Teenagers joined Boxing Day stampede at StreetX

An Australian streetwear store was stampeded by hundreds of teenagers on Boxing Day after its founder encouraged customers to “rob” his store.

The almost unbelievable footage uploaded to the StreetX Instagram page shows hundreds of teenagers pouring into the store in Perth’s Central Business District.

As the crowd of mostly young men jostled and pushed their way into two small entryways, onlookers watched the mayhem unfold.

As one unlucky young fan stumbled on his way in, the crowd behind could be seen trampling him on their mission to claim one of the 400 free T-shirts that were being offered.

Despite the troubling scenes, the label’s founder Daniel Bradshaw maintained that nobody was injured during the chaotic dash and that police were “fine with it”.

Bradshaw has been known to stage similarly chaotic marketing campaigns and drew the anger of city rangers and police during his brand’s Boxing Day campaign last year.

Bradshaw, talking to the West Australian in the lead up to the day, encouraged his followers to “rob” his stores.

“We wanted to give our customers something fun. We made the entire store free. There were 400 items to ‘steal’,” he said.

“We always do a Boxing Day sale. Last year, we did a giveaway out the back of a truck. This year we wanted something that ideally wouldn’t get us in trouble.”

Bradshaw claimed there were control measures in place to protect customers from the scuffle that ensued.

“We made sure we picked a shop with lots of space. It was a secluded section of the CBD too,” he said.

“We let kids and parents in first. Once they moved out, we let the young guys in.”

While some punters questioned the marketing methods of the Perth streetwear brand, Bradshaw lauded their “run and gun” approach as the first of its kind.

“I haven’t seen anything like that in Australia before,” he said.

The Boxing Day mayhem wasn’t limited to Perth, with people turning out in droves across Australia to snag themselves a bargain.

DFO Outlet malls in Sydney and Harbour Town in the Gold Coast drew massive crowds, with lines stretching as far as the eye could see. Lines just to enter the shopping center in Homebush snaked through the parking lot at 10 in the morning.

The huge lines and general unpleasantness of crowded shopping centers in the middle of summer has some people online questioning whether the bargains are even worth it. One social media user commented “Zero happens on Boxing Day that couldn’t wait till the 27th.

“That’s just foul.”

There were similar scenes at Melbourne’s DFO South Wharf shopping centre.

There was a wait of up to two hours to enter the Nike store, with customers left standing in 97 degree heat outside.

So while Boxing Day has left some questioning their conviction for bargain hunting, it seems free stuff will always attract a crowd. Just watch out for the stampede.