(1/3) Before the bots, when online releases were a relatively new thing, you’d try your damndest to cart something and checkout asap. The thing was, you had to be quick with your fingers and quick wit

(1/3) Before the bots, when online releases were a relatively new thing, you’d try your damndest to cart something and checkout asap. The thing was, you had to be quick with your fingers and quick with your payment info or someone else could snatch it outta your cart with a quickness. If you made a mistake on your card (or if you were using an expired or ‘stolen’ card), they’d deny the charge and set that pair back onto the site.

A handful of times (and on some pretty big releases), I was able to snag pairs of coveted kicks well after the site said ‘sold out’. Sometimes I’d just be sitting there refreshing the page hoping one last size would pop up. More times than not, nothing. But, I did get ‘lucky’ a few times.

For me, this happened with the @kith Miami/NYC Gel Lyte Release, it happened with the Yeezy Pirate Black 350 release, and it happened with the Jordan Gamma XI release - I was able to snag something well after the clock ran out presumably because someone out in internet land f*cked up their cart process. Lucky me.

Unlike a lot of people who are good at this ‘sneaker thing’, I’ve never really worked at a sneaker store and I’ve never worked in retail. I worked at a baseball card store for a few months when I was 17. But I’ve worked in hospitality and I’ve worked in construction and I’ve worked in corporate America and startup America and forgotten America, etc., but I’ve never really understood the nuances of what’s ‘behind the curtain’ of America’s favorite pastime...consumerism.

The other day this dude reached out to me...he asked that I didn’t use his name nor his IG handle, but he told me a pretty compelling story of his experience working for one of those…’behind the scenes’ companies and I found it really interesting. This place is called Nike Rebound...