Off The Wall? Near Riot Erupts at Midtown “Vans” Sneaker Event

A wild early morning tussle brawl broke out in front of a Vans store in Midtown on April 30, among some fans who began lining up as early as 4 a.m. in a bid early in a bid to be among the first to buy a limited edition bedazzled retro style style sneaker featuring gemstone details and beaded accessoring.

The shoes are known as OTW by Vans x Satoshi Nakamoto Era 95 Gems. By 6:30 a.m., police were summoned to break up the increasingly restless crowd, more than three hours before the store officially opened.

A video posted on social media showed a scrum of cops attempting to control a crowd of sneakerheads; it appeared that a tussle of sorts had broken out, although it was unclear who was fighting whom.

One bystander in the video, who is standing not far from the scrum, appeared slightly amused by the entire situation: “We outside, you heard?”

“Can’t believe I just got arrested for Vans,” the caption in another first-person video read. “Got here at 5 a.m., everyone started skipping and I just wanted my ‘toe.’ Everyone started getting angry....cops pulled up.”

Some people seen in the video could indeed be seen losing their patience, with people shouting “put it on TikTok man, let’s go” and “move on, man!”

It then appears that the man filming the video, who runs a YouTube channel under the name “Macofalltradez,” is arrested near the entrance of the store. “I just wanted my ‘toe,’” he reiterates, referencing the special new sneaker drop.

The shoe in question is quite detailed. “Multicolor gemstone studs line the collar and toe box as a continuation of the same motif on prior sneakers, and a black canvas upper with distressing can be worn away to reveal a checkerboard pattern underneath,” stated Footwear News, which first reported the tussle outside Vans.

A video posted on social media showed a scrum of cops attempting to control a crowd of sneakerheads; it appeared that a tussle of sorts had broken out, although it was unclear who was fighting whom.

One bystander in the video, who is standing not far from the scrum, appeared slightly amused by the entire situation: “We outside, you heard?”

“Can’t believe I just got arrested for Vans,” the caption in another first-person video read. “Got here at 5 a.m., everyone started skipping and I just wanted my ‘toe.’ Everyone started getting angry....cops pulled up.”

It then appears that the man filming the video, who runs a YouTube channel under the name “Macofalltradez,” is arrested near the entrance of the store. “I just wanted my ‘toe,’” he reiterates, referencing the special new sneaker drop.

The company Satoshi Nakomoto, apparently named in tribute to the mysterious figure that launched the Bitcoin cryptocurrency in 2008, is run by the designer George Robertson; it reportedly has no official affiliation with the “digital asset” creator.

The sneakers were the fifth in a collaborative series between the sneaker giant and a company named after the anonymous Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakomoto.

The actual “Nakomoto” was in the news elsewhere in April, as a massive NYT investigation seeking to unmask the name behind the pseudonym came to the conclusion—not for the first time— that Nakomoto is really Adam Back, a British cryptographer and prominent member of the Bitcoin industry.

Not all members of the sneakerhead community are sold on the utility of “Nakomoto x Vans” shoes, as evidenced by a Reddit thread titled “Satoshi madness” on r/Vans, which is centered around the new release.

“What’s so cool about those shoes? I saw them and they look ugly as sin,” user “r/Ejac69” wrote.

“Looks like a kindergartner bedazzled some basic black Vans,” user _meestir_ concluded.

Two people were given summonses after being arrested for disorderly conduct, the NYPD confirmed to Our Town, with no injuries reported.

Our Town visited the store on May 1, when it had reopened, and nothing seemed amiss.