To misquote Allen Iverson, "we're sitting here talking about tickets, not shoes, not shoes, not shoes, but we're talking about tickets."
This past weekend, at the Willowbrook Mall in Houston, Texas, over 600 sneakerheads reportedly lined up, some as long as 12 hours, to wait for tickets that would grant them the opportunity to buy next week's release of the Air Jordan XI Retro "Legend Blue" and the "Ultimate Gift of Flight" Pack. Like the quote above says, "we're talking about TICKETS, not shoes." Yes, I know. You can argue and say, "but without the ticket, you can't get the shoes so its about shoes." If that makes you feel better, cool, but come on now, what is the shoe game really coming to?
The situation in Houston isn't anything we haven't seen before, and thankfully no one was seriously injured. Most times, these types of gatherings and lineups end up going smoothly, but occasionally, shit like this happens. These days, 'heads are thirstin' so heavy to cop sneakers that hundreds of other kids are going to have. I'll be the first to admit that I went through a phase like this when I was younger, but it was never to this degree. If 100 people were in front of me, I probably went home. Reports indicate 600 people were in line. That's madness. I'm not familiar with the Willowbrook Mall, but how many sneaker shops does it have? Is their projected delivery of Jordans even anywhere close to 600 pairs?
It goes without saying that next week's Jordans are probably the most coveted sneaker releases of the season so if you plan on doing any type of lining up, be sure to stay safe.
[via TheShoeGame and ABC News Houston]
