Nike releases a new pair every year, and every year, it's chaos at malls across the country. At Houston's Northline Mall, police arrested a couple of unruly customers overnight. Hundreds converged on the mall to get their hands on the new iconic sneakers.
Dozens also camped out at Gulfgate overnight. There were no reports of major problems there, but the line nearly wrapped around the building of a shoe store.
And one of the biggest crowds gathered at Greenspoint Mall. Dozens of people ignored police barricades and rushed towards the mall as the doors opened. They started lining up yesterday afternoon to buy a pair. But just after 2am this morning, police pushed everyone off mall property.
"All we knew is that we were standing in line and they came and cleared us out," said customer David Gaddis.
Police wielding batons lined one side of the street, facing shoppers on the other side. Once in a while, there'd be a mad dash for the doors. Finally, just before 6am, the doors opened. Customers were allowed in, five at a time.
Kenderick Uwadia was first in line.
"Oh, I'm relieved, very relieved," he told us after getting his pair.
A pair of cousins bought several pairs. They're already selling the extras online.
"We paid $194 something and we're gonna sell them for about $400," said customer Sammy Veal.
And if they're lucky, they may score buyers. There are already desperate people, like 13-year-old Aaron Garcia, shopping for his brother.
"Because he's not gonna be spending Christmas with us and he kind of already feels sad. So I just wanted to get them for him just to make him feel happy," said Garcia.
The craziness wasn't limited just to Houston. In Indianapolis, some 1,500 people showed up at a mall and police had to be called for crowd control. Once the doors opened, people pushed and shoved, even tearing the doors off.
The two stores in the mall that sold the Air Jordans only had 150 pairs each to sell.
