• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, March 30, 2018

As the clock ticks ever closer to the big Final Four showdown in the NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tourney over the next three days, surely there are some fans who are totally distracted. They’re still sullen that they weren’t able to snag a pair of Pizza Hut’s Pie Tops II sneakers. 

Those jazzy numbers contain a Bluetooth-enabled button on the tongue that, when pressed, automatically orders a Pizza Hut pie for you. Press the corresponding button and it will pause your TV set, apparently so you can answer the door for the delivery person.

And of course, when Pizza Hut actually began offering the shoes online on March 19, they were quickly gone, as surely as every opponent the hustling Loyola University Ramblers have faced in the tournament. 

So you lose, right?

Or so you would have thought. But while the Final Four battle, it turns out Pizza Hut still has four pairs of the coveted Pie Tops IIs, designed by the likewise coveted Dominic Chambrone, known as the Shoe Surgeon. Those shoes will be auctioned off at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 2, shortly after the game will (probably) end.   

To bid, all shoppers have to do is visit eBay.com/PieTops and take a chance. The eBay for Charity effort began earlier this week. Talk about March Madness.

Proceeds go to the Pizza Hut’s Book It! organization, which for 33 years has fostered the love of reading to as many 65 million children. In 2016, Pizza Hut launched The Literacy Project, to raise the awareness of the importance of childhood reading. Every bit of what eBay’s auction site gets will go to First Book, an agency that supplies books to kids.

"This year's tournament has once again featured many unforgettable moments and as fans gather together to watch the Final Four, Pizza Hut wanted to offer them one 'final' chance to swoop up a pair of our Pie Tops II," said Zipporah Allen, Pizza Hut’s chief marketing officer, who exploited the obvious connection between the college tournament wind-up and those last pairs of pizza shoes. Pizza Hut is the official pizza of the NCAA Final Four.

Marketing Daily inquired to determine how the auctioneers will know the four lucky bidders will have eight lucky feet that will fit the only four remaining pairs of Pie Tops IIs. Pizza Hut’s people did not return the call.