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Disturbances prompt cancellations of some Nike releases
[Updated at 4:13 p.m. ET] Concerns about disturbances among large crowds waiting to buy special-edition Nike shoes tied to this weekend’s NBA All-Star Game prompted stores in several states to cancel the releases, media reports say.
Of particular interest among many would-be shoppers, according to the reports, was the $220 Nike Foamposite One Galaxy, a space-themed, glow-in-the dark shoe that nods to the space legacy of Florida, where this weekend’s game is happening in Orlando.
In Orlando on Thursday night, a Foot Locker House of Hoops store at Florida Mall cancelled a special 11 p.m. opening after police were called to handle a crowd of about 1,200 people, CNN affiliates Bay News 9 and WFTV reported.
The crowd outside the mall was moved across the street before the late-night opening. But at one point, people rushed toward the store, which was to sell the Foamposite One and other All-Star-related releases, the affiliates reported.
“People tried running over the cops. People tried just getting into that line,” witness Youssef Abounouadar told WFTV. “Everyone ran to the door, and it started getting really hectic.”
Law enforcement officers in riot gear pushed back the crowd, the store did not open Thursday night, and the release of the Foamposite One there Friday was canceled, the affiliates reported. No injuries or arrests were reported.
A message on a Foot Locker website said the company was canceling All-Star weekend shoe releases at seven malls in four states Friday because of unspecified "safety concerns." Besides the one at Orlando’s Florida Mall, the cancellations included stores in Tampa and Pembroke Pines, Florida; Morrow, Georgia; Hyattsville, Maryland; and Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.
The release also was cancelled at a store in the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge on Friday morning, CNN affiliate WAFB reported. A witness told WAFB that authorities sent home a crowd of more than 100 people because the would-be shoppers wouldn't line up in an orderly fashion.
A call to Foot Locker's corporate offices wasn't immediately returned.
In an e-mailed response to a call seeking information about the cancellations, Nike said that it encouraged "anyone wishing to purchase our product to do so in a respectful and safe manner" and that "consumer safety and security is of paramount importance."
One of the cancellations was at Tampa’s University Mall, where police called off a midnight release because of concerns about a crowd of 800 to 1,000 people that gathered there Thursday night, CNN affiliate WTSP reported.
Kingsley Boateng, a witness, told WTSP that the release was canceled after people “tried to bum rush the door.”
At the Hyattsville, Maryland, mall, one person was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct after a large crowd gathered there, CNN affiliate WUSA reported Friday morning.
At the Southlake Mall in Morrow, Georgia, the Foot Locker House of Hoops store will be closed Friday because of safety concerns surrounding the shoe releases, a mall representative told CNN.
The Foamposite One was one of 17 types of shoes that Foot Locker House of Hoops stores were releasing over the weekend.
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Just another piece of Floridiana. C'mon down! LOL
What IS it about this state that makes people so looney tunes?!?! Is it the Bermuda Triangle, the excessive palm trees, maybe it's the heat and humidity?
People really need to get a life...
People losing their minds over things that were made in sweatshops. And then, we get to revisit "thugs" shooting each other over a waaaaay overpriced item. Gee, what a great country we live in. Spend the money on your rent, "gangstas".
Oh, for goodness sake.
Shoes.
Rioting over tennis shoes...FRICKIN MORONS!
Black people fighting each other over shoes... how.. typical
The city of West Palm Beach, Florida is giving away a pair of these very shoes and a bucket of KFC starting tonight at 10 PM. Hurry on down!!
must be welfare check just come
Guess folks with nothing else going for them gotta have "Name Brand" shoes.. They should read Tyler Perry's FB post on "My feet are off the ground".
This is about more than shoes. It's about people who have severely flawed priorities, inept morals and a generally negative outlook on life . Additionally, they are the ones who can least afford an overpriced, sweatshop produced piece of rubber. God help us!
You'd never see people in an iPhone line rioting.
Maybe you won't, but it just as stupid to be waiting all night in line for an IPhone as it is for these sneakers.
Idiots.
Half the people in that riot can't put food on the supper table but they will look good applying for their food stamps!
Pretty sad – over stupid freaking shoes. And something tells me 80-90% of the people that want to buy them either cant really afford them and/or are late on other unpaid bills. No food in the fridge, or living at mom's house, or on welfare – but they got $200 shoes sitting in their room. Whatever.
But it's ok to have a $900 purse or $700 for a pair shoes at Bloomingdales. I make $85,000 per year. I think I can afford a pair of $200 shoes. Some Black people have jobs
The rent is late but I got my $200 Nikes. No brains, no headaches.
They can afford them because other people are paying for them. It's the Obama way.
Regardless of where the money came from its going into the economy.
Stop crying.
why u gotta be pullin the race card mr 85k/yr... only way u gettin that money is by pimpin and slangin dope LOL
The "something" that is telling you that is your own racist mind.....
Its the 1%'s fault for making me want to spend $200 on a pair of shoes instead of, oh... I dunno.... food. Thank god my food stamps arrived today.
*Sigh*