall at a suggested retail price of $180," but that's a misdirection that will fool only those who want to be fooled. A $180 version is coming out, sure. But so is a $290 or $315 version. That price hasn't been set yet because Nike is figuring out how much it can charge and get away with. That's how business works, and that's what this shoe is. It's business. Am I anti-capitalism? Not at all.

But today, again, I'm anti-LeBron.

Because the guy doesn't get it, even now. With the help of his slick new marketing folks he comes off as a guy who gets it most of the time, but every now and then the real LeBron comes out, and that guy doesn't get it. He still uses kids as pawns, whether it's the Boys & Girls Club he held up like a human shield when he went on national television to announce he was taking his narcissism to South Beach -- or whether it's this. Shoes most of his young fans can't afford.

Shoes a young LeBron James himself couldn't have afforded.

That's why this story turns my stomach. If James were somebody else -- if he were, say, Kobe Bryant, the son of a professional basketball player -- I'd have to find another reason to hate these shoes. And maybe I'd fail. Maybe if it were Kobe being Kobe, blithely marketing $300 shoes for children who live the affluent childhood he once lived, I'd let it slide. That's a hypothetical, so I'm done wasting time on it.

What's real is this:

LeBron James, 27, just put his name on a pair of shoes that 14-year-old LeBron James couldn't have bought.

And if this entire column comes off as mean or unfair to LeBron, I understand that. But you understand this: A man has to earn the benefit of the doubt, and an NBA title or gold medal will fool only those who want to be fooled.

Originally Posted by Voice of Reason

I wonder what the inflation adjusted price is of the $100 Jordans that came out in the late 80's. Almost surely over $200. In that perspective, if LeBron's come in under $300 it isn't as outrageous as it may first appear. No way I am buying a pair but it is a good looking shoe.

From the article I posted by Doyel.

This is world-class greed and corporate cluelessness, something we never saw even from Michael Jordan himself. In 1985 Nike released the first pair of Air Jordans for the whopping price of $65, and that's not me being sarcastic. In 1985, $65 was a whopping price. Ask your parents for a pair of Air Jordans, as some my friends did in 1985, and you'd get laughed out of the living room. In today's money, with inflation factored in, those $65 Air Jordans in 1985 would sell for about $140 in 2012.

That's a whopping price today, $140 for a pair of shoes.

http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Does Doyel really think that LeBron has anything to do with this? His name is on them, I doubt he gets much more say so than that.

Originally Posted by Crash Davis

Does Doyel really think that LeBron has anything to do with this? His name is on them, I doubt he gets much more say so than that.

That's kind of what I am thinking.

Originally Posted by HammerTime

From the article I posted by Doyel.

This is world-class greed and corporate cluelessness, something we never saw even from Michael Jordan himself. In 1985 Nike released the first pair of Air Jordans for the whopping price of $65, and that's not me being sarcastic. In 1985, $65 was a whopping price. Ask your parents for a pair of Air Jordans, as some my friends did in 1985, and you'd get laughed out of the living room. In today's money, with inflation factored in, those $65 Air Jordans in 1985 would sell for about $140 in 2012.

That's a whopping price today, $140 for a pair of shoes.

Inflation Calculator: Bureau of Labor Statistics

So, roughly, the $100 late 80's Air Jordan would sell for about $215 today.

The man is under paid I suppose.

Originally Posted by OlDog75

This is nuts! What should be done is a good percentage of the price of this should go to a program that purchases shoes for underprivileged kids who are playing basketball for schools but who's families cannot afford a decent shoe. I can tell you, growing up in an inner city, if it wasn't for my coach helping us, my folks would have never been able to afford a good shoe that lasted a full season.

To bad you didn't grow up in this era...could have gotten you some Starbury's for $7. Made it through a couple intramural seasons at least.

Originally Posted by Crash Davis

Does Doyel really think that LeBron has anything to do with this? His name is on them, I doubt he gets much more say so than that.

He could say no. He has all of the leverage.

Originally Posted by Voice of Reason

So, roughly, the $100 late 80's Air Jordan would sell for about $215 today.

Site I used said $100 in 1989 is about $187 today. Another site said $145.

Doyel said the shoes were $65 anyway not $100? Who was around back then to remember? Clyde?

Originally Posted by HammerTime

Doyel said the shoes were $65 anyway not $100? Who was around back then to remember? Clyde?

I would be curious to see the price history of the Jordans.

I found that they were $125 in 1993.

Nike signed Jordan to a 5-year contract worth $2.5 million. The first Air Jordans, released in 1985 with a price tag of $64.99, immediately stirred controversy. Their red and black design colors clashed with the NBA's uniform color scheme; up until that point, almost all basketball shoes were white. The NBA fined Jordan up to $5,000 a game for wearing the shoes, but Nike paid each fine because it knew that with more controversy, the more publicity they'd receive.

Read more: Jordan Basketball Shoes History | eHow.com Jordan Basketball Shoes History | eHow.com

Who cares? Don't buy them. Nothing bad will happen to kids if they can't wear the shoe that bares the name of their hero. If people are stupid enough to buy them, then Nike is smart enough to sell them for that much. I never have, and probably never will, own a pair of Jordan's. I have had ZERO meetings with a psychologist to discuss this horrible part of my childhood.