Tents. Sleeping bags. Camping chairs – all lined 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan for weeks.
There were similar sighting in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles. What could turn pieces of America’s most urban areas into tent cities? Yeezy. In this case, Air Yeezy II’s. Ever since Nike’s top release of the year set an official date, sneakerheads took to the streets – hoping to procure a pair of Summer’s hottest heat.
Many sneaker stores didn’t even allow lines. Fearing violent frenzies like what happened over the Nike Zoom Rookie or the Concord Jordan XI’s, some shoe boutiques opted to offer raffles for the chance to buy the Air Yeezy’s. Others set up appointment times for customers to buy the shoes.
Why all the craze over some shoes? Some of it is just a genuine love of sneakers. Many of those waiting in line have dozens, if not hundreds of shoes. One guy’s shoe collection topped four thousand. However, there is a huge resale market for these shoes. And many people wanting to make a quick buck are trying to sale the $245 shoes at a premium on sites like Ebay, where they can fetch nearly 10 times that.
