{"id":19960,"date":"2015-11-10T15:44:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T21:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=19960"},"modified":"2015-11-10T15:44:47","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T21:44:47","slug":"balmain-fanatics-drop-sleep-to-drop-cash-resellers-win-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/balmain-fanatics-drop-sleep-to-drop-cash-resellers-win-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Balmain fanatics drop sleep to drop cash, resellers win out"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Very<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lines of sleep deprived consumers wrapped around H&M stores across the country Thursday morning, waiting to snag pieces of the highly anticipated celebrity Balmain x collection \u2014 but many left empty-handed.<\/p>\n

Jordan Houston planned to arrive at the State Street H&M in Chicago at 6:00 a.m. to get her hands on a white and gold Balmain shirt, designed by the 30-year-old French creative director Olivier Rousteing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI waited for hours,\u201d Houston shouted. \u201cThey have stuff left, but it\u2019s stuff nobody wants. Kylie Jenner\u2019s custom blazer is in there. It\u2019s like thousands of dollars.\u201d \u2028\u2028Another young girl interrupted. \u201cDo they have this shirt?\u201d she asked in anguish as she pulled out her cell phone. A mob of girls formed, angry that the entire collection had sold out early in the morning.<\/p>\n

Why did the collection sell out so quickly? For the same reason the police had to be called to intervene outside a London H&M store. Strategic buyers had camped out overnight, raided the store within the first few minutes of its opening, and purchased thousands of dollars of merchandise to resell online at double the in-store price.
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a man in there,\u201d Houston continued. He and his friend are selling a dress they got for $149\u2026 and they\u2019re selling it for $500 right in the store!\u201d<\/p>\n

She and her friends chatted angrily as they walked away from the store, without any of the fast-fashion beaded blazers, sequenced cocktail gowns, or leather biker jackets.<\/p>\n

The resellers are capitalizing on the trend towards technological convenience and online shopping for millennial smartphone owners. Two women stood on State Street, with more than ten filled shopping bags placed on the ground between them.<\/p>\n

\"resellers<\/a>
Two resellers stand outside of H&M, surrounded by $10,000 worth of merchandise. (Sarah Very\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Xu Xu and her colleague arrived at the store at 8 p.m. Wednesday. \u201cI don\u2019t sleep, I drink three cups of coffee,\u201d Xu said. \u201cThey let me in the store at 8:25 a.m. I bought $10,000 worth of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she will sell her merchandise on WeChat, a social media connecting app used largely in Asia.<\/p>\n

\"H&M<\/a>
Dennis Austin plans to put his $6,200 worth of merchandise on eBay as soon as he gets home. (Sarah Very\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dennis Austin arrived at 5:30 a.m. He said somebody sold him a spot in line for $200. \u201cWe bought everything we could carry,\u201d Austin said. \u201cSpent like $6,200. They made us stand outside here. I\u2019ll probably put it all on eBay as soon as I get home, and return it if it doesn\u2019t sell.\u201d<\/p>\n

H&M has done similar limited-time offerings in the past with designers such as Alexander Wang. These short term offerings enable fashion-forward designers like Rousteing \u2014 whose designs are most often sported by Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and Rihanna \u2014 to expand their market to the more typical shopper, while maintaining exclusivity in brevity.<\/p>\n

Though H&M does not reveal the sales results of these offerings, the public relations and word-of-mouth benefits are notable. In fact, so much buzz has been created around the Balmain x collection that Rousteing is said to have created a \u201cBalmain Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, many shoppers, dedicated to the Balmain line, were frustrated by the resellers and took their concerns to H&M\u2019s Facebook page. The global frenzy and reseller domination had reached an unprecedented level for H&M, giving the company name a more negative aura.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: The line outside of H&M stretched almost a block during the Balmain x collection launch. (Sarah Very\/Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Very Lines of sleep deprived consumers wrapped around H&M stores across the country Thursday morning, waiting to snag pieces of the highly anticipated celebrity Balmain x collection \u2014 but many left empty-handed. Jordan Houston planned to arrive at the State Street H&M in Chicago at 6:00 a.m. to get her hands on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":19982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,509],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-fall-2015"],"yoast_head":"\nBalmain fanatics drop sleep to drop cash, resellers win out - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/balmain-fanatics-drop-sleep-to-drop-cash-resellers-win-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Balmain fanatics drop sleep to drop cash, resellers win out - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Sarah Very Lines of sleep deprived consumers wrapped around H&M stores across the country Thursday morning, waiting to snag pieces of the highly anticipated celebrity Balmain x collection \u2014 but many left empty-handed. 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