Resellers- Hype and Sneakers

Sneakers have never been in higher demand than in the last couple of years, with the market being recently valued at 2 Billion dollars. Reselling has become for many what used to be a side hustle a full time job and the wave is only getting bigger. In the past it was looked down upon, you couldn’t go into a store and actively talk about re-selling or give the reason “the hype wasn’t big enough so I couldn’t profit “when returning a pair of shoes in store. Reselling has become the norm, less stigmatised within the sneaker community. Retailers secretly thrive of the hype; they release a rare shoe with chances of obtaining it being slim. To then offer a similar alternative in huge quantities using it as a strategy to sell mass amounts of sneakers for those who missed out. Reselling has undeniably fostered a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Reason the market has expanded:

Access: First reason being how accessible it is. Long gone are the days of people queuing up outside stores (have personally experience may cold nights) for many hours waiting for a release. With stores doing online drops and raffles methods of copping have moved mostly to the web. Allowing anyone with a computer a chance to buy on the drop day.

Hype: With social media and the internet it has brought a ton of exposure to the sneaker community with celebrities and influencers receiving free merchandise it has boosted demand for the latest shoes. Not to mention the many collaborations and partnerships that world known artist have had with sneaker retailers, to mention a few Drake , Travis Scott, Kanye west and Virgil Abloh blurring the lines between Hip Hop, fashion and sneakers. There is often a re-sell market before the shoes have even released for retail; people already know they won’t be able to buy come release day.

Bots: The word that gives website developers nightmares! Bots or automated checkouts are a key factor in the supply or limited sneakers. On certain hyped drops bots can take over 50% of the entire stock. You may not think it’s that much of a problem but with each individual checking out 5-15 pairs of the same shoe it leaves manual users with no chance. There is so sign of slowing down with proxies, sneaker groups, leaked info, backdoor selling and automated captcha solvers the chances of copping for people who genuinely appreciate the shoe are little to none.

“Sneaker reselling will continue to grow, especially as sneakers gain global popularity. The secondary sneaker market is still relatively nascent from a global perspective,” says Cohen VP of business strategy at goat. Estimating the sneaker resale industry is projected to become a $6 billion business globally by 2025. With secondary market apps like Stockx and goat it has become ever more safe and easy to buy and sell sneakers. Sneakers have become in a way like assets you can sell, buy or hold with the trading floor being online platforms like Stockx and Ebay. “Fashion is becoming a social lubricant of today, in some ways overtaking music and other forms of creative expression,” If you have a passion for sneakers like myself Check out my recent prints. In my opinion the most iconic Bred’s to ever release.