THE REBIRTH OF THE NEW YORK SNEAKER HEAD
By RICHARD A. MARTIN, NYT

It didn't take long for Jon Roy, a Boston native, to discover the passion of New York City sneaker collectors. This spring, Mr. Roy opened a skateboard shop called Rival at 225 Hudson Street, near Canal Street, and a few weeks later showed up for work to find 40 young men and women lined up on the usually empty block on SoHo's western fringe. They were waiting for the latest limited-edition Nike sneaker, the Air Force One HTM.

"The kids knew we were getting the shoes,'' he said. "They knew more than we did.'' Still, the actual sneakers were not in his store, much to Mr. Roy's chagrin. "We were like, there's gonna be a riot if we don't get these shoes,'' he said. Fortunately, a delivery of 60 pairs arrived at noon, and customers were allowed in two at a time to make their purchases.

A riot might not have been out of the question, for a sneaker hysteria has gripped New York of late. Two new stores, Dave's Quality Meats and Clientele, have opened in the last year, near a skate and sneaker boutique in SoHo named Supreme. Along with other emporiums like Nort and Alife Rivington Club on the Lower East Side, and the Puma and Adidas Originals stores in SoHo, they cater to the new subculture of devotees known as sneakerheads.

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