Veteran Bronx emcee Fat Joe is partnering with K-Mart and Sears for an affordable line of sneakers.
Joe brainstormed the project with NBA Knicks star Al Harrington in response to the severe economic recession currently inflicting Americans.
“You know I own thousands of pairs of sneakers and I’m a huge collector,” Joe told theshoegame.com.
“But I wanted my sneaker to be something the kids could actually afford. Due to these hard economic times, a lot of kids cannot afford $200 sneakers. So kids can buy them themselves. They don’t even have to worry about their mom or pops buying them for $34.99.”
When he went into the manufacturing process, Joe discovered how companies amass huge profits by overpricing sneakers made at minimum costs.
The Terror Squad leader refused to exploit consumers, and frames his product as a “give-back” item for the community.
“It’s unbelievable that you can pay $34.00 for this quality of a dope style sneaker. So when I sit down and see what the materials cost, I would have paid $150 for these,” Joe explained. “I’ve paid $10,000 for a pair of sneakers. But it really only took them $30 to make the sneaker.”
The Protégé “They Sick” line is available now in K-Mart and Sears.
On Black Friday, Joe plans to drop the Protégé Blackout sneaker. Before then, he hopes promotion will increase for the product.
“The sneaker is selling crazy, but I really want to do more promotions,” Joe stated. “The only problem I got with the whole thing is that we can promote even better.”
At press time, Fat Joe’s ninth studio album Jealous Ones Still Envy 2 (J.O.S.E. 2) is scheduled for release on October 6.
It will feature appearances from Lil Wayne, Ron Browz, Akon, T-Pain, Lil Kim, Fabolous, and Raekwon.