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.”
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?
In order to help the US economy, maybe we can President Bush to get run over (preferably by a GM or Chrysler).
Those shoe sales numbers are a more accurate reflection of public opinion than any poll.
#2 I was starting small business, but sure..
Ah-ha. So the throwing the shoes at Bush wasn’t a protest statement but simply a brillant marketing campaign.
#5… viral marketing? God knows it got plenty of playtime on the Intertubes.
the bush shoe???
should be named ‘the bush wacker’
yeah none of you saw that coming!!
People will buy stuff for the strangest reasons.
2008 will go down in history as the Year of the Shoe(s).
Weird.
I’m sure a lot of people who post here will want a pair.
I wonder what the Obama shoes will look like?