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Call the law: Shoe shoppers take over mall
JordanZone.com
- Jordan Shoes, Air Jordan Shoes, Michael Jordan Shoes
Before
dawn they lined up by the hundreds. By 10 a.m. they
had disappeared; so had the sneakers.
St. Petersburg,FL (Jordan Zone) Kharey Wisdom strolled
into the Finish Line shoe store about 10 a.m. Wednesday,
searching for the new Nike Air Jordan Retro 13, size
111/2.
He figured he had time. He was wrong.
"This mall generally doesn't sell out as fast as
University," said Wisdom, 27, a collector who sported
all-black Retro 8's. "I guess the word got out."
Indeed. Folks started lining up outside the Westfield
Shoppingtown Citrus Park mall at 4 a.m. to buy the limited
edition black-and-red shoes. By the time Finish Line
opened, the crowd had mushroomed to at least 200, and
13 sheriff's deputies had arrived to contain any chaos.
More than 100 pairs of Retro 13's were gone in an hour.
It was the same at other shoe stores. Foot Action in
Tyrone Square Mall, for instance, had a dozen pairs,
and they sold out in five minutes.
Stragglers would have to turn to the Internet. Before
noon, dozens of Retro 13's were up for auction on eBay.
By day's end, a pair of size 12 sold for $232.50 - $82.50
over retail, and bidding for a size 81/2 was up to $275,
with several hours to go before the bidding closed.
"These are collector's items," said Wisdom,
who was shopping for his "Jordan fanatic"
brother. "If I could get them, it would be a big
deal for my siblings."
The Retro 13, as its name suggests, is the 13th in a
series of specialty basketball shoes memorializing shoes
worn by Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan.
Like Barbie Dolls and baseball cards, the shoes are
attracting collectors, along with teens eager to be
a part of this recycled fad. It is the footwear version
of a larger fashion trend, which has created a booming
market for new copies of old sports jerseys and other
uniform clothing.
Nike launched the original Air Jordan shoe line in 1985.
The style became ubiquitous in high school hallways
across the country. Now those first edition Air Jordans
sell for thousands of dollars.
The company has been marketing remakes since 1999, starting
with Air Jordan Retro 4, jumping back to Air Jordan
1, and then moving systematically up the line.
Nike puts the remakes out on a fairly rigid schedule.
Stores rarely advertise or display them, mainly because
they don't have to. A list of launch dates on several
Web sites does the trick.
"They know when to get to the mall and wait,"
Finish Line general manager David Stinnett said.
And mall managers know how to prepare. No longer do
they wait for the hair-pulling and face-scratching that
marked such past holiday crazes as Cabbage Patch Dolls.
"We never allow it to get to that," said Erik
Carlson, assistant general manager at Westfield Shoppingtown
Citrus Park.
The management had sheriff's deputies - already in the
mall for a shift change at 7 a.m. - help with crowd
control. They limited access to the store to 10 at a
time, and warned shoppers that running would send you
to the back of the line.
By 10 a.m., shoppers couldn't even tell there had been
a run on the Finish Line, or that the shoe had been
available.
Deanna Repoza, 37, shopping at Finish Line for her 15-year-old
daughter, Kendra, was dumbfounded that people queued
up for the expensive shoes.
"I would never pay $150 for a pair of sneakers,"
Repoza offered.
"I would," Kendra, an Alonso High School freshman,
responded. "It's the thing."
By Jeffery S. Solacheck
St. Petersburg Times
December 23, 2004
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