Comments on: Always sounds good on paper

By: Nicholas Stewart

Nicholas Stewart — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:49:18 +0000

Can’t agree with this article. Starbury Sneakers is for grown folks and responsible folks. I bought every pair of Air Jordans up to #22. Then I had a child. Guess what? I bought baby jordans at $40.00 a pop.

Then I had another child.

I now only buy Starbury Sneakers and have over 30 pair…. Crisp.

http://www.starburysneakers.com if there is no Steve and Barry’s near you.

By: MIB

MIB — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:30:29 +0000

It’s probably a little too early to dig the Starbury’s grave.

One major problem Steve and Barry’s hasn’t addressed is availability of the shoes in ‘brick-and-mortar’ stores. They haven’t been willing to work out a distribution deal with a major retail chain. I would think that’s killing whatever enthusiasm someone could have for the shoes; a major marketing mistake.

OTOH, Steve and Barry’s are leveraging the Starburys into a huge expansion of outlets around the country. They must know something that Best Damn Sports Blog doesn’t.

By: Duane

Duane — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:11:08 +0000

Either way, the materials to make these shoes would have still ended up originating from China (cheap materials). There is just no way anybody could expect to make a decent profit selling these sneakers for 15 bucks.

As far as support from the Black community is concerned, it sounded like folks were sucking them up at first. However, I still have to agree with the last commentary. This ultimately comes down to a mindset issue. Selling sneakers for $15 places them in the ‘bo-bo’s’ category no matter who is backing it. Being economical is a concept that is typically not practiced by the demographic he was trying to reach.

By: Wizz

Wizz — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:41:47 +0000

Yea… I agree mostly with what’s been said… BUT… I have to say that my experience with these shoes was not that great. First of all they were made cheaply, and you could tell. The leather felt very thin and flimsy and the suede-ish ones had terrible designs. The couple of pairs I bought for my son did not last very long at all. A few months tops… And I had to take back the ones I bought for myself because the box actually had two left feet in it! And when I tried to exchange them they didn’t have anymore in my size…

So while I think that this was a great idea, I have the say the execution was terrible. The combination of poor designs, poor material, poor supply (they never had the best ones in stock), poor customer service, etc.., killed this shoe.

By: LennieG

LennieG — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:27:44 +0000

Thanks for carrying this story. It really broke my heart to learn that those who cannot afford Jordan shoes would rather keep robbing and killing each other for $500 shoes when they could have supported Stephon in this.

The entire black community should be ashamed for allowing this to happen. Had black parents banned together to support Stephon, they would have effectively made a great statement.