With the NBA lockout looming, many players have fled to international leagues and Derrick Rose is right behind them, but not to play ball. Instead, the Bulls guard and reigning MVP will be in China hawking his new line of shoes to the very people who make them for a few bucks a day.
“Yeah. You know. China’s cool,” said Rose. “I just came back from a tour there and they really love me and most importantly, you know, they love buying my shoes.”
A pair of shoes from Rose’s Adidas “AdiZero” line fetch more than $100, or 700 Chinese Yuan, which is approximately 25 times the daily pay of sweatshop workers in Adidas factories around China and other countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh. Still, Rose was unfazed.
“These shoes are great and people in China love them, probably because they make them there,” said Rose. “I heard people in China don’t have a lot of money so I’m not sure how they can afford expensive shoes. They probably work real hard at their jobs or something.”
