Despite living in China, Stephon Marbury has been making a lot of headlines here in the states lately, and they're not about his dominance in the Chinese Basketball Association. It all started when he announced the return of his affordable Starbury sneaker line, which led to his criticism of Jordan, calling him "greedy" for charging so much for his sneakers. While nobody is really coming to Jordan's defense when it comes to prices, Marbury's former business partner Rodney Henry is calling him out for some of the claims he made.
Henry worked with Marbury on the Starbury line up until 2006, before leaving to start his own line of affordable basketball sneakers called "Protege." Henry spoke to the New York Post about how his experience selling affordable basketball sneakers at retailers like K-Mart and Sears prompted him to call out Marbury for claiming that Air Jordan's can be made for as little as $5. “My knowledge and experience of creating the Protege shoe allows me to definitively say that I don’t care where you’re producing it that no, you cannot make a good, safe, high performance, technical shoe for five dollars," he said. According to Henry, making basketball sneakers will run you at least $15-20, so while he agrees that Jordans are overpriced, he thinks Marbury has exaggerated greatly.
I guess we'll just have to wait until the new Starburys drop to see if quality basketball sneakers can really be made for $5.
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