STORE PUTS ITS FOOT DOWN
Hundreds of sneakerheads from far and wide were left standing in the bitter cold yesterday after Foot Locker shut down a much-anticipated popup sneaker store just an hour after it opened.
“There was a line to the end of the block, a very orderly line,” said
Mike Cutty, who came from Providence. “Everyone gets excited and worked up because they see people cutting, the security isn’t doing their job and keeping order. Once security blows that, it’s a wrap.”
Sneaker aficionados braving single-digit temperatures converged on Tremont Street for Foot Locker’s Sneakeasy — a pop-up store Foot Locker said would be a “window to what’s next.” The Sneakeasy campaign is a series of limited run pop-up shops put on by Nike and Foot Locker where customers can select limited edition sneakers that are delivered from a shoe safety deposit box.
Opening in nondescript, unlikely places, Sneakeasy is meant to be a place only those in the know can go to pick up exclusive shoes.
Yesterday’s event was supposed to feature Celtics star Kyrie Irving’s much-anticipated Kyrie 3 Raygun sneaker and the Nike Air Foamposite One Galaxy Big Bang, both of which were on sale for the first time.
Instead, security cut short the event and kicked everyone out into the cold after a few fights broke out in line.
Among the lucky few to snag a pair of sneakers was Kaheem Davis, who drove up from Westchester County in New York. He bought a pair of Kyrie 3 Rayguns for $120. When it became clear the store wouldn’t reopen, several people approached Davis about buying the shoes. He eventually sold them from the trunk of a car for $1,000. Davis said he would use the money to buy sneakers he is more interested in, and said he didn’t get a chance to buy a pair he wanted inside.
“To support your habit, you need to sell a few,” Davis said. “I wanted a pair for myself that is in there.”
Another person found someone who would sell a pair of the Foamposites, and left in search of enough ATMs to take out $1,000.
For more than an hour after the doors shut, dozens of people crowded the entrance, pleading with security guards and Foot Locker employees to take pity on them and let them back in to buy shoes.
“I think everyone is a little disappointed,” said Claus Wolthers, who drove his 12-year-old son Benjamin down from New Hampshire as a surprise. “All these folks who have driven in, or are flying in or paid for hotels, it’s cost them a lot of money.”
Foot Locker officials declined to comment at the store, and a company spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Those who braved the cold said they were disappointed to leave without the hottest new sneakers.
“I’ve been a fanatic since middle school, it’s just been like that, sneakers and being fly has been embedded since we were little,” said Gavin Prez of Queens, N.Y., who owns more than 100 pairs of shoes.
“I could wear a different pair of sneakers for four months.”