But this week, the mighty Foot Locker didn’t come through with an order of the Air Jordan 1 UNC to Chicago. I managed to get my size (US10 Men or 11.5 Women) and got a confirmation email. Cool.

Then a few days later the downfall began with this email. From my past experience, this delay is how Footaction cancellations started. Not a good sign.

Not hearing anything for the next few days was somewhat promising (I think) so I checked my online order and saw that the shoe had a status of “SHIP FROM STORE.” That was definitely a red flag since all cancelled Footaction orders had the same status. You see, the Footsites ordering system is flawed for Hawaii (and Alaska I take it). Their system will allow consumers to buy products including in-demand sneakers. However, as inventory in their shared main warehouse is depleted, the orders are farmed out to a secondary warehouse or retail stores to fulfill using their stock. Now here’s the flaw. These other locations cannot ship to Hawaii (for whatever reason). So while the shoe may be availalbe, they simply cannot ship it to the Aloha State. And if they try to reroute order fulfillment back to the main warehouse, odds are the hyped shoe will be out of stock.

This morning Brutus (aka Foot Locker Customer Care) delievered the lethal strike:

Thank you for your recent order. We regret to inform you we were unable to fulfill some or all items from your recent order number ####### due to lack of product availability.

So Footaction, Champs Sports, and now Foot Locker betrayed me with confirmed then cancelled orders, seemingly because I’m in Hawaii and their ordering system cannot accommodate this location.

Watch this recent video where I attempt to cart different AJ1 colorways on Footlocker.com with frustrating results.

Then I forgot all about this. On the afternoon of Black Friday, I got this notification.

Checking the FL app, I stopped as I saw this.

But wait, pickup was set for Friday by 3pm?!? It was already 1pm, and I still had time but in my mind, I thought I was misinterrepting this message. Only one way to find out!

Surprisingly getting to Waikiki in the middle of the day on Black Friday was super easy. No traffic or slowdowns whatsoever. At Foot Locker, there was a line for the Yeezy reservation, but guess what? It seemingly meant nothing since you couldn’t actually pickup the Yeezys that were officially launching on Saturday, November 25. The FL employee had a (long) list of reservation winners, and he simply made sure your name was on the list. He didn’t cross off or mark your name indicating you showed up by 3pm as the app instructed. Why I had to go down there I still don’t know and neither did a lot of other irate Yeezy fans who wanted their shoes then and there.

Anyways, being on the list meant my pair was reserved, right? I didn’t want to take a chance of pairs running out, so I came back early-ish on the 25th. Others had the same idea with a queue about 10 deep.

The line moved along as pedestrians asked what the line was for. After about half an hour, I had my first pair of Yeezys.

Thanks Foot Locker!

The recent Nike Zoom HyperFlight Premium inspired by the universe was there as well.

Oh, those HyperFlight, gotta love and hate this minimalist shoe.

Maybe the crowds came for the new Nike Flyknit Lunar 1+. These shoes are woven but feel sturdy yet very light weight.

But what the kicks fiends must have been there for had to be the Martian-like Reebok ATV 19+. I thought pictures of these all terrain shoes looked wack but in real life, they are really, really weird.

Coupon is here (thanks Wayne’s World).