More Videos
- Yankees Team Signed Ball Selling For $3,500
- Moon Hopes To Complete Amazing Story
- These Poker Stories Are No Bluff
- Did Matsui Make Contract Money Last Night?
- Adidas Out At UCF After MJ's Son Wears Jordans
- If Yanks Win, Merchandise Will Fly Off Shelves
- Final World Series Games Big Money Makers
- What I Got Wrong About Keflezighi
- Marathon's Headline Win Is Empty
- New Cubs Owner Tom Ricketts Goes One-on-One With "SportsBiz"
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- JPMorgan Chase to Hire 1,200 Mortgage Officers
- Herbalife Vs. Hedge Funds
- Apple Surpasses Nokia as Top Cellphone Maker by Profits
- Gold Heading to $1150: Art Hogan
- Parsing Treasury's Loan Modification Report
- Cramer Jeers J&J, Applauds Abbott
- Adobe Cuts 680 Jobs, to Take Charge
- Toll Brothers: More Contracts Signed, but Sales Down
- Starbucks Brews Up Growth
- Beware of 'Trampling Effect' When Market Tops: Manager
- Gold Heading to $1150: Art Hogan
- Starbucks Brews Up Growth
- Farr: An Extended Period—No Fat Lady in Sight
- More Upside if S&P Passes This Number: Market Pro
- Murdoch Lashes Out At Google
- Fighting The Flu Vaccine Critics
- Nov. 10: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Shadow Inventory Dwarfs Loan Mods
- Apple Surpasses Nokia as Top Handset Maker by Profit
- In This Relay-Race Market, Who Gets Baton Next?
- Workers Staying Put at Their Jobs as Jobless Surges
- Three Things the US Can Do To Stop the Dollar's Decline
- Toll Brothers: More Contracts Signed, but Sales Down
- Fed's Lacker: US in a 'Good Place' With Inflation
- Bear Stearn Fund Managers Not Guilty on All Counts
- Ponzi Proceeds: Bidding on Madoff's Toys
- Commodity ETFs: Returns May Not Match Expectations
Sports Biz
Text Size 
I can't recall an NBA All-Star Game where there were fewer shoes to buzz about.
Steve Nash's Trash Talk shoe, the only shoe ever made from manufacturing waste, caused a pre-game stir, but the design didn't make it stand out.
I thought Amare Stoudamire's shoes with the gold tips at the toes were a nice touch.
But almost all of the others -- including the shoes of MVP LeBron James -- you could say just did their job to match the jerseys. How does Dwight Howard win the dunk contest in a Superman cape and in what is essentially a generic Adidas shoe?
I posed that question to Adidas [ADDYY
Loading...
()
] spokesman Travis Gonzolez, who told me there's a business reason behind this.
"We're not doing the crazy things we've done in the past where each guy stands out with his own All-Star shoe that then hits retail in some fashion," Gonzolez said.
"With the basketball footwear category down, we used the All-Star Game to show our more traditional shoes. That means we're catering more to the mass consumer instead of the sneakerhead. So instead of trying to sell 100 or 500 pairs, we're showing shoes that can really move the needle."
Shoes were much better in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge game, since players wore their own jerseys and didn't have to worry about matching with red and blue.
 |
The best shoe of the entire weekend was on the feet of Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo. Check out this closeup of the shoe.
The secret on the Rondo shoe is that Reebok has made pairs for sneakerheads. Five pairs total were put up on NBA.com for sale and they were gone by Monday morning.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes