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Remember when if you wanted a pair of shoes all you had to do was find your way to the mall? When there was no real hassle or hindrance to acquiring new shoes? A simpler time, when you had an array of shoes to choose from and it seemed as if nothing ever really sold out? You didn’t even have to get up extremely early, you could go mid day and the shoes were still there. No? Yeah those days are blurry to me as well. But I do remember getting up at the crack of dawn to go and stand in line for the newest Jordans. Waiting out in less than stellar conditions because I had to have them. “Gotta stay fresh” right? You know that feeling of arriving at school the following week in those fresh Js, just to see the reaction and stares as you carefully maneuver through the hallways. For years that’s how it went though. There would be a release day for shoes, Jordans specifically, and we would drag ourselves out of bed to go cop them. Didn’t matter the weather, if they were dropping we were going. Sometimes the malls were even nice enough to let us wait inside until the stores opened. Then the stores would open and we would move like cattle being herded a few at a time through the doors. Over the years the whole “waiting in line for shoes” thing got to be crazier. Lines became bigger, shoe supplies became few and people started to argue and even fight behind the shoes. This caused the malls and stores to hire extra security and bring in police; which became expensive for the establishments. Since shoes were dropping more frequently it meant more lines, more problems and more security.
Because of all the fighting and problems that generated from waiting in line and not getting your size a new method was introduced. “The Raffle” (dramatic music plays)…….started around 2011. You had to go into stores the week before or the week of a shoe being released and enter your information for the drawing. Now the raffles are done online allowing you to do it from home. The method has been effective as far as cutting down on the drama and violence associated with waiting in line for shoes. Plus it is inexpensive to the stores/shops involved because there is no need for the added security. But of course new problems have risen in the Sneakerhead community behind this new method of acquiring shoes…..they’re not winning! It seems as if there has been a shift in who actually wins the raffles and gets the shoes. It went from “first come, first serve” with the lines and Sneakerheads getting the shoes they wanted to online raffles and all the nerds and resellers winning. Don’t get me wrong I understand the reasoning behind the raffle, but it just seems like unless you have multiple emails and consistently enter, you’re not going to win. Now I know some will read this and be like “I always win, you’re wrong” and to them I say “so what” (LOL). I have only entered a few raffles my self and I’ve won some and lost some, it does seems like it’s just random. Until you see the same people consistently winning, that can be frustrating. When you look at it……you have to win a raffle to spend your money. It doesn’t matter that you want the shoe and you are willing to pay. Nah, you have to win the privilege to spend your own hard earned money or your parents or your girlfriend’s ( I don’t know your situation) . Regardless I think that’s some nonsense. Nonetheless this is what the shoe game has come to, in some instances it has made things better in others it has left a bad taste in Sneakerheads’ mouthes. All I know is that with people who don’t even want the shoes winning raffles, It has given the reseller an added edge to raping (that means charging absurd amounts for shoes). If you are unfamiliar with resellers go check out my previous blogs, I have a whole blog dedicated to them.
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