A recent article in Slate discusses shoe sponsorships in China.  Nike and Adidas are doing gangbusters over there, with Adidas planning on doubling (to ~5000) the number of stores they have there.  Like the US, the shoes don’t really matter as much as the sponsorships do, so the local and foreign companies go bonkers for sponsors.  The jokey headline of the article was “Who gave Kim Jong-Il a sneaker deal?” but it was only jokey.  He doesn’t have one, however the coutry of North Korea does have one, apparently the DPRK is outstanding at table tennis and diving, though of course divers don’t wear shoes, I don’t see why that should stop them.  Anyhow, were Kim Jong-Il to have  a personal sneaker deal, they’d probably look something like this:

 

(Of course, he’s stellar at golf, shooting 11 holes-in-one at his first round.   They’d probably also have spikes.)

(Sidenote: This website is awesome.  The pseudo-swoosh!   Li-Ning shoes.  Passion: a flaming torch.  Vitality: a moving rhythm.  Youth: a flying red flag.)