The situation in Miami was yet another example of how, in order for shoe drops to be safe, online launches are the way to go. Eventually, days later, SoleFly ended up tweeting a link to a Google Form where people could enter their personal information to enter a raffle and hopefully win a pair of its Jordans. The launch was scrapped after people jumped over metal barricades trying to get into the venue. This was the case recently, during the release of the SoleFly Air Jordan I, an exclusive collaboration between Nike and a Miami boutique that was scheduled to drop at Art Basel Miami Beach. Technology is something the industry desperately needed, and these efforts by companies like Nike are validated when brick-and-mortar launches go wrong and have to be canceled because of issues with crowd control. But that's more a problem with humanity than with the brands or retailers themselves. The only risk people take now, if they can't order a pair online and have it shipped to their home, is getting robbed outside a store. But they, too, are now relying on apps to create reservation-based systems that make the entire buying process less hectic and, most important, safer for consumers.
These are the same retailers that used to deal with mayhem on every release of limited-edition Air Jordans at their brick-and-mortar locations. And there's no better example of this digital-first strategy than the drop of the long-awaited 2018 edition of the Concord XIs, which re-released on December 8th without any chaos, thanks in large part to mobile apps like Nike's SNKRS.ĭon't confuse the fact that the launch went smoothly with lack of demand, however: The men's version of the shoe sold out in minutes everywhere, from Nike's own SNKRS app to online sites including Champs Sports, Finish Line and Foot Locker.
Over the past few years, sportswear giants like Nike and Adidas have turned to technology to make sneaker shopping safer, particularly for highly coveted models. When Nike launched its Air Jordan XI "Concord," in 2011, there were incidents of violence reported at several shopping malls in the US.īack then, most shoe stores sold pairs on a first-come, first-served basis, which led to physical fights between people who were trying to line up outside their local shop.
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