Drop 09 · live now
Drop 09Don’t blink.
Twenty-four pairs of the Voltrunner, built by two people in a brick unit off 7th Street. When the volt runs out it’s gone — no restock, no back door, no apology.
- pairs made
- 24
- pairs made
- restocks ever
- 00
- restocks ever
- last sellout
- 47s
- last sellout
↔ Drag to spin
The rack
Six styles, twenty-four pairs between them. Turn any tile over for the sheet: what it is made of, how many exist, what it weighs and how it fits.
Updated 9:41 pm PT
How a drop runs
01
Entries open 9 pm PT
Thursday before the drop, closes at midnight. One entry per person — we check.
02
Winners get twelve minutes
A text, a link and a clock. Miss it and the pair moves to the next name on the list.
03
Pick up, or we ship Tuesday
Counter open Thursday to Saturday, or free US shipping on the next post day.
The reel
Ten frames from around Drop 09 — the queue, the room, the bench, the weather. Grab the stack and drag it sideways; the frame in the middle is the one being talked about.
10 frames · shot 2024 – 26
The line, 11:47 pm. Doors weren’t until nine the next morning. Somebody brought a camping chair, then rented the chair out at three.
Drag the stack sideways · arrow keys work
The ledger
An okta is the unit weather people use for cloud cover — eight oktas means the sky is completely gone. We named the label after it, made eight drops, and each one went faster than the last. Nine is off the scale. Push any tile for its numbers.
8 drops · 174 pairs · 0 restocks
The verdicts
Four people who got a box — and one who hasn’t yet. Every name, city and story on this page is invented for the concept; we would rather write honest fiction than fake five stars.
4/174
of the 174 boxes
The text came at 9:04 pm and gave me twelve minutes to say yes. I said yes in about nine seconds and then sat on the kerb shaking. Picked up on the Thursday — the guy who took my ticket had glue on his hands and told me which pair he’d boxed. The card inside had my name spelled right and the date wrong. I kept the card.
I’ve bought from every label with a countdown clock and this is the only one where a human replied on a Sunday. Ordered at 11:01 pm my time, shipped Tuesday, on my feet Friday. No tracking-number roulette in between.
I’m a 10.5 in everything, the card said take a 10 in the knit, and I ignored it. They swapped the size for free and didn’t make me feel stupid about it. Second pair fits like it was built on my foot. The card was right and I was wrong.
Zero for three on raffles and I still open every email. What keeps me here is that they publish how many pairs exist. Twenty-four means twenty-four. I’ve been burned by the word ‘limited’ enough times to know what that’s worth.
Come to the counter.
It is one brick room with a counter, a bench and a kettle. If the roller door is up we are in.
Thu – Sat · 12 – 8 pm
Where
Unit 9, 214 E 7th StreetLos Angeles, CA 90014
Roller door under the fire escape — no sign.
When
- Thu – Sat
- 12 – 8 pm
- Drop night
- 9 pm – sold out
- Sun – Wed
- Closed — making
Getting there
Two blocks from the Metro A Line at Pershing Square. Street parking after 6 pm; the lot on Los Angeles St takes cards and is a five-minute walk.
Step-free through the roller door. Ask and we will bring anything out to the pavement.
The answers
Six things people write in every drop week. Open a panel and it swings down on its hinge.
Answered by the two of us
Entries open at 9 pm PT the Thursday before a drop and close at midnight. Winners get a text inside the hour and have twelve minutes to confirm — after that the pair goes to the next name. One entry per person, per phone, per address.
No. Nine drops, zero restocks, and that isn’t marketing — we make what the two of us can finish in six weeks and then we stop. If a size comes back through an exchange it goes up on the drop list first.
True to size in leather, half a size small in the knit. If you are between sizes take the larger one: the footbed packs down about 2 mm in the first week. There is a printed size card in every box.
Thursday to Saturday, yes — that is what the shop is for, and there is no obligation to buy anything. Drop nights are pickup only; there is no room to sit down when there are forty people in a room built for twelve.
Fourteen days, unworn, with the box. One free size swap per order in the US — we send the label. Raffle pairs are exchange-only, because someone else wanted that number.
One entry per person, manual checks on anything that looks automated, and no early links to anyone — not press, not friends. If a pair shows up on a resale site above retail we know which entry it came from, and that name never wins again.