Shanghai, Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street.
The line outside the Li Fei Flagship Store stretched for two whole blocks.
A middle-aged man in a suit stood in line, briefcase in hand, his leather shoes polished to a shine.
A colleague passing by spotted him in the queue and nearly dropped his jaw. "Old Wang? What are you doing here? Don't you have a meeting at nine?"
The middle-aged man glanced at his watch and calmly replied, "The meeting can be pushed back. The shoes can't wait." His colleague stared at him. "What's gotten into you today? You never watch basketball." The man smiled. "I don't watch basketball, but my son does. He's taking his college entrance exams this year, and he'll turn eighteen after they're over. I promised I'd buy him a pair of Li Fei's shoes once he finished. Li Fei hit the game-winner last night, and my son was so excited he didn't sleep a wink. This morning he told me, 'Dad, Li Fei hit the game-winner. His shoes are definitely going to sell out.' So here I am."
His colleague shook his head.
"You're a pretty good dad."
The middle-aged man adjusted his glasses. "Whether I'm any good or not, I have to come through as a dad."
Guangzhou, Teemall.
A girl wearing Li Fei V sneakers stood in the middle of the line, holding up a selfie stick as she livestreamed.
More than five thousand people were watching her stream, and the comments flew by.
"Girls, can you see this? This is the Li Fei Flagship Store in Guangzhou. It's eight in the morning, and the line already stretches to the entrance of Teemall. I'm buying the championship colorway today. It's a limited edition, with only a hundred pairs of each colorway. I came to queue