What a day.
If you read my last article, you saw me outline my major lack of decisiveness. Well, this indecisiveness was in full effect for the UNC 1’s that released yesterday. I made a last minute decision I wanted to cop a pair, so on Saturday I got a couple buddies together and headed over to Nike MOA for their first come, first serve release.
The three of us arrived at the Nike Store around 6:40 a.m., and took our places at the back of a line of around 22 or 23. I was feeling pretty confident at this point. The line was pretty chill: a couple older guys were there to resell, a few people were there for themselves, and in the middle of all of this was a large group of obvious resellers who brought their girlfriends (or sisters) with them. Who knows. I started chopping it up with the people around me and even got to take a few shots at the Under Armour employees when they came to open up their store (which happens to be conveniently placed as Nike’s next-door neighbor). Obviously they were not carrying UNC 1’s, and they seemed to be a little bit salty since we were all shopping at Nike.
*Sidenote – the funniest moment of the day came when a random old guy in the mall walked up to us at the end of the line and asked what we were waiting for. The man standing in line after me immediately said, “We’re waiting in line for Adrian Peterson; he’s signing switches.” The old guy walked away in confusion, and I was in tears. Kudos to that guy because I thought that it was absolutely hilarious.*
Nike started handing out tickets at 7:30 a.m., and as it turns out, they only received eighteen pairs. The last person to get a pair? One of the obvious resellers’ girls. She got an 11.5. (If only Nike made you purchase your own size….). I was frustrated and a little bit ticked off at this point, but it happens. Early bird gets the worm.
We decided to head over to Footaction and wait in line for GS sizes. (I’ll explain this later). As fate would have it, that same group of resellers was right in front of us. This made me a little bit more mad. However, making fun of them and taking shots at them every so often helped soften the blow.
We didn’t wait at Footaction long since we figured House of Hoops would be getting gs sizes as well. We all left together to head upstairs, and you should’ve seen the eyes of every single person in that group. Some of them even started walking to try and find where we were going. Suckers.
We (four of us now) were first in line at House of Hoops. There was a girl who was behind us in the Footaction line so one of us got her to come up with us. We set her at the front of the line to ensure she would get her size. As it turns out, she was waiting in line for GS Gucci Foams and not UNC 1’s. Thankfully, House of Hoops had her size in stock, so it all worked out.
Long story short, there was another little kid who got in line, and we let him go in front of us as well. The doors opened at 10:00 a.m., and each of us purchased a pair. We hung around HoH for a little while, and watched person after person from that group come in and buy their full three pair cap of GS UNC 1’s. Apparently, they ship them over to China and sell there. I had never heard of anything like this, and it absolutely blows my mind. Screw these guys.
Now, here’s where I get conflicted about buying those GS pairs. I bought them (my buddies got their pairs for me) to flip and make a profit. I have no reason to front and act like I bought them for a little cousin or something. I bought them with full intentions to resell. Normally, I would be absolutely disgusted with myself. People that resell grade school sizes are the scum of the Earth. Trust me, I’ve already been hit with karma as I struck out on my size, the GS pairs are now sitting on eBay, and every time I walk into my room I look at them and immediately get disappointed about striking out on my size. Trust me, I’m getting rid of these things as soon as I can. (Thankfully Ross knows some parties that’ll be interested in the retail plug).
However, the three pairs that I got are three less pairs that are going to be shipped to China and resold there. At least I am willing and able to sell these for retail if they don’t flip on eBay. I’d be crazy to not help someone out on a grade school size. All of those other pairs (AKA Foot Locker’s whole stock) are going to be resold without mercy. If anything, I like to think I did the community a favor by purchasing them before the other guys got a chance. In fact, a part of me wishes I bought as many pairs as I could have and then blessed the community. I’ll definitely be keeping this in mind for the next release.
All in all, it was a very interesting day. I was told to chalk the whole day up as a learning experience, which is what I’m doing. You better believe I’ll be ready for the next big release. What are your thoughts on this? Hit me up in the comments or on Twitter!
*Sidenote – Jorgs, I know you’re reading this so don’t think I forgot to mention what happened with you today.*
In closing, I’ll leave you all with the second-funniest story of the day. Once we bought our pairs, we were looking to resell them to the resellers. (Ironic, huh?). Jorgen found a guy interested and they went somewhere to negotiate. Jorgen came back with $154. We were all really confused on how the total of $154 was agreed upon. I’m not sure how the situation unfolded, but apparently while they were dealing with getting correct change, the guy saw a $1 bill in Jorgen’s wallet. For some reason, Jorgen gave in to the guy’s request for a cheaper price and gave him the $1 bill so the guy could pay $155. Who knows, maybe the pressure just got to him and made him cave. Whatever the reason, I will not let him forget this anytime soon. #154.
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