I stumbled across this interesting article about the whole Steve and Barry’s/Starbury phenomenon in my newsreader the other day and thought I’d pass it on. For those that don’t know, the Starbury line of clothing and footwear was started by the NBA’s Stephon Marbury as a way to offer hi-quality clothes and sneaks to people at a less than exorbitant price. The quality is apparently right up there with Nike and other companies, as Marbury wears his own product on the courts, but the price comes in at a whopping $14.99 for every pair of shoes.

The shoes looked beautiful on web pages and video clips as they did in my hands. Like inexpensive cars and electronics, they have fewer moving parts and that somehow cleverly adds to their appeal. I expected that making $15 basketball sneakers beautiful would be easier then making them comfortable. But trying a pair on quickly made me forget about pop culture — Starbury’s felt no different than other basketball sneakers from Nike, Adidas or Reebok I had randomly chosen over the years.

Oh, and to tie it all together for those waiting for some sort of comic book tie-in, the Steve and Barry stores have a pretty decent selection of t-shirts featuring Marvel characters with Kirby, Buscema and Ditko art for just 6 bucks a pop, less if you by a couple at a time.

Spread the word!