In the '90s we were >>>this close<<< to creating our own multi billion dollar black owned clothing lines: FUBU, Karl Kani, Cross Colours, Phat Farm, Ecko Ltd, Sean John,
Had we been able to maintain that same energy either them or other hotter lines would be billion dollar enterprises now.
We could be doing the same with tennis shoes. Tennis shoes would be so f*cking easy to become big. Get a 2 or 3 famous players. Doesn't even have to be all basketball. Done the right way (make it as or more expensive than Nike, Addidas), behind the scenes get the rappers involved, and its HUGE. I guarantee you 100 percent Nike's biggest fear is that some enterprising black person, an athlete, doesn't challenge them by getting a few people together. This is really a no brainer. I'd put the factor right smack in the hood, but Africa (unless we still doing the mad at off code, non FBA Africa thing still... haha).
But the point is this is so f*cking easy. Its literally a billion dollar business out the gate if done right. My suggestion? Plan it out way in advance. Obviously get a LeBron or whomever, the most popular stars you can in the NBA but also approach top black soccer players and rappers. Holla at a Nas who has that mindset. I'd make the cheapest shoe
$200 or $300. Mid range shoes $400 - $600 and have a few special edition ones going for a few grand.
The reason why Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates could do whatever the f*ck they wanted to do with Facebook and Microsoft when it was a publicly traded company is they had the controlling shares.
Such a company would replace Nike fairly easily. Black culture is the most popular and powerful culture GLOBALLY. Merchandizing would be huge, a football version, soccer version, a rapper has his version of Js. Shirts, shorts, sweatsuits, baseball caps, eventually one of the black tennis players has a tennis version, a future black golfer. The commercials are on the super bowl.