http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/12/23/shoe-turkey-bush-face-markets-cx_je_1222autofacescan01.htmlMan who claims to have made footwear hurled at U.S. president says orders are pouring in.
Amid a downturn, it can take something outrageous to spark buying. Turkish shoemaker Ramazan Baydan boasts that his company has been swamped with thousands of orders from around the globe due to his claims to have designed and produced the black leather shoes an Iraqi journalist threw at U.S. President George W. Bush.
The owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company said he had to hire 100 extra workers to cope with the "huge" increase in demand for model 271.
"People are calling from all over the world to order this shoe I designed a decade ago. We have so far 370,000 new orders from Europe, the Middle East and the United States compared to only 40,000 orders of this particular model in December last year," Baydan told Forbes.com during a phone interview through an interpreter.
Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on Dec. 14 as the president made his last official trip to the country. The incident sparked condemnation from political leaders, but it also met with a surge of popular acclaim as a brave act of defiance against a leader who is widely reviled in the Arab world.
Shoemakers in Iraq, Lebanon and China and Iraq have also claimed to be the makers of the famous footwear. It may be impossible to prove their parentage: Zaidi has been in custody since the incident and investigators reportedly destroyed the shoes during explosives tests.
Baydan, who has renamed the model the "Bush shoe" or "Bye-Bye Bush," said the United States was one of his biggest markets for it, with 19,000 pairs ordered so far and the count rising. Britain and the Middle East were also high on the list.
Baydan said roughly 120,000 pairs have been ordered in Iraq, and the shoe has been selling for around $40 in Turkey. Asked what his reaction was when he saw the shoes being thrown at Bush, Baydan said, "I felt proud."
Zaidi will go on trial New Year's Eve on charges of aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit, which carries a prison term of five to 15 years. Zaidi's brother claims that the journalist was tortured into writing an apology, and said he plans to sue the Iraqi authorities.
Topic: 'Bush Shoe' Is Bonanza For Turkish Cobbler