Hundreds flock to West Loop sneaker shop as Kanye’s latest kicks go on sale

The Yeezy QNTM sneakers retail for $250 and are already being resold for as much as $4,000.

By Tom Schuba

The line to get into Leaders 1354 on West Madison Street stretched an entire block and around the corner on Sunday morning. People in line were waiting to buy the newest Kanye West sneaker, the Yeezy Quantum, which is made by Adidas.

Two days after Kanye West grabbed headlines by deploying a fleet of military-style vehicles around Chicago to hand out his latest pair of sneakers, hundreds flocked to a West Loop store to purchase the sought-after Adidas kicks as soon as they went on sale.

At 9 a.m. Sunday, a line of customers alerted to the sale by social media posts were already stretching down the block from Leaders 1345, located at 1152 W. Madison St. By late afternoon, the vaunted streetwear shop had sold out of a couple hundred pairs of the Yeezy QNTM kicks — which retail for $250 and are already being resold for as much as $4,000.

While there was a large police presence managing the roughly 500 shoppers that queued up outside, Leaders employee Shannon Sims said the high-profile shoe release went off without a hitch.

“We didn’t have any incidents. It was all love,” said Sims, who noted that the shoes were sold on a first come, first served basis. “We wanted to do it for Chicago.”

The release of West’s QNTM basketball shoes came two days after his team used massive tank-like vehicles to hand out the trendy sneakers. From the Near West Side to Wicker Park, hordes of eager sneaker geeks braved the freezing temperatures to chase down a free pair.

On Sunday, the man behind the mayhem capped off the weekend by performing a sold out show at Credit Union 1 Arena with his Sunday Service Choir.