As a life long New York resident and sneaker obsessed individual since the 80’s I can tell you I’ve met A LOT of shop owners all over the state. Many of these shops have been around a long time and some of them are sadly no longer in business. With that said when an ad for the NY Tent Sale popped up on my timeline I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrow in suspicion. A “tent sale” touting thousands of pairs of rare sneakers and all legit? Ok. I then thought to myself how a local shop was forced to spend thousands in upgrades to their shop to make it look more “upscale” just for the opportunity to carry mediocre product and here was a warehouse filled with limited release shoes. Right.
For a long while I just ignored it thinking it probably wouldn’t last long, that was until I started seeing two YouTube personalities with large followings showing up to document their experience
followed by DJ Khaled showing up to purchase shoes
and realized I needed to do some investigating and take the trip over there. For one, no disrespect to Khaled or the two aforementioned YouTube vloggers but non of them holds any weight when it comes to cosigning anything footwear related -in regards to their authenticity- as non of them have the credentials. Sure, Khaled has Jordan Brand delivering tons of exclusives to his front door but guess what? Doesn’t mean *&%$. Jordan Brand has itself had a history of employing individuals that couldn’t distinguish fake shoes from the real deal – not to imply that the current class of employees is the same situation but when it comes to Khaled its more about his celebrity than his sneaker knowledge- and then there are these two YouTube vloggers that a appear to have hundreds of thousands of subscribers but guess what? That too doesn’t mean anything in this industry. We’ve all seen more than a few big YouTube sneaker bloggers (all of whom were fairly new to the sneaker world) plugging fake sites only to back track their stories or make excuses down the road so their co-sign essentially means nothing in 2018 unless you don’t know any better.
With that said I headed out to see this monstrosity of a sneaker spot but before leaving, I decided to ask around about the spots spokesman and owner Bobby. From what I was told Bobby was the real deal, known as a major person in the New York sneaker world and someone thats owned shops since the 80’s in and around Brooklyn.
Still, while I trusted my sources I wasn’t overly hyped. As I made my way into the parking lot I was greeted by a big sign and ramp entry into the warehouse.
Upon walking inside I encountered a very friendly staff that pointed out there was free food and refreshments for all -dope-.
I then proceeded over towards one of the first displays of shoes. Seeing a pair of 6’s I wanted to try out so I motioned to the employee that I would like to try them on to which he replied that it was fine, I could try on the shoes
-to my knowledge non of the shoes was off limits to try on which is great but the prices were on the high side (think $450 for Black/Infrared 6’s high)-.
Walking through the place you were treated to both GR retro’s and much more limited hyped up stuff that for many of us isn’t all to mind blowing
but great if you just want to walk in and buy without the hassle of traveling into Manhattan or waiting for a shipment online. Also, the fact you can try them on is a huge plus.
While all this was cool it didn’t particularly amuse me so I proceeded over to the clearance section where I was surprised to find some older goodies
as well as a large selection of kids footwear with pricing that ranged from bargain to overpriced.
CONCLUSION
Throughout the entire time there everyone was super helpful and super nice and ultimately everything on display was 100 percent legit (we didn’t have access to the rest of the warehouse).
On a side note, I reached out to the NY TENT sale twice via their phone number thats posted on their Instagram page before running this write up asking for additional information on the shop owner -Bobby’s- history in the business and or to speak with him but both text messages were never responded to. Whether it was because they didn’t think DeFY. New York was authoritative, didn’t want to discuss it or didn’t see it I can’t say. All in all based on my experience on that one day, my extensive knowledge on footwear and what I saw, it appeared that their inventory is real and I personally wouldn’t be hesitant to purchase from them if there was a shoe I wanted that was competitively priced. However, without a better understanding of the owner, his accounts held and his history in the industry I personally cannot tell you, the reader to not do your homework on the shoe you are interested in buying before visiting. For more info visit their instagram NYTENTSALE or website NYTENTSALE.COM