When a pair of black leather oxfords hurled at President George W. Bush in Baghdad produced a gasp heard around the world, a Turkish cobbler had a different reaction: They were his shoes.

We have been producing that specific style, which I personally designed, for 10 years, so I couldn’t have missed it, no way,” said Ramazan Baydan in Istanbul. “As a shoemaker, you understand.”

Although his assertion has been impossible to verify – cobblers from Lebanon, China and Iraq have also staked claims to what is quickly becoming some of the most famous footwear in the world – orders for Baydan’s shoes, formerly known as Ducati Model 271 and since renamed “The Bush Shoe,” have poured in from around the world.

A new run of 15,000 pairs, destined for Iraq, went into production Thursday, he said. A British distributor has asked to become the Baydan Shoe Co.’s European sales representative, with a first order of 95,000 pairs, and a U.S. company has placed an order for 18,000 pairs. Four distributors are competing to represent the company in Iraq, where Baydan sold 19,000 pairs of this model for about $40 each last year.

Five thousand posters advertising the shoes, on their way to the Middle East and Turkey, proclaim “Goodbye Bush, Welcome Democracy” in Turkish, English and Arabic.

I love the quote from the shoe company’s general manager: Noting the spike in sales, Serkan Turk, said, “Bush served some good purpose to the economy before he left.”




  1. Dallas says:

    Bush can help many American businesses increase their sales abroad in apple pies, steak knives, Zune MP3 players, leather wallets and a host of things.

    We need 3M new jobs and Bush can single handedly help this. What is he waiting for?

  2. chuck says:

    In order to help the US economy, maybe we can President Bush to get run over (preferably by a GM or Chrysler).

  3. heehee says:

    Those shoe sales numbers are a more accurate reflection of public opinion than any poll.

  4. Dallas says:

    #2 I was starting small business, but sure..

  5. Cap'nKangaro says:

    Ah-ha. So the throwing the shoes at Bush wasn’t a protest statement but simply a brillant marketing campaign.

  6. Ron Larson says:

    #5… viral marketing? God knows it got plenty of playtime on the Intertubes.

  7. AdmFubar says:

    the bush shoe???

    should be named ‘the bush wacker’

    yeah none of you saw that coming!!

  8. hhopper says:

    People will buy stuff for the strangest reasons.

  9. Uncle Patso says:

    2008 will go down in history as the Year of the Shoe(s).

    Weird.

  10. deowll says:

    I’m sure a lot of people who post here will want a pair.

    I wonder what the Obama shoes will look like?


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