Former President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a sneaker line, a day after he and his companies were ordered by a judge to pay nearly $355 million in his New York civil fraud trial.
The former president unveiled “Trump Sneakers” at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia. He placed a pair of gold sneakers, which a new website has listed for $399 and named the “NEVER SURRENDER HIGH-TOP SNEAKER,” on the podium as he spoke.
“This is something I’ve been talking about for 12 years, 13 years, and I think it’s going to be a big success,” said Trump, who is marching closer toward the 2024 Republican nomination and a potential rematch with President Joe Biden.
By Saturday night, the $399 sneakers were listed as sold out on the website. There had been 1,000 pairs of the sneakers available for purchase, according to the site.
The former president is also selling two versions of sneakers that have “T” and “45” on the sides for $199, according to the website. Cologne and perfume are for sale at $99 each.
According to the website, the products are “trademarks of CIC Ventures LLC. Trump Sneakers are not designed, manufactured, distributed or sold by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals. 45Footwear, LLC uses the Trump name, image and likeness under a license agreement.”
Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler slammed Trump’s appearance at Sneaker Con. “Donald Trump showing up to hawk bootleg Off-Whites is the closest he’ll get to any Air Force Ones ever again for the rest of his life,” he said, referring to popular sneakers from brands Off-White and Nike.
Following his appearance at Sneaker Con, Trump is expected to head to Michigan to address supporters for the first time since the rulings in separate New York cases thrust into the spotlight the legal peril he faces on multiple fronts.
On Thursday, a New York state judge confirmed that the former president’s criminal trial in a hush money case will begin March 25. A day later, Trump and his companies were ordered to pay nearly $355 million for fraudulently inflating the values of his properties. Combined with the $83 million judgment issued against Trump for defaming E. Jean Carroll, the 2024 Republican front-runner has been fined roughly $438 million over the past four weeks.
Trump’s Michigan visit is timed for 10 days before the state holds its Republican primary. The Wolverine State is the final February contest before the GOP nominating fight expands to more than two dozen states in March.
If anyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop in the upcoming presidential race, former President Donald Trump just did, launching his own line of tennis shoes on Saturday.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” Trump said when he announced the launch of a sneaker line at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia.
“I have some incredible people that work with me on things and they came up with this … and I think it’s gonna be a big success,” he added.
In his brief remarks at the sneaker launch, Trump indicated the line could be an effort to reach out to younger supporters, saying, “We’re going to turn this country around fast. We’re going to turn it around. And we’re going to remember the young people, and we’re going to remember Sneaker Con.”
He was met with a mostly enthusiastic crowd, though some occasional boos permeated through the cheers.
The line, called Trump Sneakers, is available for preorder online.
It features three different pairs of tennis shoes: a pair of high-tops, a pair of red laceless athletic shoes and a pair of white laceless athletic shoes.
The high-tops, which are gold and emblazoned with a “T” on the outside of each shoe, are called the “Never Surrender High Top Sneaker” and are priced at $399 online. The athletic shoes, which feature a “T” and the number 45 on the sides are priced at $199.
The purchase of a pair of sneakers comes with extra laces and a Trump “superhero charm.”
The website selling the sneakers also features a “Victory47” perfume and cologne for sale at $99 each.
The sneakers, perfume and cologne sales have nothing to do with Trump’s presidential campaign or the Trump Organization. The former president’s name, image and likeness have been licensed to CIC Ventures LLC to sell the sneakers.
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign mocked the sneaker launch, with communications director Michael Tyler saying, “Donald Trump showing up to hawk bootleg Off-Whites is the closest he’ll get to any Air Force Ones ever again for the rest of his life.”
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after Trump incurred a more than $350 million penalty for engaging in repeated financial fraud through his family corporation. Trump has said he intends to appeal the order.
This isn’t Trump’s first time licensing his name, image and likeness to sell products. In 2022 and 2023, he struck a licensing agreement to sell NFT trading cards. Those cards were produced and sold by NFT INT LLC, which had a licensing agreement with Trump to use his name and image.
Sneaker Con, the venue where Trump debuted the sneaker collection, is an event that started in 2009 and has become one of the premiere events within the broader sneaker culture that has exploded in recent decades.
With the rise of sneaker culture, signature shoes have moved beyond athletes to musicians, actors and more. Some politicians are now thought of as “sneakerheads,” which is slang for people who tend to rock particularly desirable sneakers. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., reportedly has somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 pairs of collectible sneakers.
Sneakers directly associated with politicians are rare. There are a pair of Nikes designed for former President Barack Obama, but only a couple of pairs are known to exist, and Under Armour made a pair for him with the presidential logo that Steph Curry wore for a game.
Kristen Stewart has said that Donald Trump’s past criticism of her inspired her to address her sexuality for the first time while hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 2017.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the Academy Award-nominated actor said the decision to come out on national television was a “very shoot-from-the-hip moment.”
She recalled that she had been sitting with a group of “SNL” writers before filming the episode and thinking that the monologue they had planned out was “boring” until someone brought up Trump’s posts about her cheating on her “Twilight” costar, Robert Pattinson.
“Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart,” Trump posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2012 after paparazzi photographs of Stewart kissing director Rupert Sanders were released, causing a media firestorm.
Trump’s post continued: “She cheated on him like a dog and will do it again — just watch. He can do much better!”
At the time, Stewart, then 22, was in a three-year relationship with her on-screen vampire boyfriend. She received the brunt of the public backlash over the affair with her “Snow White and the Huntsman” director, who was 19 years her senior and married with young children.
“He’s mad at me for cheating on my boyfriend? Little does he know…” Stewart remembered telling the “SNL” writer’s room at the time.
This resulted in her memorable onstage quip: “Donald, if you didn’t like me then, you’re probably really not going to like me now because I’m hosting ‘SNL’ and I’m, like, so gay, dude.”
“Of course, he had to weigh in on my tarring and feathering. It’s like, ‘What is this 20-year-old who has no idea about life doing to this man?'” Stewart said.
“He’s such a little baby,” she continued, adding: “Fuck you, bitch!”
While speaking to Variety in January, the “Love Lies Bleeding” star said that prior to her “Saturday Night Live” appearance, she had not been “hiding” her relationship with her girlfriend at the time, model Stella Maxwell.
“I was so openly out with my girlfriend for years at that point. I’m like, ‘I’m a pretty knowable person.'”
Stewart is now engaged to screenwriter Dylan Meyer, whom she has been in a relationship with since August 2019.
