The release of the Nike All Star 2012 Pack was an absolute frenzy of constantly changing information and rising rumored resell prices. While the whole pack was highly anticipated and sought after, the Galaxy Foam commanded the majority of the hype and most exclusive distribution. With no online availability, the Foam was only available at House of Hoops locations for the same retail price as any recently released foam, $220. I understand Nike’s decision to maintain normal pricing, as a large publicly traded company Nike’s profits are well known and selling a special colorway for five times the price would be a PR nightmare. But, with a realistic market price easily over $1000, selling the shoe for $220 created a gold rush type situation with collectors having no chance to acquire sneakers in a mob of thousands trying to resell.
Under the current system, the surplus value between retail and street price is up for grabs to whoever can find a way to be in the front of the line, by any means necessary. Nike shoes frequently sell for several times retail price for deadstock vintage shoes, but the market valuing a sneaker at this level is unique and infrequent. With that much value up for grabs and so few pairs available at each location, the crowds became a destructive storm showing its worst side in Orlando, where tear gas was used on a crowd of 3,000.
Nike used a much better method of distributing the Air Mag in 2011, an equally anticipated and valued sneaker. By selling the shoes to the winner of eBay auctions, Nike gave the shoes to the customer who valued them at the highest price while giving the surplus value to charity. It would undoubtedly be considered too greedy for Nike to retain all profits from selling the shoes at the highest possible price, but starting the auctions at the retail price of $220 and giving any extra money to charity solves the public relations greed issue while allowing the value created by the hype to culminate in helping less fortunate people. In-store releases and waiting in lines in unquestionably a part of sneaker culture, but the value left on the table by Nike is literally dangerous. Had Nike made the remainder of the pack slightly less exclusive, crowds would have been spread over more locations for in-store release while Foamposites were shipped off in separate boxes to the winners of the eBay auctions. Just like the Air Mag, the Galaxy Foamposite could have been delivered to 3000 different locations after 3000 auctions, capturing the value of the hype while never putting enough pairs in one place to start a riot.
Every time it’s rumored someone died over sneakers our community reacts like the situation couldn’t have been avoided. Releasing hype monsters does not need to be like this, and the Air Mag proved it. Continuing to generate violent and uncontrollable situations at retailers reflects poorly on the sneaker community and Nike is capable of both protecting their customers while helping others. Yeezy 2′s are primed to be the next monster and I can only hope Nike will go the Air Mag route instead of cultivating another mess.
