Donald Trump, facing multimillion-dollar fines, is selling $399 shoes
most of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has accused President Joe Biden of making everyday items unaffordable.
The former president, for his part, is now selling $399 shoes.
Trump appeared at Sneaker Con — a footwear convention for shoe aficionados and collectors — in Philadelphia at the weekend, where he introduced his latest business venture: high-top shoes and sneakers.
Onstage, the front-runner of the GOP primary race held up golden sneakers emblazoned with his “T” logo and the American flag. Some in the crowd cheered as the president called the shoes “the real deal.”
“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” Trump said about his shoe line. “I think it’s going to be a big success.”
The shoes — called the “Never Surrender HighTops” — are not the first product the former president has hawked to his loyal base of followers.
Aside from the infamous “Make America Great Again” red hats, the former president’s lines of merchandise have included shirts sporting his mug shot as well as Trump-branded vodka, cologne, shirts, ties — even furniture.
According to a website dedicated solely to
Trump’s sneakers, the shoe line is “super limited” — only 1,000 pairs were being sold.
The small print on the site notes that the shoes are not “designed, manuFor factured, distributed or sold” by Trump or his organization but rather by a company identified as 45Footwear, LLC, which uses Trump’s name and likeness under a license agreement. The site claims to be “not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign.”
But the former president appeared to suggest that the shoes were part of an effort to reach younger voters, saying: “We’ve got to get the young people out to vote.”
“We’re going to turn this country around fast,” Trump said. “And we’re going to remember the young people, and we’re going to remember Sneaker Con.”
By Sunday morning, the shoes appeared to have sold out. Trump’s site promises they are estimated to ship in July.
The site also offers two different $199 pairs of Trump shoes — not gold, though, as the others are red or white. On the site, the former president is also selling a new fragrance, “Victory,” which the site promises to ship by June. The cologne is described as “the signature scent of strength and success” designed “for the decisive and the bold.”
Trump’s announcement of his new shoe line came a day after a judge in New York ordered him to pay about $350 million in penalties plus interest following a civil fraud trial in which he was found to have carried out a yearslong scheme alongside his adult sons and other top executives at the Trump Organization to use false financial data to borrow money at lower rates. Trump has promised to appeal the decision.
While the former president is not cash-strapped — Bloomberg Billionaires Index recently estimated the former president’s net worth at $3.1 billion, with about $600 million in cash — the fine could consume more than half of the cash, potentially prompting the company to sell more real estate if it wants to free up cash.
Some of Trump’s critics appeared to suggest that the former president is selling shoes to help pay the fine. The campaign of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in a statement, said that while Trump “hawked overpriced sneakers to pay his legal bills, Haley met with voters and shared her vision for a strong and proud America.”
Biden’s campaign also mocked Trump’s shoe venture.
“Donald Trump showing up to hawk bootleg OffWhites is the closest he’ll get to any Air Force Ones ever again for the rest of his life,” said Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler.