The first one. Before anyone knew if a sneaker event built around the community would even work, a few hundred people found out in Boston.
The format that would define the next two years showed up fully formed: a battle of collections with some of the rarest samples anyone had laid eyes on, spread across tables, and a limited shoe released at the end of the night. Two of them, actually. A safe forest green and white Celtics Zoom Huarache 2K5 in suede, and the loud one, the Cowboy, in construction-sign orange and yellow with a third color thrown in just because. That Cowboy name came from Chris Scheller on the Nike side, and it ended up christening a whole series of shoes.
Nobody remembers the exact head count, just that it was a lot, and that the line and the energy made it obvious this was going to keep going. Boston was the proof of concept, the night that paved the way for New York and Miami and Seattle and everything after.
If you were in Boston for the first one, what do you remember, the tables, the line, or the shoes you wish you had copped?
Photos by Nick DePaula
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