Shoes You Sir!

During an after session pub conversation with the young Algenon I spotted that he chose to wear martial art shoes as his daily footwear. A couple of jokes about always being prepared for random attackS on the street and then he said that actually, it was quite the rage to wear these shoes - you'll see all the kids wearing them. For those not accustomed to the martial art, or 'Budo' shoe, they are invariably black or white, with red or black flashes and do not have laces - the tongue being stiched into the main shoe to provide a suitable surface area for striking.
They also have very thin soles with the key trademark of a single, circular grip underneath the ball of the major toe. Not exactly fashionable, they are, very practicle and, until Saturday, I thought cheap.So there I am on a Saturday afternoon in a trendy shoe shop, the missus fretting over which monstrously priced shoe to buy when my attention wanders and I spot an adiddas martial art shoe exactly like the one's we use. A quick check at the price tag and what I misread as £6, actually was a heart stopping price of £60!!!
Wow! What price fashion. Especially as these shoes cost tuppence to make and contain absolutely no hi-tech features like air this or air that. My MA supplier kindly offers me a club discount on equipment and these same shoes (without the Adiddas branding) are sold for about £20 each.