THE SHOE THAT TOOK THE SNEAKER RESELLING GAME MAINSTREAM

Inspired by NYC

The sneaker world has seen a lot of revolutionary pairs over the years. But for this shoe, we need to go all the way back to 2005.

On the 25th anniversary of the Dunk, Nike reached out to Jeff Staple and said they wanted him to design a Dunk dedicated to New York City.

And what captures New York better than the iconic pigeon?

But this wasn’t a regular shoe release.

This shoe had people lining the block nights before.

This shoe had police and taxis on the scene because of how dangerous it was.

It also may have been what made your average person, now interested in buying a ton of sneakers.

So what’s the story? Let’s get into it.

Just A Normal Release Day

“Honestly nobody knew what was gonna happen so we just did it like any other release. We picked a release day, announced the release day, and then was preparing ourselves to sell it not knowing what was gonna happen.” -Jeff Staple

Jeff and his team were totally unaware of the hype this shoe would bring. Four nights prior to the release, there were kids camping outside of the store.

This wasn’t the first time the world had seen a campout for the shoe release, as it has happened with Jordan’s before.

“But it was weird that they were camping out for something that hadn’t been seen.”

There were 0 photos of this sneaker released.

The only thing people knew is that Staple was working on a Dunk and there’s pigeon sh*t involved.

Locked Down

The morning of the release, Jeff showed up at 10 AM and the block was locked down, and cops were on the scene.

Why you may ask? Not just because of the crowd. It’s because of who the crowd was attracting.

All the people in this crowd had money.

Thugs started to show up around the area. Snorkel jackets, baseball bats, knives, and even a machete. A bystander of the whole event says she was walking across the street and saw a knife just sitting on the ground.

So is there a way to open this up safely? Well, the good news is the store had two entrances.

One was closed, the other was opened and people started to get let in.

The police called the TLC (Taxi Limousine Commission) so that the moment a person bought the shoe, they would be able to hop in a taxi right away and go home.

Big News

As if the hype were not high enough, the news got hold of the story, calling it a frenzy.

The newspapers took a similar headline. The following morning, the top of the New York newspaper read “Sneaker Frenzy Riot.”

The mainstream media and everyone who consumed it had now realized that there may be demand for shoes.

Pairs were selling on eBay, and it was clear people wanted these from the pictures outside the store.

That day, Staple said there were people showing up to the store in full-on suits.

“People who were probably hedge fund managers and day traders, and maybe last week they were really into cigars and wine were now like,

I heard about sneakers…I should be buying sneakers as an investment.”

The Legacy

Reselling has been a thing long before this shoe. But it wasn’t enjoyed by too many people apart from massive sneakerheads.

Your average Joe was not too interested in shoes, especially not as some form of investment to make a profit.

But after this iconic Pigeon design was released, things changed.

A shoe that Jeff Staple thought would release like any other, became a very interesting story both pre and post-release.

Here we are 18 years later, nearing the 20th anniversary of this legendary sneaker release.