If there’s a bruise on my forehead later today, you’ll know why:
Waiting in a winding line for autographs from his favorite NBA player, 15-year-old Brian Cox lifted the lid of a shoebox to show off his synthetic leather high-top sneakers with black sides and blue-and-orange soles.
At a price his mother doesn’t mind — $14.98 — he got his fourth pair of Starburys this week, a sneaker created by New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury. Joanne Cox brought her two teenage sons to Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear after church Sunday for the launch of Marbury’s spring line.
The NBA star “grew up in a poor neighborhood just like we did,” said Cox, who is raising the boys on her own. She says it is not easy on the wages she earns as a city traffic officer, and she has spent thousands on her sons’ shoes over the years. “Now that we got a price of $15, we’re not going higher than that.”
Just so you know, Starburys have only been on sale since September ‘06. The math works out to indicate that Brian gets new shoes every 10 weeks. That leads me to conclude that either the shoes are pieces of crap that don’t last at all (sounds like the British Knights I had about 16 years ago), or the Coxes still need lessons on stretching their dollar.
And, as a footnote, Starburys are apparently all the rage at UVA law.
