Donald Trump receives boos, cheers as he sells $399 gold sneakers at Philadelphia convention
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday unveiled new Trump-branded sneakers during an unexpected stop in Philadelphia.
Trump attended an event dubbed “Sneaker Con,” a traveling convention for collectors to buy and sell shoes, according to its website. The former president presented a shiny, gold pair of sneakers at the Philadelphia Convention Center with an American flag detail on the back of the shoes.
The sneakers are currently being marketed as “Never Surrender High-Tops" and selling for $399.
The former president’s appearance split the crowd at the Sneaker Con, with some attendees holding up “Sneakerheads love Trump” signs, while others booed and shouted.
“There’s a lot of emotion in this room,” Trump, who is seeking another term if office, told attendees at the event. He explained that “This is something that I’ve been talking about for 12 years, 13 years.”
But Trump’s sneakers aren’t the only product he has tried to sell since leaving office. The former president has also marketed his own trading cards, and he released books featuring photos of his time in office and letters written to him through the years.
The website for the new sneakers is run by CIC Ventures LLC, a company the former president reported owning in a 2023 financial disclosure.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign immediately criticized Trump over his latest product. Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director, said in a statement “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.”
Trump revealed the sneakers a day after a judge in New York ordered Trump and his namesake company to pay $453.5 million, with additional penalties against two of his sons, and barred them from conducting business in the state after fraudulently over-valuing his real estate empire.
"The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience," Justice Arthur Engoron wrote in a decision released Friday.
Trump earlier this year was also ordered to pay columnist E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case.
Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY; Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump receives boos, cheers as he sells $399 gold sneakers
