PHOTOS BY DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFFCustomers in line outside Concepts shoe store in Harvard Square, waiting for their chance to buy a pair of Blue Lobster Nike sneakers (below).
(Photos By David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)
Out to catch the Blue Lobster
PHOTOS BY DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFFCustomers in line outside Concepts shoe store in Harvard Square, waiting for their chance to buy a pair of Blue Lobster Nike sneakers (below).
(Photos By David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)
The line stretched down Brattle Street, around the corner onto Church, and nearly to Mass. Ave. Guys sat on damp camp chairs. Some had jury rigged plastic bags to keep off the rain. A few snack-pack wrappers littered the ground.
It was late afternoon last Friday and the hoards were waiting for what? Concert tickets? iPhones? No, they were camped out for sneakers: Blue Lobster
But contrary to first impressions, most in line were thrifty, not spendthrifts - gambling that some collectors would pay a lot more than $250 for the shoes. Even in the midst of the deepest recession in memory, some things are worth paying handsomely for - especially if you can resell them on
“Everybody here is a sneakerhead,’’ said Daniel Say of Revere, 16, who wore ’97 Retro Air Jordan 12s. “But the main thing people want to do here is flip ’em.’’
The $250 got patient customers a special box, skateboard, mixtape, T-shirt, and a pair of dark blue Nikes with lime-green laces.
The real selling point, however, wasn’t the looks but the scarcity: only 300 pairs of the shoes were available, limited to one per buyer, according to Concepts manager-buyer Deon Point. “The looks are, like, the last thing they care about,’’ he said. “It could look like anything.’’
Point believes Nike will be releasing the sneakers, sans accoutrements, more widely later this year.
Concepts built buzz for the event with a two-week viral web/video campaign about blue lobsters attacking the city. They knew hardcore collectors would camp out; the store’s 2008 Red Lobster sneaker release drew 280 people who started lining up days before the release, Point said.
The 2009 go-round attracted even more people. “This has to be one of the longest campouts,’’ said Say, who was the 14th person in line. He’d been there since Tuesday. The rising senior class president at Everett’s Pope John XXIII High School brought “like six pairs of underwear,’’ he said, and money he was supposed to spend on fall books.
Rumor had it that people came from across the country, and indeed one woman claimed she’d come all the way from Milwaukee. No matter where they were from, everyone took it as a given that the wait would pay off big.
“It’s a legal hustle,’’ said Jason Tackus, 23, who was last in line Friday, wearing beat-up sneaks and bearing a passing resemblance to Charlie Sheen in his delinquent roles. He’d come from Hartford after work, gambling that he wouldn’t be too late.
Tackus pointed someone out. “Those are $350 sneakers,’’ he said. He’d sold four pairs. “Buy them for $175, double your money in two weeks.’’ Once he sold sneakers for $3,050, he said. In May, his eBay account showed, he got $800 for Nike Air Black/Pink Kanye Wests.
Nearby, the 24-hour Market in the Square was benefiting somewhat from the crowd, said cashier Meseret Ekubay: “They buy something [in her store to use] the bathroom.’’ Still, she was tired of answering questions about what on earth was going on.
Finally Saturday morning came. Say changed into black, white, and aqua Nike Send Help Dunks for the occasion. Rubberneckers clogged the sidewalk. Men wearing orange hazmat suits brought a Blue Lobster shoebox, shaped like a foam cooler, to the register. Dry ice steamed out. It looked pretty cool. Concepts let the first five shoppers in.
A roar went up halfway down the line: Someone had tried to cut.
The first person in line, 20-year-old David Le of Medford, emerged, hands raised like a prizefighter. Impatience grew.
People started to holler: “Anyone going to break the seal?’’
“Yo, open the BOX!’’
Say checked his cooler. It wasn’t sealed. He opened the box and held it out, pivoting from side to side. People gasped. Cameras snapped. The Blue Lobsters were working their magic.
In the gleam of the neon laces, the savvy reseller’s resolve started to melt. Was he still going to unload them?
“Right now it’s just a maybe,’’ Say admitted. He’d see how high the price went. Otherwise, for his senior-year schoolbooks, “I will have to get money somehow, I don’t know,’’ he said sheepishly.
Tackus, the latecomer, put his up for sale. Days later, a pair of Blue Lobsters size 10.5 were listed on eBay under his user name, tackus86. Starting price at $599.99.
At press time, no one had bid.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
