Sole Man

Big business in the basketball world not only surrounds NBA and college players these days; the push for lucrative endorsement deals has seeped down to the high school level. In "Got to be the Shoes," Dustin Dow of the Cincinnati Enquirer describes the frenzy around what shoes high school superstar O.J. Mayo wears. Reebok, Nike and Adidas compete furiously to have high school players wear their shoes and eventually ink multi-million-dollar endorsement contracts once they turn pro. Dow shows how the shoe choices that Mayo and other prep phenoms make can determine their opponents, schedules and even uniform colors. This is a nice example of enterprise reporting in the sports world.
news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060430/SPT0301/604300409