Justin Bieber took to Instagram to announce that his two-day exclusive Purpose Tour Pop-Up Shop would take place at VFiles in Soho, Manhattan. As soon as I saw his post, I knew that I had to go.

I had no idea how this pop-up shop would work, but I did know that I had to get a good spot in line. I set my alarm for 4 a.m. to only to end up accidentally missing the train I had planned to take. After a few mishaps, I finally arrived at Grand Central Station around 8 a.m. The VFiles shop was about an hour walk from where I was, and being the poor college student I am, I decided to opt out of getting a taxi and make a run for it.

I finally reached the VFiles shop, dripping in sweat from my frantic on and off running and claimed my place in line. To my surprise, at 9 a.m. there were only about 40 people in front of me. The NYPD were already swarming the area with barricades and police tape, preparing to keep the crowd in control for the day and VFiles security were keeping the line organized as well. There were a bunch of radio station crews, photographers, and press making their way up and down the line interviewing and interacting with people who were waiting. A few of Justin's Purpose Tour dancers even walked down the street at one point and Justin's longtime choreographer, Nick Demoura, made an appearance as well. Jerry Lorenzo, a designer who collaborated with Justin on his tour merchandise, also made his way in and out of the shop and on the street.

A huge crowd began to gather across the street from the shop with people waiting to see if Justin would show up. Young girls stood around (parents waiting patiently beside them) phones in hand shrieking at every car that pulled up, and jumping every time the door to the VFiles shop opened and closed. Did I mention it was raining the whole time?

As if my place in line wasn't shocking enough, the main thing that surprised and confused me was that most of the people in front of me were grown men wearing “The Life of Pablo” merchandise. At first, I thought it was cool that the demographic of Justin's audience had grown and diversified so much, but then I overheard that most of these men were only in line to buy out the store and resell the merchandise online.

Even though I was one of the first who got to enter the store that day, by the time I got inside most of the merchandise was already sold out. The VFiles employees were easygoing and eager to help as soon as we stepped into the store, but also had to deliver the bad news to us. All of the exclusive yellow hoodies, Bieber hats, long sleeve cream colored Brooklyn shirts, limited quantity jean jackets and more were completely sold out already. Luckily I was able to cop a short sleeve cream colored tee that says “PURPOSE TOUR” on the front and “MY MAMA DON’T LIKE YOU” on the back. The prices for the merchandise ranged from $40-$360 and now you can find many of the items being resold online for as high as $500. The store itself was an all around cool environment with a sick setup and Bieber's album playing in the background.

As I walked out of the store, security on the street urged everyone to leave immediately and advised us that we could not stick around and hang out. I could see that the line grew immensely and the crowd from earlier had doubled. I listened to security and made my way down the street passing by some of the grown men from earlier discussing how much they planned to sell the exclusive merchandise for online. I found out later that Bieber showed up to the store about two hours after I left. Although I didn't get to catch a glimpse of "The Biebs," I still feel pretty lucky

to have the experience I did and to have my very own exclusive Purpose Tour merchandise.