Bedbugs make Niketown scratch shopping day

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NEW YORK, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- New York's spreading bedbugs have struck another high-profile Manhattan store, Niketown, Nike announced Saturday.

Nike's flagship store on East 57th Street was forced to close Saturday, the New York Daily News reported.

"Our primary concern is the well-being of our consumers and sales associates," Nike's statement said. "We are taking all proper steps to eradicate the problem and we expect the store to reopen shortly."

The five-story Niketown, with big-name endorsers like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter, sells wares ranging from expensive footwear to headbands to T-shirts.

Before hitting Niketown New York, the insects are known to have bitten into the Empire State Building, the Hollister store in SoHo, the Brooklyn district attorney's office, a Times Square movie theater and the Time Warner Center.

A study by the pest control company Terminix found New York had the nation's worst bedbug infestation.