NWSF Bullet: Nike's Black History Month Sneakers

Gee, thanks Nike! (I think...)

I caught Roland Martin's segment on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, this morning. He had some dude from Nike talking about their new Black History Month Air Force Ones.

http://theshoegame.com/articles/2009-black-history-month-nike-air-force-1.html

Since there are only two days left in Black History Month, I thought it was a little late...But, ok

When the guy said that the sneakers were supposed to commemorate the contributions of African Americans, I thought Tom Joyner posed a legitimate question...

"How? "

Are they going to have pictures of black folks are the shoes?

I don't think that the Nike guy was expecting such a deep question about how a sneaker could represent black history because Joyner had to ask the question again before he got an answer.

At that point Roland Martin came to the rescue by saying that the shoe has a hundred symbol on the back to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NAACP.

(Thanks for clearing that up, Ro. I thought that it was the price of the shoe before tax...)

He also said that the shoe was red, black and green; the colors of Marcus Garvey's Universal African Negro Improvement Organization.

(Psst...Someone please tell the brainiacs at Nike that the NAACP was opposed to the Garvey Movement and the colors associated with it)

Any way, I still thought that it was still kinda cool to put out a Black History shoe. Surely, they must be puttin' the sneakers in hoods across the country for an affordable price of $20 or so and maybe...just maybe...including a black history book in each shoe box...

Nope. They are only producing 350 pairs to be given to black folks who have made a contribution to black history..

I suddenly got a visual of 80 year old Civil Rights veterans sportin' their new kicks and dancin' to Nelly's song "Air Force Ones."

What probably happened is some marketing exec at Nike said , "Hey guys...It's almost March and we haven't exploited Black History Month,yet."

So, they got 350 pairs of old Air Force Ones and spray painted them red, black and green and called the producers at the Tom Joyner Morning Show and got some free advertising on the top rated urban morning show in the country.

Hey, Roland...I'm giving out a couple of No Warning Shots Fired.com Black History Month shoe strings this weekend...

Can I get five minutes on the TJMS to plug my website?