Portland Apple Store opening: Watch Apple fans explain why they got in line at 4 a.m. (video)

Portland Apple Store: Crowd awaits opening of new downtown storeJustin Seekatz says he arrived at 4 a.m. to be there when the doors open on the new downtown Portland Apple Store. He said he was there to celebrate the innovative culture of Apple, the store's impressive architecture and to get a free T-shirt

When a cramped Apple Store opened in the Pioneer Place basement in 2005 -- in a time without the iPhone or the iPad -- several hundred fans lined up to see the company's first branded retail stop in downtown Portland.

The turnout for Saturday's opening of a stunning 23,000-square-foot upgrade at street level was even more impressive. And it wasn't just the spirit of Steve Jobs shinning down his geeky masses. There was sunshine -- a lot of it. 

Just before the 10 a.m. opening of the giant box of a store -- all glass, blonde wood and polished metal beneath a glowing Apple logo -- about 500 people stretched around the block.

See, said the die-hard Apple fans, perish the thought that some of the cool has rubbed off the world's coolest technology company.

"And I don't think Apple publicized this one as much," said a middle-aged man moving his fingers across an iPad screen. "I just got a brief email about the opening."

Of course, very few people in line were actually there to buy an Apple laptop or gadget. Everyone seemed to have plenty of those already. Most of them wanted a gray T-shirt, which would be handed out to the first 1,000 people steeping through the portal under a glowing Apple logo.

Apple and its customers were given a lot more elbow room Saturday morning with the 10 a.m. opening of a big, glassy new store in one of downtown Portland's premier retail spots, running the length of a city block kitty corner from Pioneer Courthouse. It replaces a Saks Fifth Avenue that Portland had worked hard to bring downtown, then lost in 2010 when the upscale retailer proved a bad fit for the city. (MARK GRAVES/THE OREGONIAN)

Mark Graves | mgraves@oregonian.com

Apple hands out free commemorative T-shirts at every new store opening. Apple fans wear them like Grateful Dead fans sport concert shirts. 

Steve Riggins of Vancouver said he was there in part to see if the allure of a free shirt and cutting edge retail architecture could draw the kind of crowds that the opening of Microsoft's Windows got with a free Weezer concert last summer.

"I do like to stand line and be a part of big events," Riggins said.

In case you're wondering, the first people in line started showing up about 4 a.m.

And as the video above shows, some of them had a tough putting the draw of a new Apple Store into words.

-- Joseph Rose

A close up of the green vegetation growing on the building's roof. Apple's new store across the street from Pioneer Place in downtown Portland, nearly three years in the making, looks just about ready to go. Apple's signature glass frame remains enclosed behind black barriers, but the rest of the building and the surrounding plaza are emerging even as work crews continue to swarm the site. (MARK GRAVES/THE OREGONIAN)

Mark Graves |mgraves@oregonian.com

More at: http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2014/05/apple_confirms_new_downtown_po.html