Pay Through the Toes

LeBron James garnered gold, but footwear fanatics will have to give theirs away to buy his shoes. After rampant reports that Nike's new LeBron X, slated for a fall release, will retail for upwards of $300, the company clarified that would be for a limited edition which includes motion sensors that will measure vertical leap (you can sure jump higher when your wallet's three Benjamins lighter), and the base model will sell for the affordable amount of $180, a bargain for the bourgeois (just 25 hours of labor at minimum wage will secure you shiny swooshes). For that sadly standard for the sport, yet still staggering sum, you could buy 12 pairs of Stephon Marbury's sneakers - if only they were available anymore (starbury.com lists both lines of his $14.98 kicks as being out of stock). Call us cheap (and algebra airheads), but spending for X would be as excruciating an exercise as solving for x was in seventh grade.

High-end hightops are in high demand, as evidenced by the free-for-all over an All-Star edition in February, that turned Foot Locker into the Hurt Locker. The Wall Street Journal reports that Nike has increased prices of its products by between 5-10% from last year. If this trend continues, soon the support consumers will care about from their footwear will be financial.