This from the NY Times:
‘Bush Shoe’ Gives Firm a Footing in the Market
By SEBNEM ARSU
ISTANBUL — When a pair of black leather oxfords hurled at President Bush in Baghdad produced a gasp heard around the world, a Turkish cobbler had a different reaction: They were his shoes.
“We have been producing that specific style, which I personally designed, for 10 years, so I couldn’t have missed it, no way,” said Ramazan Baydan, a shoemaker in Istanbul. “As a shoemaker, you understand.”
Although his assertion has been impossible to verify — cobblers from Lebanon, China and Iraq have also staked claims to what is quickly becoming some of the most famous footwear in the world — orders for Mr. Baydan’s shoes, formerly known as
Ducati Model 271 and since renamed “The Bush Shoe,” have poured in from around the world.
full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/wo...er=rss&emc=rss