Somewhere deep-in-the-heart-of some Nike marketing executive’s office someone had the brilliant idea of releasing some Classic Jordan kicks just in time for the holidays. Say what you will about the folks at Nike but they can sell ice to an Eskimo. No one has ever accused them of a lack of foresight, so to speak. Thus the sneaker geniuses decided to release an extremely limited edition called Air Jordan XI Retro Concords. This should create a buzz they must have assumed, except I seriously doubt they could have anticipated the mob scene that erupted at malls around the world.
There were stabbings, fights, smashed property, crushed customers, even gunfire as people simply had to have these shoes no matter the cost. This scene repeated itself at malls across the country, it was sheer madness. Perhaps most troublesome was an Atlanta mother who left her two infants locked in a car so she can cop a pair of these “rare” Jordans. Silly shoppers fault right? Or, did the swoosh drop the ball on this one? Depends on how you look at it I guess.
Folks at the Nike headquarters in Beaverton,Oregon must have been exchanging high fives and chest bumps when they saw the level of excitement created by the release of the classic kicks. I seriously doubt, however they anticipated the riot scenes that ensued. What do we know anyway? MJ won his last ring, some 14 years ago, plus today he is a hardline NBA owner as responsible for the recent lockout as any other jerk of an owner. Today its all about the Kobe Bryants , D Wade’s and LeBron James’s of the world, or so we thought. It became all to apparent not only to Nike but to the rest of us that Air Jordan transcends generations, that this is simply more than a shoe. Jordan was and still is a cultural phenomenon, bigger than anything going, and legions of sneaker fanatics were going to do anything and everything to own a pair of these retros even if they had to stab, grab, trample, shoot or abandon kids to get a pair.
“We are extremely concerned to hear of the reported crowd incidents around the launch of the Air Jordans XI at some select retail locations” said a Nike statement. “Consumer safety and security is of paramount importance. We encourage anyone wishing to purchase our product to do so in a respectable and safe manner”
Wow, I gotta hand it to these execs, they sure know how to create a buzz don’t they? Why release these throwbacks everywhere, worldwide, online etc so people can shop without fear of being trampled while trying to buy a shoe.
Surely Nike does not want anyone hurt, put the reports of the chaos only added fuel to the fire, people just had to have them. It is something they have always done, releasing limited editions, a clever marketing tactic that has always worked for them.
One has to wonder though in the aftermath of these extremely dangerous conditions at malls across the country , at what cost do we need to create a buzz? It may not be the fault of these executives that people act like wild animals when they simply “must have” these rare products, that is true. I just wonder if they were forced to go to a local shoe store to buy a pair of these “err Jordans” if their perspective might change, just a little bit.
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