NASHUA – The big release of retro Air Jordan basketball shoes Friday turned into a big disappointment for a long line of customers at Kenners of Nashua shoe store, many of whom waited since midnight only to discover after noon that only two pairs were available.

“If you can’t get the shoes, you can’t get the shoes, but why didn’t they tell us sooner?” said Janitza Concepcion, of Nashua, after the store in the MarketPlace Plaza, 300 Main St., opened at 1 p.m. “This is a business. This is no way to treat customers.”

As the first retro versions of the famous Air Jordan basketball shoe sold by Nike in some time, the $180 Air Jordan 11 Retro Concords had generated enormous anticipation. The post-midnight rollout right before Christmas increased the frenzy.

News reports around the country spoke of fights between customers Friday morning and at least one case of a store being damaged when it sold out. Police in Seattle had to use pepper spray on a crowd.

Web sites selling the shoes collapsed under the traffic, and stores around the country sold out almost immediately.

Concepcion arrived at the Nashua store at 8 a.m. after being told that FootLocker in the Pheasant Lane Mall didn’t have any more of the Nike Retro Air Jordans. There was already a long line on the sidewalk.

The Kenners store normally opens at 11 a.m., but many customers in line said they had checked and been told it would open at 10 a.m.

At 10 a.m. Friday, they said, two store employees drove up and said they had no keys to the store but would return soon and that shoes would be available.

Some time after noon, employees opened the door and gave the bad news: They had only two pairs in children’s sizes, plus a single adult shoe.

Kenners is a small chain based in Lawrence, Mass., with stores in Lowell and other Massachusetts cities as well as Nashua. Repeated attempts to contact company representatives Friday were unsuccessful.

Kenners’ participation in the Retro Air Jordans rollout was something of a coup, since it mostly involved major chains such as FootLocker.

Chris Taylor, of Lowell, Mass., was one of many people in line in Nashua who said they had checked with the company Thursday to ensure that shoes would be available in Nashua.

“They said they had 16 pairs, in all sizes,” he said.

They actually ended up having one pair each in sizes 6 and 61?2, plus one left shoe in an adult size.

“It was a big rollout that didn’t go well,” said a store employee who declined to be named.

Daniel Meas, of Lowell, Mass., was one of the few people who got a pair in Nashua.

Meas said he showed up at 2 a.m. after checking the day before that the Nashua store would have the shoes. Eleven hours later, he had a pair in a child’s size 61?2.

He wasn’t sure what he would do with them, although he noted that the last time Nike sold Retro Air Jordans, people could resell them for many hundreds of dollars in profit.

Adult sizes were sold for $180 on Friday but were being offered on eBay for $400 or more by the afternoon.

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531 or dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com.