• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, June 8, 2012

If you haven’t yet figured out where you’re going to get in line for your Air Yeezy 2s, which go on sale tomorrow, Complex.com’s Brandon Edler has compiled a helpful list of which stores will be stocking the Kanye/Nike collaboration and how they’ll be distributing them (lottery, first come-first served, bracelets, MMA cage match, etc.). 

There are alternatives to hanging out with the hoi polloi, however, such as flashing that Platinum Card on eBay, where a pair of Air Yeezys allegedly went for $90,000 yesterday –- a markup over the $245 retail price that seems as if it might have been created just to add to the hype that already out there on a street near you. You think?

A blogger on DrJay’s.com is skeptical but points out a reality. The shoes are commanding a premium.

“There’s a chance this is just some kind of publicity stunt,” writes Scav. “But, for now, the bar has been set. If you get your hands on a pair of Yeezy 2s, you’re walking away with at least a couple grand for your efforts if you decide to get rid of them. And, if you want a pair of them, well, it looks like you’re going to have to either empty your bank account, take out a personal loan, or wipe out your kid’s college fund.”

Lines have been forming at some locations for as long as a week. 

“Outside Burn Rubber, the Royal Oak [Mich.] sneaker boutique that plans to sell Kanye West's highly anticipated Nike Air Yeezy II Saturday morning at a 400% markup, a secondary economy flourishes amid the colorful camping chairs lined up on the sidewalk,” writes Zlati Meyer in the Detroit Free Press. “The two dozen people -- mostly young men -- sell their spots in line or pay others to hold their place. Some have been there since last Friday, waiting for the chance to pay $1,000 for $245 kicks.”

One 21 year old who Meyer interviews says that his mom holds his place so he can go home to shower occasionally. And Bianca Deramo, a 20-year-old model who was one of only two women on the line, provided an explanation of the motivation behind the scene: “I'm not a big Kanye fan, but I like expensive shoes."

Four House of Hoops by Foot Locker stores that are selling the shoe across the country are “offering customers the opportunity to register online for the chance to purchase” the shoe, reportsSlam. Winners will be notified by email today and must present valid picture IDs at the store tomorrow. Foot Locker is evidently holding to the $245 price.

California retailer Shiekh Shoes, meanwhile, put out a press release announcing that lines began forming on June 6 at their flagship location in downtown San Francisco, as well as a shop located at Westfield Culver City.

The release contains a helpful description of what all the fuss is about, when you get down to the shoe leather: “The Air Yeezy 2 comes with hand-skived anaconda textured leather quarter panels and a reptilian-like rear spike, as well as opulent details and references to ancient civilizations: hieroglyphics spell out "YZY" on the shoe's loop strap and the Roman numeral "II" is etched on the leather lace toggle. The Air Yeezy 2 prototype was also tailored to West's own foot, rendering it slimmer than the original.”

The ever-helpful Complex.com, which bills its media network as “the premier online destination for the most influential 20-something male consumers,” also has “exclusive sketches and photos of the shoe,” which it claims “might be the most anticipated sneaker drop in history.” In fact, if you do an onsite search for Air Yeezy, nine pages of results pop up.

Even jaded New Yorkers are purportedly caught up in the frenzy. 

“Kanye West’s kicks are generating more buzz than his romance with Kim Kardashian,” report Kenneth Garget and Anthony Sulla-Heffinger in the New York Post. Indeed, one self-proclaimed “huge fan of Kayne” from Clifton, N.J., who has been camping out near Foot Locker’s House of Hoops store in Herald Square since Tuesday, tells the Post: “I’ve always been a big sneaker person. I haven’t bought an expensive pair in a while, but this pair brought me out of retirement.”

Are you going to tell poor Daniel Rivera that the line for the Foot Locker’s House of Hoops allotment actually is forming online, or shall I? 

There are days I wish I were still in my 20s. Tomorrow is not one of them.