‘Sneakerheads’ Wait Long Hours, Pay Big Bucks For Rare Kicks

The line starts outside Concepts, a sneaker boutique off Harvard Square, and winds around the block. Toward the end, Nick Ferdo from Brockton waits under an umbrella, spitting chew into an empty Vitamin Water bottle. A self-proclaimed “sneakerhead,” he says he felt like he had to pay his dues.

“Oh man, I’ve been out here in the rain, I didn’t sleep last night,” he says. “I’m going to wear them every day.”

“Them” is a pair of Blue Lobster Nike SB Dunk Lows. For $250 bucks. Ferdo is one of about 100 people who have been waiting in Cambridge since Tuesday – in the rain – for a new pair of the shoes that go on sale Saturday morning. Concepts partnered with Nike to design and market the sneakers on Web sites like nicekicks.com.

Three hundred pairs will go on sale here. That’s it. Ferdo is going to strut out with one of them. That’s the limit. “The exclusiveness,” he says. “People break their necks looking at you walking down the street.”

This is the only place in the country to get the sneakers. It’s why Julian Hopkins and his two cousins say they drove all the way from Ohio. His Cleveland Indians cap cocked to the side, Hopkins, who goes by Juju, is still deciding whether to list his shoes on eBay.

“You can make up to a stack, a thousand, you can make up to a thousand online,” he says.

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