Stardust

Any basketball or Jordan fanatics are very much aware of the release of the Nike Air Jordan XI Retro Concord shoes last December 23. This shoes’ claim to fame was Chicago Bull‘s record-setting 72-win season and this Jordan-endorsed sneakers was the shoes that Michael Jordan wore during the Chicago Bulls’ 1995-96 championship run.

Jordan XI was released earlier at the Titan store (for members only) and contrary to their peaceful and orderly release, what happened to Nike BHS and other countries was the exact opposite.

Liz and I went at Bonifacio High Street last December 22, Thursday, to check out the happenings at Nike Park only to be shocked by the huge crowd that’s starting to swell as early as 10:00 PM. We actually have no plans to stay outside till the next day because come to think of it, the shoes will still be released the next day at 11:00AM. Well, we’re both first timers so we were not aware that Filipinos also have the capacity to camp out just for a Php7,995 worth of shoes. I thought camping outside is ony possible for people who want to watch Wowowee, Will Time Big Time, and other noon time shows.

Anyway, since we’re already there and have no more choice, we just queued, unsure if we’re on the right line or not. See, there are actually three lines, one for the VIP card holders and two for the regular customers. Nike staff told us that there will only be two lines (VIP and regular), but apparently, a group of people, who claims was already there since Monday (which is just weird and impossible) gave out numbers to other fanatics to testify they were the first people at Nike BHS.  In short, they organized themselves already. Heck, the handwritten numbers even have signature at the back. Who’s signature was it anyway, Jordan?!

Anyway, to cut the story short, there were three lines since no compromise was made between the two groups of regular customers. Since we were totally unprepared that the hunt for that controversial shoes would be that big here in Manila, we went to BHS without eating our dinner first, good thing my cousin and a friend went to BHS to trade places with us while we eat our late dinner.

Almost 13 hours of waiting. Never in my life have I imagined myself camping out just for a pair of shoes. 13 hours outside Nike Park, sitting, standing, walking, trying to catch some sleep. Enduring the chilly night, mosquito bites, drizzle in the morning and extreme heat at lunch time. The weather was just crazy and so were the people who were already getting anxious due to lack of sleep and because of some people trying to squeeze their way in between people who are queued, or forming a new line trying hard not to be noticed.  Mind you, there’s a sort of modus operandi there where adults use kids to line for them. There’s a group of people consisting of twenty kids, all lining up for the shoes. Are these kids going to buy some Jordan XI for themselves?! And no matter how hard you try to ask them to go away since most of them are just “singit”, they won’t budge a little bit. See, even in Nike release syndicates are present. I bet they are all resellers and hopefully, not taking advantage of the crowd by pickpocketing.

All in all, the crowd was actually behaved, not until Nike opened their store, inconsiderate of the organized line of the people who were patiently waiting outside since last night. In my thought, Nike BHS staff were just like “We don’t care about the effing lines you formed, no matter how organized they are. Just follow our own lines and the hell we care even if there will be a stampede!”

So yeah,there’s just one thing I need to tell Nike BHS…Before organizing a BIG RELEASE like that, make sure your staff are well-trained, organized and efficient. Well, unless they really want the people to go crazy over their shoes unmindful of possible chaos it would bring. THAT IS SO STUPID and MEAN!

Good thing Liz and I were able to score one pair each so we’re just thankful for that. Unlike in other countries, I must say that the Filipino crowd is way better and tamed. The chaos and hellish state outside Nike BHS store was mostly because of the unorganized and uncoordinated Nike BHS staff. So please, pretty please, next time, BE PREPARED and HAVE A LITTLE CONCERN to your customers. We’re not begging for your shoes, we’re all going to pay for it so don’t treat us like shit.

THINGS NIKE PARK, BONIFACIO HIGH STREET SHOULD HAVE DONE IN ORDER TO AVOID THE CHAOS THAT HAPPENED DURING THE NIKE AIR JORDAN XI RETRO CONCORD RELEASE

 HIRE BOUNCERS. Admittedly, the chaotic crowd started when Nike Park opened and some people made a mad dash in front of the door unmindful of the organized lines made the night before. But IMO, this could have been prevented if there were at least three bouncers. Don’t they want to shed some money for bouncers? What’s some extra money to spend for bouncers in exchange for the safety of their customers and over all orderliness of the event? Your glass door is close to breaking down, I bet you wouldn’t want that to happen again, would you?

HAVE SOME CONCERN. I will reiterate it time and again, Nike BHS staff doesn’t care about their customers. Seems like all they care about was to sell some shoes and that’s it! While it was true that they didn’t advise people to camp outside their store, they should at least know that people won’t heed their call, considering they will be releasing a limited edition Jordan shoes. They have seen it coming, even the night before. People are already camping outside so they should have at least some back up plans to  organize the people or even come a little earlier to check out the state of the crowd waiting so they can organize them ahead of time before the store fully opens. But instead, they came few minutes left before the opening, post two signages where regular and VIP  customers should line up and voila! There was almost a stampede and they couldn’t care less.  There were three lines, organized lines! At least one or two staff should have checked it first and just think of ways on how to use it to their advantage to avoid any untoward incidents. How about letting in five VIPs first, then get at least one from each two lines of regular customers at a time? Isn’t that more organized? At least the people would feel they are being fair enough.

Also, when we were able to get in and was telling one staff about how they should have avoided the chaos outside, this staff said “o sige, okay/tama na po  nasa loob na naman kayo eh…” or something like that! I was like WTF?! So insensitive. So I said, “eh kawawa naman kasi yung mga nasa labas eh.”

STOP BEING BIASED. Okay, so not everyone will be given the chance to own this limited edition Jordan XI shoes,everybody knows that. But give people equal chance to at least have some hope to own one. Almost everybody in the crowd stayed for more than 12 hours for a measly chance to buy the shoes then all of a sudden you let one foreigner, who just arrived, in???!!!  How could you?! The people are still cool with you letting almost all the VIPs inside first since that’s one of your rules, but letting one guy, a foreigner to say the least, go first instead of your fellow Pinoys who waited overnight, is just inhumane and well, racist! Just goes to show how other Pinoys look down to their kababayans. What a mentality! Letting that foreigner in even sparked the rage of the crowd outside. That is PLAIN UNFAIR and yet Nike staff couldn’t care less.

HAVE SOME EMERGENCY KIT READY. Since Nike BHS did not hire any bouncer, they should have at least some first aid kit handy just in case of any untoward incidents. The crowd may get a little more rowdy so you’ll never know.

Next year, Nike will be releasing again another limited edition shoes. As expected, people will be lining up for it again, but before doing so, ask yourself first if the shoes is all worth it. In my honest opinion, NO! Not unless Nike will fix its system first. Another launching or release is not bad, in fact it’s exciting and you get to know lots of people while camping out. I wouldn’t mind camping out again soon, (not very soon though. hehehe) but before that, Nike must first make it sure that they are already ready and organized enough to hold one. This also goes out to all brands who love releasing limited edition shoes unmindful of their customers. If you can’t find an effective way to handle rowdy crowds, just raffle entry stubs or just do it by email.  A single pair of shoes is not worth anybody’s life.