It aint easy being brilliant...

Honestly, I’ve never really understood why anybody would wanna wear basketball shoes when they are not playing basketball. Especially not damn near $200 basketball shoes. But at the same time, I can appreciate that these pro athletes are role models for many of the people that buy them, and what they do with THEIR OWN money, is really their own business. If they wanna rock basketball kicks to the mall, that’s good for them.

I have always thought that they were too expensive. At $100, I thought they were too expensive. So OBVIOUSLY, i believe they are far too expensive at the damn near $200 price tag they are sitting at right now.

Now, word is, that the next pair of LeBron James’ kicks are going to hit the market at anywhere between $290-315.

The LeBron X shoes, will reportedly hit stores this fall, and will allegedly feature motion sensors in the shoe to track various metrics including how high the player jumps. 

But Nike, a little sensitive at the accusations that they will be crossing the $300 plateau despite owning roughly 95% of the US basketball shoe market, insist that there will be several versions of the shoe.

“The LeBron X will be launched in the fall at a suggested retail price of $180,” Nike spokesman Brian Strong, said in a statement. “The initial introduction of the LeBron X will be the red, white and blue Nike+ enabled version and that price is still being set, but will be at a higher price to reflect the Nike+ technology embedded in the shoes.”

Even with all of the info I have given you in this post, we as a sports addicted society are asking all of the wrong questions.

The REAL questions should be:

1. Do I REALLY need to spend an additional $100 for my shoes to tell me how high I can jump? Is that really necessary? It isn’t. Call me old school, but I always measured my own personal gains in vertical jump by jumping straight up to touch the backboard and seeing if I could top the spot I got to the last time. Sure it’s a little more effort, but it doesn’t cost a damn dime.
2. Aren’t there more important things I could be spending this $300 on? Certainly. If you are rich, and have the dough to throw around, clearly this isn’t directed at you, but you and I BOTH know that it is NOT the rich man that waits outside of a shopping mall for 18 hours to get the first shot at the newest pair of b-ball kicks. It is the 14-18 year old child that has mysteriously convinced their parents in some way shape or form that they need these shoes in order to look cool at school and have more friends. Call me old school, but my dad would’ve told me to get a job. And that is exactly what I plan to tell my kids one day.

Sure, the LeBron shoes will be available at a cheaper, less advanced price. But you and I both know that now that people know that the more advanced and expensive pair is out there, they will spare no expense to be the first at their school to be rocking the $300 LeBron James kicks.

To those of you naively thinking, “$300? Nobody will EVER pay that for a pair of shoes!” You couldn’t possibly be more wrong. They will sell, people will fight over them, people will get robbed over them, and that is all there is to it.

I personall wouldn’t want my 15 year old getting his ass beat over his $300 shoes on the walk home from school, but that is just me.

I could never see paying that much money for hoops shoes coming up, and I HAD a job. I had the money.

I knew that money would cost me a lot of dates with girls, a lot of movies with friends, a lot of CD’s I wanted for my new car, and a lot of books I enjoyed reading in my down time.

I don’t care about how awesome LeBron James January-August was this year. No pair of shoes is worth $300. I assure you they didn’t cost nearly that much to make at some old worn out shoe factory that isn’t even helping our own National economy. It’s like paying $10 for a 24 oz beer at a concert that you could get at any local 7-eleven for under $2.

To me, they simply are not worth it unless you more than have the means.