The much-anticipated Adidas Originals NMD sneaker series was released at various sneaker stores in Canada on Thursday morning. Hundreds of sneaker fanatics started their early morning line up outside the cold while waiting for stores to open.
At downtown Markham’s Solestop location, many started their long wait in line at 4 a.m. Some brought their own foldable chairs and blankets to fend off the chilly night.
“I came here around 8:30 a.m. and I assumed I was early but there were tons of people already in line by the time I arrived,” said Tina Ng in the line. “The store doesn’t open until noon and I already saw someone driving past and showing off a pair of NMD.”
Solestop Markham does not open until their usual business hours at 12 p.m. while some other stores namely, Foot Locker and Exclucity 90 opened early to accommodate the long lines.
When the store was ready to open, Ng was one of the hundreds of people waiting eagerly to get their hands on a pair of sneakers. People were let in the store in groups of 20 and were given a short period of time to decide on the color and size of the sneaker.
By the time the fourth group of people was let in, popular men’s sizes ranging from 9 to 12 were already sold out and women’s sneakers were almost completely swept off the shelves.
“I waited almost 3 hours in line and I’m going home empty-handed,” complained Christopher Khoo, who has a shoe size of 9.5. “I skipped my 11 a.m. lecture just for this.”
Solestop Markham’s store assistant Elsa Ho was one of the staff who was managing the crowd during the busy first hour of business. The Adidas Originals NMD hype has generated more sales in their stores compared to regular days.
“So many people end up coming in during this hype and they end up looking around the store for other stuff after they finish shopping,” said Ho. “Everyone love these shoes and they are honestly pretty limited and the reason why we have to hold people back is so that there are no fights.”
The new NMD series come in 19 different color combinations and the most popular ones are the black and white ones.
“The neutral colored ones were sold out when the first group of people came in and when the second group came in, the black and white ones were completely sold out, said Ho. “People didn’t even cared for which color or size, it was just buying them for the purpose of reselling.”