Minneapolis shoe store tries to change trend of dangerous hype over collectors’ sneakers

By MARIELLE MOHS

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A line out the door and a scramble to get your hands on collector sneakers is the standard traffic inside Studiiyo23 off Hennepin Avenue in Lowry Hill.

“Anything that has value, people are going to want to covet,” said Moh Habib, the owner of Studiiyo23, which focuses on selling luxury sneakers and other apparel.

Habib succeeds because there is so much hype over sneakers right now, but it comes with setbacks owning a store like this.

“We actually got hit five times in the span of seven months,” said Habib, who had to remodel his store and add tighter security after all the break-ins, “We reinforced the glass and the doors.”

All the break-ins prove just how desirable his merchandise is right now.

“Anything with value, there’s going to be a segment of society that pursues it in a negative way,” said Habib.

The most you’ll pay for a collector’s shoe in a boutique store, like Studiiyo 23, is $250. That same shoe in the resale market will be anywhere from $300 to more than $1000, which is why so many people want to get involved in resale and make fast money.

“The most expensive shoe I’ve seen at retail is $30,000, $40,000 or $50,000 for one pair,” said Habib.

A fight over shoes is likely what led to a shooting at the Nike Store inside the Mall of America back in August of this year.

A shoe re-sale ended deadly in Plymouth last week, when a 19-year-old suspect shot and killed 17-year-old Yaseen Johnson, when he refused to hand over the designer shoe he just bought from the suspect.

Habib hopes he can flip the narrative around the sneaker hype from fighting into philanthropy. Studiiyo23 is collecting toys to donate to Family Alternatives, an agency that supports foster care kids. Customers need to bring in a toy to get their name in a raffle to have a chance to purchase a rare collector’s Air Jordan shoe dropping on Wednesday.

“Even if I don’t win, I’m bringing gifts in for kids,” said one customer who brought in a Lego set for the toy drive at Studiio23.

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