Couldn’t Get the Reebok “Alien Stompers” In Your Size? Here’s Reebok’s Response

At noon EST today, Reebok put out their much-anticipated limited edition release of the “Alien Stompers” sneakers. Personally, I’ve been waiting for these to come out all month. I knew they’d be a coveted collector’s item, so I’d have to compete with a lot of shoe collectors to snag a pair. So I refreshed the Reebok website since I woke up today, keeping a close eye on the product page.

Right before the sneakers launched at noon today, I wrote an excited post about them, but I tempered my excitement a bit by mentioning that Reebok only planned to release 36 pairs total for United States buyers. Imagine my disappointment when the product page finally loaded and I saw that the shoes only came in sizes 8-12. Considering that I’m a size 5 in women’s, and therefore a size 3 in men’s, there’s just no way that a size 8 version of the shoe would fit me.

I circled back and updated my post to reflect the lack of sizes at 12:30 PM. At 12:29 PM, I took the screenshot pictured above, showing the product page. By the time I took that screenshot, sizes 8 and 12 had already sold out, and only sizes 9-11 were still available. At the time of this writing, all of the sneakers have been sold out, and the URL for the product page redirects to a “Sold Out” message.

At 12:30 PM, I reached out for Reebok for comment, checking with them to see if smaller sizes would ever be available. Although it is ironic to see a shoe worn by a woman in the “Men Classics” section of the store, this didn’t bother me. I don’t mind ordering a men’s shoe, so long as it’s my size. It’s definitely ironic that these “Alien Stompers” wouldn’t fit the foot of Sigourney Weaver herself–she’s the one who made them famous!!

Reebok emailed me back at 5:12 PM today. Here’s what they said:

The Alien Stomper was mis-categorized on our US website as a men’s shoe. While size availability varied by market, the Alien Stomper is a unisex style and was produced in sizes (US Men’s) 3.5 – 12, which is a typical size range for a unisex model.

This contradicts a statement provided by a different Reebok representative to io9 earlier today. The previous statement was, “The Alien Stompers were released in men’s sizes due to retail demand.” That io9 story has since been updated to include a statement identical to the one I’ve included above, as well as a mention from Reebock that they had “not authorized” that other employee to give a statement about the shoes.

All I know is, I refreshed that product page since I woke up, saw the shoes go up at noon, and never once saw a pair lower than a size 8. If sizes 3.5-7 ever appeared on that page, I did not see them. They must be a very, very rare collector’s item indeed … assuming they ever existed at all. Since there were only 36 pairs available, however, it’s possible that there were so few pairs in smaller sizes that they disappeared faster than I could refresh my page.

Here’s hoping Reebok will look at the internet’s massive demand for these shoes and consider re-releasing a few more of them. I understand the desire to create limited edition shoes for shoe collectors, but in this case, Alien fandom extends well beyond just the shoe-collecting fanbase. It would be nice to see Reebok put out a product to celebrate one of the most iconic appearances of their shoes in a film.

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