Jordan shoes spark mall mayhem
Police have been forced to step in after hordes of shoppers caused chaos trying to buy Nike Air Jordan shoes.
Several shoppers had to be arrested as shopping centres desceneded into chaos over the limited release of the Air Jordan 11 Retro Concord..
In some stores, there were only 100 pairs of the footwear available for sale, creating a frenzy.
In Indianapolis, customers were falling over each other to try and get their hands on the shoes.
"The door broke and was hanging by a hinge and people were squeezing in anyway," customer Asia Coates said "People were falling down."
Another shopper told of the lengths people were going to just to nab a pair of the sneakers.
“There were gloves, hats and pieces of clothing everywhere. One guy lost both shoes and went in anyway,” said shopper Balint Nagy, 30, Indianapolis. “A guard said, ‘What about your shoes here?’ and the guy kept going.”
In Seattle, police were forced to use tear gas to suppress an around-2000 strong crowd.
"I've been doing this for 15 years and I've never seen such a large crowd and such an unruly crowd," Officer Mike Murphy of the Tukwila police department said.
The scenes were similar at the Westfield Southcenter mall, where crowds started gathering at 2.30am (local time)
"There were fights starting to break out, some people trying to push, some people trying to get ahead in line, and that resulted in fights," he added. "Officers used pepper spray to disrupt some of those fights."
The shoes in question are the patent leather-trimmed Jordan-endorsed sneakers that MJ wore during the Chicago Bulls' 1995-96 championship run.
Those particular shoes are idealised by most because that run included Chicago's record-setting 72-win season.
