Flight 23 in midtown Manhattan was one of the few shops that stocked the Jordan Futures this morning. The line up for them started early and turned into a mob. Unfortunately, for everyone involved, someone decided to bring pepper spray.
[photo via The Sole City on Facebook]
According to witness Anthony Lekocevic (Instagram user antls87), after the initial line up that started yesterday afternoon, a mob surrounded the store. There were far many more people around than there were pairs of shoes. Security at Flight 23 asked for the line up to be clearly separated from the crowd of people - and the pushing and shoving began. The line grew and grew, and forced the Flight 23 employees to choose a different tactic.
According to Lekocevic, an employee of Flight 23 took a picture of the crowd and stated that only those in the picture would be counted as being "in line." Suddenly, the crowd rushed the door, pushing an unidentified female against the door. That unidentified female turned around and sprayed the crowd with pepper spray.
Chaos ensued. As covetousness and panic reached a fever pitch, decorum flew out the window. Between coughs, you can overhear Lekocevic say on the video, “It’s not worth it man.”
Immediately after this video was shot, police entered the fray pulling people apart and taking injured parties in ambulances, according to Lekocevic.
It will come as no surprise to anyone to hear about violence within the sneaker community. It is a real thing, and has been for some time. And it doesn’t seem to want to go away. As long as shoes are bought at a premium, and expected to resell at a higher premium (and marketed to a group of people for whom it’s a legitimate financial reach), jealousy and desire will continue.
When is it worth it and where do we draw the line? People have their hustle, but on whose back and at what cost? But why can't we all have a little more self control?
The Manhattan Midtown North Precinct has not returned a request for comment.
