The Starbury has landed. Will it take off?
Thursday, 28th January 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Stephon Marbury at Taiyuan Airport, Shanxi, China
From the looks of this photo, taken at the Taiyuan airport, Marbury is counting up the stacks of cash he can make selling Starbury shoes in China. I wish him the best, but color me skeptical on whether he will stick out the culture shock he'll encounter from the minute he steps outside that airport and gets his first lungful of Shanxi's coal-heavy air. Interviewed for the Wall Street Journal, Bruce O'Neil, president of the U.S. Basketball Academy says: "If he lasts 10 days, I'll be amazed. The culture shock is tremendous." (That WSJ story is a must read if you're interested in this saga, with details about the team, city and arena).
There's no guarantee that Starburys will sell in China, either. He's reportedly putting out a special edition with the characters for Shanxi (山西）and Marbury (马布里）embossed on the side. That's a smart move, and I could see interest in that first edition as a collector's item. But he needs to sell a lot of shoes, and can a Shanxi shoe have staying power in big markets like Beijing and Shanghai? And I have yet to see a distribution plan. Where is he going to sell these shoes? Carrefour? Kiosks outside the Li Ning and Nike stores? There's no Dick's Sporting Goods, no Sports Authority, in China. The sportswear distribution is dominated by brand-name stores, and there are already a handful of homegrown brands that offer shoes near his $15 (100 RMB) price point. And those aren't the shoes that people are wearing to play basketball.
Hopefully Marbury has people working on all this—despite some of his antics, the point guard from Coney Island has shown some business sense in the past. It should at least be fun to watch.
Marbury landing at airport image: CQNews
WSJ: An NBA Problem Child Packs His Baggage for China
Tags: basketball, CBA, NBA, Shanxi Zhongyu, Stephon Marbury
An all-China Australian Open final? Making history and a case for reform
Thursday, 28th January 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
Li Na
Li Na and Zheng Jie were two players who took up the Chinese Tennis Association on an offer in 2008 (after the Olympics) to take greater control of their training and keep more of their prize money. The tradeoff was giving up some of the support and security offered by the CTA. Less than two years after this experiment began, Li Na and Zheng Jie are opening the 2010 tennis season by becoming the first pair of Chinese players to make it to the singles final at a Grand Slam (they were also the first pair to the quarterfinals). Li Na took down Venus Williams in her quarterfinal, and Zheng beat Maria Kirilenko.
These two didn't come out of nowhere, and it's not the first major success for China's female tennis stars. Zheng and her partner Zi Yan won the doubles final at the Australian Open in 2006, and Zheng reached the semifinals of Wimbledon in 2008. But coming just one season after both players took control of their own careers, it supports Li's argument last year that such freedom should be extended to other sports. "It is very important for us to have the right to choose. I really mean it," she said last spring, according to an AFP report.
Li Na's semi against Serena Williams is live right now, and Zheng Jie's semi against Justine Henin will take place Friday morning. And in keeping the footwear theme in this week's posts, it should be noted that Zheng Jie is wearing Chinese brand Anta shoes and gear. Li Na is still with Nike.
Related: Zhang Shuai and the future of Chinese tennis
Li Na image: Xunying.com
Tags: Anta, Australian Open, Li Na, Nike, state sports system, tennis, Zheng Jie