All hell breaks loose after new Uniqlo-KAWS collab goes on sale

Most of us are likely guilty of having desired something only because it was new or trendy, but were you ever willing to actually fight for it?

On Monday, crowds of shoppers stormed Uniqlo stores across China in a wild struggle for items that were part of a new collaboration with Brooklyn-based artist KAWS. It appears that the 45-year-old designer known for his signature character Companion has quite a few fans in the Middle Kingdom.

The T-shirts and tote bags that were available online were sold out within seconds after going live at midnight, however, all hell really broke loose later that morning when physical Uniqlo stores officially opened up for business.

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In videos that have been floating around Weibo, Twitter, and other social media sites, ultra-eager shoppers are seen literally crawling into Uniqlo stores just as the gates are being lifted, rushing to be first to the shelves. Once inside, the frenzied fashionistas grabbed up stacks of items and even fought over the precious merchandise.

Of course, many were doing battle not because they personally were desperate for a new look, but for the potential profits of reselling the items. In no time, 99-yuan T-shirts were being sold for up to 500 yuan ($72) online, a situation which struck some net users as nonsensical as this isn’t the first time that KAWS has collaborated with Uniqlo and the items aren’t even limited-edition — though Caijing reports that a new stock isn’t planned to arrive in the near future.

Netizens joked that for the next week everyone in China will be wearing the same shirts.

Since China’s biggest sales events typically now all take place online, these sorts of chaotic scenes are becoming more and more rare, unless, of course, there’s limited edition Air Jordans up for grabs or free stuff being given away.

Meanwhile, for Uniqlo, this is likely the most swarmed the chain has been in China since a certain sex tape went viral.

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