By David Vitrano
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Decades after the debut of the Air Jordan shoe — and nearly 15 years after their namesake’s retirement from the game that made him a household name — the footwear are still some of the most popular on the market.

That fact became evident Thursday evening at Hibbett Sports on at U.S. Highway 51 and Airline Highway in LaPlace as dozens of local youth swarmed the parking lot there in anticipation of the latest Air Jordan release.

According to St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre, the Sheriff’s Office was originally called by a store manager at 6:21 p.m. to report 60 juveniles loitering in the Hibbett parking lot.

“We made it clear to them that curfew would be in effect,” said Tregre.

At that point, the juveniles disbursed, only to return a short while later.

Store management again called the Sheriff’s Office at 7:48 p.m. to request assistance with a large crowd. Then at about 11 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office began receiving calls about crowd and traffic problems near the sports merchandise store.

“It was pretty busy for us last night at Hibbett’s regarding the release of the new Air Jordans,” said Tregre, who noted the store had only 34 pairs of the shoes in stock.

Luckily, the Sheriff’s Office was able to handle the crowd before the situation got too out of hand.

“Chances are there would have been a bigger problem,” Tregre said.

Tregre said that while no fights were reported, two juveniles were arrested for causing a disturbance.