Source: Nike / NIke
To help deter sneaker resellers and ensuring that actual sneakerheads get their hands on coveted kicks on release day, stores have done everything from limiting purchases to one per person to having customers actually wear recently purchased sneakers out the store.
But sneaker boutique, OFFSPRING in the UK might’ve gone a bit overboard recently when they had employees literally crush the sneaker boxes of the Nike “Ambush” Dunks to keep them from making their way to the secondary market. To add insult to injury, the box was actually discarded and the sneakers were placed in a plastic bag and given to customers. The clip of an employee jumping all over sneaker boxes drew much criticism from social media.
While the idea is, well, creative, many a sneakerhead felt a ways as a lot of us are collectors and don’t appreciate our sneaker boxes having visible dents and bends, much less crushed to oblivion. Knowing they might’ve done a bit much in their efforts to curb reselling due to the outrage and actual threats to the staff (is it that serious?!), Offspring took to IG to apologize for their actions saying, “On Friday we experimented with a unique new way to deal with uncollected pairs of old raffle shoes and we offered them to our community in a safe ‘fcfs’ way with a fair ‘one rule for all’. That rule is simple… 1 pair in your size per person and no box.”
Apparently, people picking up the sneakers were informed that the box would not be included and they showed up anyway.
They went on to apologize to anyone offended by their new reseller determent method and promised not to do it again while coming up with a “fcfs of hi heat product will in future be via pre-arranged hatch appointments.”
Now should any of these kicks show up on eBay with “No Box,” y’all already know it probably came from Offspring. Well, at least y’all know they’re real.
Check out their entire post below and let us know if you think they were creative with their way of thinking or did the most by crushing and discarding sneaker boxes the way they did.
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