Wednesday, October 20, 2010

BANNED In the USA!

 So Athletic Propulsion Labs flagship shoe, the APL 1, has been Banned by the NBA (although not by name). There are plently of places to read the story online (from ESPN to Yahoo Finance to the usual suspects of new shoe release info), but I feel like its shameless promotion. Ever since artists/entertainers have latched on to the knowledge that any press is good press, and that the word BANNED is an automatic meal ticket (NWA, 2 Live Crew, the original Jordan 1 (original CLASSIC Jordan 1 commercial below), I've been a bit cynical of whether these items are actually banned - or if the Company is just looking for a shout. Would these shoes have been the talk of the town if they weren't banned? Short answer, no. They look better than 93% of the shoes NIKE put out last year, and look performance-oriented, but so did Under Armour's product, and they were endorsed by the charasmatic Brandon Jennings, and they didn't get this much talk.

These APL 1's are $300 - a price at which you can buy a pair Kobe's AND Lebron's signature models for. Yikes. At the end of the day, they should enjoy their 15 mins or quickly come up with a pair of shoes better priced for the middle market - because its going to take more than a sleek design and unproven talk of vertical enhancement to get kids to pay this much for a shoe without a name behind it, Ban be Damned.