Jonas Arandia, First in Line at Kicks!

Curious sight in Larchmont Village early Wednesday morning, December 23. A small group of men of all ages were huddled in the cold with a table of coffee cups and cookies nearby.

The event was the nationwide release of the Nike Air Jordan XI Retro Space Jam, the latest shoes much coveted by collectors. One busy 31-year-old man so wanted a pair that he had his father wait out in the cold in his stead from 7:00 in the morning.

But the title of biggest shoehead in this part of Los Angeles has to go to Jonas Arandia. The junior from Cal State Fullerton reserved his first place in line by showing up at 2:45 am!

This was the sight that greeted him in the dark of night. Jonas brought with him a chair, which you can see in the picture with the backpack by it on the ground.

And that snowman on the bench behind the store's glass facade was tauntingly wearing a pair of Air Jordans.

↓ By 10 am, there was already a line that included a boy who must have been six years old, but Jonas was number one and the first let into the store. He's the one with the cap in front. ↓

As soon as he got in, Jonas had the presence of mind to take out his camera and snap photos of the scene.

↓ Boy Proudly Holding Up Shoe ↓

↓ Box containing the Nike Air Jordan XI Space Jam Retro ↓

The old man who so stood in line so that his beloved son could get his Space Jams. ↓

↑ On the left is Chirel, owner of Lux in LA, the sister store of Kicks Sole Provider.

↓ And finally the man himself − Jonas Arandia carrying out not one, but two paper bags, each containing a pair of Nike Air Jordan XI Space Jams! That's right, folks, he liked the shoes so much that he had to get two pairs. Coming to own them was the result of stationing himself in front of Kicks as early as 2:45 am. The others who had opted to wait at the mall instead of Larchmont weren't as lucky.

The last time Jonas had gone after a pair of shoes this way was back in the summer of 2008 for the Air Jordan 5/18 package. Wednesday however was the earliest he had ever camped out. You would think he had planned for the shoes' release for some time. Actually, it was just Tuesday night when he saw in his email inbox the newsletter announcement from Kicks. As soon as he saw SPACE JAM and the available sizes, he started packing.

So how cool did the purchase of these shoes make Jonas? This was him afterward, wearing the SpaceJams, with Hello Kitty, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Jonas Arandia wearing Space Jams

Hard to guess based on knowing his experience of obsessively going after a pair of shoes, but when not stalking cool kicks, Jonas leads a busy life as a student majoring in kinesiology and physical therapy. You can follow him on Twitter (@thatjonasguy) and hit him up on AOL instant messenger - ThatJonasGuy.

Check out more photos taken by Jonas Arandia on his blog post "Air Jordan XI aka Space Jams courtesy of KicksSoleProvider."

Short url of this page: http://larchmontla.com/spacejam

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