Nike LeBron X shoe to cost $300
Right now, in a remote desert region somewhere in the Middle East, a terrorist trainer is showing an attentive class a PowerPoint presentation and slowly, for effect, eulogizing that, '..this, this is why we hate the United States'. No, the presentation is not about the Kardashian sisters. No, it isn't anything to do with Justin Bieber or the insanity that is child obesity and fast food in middle America. It isn't even about Donald Trump. No, the presentation is about LeBron's new Nike shoes.

Before we kick off, let's get one thing straight. The below isn't wanton capitalism bashing, you won't find this author extolling the virtues of communism or a switch back to the old system of barter of goods and services. We all take part in this Western World, including me, we all make occasional stupid purchases, we are all just trying to get by.

However, in no World, capitalist, communist or otherwise, is there any valid reason for a company to create a $300 sneaker, and it is particularly ugly when that sneaker cost them about $10 to create, and the families they are aimed at are generally low income, inner city families. In a World where millions of people are starving to death every minute, in a country where unemployment is rife and where approximately 15% of adults in the United States officially live below the poverty line, LeBron James and Nike have come up with a shoe that is going to cost $300 to buy.

That's right, a sneaker that is going to set you back $300 to buy it.

Of course, LeBron has had very little to do with this, Nike have done all the hard work. They paid some kid in Indonesia $2 today to put together the shoe, the same one they are going to sell for 150 times that sum to only the finest collection of Muppets on this great planet Earth. LeBron, supposed philanthropist (as he insists in his cameo on Entourage), is just putting his name, his face and his enormous ego to the shoe.

I am sure the starving kids in Africa that he throws the occasional bouquet at are absolutely thrilled that LeBron has released a new $300 shoe. I imagine they all gathered around one of the kids iPads to check the shoe out, before heading off to their local Foot Locker to pick up a couple of pairs. Each.

With this incredibly crass, arrogant pricing of a shoe Nike has yet again displayed it's wonderfully warped grasp on the status-quo in America. There are quite literally hundreds of thousands of people protesting in the streets against rampant greed in all its shapes and forms, and yet Nike deem this the right time to bring out a shoe that will cost $300? Incredible.

They should have called it 'The Nike 1%'

Before you jump to the defence of a company to price their wares any way they want, spare a thought for a second for hard working family men and women, who are now going to feel compelled to try and buy this ridiculous shoe for little Jimmy, little Tommy or little Keyshaun. In England and Ireland, men and women are distraught trying to afford the latest $50 Manchester United or Chelsea jersey for their kids, lest they be teased on the playground. In the States it is going to be $300 shoes.

I wonder how many families in Akron, where LeBron is from, can afford the new LeBron shoe?

Whatever about the idiots who decided to price a shoe, that cost them about $10 (including parts and labour) to create, up at $300-$315, what about the brain dead chug monkeys that are actually going to purchase these disgusting symbols of waste, greed and frivolity?

If you do end up buying one of these pairs of sneakers, congratulations. You are approximately as intelligent as Imelda Marcos.

Have fun with that.



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