Malls faced chaotic crowds wanting to buy new Air Jordan sneakers; two men shot

[davidn3600]

Police were called to the Westroads Mall to help control the crowd waiting to buy the girls Air Jordan 12 Retro Vivid Pink sneakers sold for the first time on Saturday. The retail price of the new Air Jordans is $140.

A disturbance was reported at The Finish Line around 5:20 a.m. Customers were waiting for the store to open at 7 a.m. Officers were advised by security that several people entered the mall early and were asked to leave.

The mall opened at 6 a.m. and lines formed outside The Finish Line, Champs Sports and Foot Locker.

The Finish Line closed at 7:30 a.m. due to concerns about crowd size and stated it would not reopen until 10 a.m. Most chose to stay and wait, some were upset but stayed calm. OPD turned the scene over to mall security at that time.

Two men were shot in a Brooklyn Center, Minnesota shopping area parking lot during an apparent argument over the Air Jordans. Both are expected to recover.

A fight broke out among those waiting at a mall in Madison, Wisconsin. The Finish Line had only 10 pairs of the new shoe, which police said “did not sit well with the crowd.”

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Release-of-new-Air-Jordans-causes-unrest-among-customers-371160061.html


This is all over a pink shoe...

[bravenak]

1. I want those shoes too....

[davidn3600]

4. You would pay $140?

It probably cost Nike $15 bucks to make.

[bravenak]

5. No. That's why I said want.

Because I never will pay that much. But, I buy my shoes in the kids section so they cost less anyway. I just wait to see what they put out in kids sizes.

[snooper2]

32. made by a 13 year old girl in china- original cost? 34 cents + shipping

[bravenak]

33. Run and Tell Spike Lee

[snooper2]

34. I'm sure he knows but his property taxes are really fucking expensive so bucks must be made

[bravenak]

36. American exceptionalism

[Eleanors38]

41. Not really. We used to have our OWN sweatshops.

[bravenak]

43. True dat

[Quackers]

3. WTF?

Over shoes?

[Hortensis]

24. No, over people being people. Happy folk across

the nation were out shopping by the millions, and here and there a few troublemakers made trouble. Normal day in a nation of 300,000,000.

Hey, writers have to put out something, editors have to accept things that might entice people to notice. And see? It works. Degraded Americans living lives starved of meaning and purpose are literally dying in their pathetic pursuit of $140 shoes.

Tomorrow's second installment: The power of cynical corporate-inculcated consumerism so strong that people are literally dying to purchase over-hyped $140 shoes. This one'll have stats on the car accidents on the way and someone having a heart attack in line in Dubuque.

[Solly Mack]

6. I'd rather sleep-in and wear Converses.

Or Vans.

[PADemD]

9. IMO, Ugly shoe

[krispos42]

10. At that point, I would put them up for auction

If people are going to be this stupid, then make the stupidity hurt their wallet.

Post a list of all the sizes and quantities the store has, then start the auction right there outside the mall.

Make these shallow idiots pay

[Octafish]

11. Sweatshop Status Symbol

Sad.

[MichMan]

12. Same thing in Detroit

"A little pink sneaker created a big ruckus this morning at Eastland Center mall in Harper Woods.

At 8 a.m., when the doors opened at the Kids Foot Locker for the highly anticipated release of the Girls' Air Jordan 12 Retro Vivid Pink shoe, crowds rushed the gate, broke a lock, shoved and hollered. Police immediately shut the mall down.

At 10 a.m., the store tried to open again and the same thing happened, according to William McClure, the general manager at Eastland Center.

"Both times, it was shut down by the police for public safety ... all over a tennis shoe," McClure said. "It's frustrating. It got unruly, the police shut it down."

Nobody was hurt. But things got so chaotic that Kids Foot Locker agreed not to sell the Air Jordan 12 Retro shoe and posted a sign outside its door.

So the eager crowd went around the corner to Champs, which was also offering the highly-coveted shoe, which sells for $79.99 for older girls, $59.99 for preschoolers, and $49.99 for toddlers. To avoid an incident, the store kept it's gate closed for hours and handed out raffle tickets to people just to get inside the store.

Erica Bailey, 39, of Detroit, was one of the few lucky buyers who was able to buy the Jordan Retro 12 shoe today at Eastland. She had been at the mall since midnight, waiting for Kids Foot Locker to open at 8 a.m. When the store shut its doors after the crowd got unruly, Bailey went around the corner to Champs, and waited in line until just after noon. By 12:30 p.m., she had her pink and white tennis shoes.

"I just got my shoe!" Bailey said, flashing a big smile. "I've been here since 12:30 in the morning, all night long I stood outside the door."

Bailey was upset at the unruly customers who made for a longer day than necessary, she said. But it was worth it.

"They're for my granddaughter!" she said, smiling."

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/macomb/2016/03/05/new-air-jordan-release-shuts-down-eastland-center/81363666/

[cwydro]

13. That is so pathetic.

This has been going on for years.

Fighting to buy overpriced shoes put together by the dirt poor of other countries.

Ugly shoes too.

I haven't bought Nike in years despite the fact I did like the fit of their running shoes.

[Vinca]

14. Proof positive we're a nation of numb nuts.

[surrealAmerican]

15. You would think the executives at Nike would know better by now.

To limit the supply of a product while aggressively promoting it - they've done this before with much the same result.

[Enrique]

22. let me dispel the notion that Nike doesn't know what they're doing

they know exactly what they're doing, getting free publicity from these fights.

[cwydro]

47. Exactly.

And laughing up their French cuffs as they watch imbeciles fight over cheap-ass, butt-ugly sneakers that Nike charges a bundle for.

[Crunchy Frog]

16. What good is a gun if you can't shoot someone over shoes?

Keep some perspective. I'm sure it's what our founding fathers would want.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. Wow. Priorities I do not understand.

I don't wear branded merchandise unless I am compensated for it. I am not your billboard.

[inanna]

21. Thread win. n/t

[JesterCS]

18. Give me 30 Dollar Brahmas, thanks n/t

[Initech]

19. I like my discount outlet mall loafers.

Don't need anything more or less than that.

[Ex Lurker]

25. My $24.99 sneakers have lasted more than two years of nearly every day wear

One sole has a hole in it now, so they're reaching the end of their usefulness. I've had another pair of $24.99 sneakers sitting in a box waiting for a few months.

[JesterCS]

28. I have to get the brahma because of

The fun thing my ankle does, where it just Rolls out from under me, the brahma are high top boots, so they help keep me stable

[LiberalElite]

20. I wonder if they're registered to vote?

[FrodosPet]

23. Sadly, this has become a tradition

2011

2013

2014

[Travis_0004]

26. I dont have a problem with the shoe, but they should have been more prepared.

Force people to form a single file line and hand out vouchers, then let in 20 people at a time.

[whatthehey]

29. Strangely, I get mega-poutrage when I suggest ways working class folks can save money

using examples like this. I used to live one suburb over from Brooklyn Center for a decade or so. I know it well. Trust me it's not the 1% or even 10% fighting for the right to pay four times what perfectly fine sneakers cost there. That extra $100 going into a no load index fund every time they buy a name brand item would seriously help retirement livability. Since on this thread it seems to be ok to criticize spending choices, it makes sense to close the loop and demonstrate what better choices could be made.

I am only a partial hypocrite. I overspend only on vehicles, but even that is for functionality not cachet, and I do so only after saving more than I need for my future plans. The only name brand clothes I wear are whatever is in the bargain sale aisle. I think I paid $65 for a pair of Skechers once, but it was buy one get one free.

[Heeeeers Johnny]

30. Sneakers are serious buisness!

In my professional web forum opinion and diagnosis, these people must have some kind of addiction or mental illness...

Mother seeks justice from Nike and Michael Jordan in her son's murder
Mother blames Nike, Michael Jordan for culture that led to son's death as gunmen demanded sneakers

Dazie Williams called her 22-year-old son's cell phone to tell him to be careful picking up high-dollar sneakers at Willowbrook Mall just before Christmas 2012.

The young man and a friend already had navigated the frenzied scene that morning at the mall's Air Jordan release event, bought three pairs of $185 shoes and were headed home.

Just 12 minutes after that call, Dazie Williams' phone rang and a friend said her son was shot and had been in a wreck just blocks away. She went to the scene and tried to get the lifeless body of Joshua Woods out of the car.

"I told him, 'You have to help me help you,' " she told reporters outside a Harris County courtroom on Tuesday. "That's why I'm here fighting for him. I want justice.

"There's some gritty violence that goes down over this stuff," said David J. Friendly, a filmmaker who made a documentary about the shoe subculture. "Particularly in the inner city, these sneakers mean so much more. These kids form their identity around this material possession."

Friendly's 2015 film "Sneakerheadz" highlights Wood's death and the violence surrounding getting the high-dollar shoes before they are even taken out of the box. He estimated that as many as 1,000 deaths a year can be traced to sneakers.

"I suspect it's much more," he said. "There are probably a lot of situations that are not reported where somebody is tussling over a pair of kicks and somebody gets seriously hurt or killed, and how do you measure those?"

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Mother-seeks-justice-from-Nike-and-Michael-Jordan-6802244.php


I don't quite buy the "1,000 deaths a year', but regardless if its 1,000/100/1, there's something seriously wrong with
this society when a person is willing to take the life of another over a pair of "kicks", but there's also something
equally wrong when the problem is being blamed on the 'other guy'.

[whatthehey]

37. Not a huge surprise. I used to rent out part of my house when I was single and poor

The tenant was, obviously, not rich either. He was paying, unreliably, $80/week in the early mid 90s to share a 1000 sq ft 2 bed 1 bath starter house, driving a 15 year old van with beat up bodywork. But he had about 30 pairs of perfectly maintained high end tennis shoes. Had to keep them on the floor of the bedroom because like all those 50's prefabs the closets were the size of pantry cupboards at best.

Some people have strange priorities. If you are willing to spend a sizeable portion of your annual income, likely more than you pay fort rent, on footwear, somebody is likely willing to take them from you however they can as you are not the only person they are that important to.

Actually gives me an idea. Pink pompom slippers as prison wear to deter recidivism?

[LanternWaste]

38. Pretending that our one conclusion is the only accurate conclusion

"Some people have strange priorities..."

Pretending that our one conclusion is the only accurate conclusion predicated wholly on a hasty generalization is an example of one of those strange priorities.

[whatthehey]

39. Ah the reductio ad absurdum stalker strikes again

Feel free to think people who spend more on tennis shoes than rent are simply making equally valid, sensible and productive life choices as anyone else, and thinking otherwise is simply unjustifiable prejudice. I'll feel free to laugh at your own strange priorities.

[PasadenaTrudy]

31. Naot over Nike any day.... n/t

[0rganism]

35. i wonder how much my old 1st edition AJs would sell for

i wore the hell out of those things, they were about as comfortable as shoes come, and decent court shoes too. shuffled them off to the goodwill 20 years ago.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

40. That's crazy

I don't understand lining up to get shoes like that. You'd think there was a shoe shortage by the looks of the line.

[Eleanors38]

42. Celebrity status: Not just for the wealthy.

[Nye Bevan]

44. Surely only rich people would spend that kind of money on shoes. I certainly wouldn't.

Is this a positive sign for the economy in terms of levels of personal wealth?

[tenderfoot]

45. This is so 1990's!

As was Donald Trump

http://www.si.com/vault/1990/05/14/121992/senseless-in-americas-cities-kids-are-killing-kids-over-sneakers-and-other-sports-apparel-favored-by-drug-dealers-whos-to-blame

[Rex]

46. How are Air Jordans still a thing?

That's just sad, death over a shoe fad.