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Everything You Need to Know About Sneaker Resell Culture

Jun 09, 2021
This is like a cutthroat business: I'm selling this for a hundred dollars and you

know

, for example, and the next person gets something for ninety-five dollars, so I put in a lot of work and these guys will come and do it. to me or just fake bills, people who will try to rob you and stab you, these are assets and people are after them, people will try to come and get you,

sneaker

s have never been in more demand than they are now and that means

resell

ing money. Cashing in on increased demand,

sneaker

s as we

know

them today began as a side business for a select few kids a decade ago, but are now a billion-dollar business.
everything you need to know about sneaker resell culture
If you haven't gotten in yet, you may have missed the wave, but that doesn't mean it's over, there's a ton of money available, the only question is: can you hack it? Welcome from scratch. I'm your host, Pete Forrester, and in this episode we're looking to

resell

it. We've talked a lot about reselling our previous drop, flip, and brick programs got into the nitty-gritty of this sometimes opaque practice, but today we're going to get a little more personal with the people who resell and how it affects the industry as a whole, both Tyler Blake as B.K.
everything you need to know about sneaker resell culture

More Interesting Facts About,

everything you need to know about sneaker resell culture...

Knee-deep in reselling

culture

, doing it themselves and facilitating the practice for others throughout their careers. Few improve our position to recognize all the moving parts. What's up, guys. I'm here with influencer extraordinaire BK and marketing consultant Tyler Blake. These are elegant. titles, but I'm sure you guys have seen them on Gram and other places, so today we're talking about reselling them. Do you think I mean that just a couple of years ago resale was at least from a retail point of view? It was a four letter word, you know, it was something that people weren't proud of doing, you couldn't really talk about it if you went to a store, but now I think

everything

has changed and it's a respectable way to make money, what do you guys think to be honest?
everything you need to know about sneaker resell culture
I don't think it's changed much, it's just the way people do it has changed, you know, the days of people lining up behind shops exchanging money from certain areas now I think. a lot of their online retailers have just moved on and stopped doing things on a first come, first serve basis, it's too dangerous now that you have these digital raffle systems, so now the reseller that's out, you know, air trading Sometimes a kid is on his computer running proxies and BOTS and all that controls all the stock online, so it's definitely a change, but I think it's become a lot more prevalent, everyone they do, you know, everyone is pushing, everyone is selling their own BOTS, whatever it is.
everything you need to know about sneaker resell culture
So many consumers resell will always be a four-letter word, there are people who are simply true sneaker enthusiasts, they are collectors, they don't like to pay for resale, but it is something that now people have realized. that almost anything will resell that there was already a market for reselling sneakers before the hype really existed, now it's more like a system where people who have access find it easier to reach those who want the product or only the disposable income just to buy it just because they want to what's up guys? I'm here with Eric Pavone from the owner of a rare pair.
Great, thanks for inviting us. What you do here is allow people to come in and sell your product. through you right like we consign shoes where we buy the shoes directly from the person okay and then we boot the market so are they considered a store like a resale store or heck yeah yeah of course like the game,

everything

okay? The point of this, this is where people come to look, so they can't go out anywhere else. Have you ever had a problem with any retailer or brand being like oh yeah, yeah, we were the first store without red Octobers, do you know their legal department? they merged and told us to get rid of that stuff, blah blah blah, it's not supposed to be on the market, right?
And then a few weeks later, they left it at that, I don't know, but other than that, since we don't do it. have an account with any retailer or any brand, pretty much whatever we want, that's what I was going to say, it's because Nike can call you, but what is that, what is the threat, show me something that we talked about earlier about what you are the stranger. The thing was, but yeah, show me something you have, which is crazy that people wouldn't expect when they walk in here, oh, I mean, when they walk in like a basement, they don't even expect to see anything, so when they walk in.
Officially it's not a waterfall, yeah, a 4x8 water, right, I don't think people expect to find something like that in a basement and the most offensive shots like around here, so before you guys were here, I know there was a gradient or there was another sneaker store here before okay, whose sneakers you and Luci used to resell for nothing, no, not at all, so how does that start for you? How are you? It was not so. Oh, I was in between a semester for college, yeah, and when there was always just no weed in my house and he was like, "you're not going to open his work with me," he had mentioned it and I just had a room full of sneakers.
I had no idea how this works, no idea, I just used to do it. buy me sneakers so I had no idea how the others work so anyone can become a professional reseller basically yeah yeah right away you can you just have to want to do it. What I think people don't understand is that there are many. There is a lot of work involved for certain shoes, you have to go through a lot to get them, you may have to bribe the security guard, some employees camp out overnight, so when you pay for resale, you are paying for it.
Someone's work. Someone's extra work. What was it? What was something you didn't expect about this business before you got into it? How many dirty people are interested? This is not easy. It's like there is no friendly environment for anyone, so when people sell they feel unhappy or put on shoes. stores are not dealing with a customer anyone who works in retail sales helps. I would have many jobs. I really can handle everyone. This is like a cutthroat business. I'm selling this for $100 and you know, for example, right? and the next person leaves. only for 95 dollars so I worked hard and you will come and make extra adjustments or just fake bills and people will try to rob you and stab you, these are assets and people are after them.
Try to come and tell me how you think Riesling has changed the way brands operate and the way retailers operate. I mean, they're just influenced by brands. If you're on the block, the same block has to be connecting someone on the line, they'll kick your friend off the line, but that whole brand is based on candy, so it's like, oh, we don't want it, but we want it. , the brand

need

s it, Nike

need

s it. so they will have like bait shoes that I call bait shoes, they are really something really attractive in the color combination, they make it unattainable for 90% of the world, 95.99 percent of the world and then they will launch something very similar to Unas weeks later and well, you can get this one.
They're sending really weird photoshoots to YouTubers with millions of followers, so they need those people now. I don't think people care about the shoes because everyone must regret it. for a little embarrassing, actually like in two and a half, so I see people who make between 10 and 20 dollars, previous details, now one of those people like to die, it sucks, like you guys were like no recently, that's not It's recently, you guys are going to get a job, you want to make ten twenty dollars like Addie, but you're ruining it for everyone. If they want to resell, they will see what will happen on the apps because all those really low prices won't last long. eventually they'll learn that I'm going to give them maybe a few months before people doing such small things start making real money because it's there, they just have to be a little more patient.
Special edition sneakers are now only released behind a litany of barriers being placed in very limited quantities and often in only a few stores that have their own raffle systems or jumping hoops to purchase. Those restrictions come with added values. These shoes are worth more than the retail price before they are even sold. falls because demand exceeds supply and there are always collectors willing to pay that demand means customers are willing to wait outside sometimes for weeks just to make sure their peer retailers have followed these trends and countered camping practices in the grass raffle systems in person or online, law enforcement in some cities like New York monitor The Situation routinely shut them down before it got out of hand, as they were often just a couple of kids spending a few nights together In a kind of brotherhood, hello, oh from someone. and George Ocampo tells us how this small community became something that caught Billy's attention long before the Internet made reselling something everyone could participate in.
We saw the first signs of resale in metropolitan cities like New York as a local mom. Pop sneaker stores in the '90s started to take an interest in the level of man surrounding their footwear, they started bending the rules a little by selling high-top pairs under the table and out the back door to locals before actual release dates of the shoes. and they did all this on premium of course, meaning they had thrown in some cash to grease your frying pan, if you know what I'm saying, although it may sound a little shady, the situation made sense to ease the financial burdens of these premises.
Retailers are suffering under pressure from big box stores while offering peace of mind to regular customers who really just wanted a pair of sneakers anyway. Nike wasn't too happy about this and began removing accounts from shady retailers, further driving this exclusive and elusive nature of the sneaker game. On the other hand, sneaker-obsessed consumers were always looking out for themselves, and it's no wonder you've ever gone home empty-handed after a sneaker release, you know it sucks, and you feel like doing it. everything and make sure. It never happens again and that's how the sneaker reselling community began to take shape competing with overwhelming demand.
Sneakerheads had to figure out how to not only secure a pair for themselves but also a second pair to store and then a third pair for the friend who had work that day and then a fourth pair to resell because you just spend money on like three pairs of sneakers and you probably need to make some money back, I wasn't actually making much money, but you definitely needed money. to play and that's how you leveled up a stack of cash and got the pair you really wanted. Its technology evolved into the Internet, connecting the world at the beginning of the century.
The sneaker market really flourished not only thanks to fans being able to follow what was happening in different cities, but also having new access to products they had never seen before through platforms like eBay and forms like Nike Talk and ISS, from Suddenly, in Chicago, we are seeing airmax sneakers never seen before. colorways that were exclusive to Europe or like crazy exclusive releases to Asia and the only way to get an overseas sneakerhead to help you was to pay them the right price or you know you have something of equal value to trade them in and keep feeding them with this shoe later.
Market situation for any of these online communities. Consignment stores like Flight Club began popping up in the thousands to give us the model for physical retail, based entirely on reselling pairs of successful sneakers. These unique shops for rare feats would appeal. true fans, celebrities and tourists, while the business model answered a lot of questions for resellers and buyers alike, at the time there were plenty of Jordan Pease and Yeezys that can command some serious prices and an intermediary authority would really help everyone they felt Best of all, this shipping model soon made its way digital, as online platforms like Goat and Stock Tech offered the same authentication services to sneakerheads around the world, allowing kids to They didn't live near a Griffiore stadium to buy products. and sell easy 350s with confidence from the comfort of your own bedroom, all of these reselling tools combined with the brand's seemingly endless barrage of collaborations, new models, and other interesting capsules and releases, have seen fellow sneaker resellers reach a unprecedented peak right now and is truly a viable option for fans around the world, even agoJust a few years ago the sneaker community was relatively limited, you might be able to find a home for a few dozen pairs of a very limited edition sneaker you bought, but now in 2018 anyone looking to trade pairs for some cash Bonus you can have a ton of products, sometimes hundreds of pairs at a time, for that to happen resellers have to build relationships with retailers to be able to secure all those pairs or even discover some strange alternatives.
I sat down with my friend Gerard Clarke. who used to manage the gift location in Brooklyn and then worked at the Adidas store in Soho to get a sense of what resale looks like from the retailer's point of view. What's up, guys? We're here with Gerard Clarke, formerly of Keith and Adidas and now a consultant on his In his own right, thanks for joining us, so he started in sneaker retail before reselling them, so it really emerged to be what it is today and It's been there since it went from being a four-letter word that no one wants to give anything away.
Admit the fact that you're a reseller and now people are building businesses off of that, could you give us a rough timeline or a rough experience of what it was like to see how it changed from my experience of always being in that stage of sneaker

culture

? ? I feel like it started with Isis. it's slowly coming together but there are more people who are trading shoes there are some people you can buy them right away but it wasn't all resale it wasn't called it was like I have a shoe I'm not wearing it I just got rid of it .
I exchanged it for a price or I exchanged it for something better. He had what he wanted. I like what I want. When I got into retail, when I got into Kif, it was more like I was buying a shoe to sell to myself and make a profit. it kept getting to that extreme some shoes worked better than others and we felt like it was always negative it was always tacit like that guy feels that maybe that guy does it right I don't know you're not going to label anyone, you don't want to know, you don't know, I don't want to. tag no one and got really aggressive.
How was that? How did it change the way a store or your stories interact with customers? moving on from reselling is not a big deal now, this is the reason people come to this store, how does your relationship with those customers change? It changes your way of thinking very quickly because you don't know that some people are genuine and then others. people aren't like that, some people would tell you the truth, like I need a shoe too for a while and then some people really beat around the bush, so when we worked together there was a conversation that was happening behind the scenes and there was some frustration with the brand, the resellers were making more money on the product than we were making a proper booster, so if we were selling something for $150 and the resellers were selling it for $400, a guy who didn't work on the project, you know who Yeah.
I don't do any marketing or anything comes up or at most pesos per week online on a project we've worked on for a year makes $250 while we make $75, where do you land in that conversation? It's hard to understand, but you always have to increase the price. You're not going to make more money yourself, but they're going to keep making more money and then it's supply and demand. More people want it. More people are looking for it. The higher. the price goes, goes, so where you win, you will start very thin under dollars and then someone said six seven eight, you will win 250 now they are still winning five, you will never win on that margin error, it's just a game, what are?
Are you going to shoot yourself? you can sell it yourself maybe then you will get your money then you need your money thank you very much for coming thank you if you wanted to buy or sell something on the secondary market it used to be the Wild West resellers could use message boards or sites like Craigslist or Ebay to sell their products and anyone could basically charge whatever they wanted for whatever they had. There was no real value on the street as there was no regulation until Josh Luber started. campus which would then be transformed into stock but the opposite is also true: a buyer can get hosed for overpriced shoes or a fake product or a seller can get a refund or some other scam, but now in stores like Flight Club and a rare pair they can act as middlemen to ensure fair prices and authenticity, that's it for this episode from scratch.
If you enjoyed this episode, we want to hear your comment below with the rarest sneakers you've ever bought resale or resold yourself and while you're there, don't. Don't forget to like, subscribe and watch previous episodes like the customs episode and our debate on the Air Max switch, until then keep it updated.

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