Grown men fighting over sneakers simply makes the exposure all the more over-hyped… and a little dirty

By Shu Xie

I really don’t get it: Fighting over shoes! I can understand men squabbling among themselves over a woman (even if that’s juvenile), but over sneakers that will past their prime by tomorrow, that is inexplicable. And in full public view, that is tacky, tasteless, and low.

As reported all over online media—local and international, a fight broke out three days ago in the queue at Pacific Plaza for the latest release of Pharrell Williams’s collaboration with Adidas: the Hu Holi Blank Canvas collection. Not only had a video of the scuffle subsequently gone viral, it allowed Malaysia’s New Straits Times to gleefully headline their report, “Near-riot breaks out in orderly Singapore over limited-edition Adidas.”

Ok, it was nowhere near a riot, but anything disorderly in “orderly Singapore” is usually seen as riotous. There was finger-pointing fuming and security staff warding off possible threats with their forearm, but was it close to an insurrection? Unfortunately, Adidas didn’t get the extra marketing advantage.

What’s puzzling is that, according to someone I know who was there, the people in the queue were not “fashion types”. Fashion folks don’t fight, do they? Rather, the guys (mostly) in line looked like those who might hawk knock-offs in a wet market—“between the taugeh/taukwa seller and the butcher”, so helpfully described. Which sounds to me like these were guys who would put their purchases on Ebay or Carousell to gainfully tempt the moneyed and the desperate.

Unfortunate also for the Hu Holi Blank Canvas collection—the blank canvas is now stained with the un-“holi” taint of violence. So are these shoes more desirable now that guys are fighting to cop them? Even if they are, you have no chance of getting your gentle hands on them. They’re sold out. Every one of them.

Photo: Adidas