Sneaker reselling has grown in popularity over the last few years, evolving from a simple side hobby for teenagers to a full fledged job that some make millions off of. Entire websites have been created for this sole purpose, with some notable ones being GOAT and the ubiquitous (and notorious) StockX.com. On these sites, thousands of shoes are put up every single minute for others to purchase.
How does sneaker reselling work? The core principles behind this practice are simple. First, a reseller purchases any given shoe that has high “hype” (or excitement) surrounding it. This hype can arise from many different factors, such as the narrative around the shoes, the story behind them, their exclusivity, their design, their cultural relevance, etc. After buying such shoes, the reseller then sells them to consumers for a higher price than they initially bought the sneakers for, thus earning profit from their first purchase. This is where the problem with sneaker reselling lies.
Sneakers are meant to be a piece of footwear that everybody can wear and enjoy. If somebody wants to buy a pair of Jordans, they should be able to find them anywhere on the internet and purchase a pair. If somebody wants to buy a pair of Nike Dunks, they should be able to enter their local FootLocker or Shoe Palace and find it in the Nike aisle. However, sneaker reselling severely reduces the financial accessibility of shoes.
Resellers place their shoes at high prices to maximize their financial gains, making the majority of shoes on websites, like the aforementioned GOAT or StockX, ridiculously overpriced. Sometimes, a shoe posted on one of these reselling sites ends up being double, triple, or even quadruple their original value. Despite these criminally overpriced sneakers, these shoes still sell to wealthy consumers who are willing to fork over tens of thousands of dollars, allowing resellers to earn a continuous profit and keep their business alive.
Take the Off White X Air Jordan 1 “UNC” as an example. Initially released in 2018, the shoe, which was a collab between the Jordan brand and the luxury company Off-White, retailed for about $190.
Eight years later, this sneaker has exploded to a mind-boggling $7800, more than 40x its initial price. What was once an already-expensive shoe has now, essentially, become a piece of memorabilia. Instead of a simple, everyday collectible, these shoes have become virtually unobtainable for the average teenager and are worshipped by those who do own a pair as godly, divine objects.
The inflation of the Jordan 1 UNC can all be pinpointed to one factor: sneaker reselling. Resellers understood the shoe was going to be massively popular due to the prominence of their designer, former Louis Vuitton artistic director Virgil Abloh, their scarcity, and their iconic colorway that paid homage to professional basketball player Michael Jordan’s alma-mater. With these reasons in mind, resellers bought up all the available pairs of the Jordan 1 UNC and posted them on reselling sites for exponentially higher prices, thus prohibiting the average consumer from buying a pair.
And this is where another problem with sneaker resellers arises: their methods of acquiring the shoes they sell.
Whenever a new shoe drops, there are over a million people competing to purchase a limited stock of sneakers. As a result, there has been a rise of sneaker resellers utilizing high-speed bots to purchase multiple pairs of a given shoe before a human could even buy one. When there are millions of these bots going around, all trying to hunt down the same product, the average consumer is essentially left with nothing for themselves. As a result, they are forced to turn to resellers and their crazily overpriced items. Unfortunately, this is the reality millions of people face, a reality that can solely be attributed to sneaker reselling.
However, for sneakerheads, all is not bleak; there are many solutions people can adopt to solve the reselling crisis. For example, consumers can meet up in person with local resellers to negotiate better deals, or deals that are more financially reasonable and affordable. By physically purchasing their desired shoes from local entrepreneurs or retail stores, customers can also avoid the high-speed bots that terrorize many popular sneaker websites. They can also purchase a similar looking pair of shoes, one that is not so coveted by resellers, to further lower spending costs. For instance, the Travis Scott x Nike Air Force 1s and original Air Force 1s are essentially the exact same shoe. The only difference is the word “UTOPIA” written in a small, squiggly font underneath the Nike Swoosh on the Travis Scott version. Sneaker fanatics can thus purchase a pair of regular Air Force 1s rather than opting for the much more popular and often unavailable Travis Scotts.
Through small steps such as these, sneaker fans can actively fight against sneaker resellers and their outrageously priced items while simultaneously indulging in their unwavering passion for sneakers.
