Sneaker Proxies – AIO bot
SNEAKER PROXIES
Sneaker proxies allow you to have multiple IP addresses, meaning you can help avoid bans and order cancellations. With the increase of hyped releases, it could be tricky to come across trustworthy sneaker proxies that actually work. Reliability is king when it comes to shoe proxies.
PREMIUM DCs
Created specifically to maximize your copping power on limited edition sneaker releases on Footsites.
Optimized for Most Sites
Dedicated Residentials
Supports Footsites
30 Days Expiry
RESIDENTIAL PROXIES
These proxies are specialized in copping Sneakers in General. They have worldwide Locations and Low Ban rates.
Optimized for Sneaker Releases
Bandwidth Base
SUPREME PROXIES
Defy infamous Supreme sellout times with Supreme proxies located near Supreme sites for maximum efficiency.
Optimized for Supreme releases
Dedicated Supreme Proxies
Supports Supreme US
One Month
ANB Beta DCs
These Proxies are our AIO Proxies, they support most sites and they will fit around the month!
Optimized for General Releases
LA or Buffalo
Dedicated DC Proxies
One Month
10 Best Sneaker Proxies for Copping Shoe Sites in 2021
Back in the day, limited-edition sneakers manufactured by big-name brands like Nike or Adidas used to only be available in select stores. That meant that relatively few people had access to them and the stores that kept them in stock were often overrun by customers eager to get their hands on the hot new shoes. That may have been good for business but it also caused a lot of chaos, which is why in recent years more and more companies have opted to sell them online instead.
This opened up new business opportunities for entrepreneurs with the means to buy the sneakers online in bulk in order to resell them later for a profit. But when lots of people have the same idea you usually get to a point where it becomes nearly impossible to buy large amounts of a product because of all the competition. That’s where sneaker bots and sneaker proxies come in. These two tools are an absolute must if you want to automate the process of purchasing sneakers.
Websites that sell sneakers tend to IP ban users that engage in suspicious activity, such as trying to buy large amounts of a product in a short amount of time. While sneaker bots can automate the process in order to ensure that you can purchase what you want ahead of the competition, proxies are essential for preventing you from getting banned. So before you even attempt to buy all those hot new shoes you wanted, it’s a good idea to start looking into some good sneaker proxy services. As it happens, we’ve already looked into the matter and prepared a comprehensive list of companies that offer reliable sneaker proxy services at reasonable prices.
Top Sneaker Proxies Providers
Below you can find a quick summary of all the providers on our list along with a few bits of important information to keep in mind. Keep reading to check out the detailed list further down.
Smartproxy – A very reliable service with a large worldwide network of residential Data – Decently priced dedicated sneaker proxy packages with lots of ifter – Rotating residential proxies and packages designed to target specific sneaker sites. Oxylabs – Close to 200 locations around the world and high success rate for sneaker copping. IPRoyal – Fairly small network but with good prices and features for sneaker oxydrop – One of the best services out there designed specifically for copping cketStream – Innovative business model that lets you both buy proxies and sell onode – Extremely versatile proxy service with lots of great features and fair Proxies – Good performance and customer support but expensive sneaker ivateProxy – Great sneaker bot proxies but on a tiny network when compared to others.
Remember – We took a number of key factors into consideration when compiling this list, including price, performance, reliability, customer service, and more. Even though this is a ranked list, any of these 10 companies is an excellent choice so don’t hesitate to check out our picks because all of them offer good value for your money.
1. Smartproxy
Smartproxy is among only a handful of providers that specifically mention you can use their proxies to target shoe sites. The company has a network of over 40 million IPs at its disposal, consisting of both residential and data center addresses. Although the data center packages are very solid, you’ll want to use the residential proxies on sneaker sites.
Smartproxy’s Sneaker Proxies Service Page
Smartproxy’s residential proxies work with all major sneaker bots, including Supreme Bot, Nike Slayer, AIO Bots, EasyCop Bot, and Another Nike Bot, among many others.
Smartproxy allows users to geo-target close to 200 locations around the world and offers two forms of IP sessions – rotating and sticky. With the rotating version, you get a new IP on every request while the sticky type lets you keep the same IP for a longer period of time.
All proxy plans come with unlimited threads and connections, which is very helpful because you can attempt multiple sneaker purchases with the same package. Smartproxy’s residential proxies don’t share a sub-network so it’s extremely unlikely that anyone can mass ban the company’s IPs.
Features
40+ million IPsClose to 200 locationsGuaranteed to work on shoe sitesUnlimited proxy connectionsHighly resistant to mass banning
Pricing
There are three residential proxy packages to choose from, the cheapest of which costs $75 per month and comes with 5 GB of traffic included. You can easily scale up from there and go for the $200/mo plan or even one of the more expensive packages.
You won’t get advanced features with the higher tiers or anything like that, but you will get a lot more traffic to work with and a much better price per GB the more you are willing to invest upfront in the service. If you happen to change your mind afterward, don’t worry because Smartproxy offers a 3-day money-back guarantee to all customers.
Large network;
Fair pricing;
Unlimited threads and connections;
Excellent performance;
No subnets.
City-targeting limited to 8 locations;
No SOCKS5 support;
No free trial.
2. Bright Data
Bright Data, formerly known as Luminati, has the largest network of residential proxies available on the market right now. You have over 72 million rotating IPs from around the world to work with. Unlike most of its competitors, Bright Data has an actual extensive worldwide network, with locations spanning from the US and UK to Japan and Australia and everywhere in between. The company is also known for its excellent uptime, low ban rates, and great customer support team.
Bright Data’s Residential Proxies Service
Although Bright Data doesn’t list sneaker copping under the use cases section of its website, the massive 72+ million pool of IPs is perfect for this exact purpose. Bright Data uses a P2P network so you can be certain that these are real household IPs that are not part of the same subnet, which makes them very difficult to track.
The company offers both shared and private IPs. Private IPs are great for exclusively targeting specific domains, however, it’s probably better to go with the shared version in this case because the private ones don’t rotate.
Bright Data is quite a bit more expensive than most of the other companies on this list but that’s only because its primary customers tend to be big businesses.
72+ million IPsHTTPS supportSOCKS5 support99% uptimeUnlimited concurrent requestsP2P network
The starter package comes with 40 GB of traffic included and has a monthly commitment of $500. That translates to $12. 50 per GB, which is actually pretty reasonable, however, the minimum monthly commitment makes Bright Data a premium option. Definitely well worth it if you can afford it, though.
If that’s a bit too pricey for you, it’s still possible to get a taste of what the company has to offer because Bright Data is currently offering a very generous 7-day free trial for residential proxy packages.
Reliable network;
Large proxy pool;
Great support available at all times;
Fast and reliable proxies;
Good for businesses and companies.
Expensive plans;
Limited bandwidth;
Not ideal for individuals.
3. Shifter
Shifter has been around for nearly a decade at this point under various names, including ReverseProxies and Microleaves. The company specializes in backconnect residential proxies while also offering reliable dedicated and shared proxy services. While Shifter doesn’t specifically sell sneaker proxies, the residential variants are said to be able to handle every possible use case, including shoe copping on websites like Nike, Supreme, Adidas, OVO, and Footsites.
Shifter’s Residential Proxies Services
Shifter has amassed a sizeable network of proxies over the years, totaling well over 31 million addresses as of 2021. The company charges for proxy ports rather than bandwidth, meaning you don’t have to worry about any sort of restrictions slowing you down. Once you buy a batch of sneaker proxies, they’re yours to do as you please. You can also expect each port to rotate every 5 minutes or so, greatly lowering the chance that your IPs will get blocked or banned while you’re making a purchase.
Like most proxy providers, Shifter claims that its network extends to every single country and city in the world. That claim seems a bit inflated, however, we have no doubt that the network covers all the major ones. Even more importantly, Shifter offers great city-level targeting for those who are willing to pay a little bit extra. Those who don’t will have to contend with being assigned worldwide IPs at random.
The instant scaling feature is also worth noting as it allows you to quickly add extra ports should you need them. Shifter supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS 4/5 protocols and has a 99. 9% uptime guarantee for its proxies. The addresses are also highly anonymous and said to all come from rea; residential connections.
Key Features
More than 31 million IPsGeo-targeting by country and cityHTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS 4/5 supportProxies rotate every 5 to 60 minutes (adjustable)Instant scaling and deploymentHighly anonymousUnlimited bandwidth
Shifter isn’t the cheapest network out there but its proxies are reasonably priced considering what you’re getting in return. You can get yourself a batch of 10 basic backconnect proxies for $124. 99 or 10 special backconnect proxy ports for $249. 99. If you’re looking for the best sneaker proxies you can get your hands on, we recommend investing in the special variants.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something a bit more affordable you might want to consider the dedicated or shared proxies. Here prices start at only $25 and $30, respectively, however, Shifter does mention that “these proxies will probably not work on shoe sites”. It’s up to you if you want to risk it.
Worldwide network with IPs in every major city;
Guaranteed to work on sneaker sites;
Fair pricing with unlimited bandwidth;
3-day money-back guarantee.
City-targeting only available with special plans;
Unreliable customer support.
4. Oxylabs
Oxylabs is a popular proxy provider and a well-respected name in the industry thanks to its ethical approach when it comes to doing business. The company has a very impressive pool of over 100 million IPs that includes both residential and data center proxies. The company stresses the fact that all addresses are acquired through legitimate means and even published a document that details how the procurement process and policies work.
Oxylabs’s Sneaker Proxies Service Page
The large network and high success rate of around 99. 2% means that Oxylabs can offer some of the best proxies for sneaker bots. Users can also expect unlimited concurrent sessions, high speeds, and excellent geo-targeting. Oxylabs covers 195 locations and supports country, city, and state-level targeting.
Oxylabs is a great choice for those who want to avoid IP blocking and CAPTCHAs at all cost. You won’t have to worry about those while using the company’s rotating proxies, which change your address every time you make a new request. The Oxylabs infrastructure was primarily designed with web scrapping in mind, but the IPs also work great as sneaker proxies.
There are quite a few types of products you can invest in at Oxylabs, including two types of residential proxies. The “next-gen” variants come with some pretty interesting features, including adaptive parser, auto-retry system, and AI-powered dynamic fingerprinting. Proxies aside, Oxylabs also offers a real-time crawler and a couple of add-ons.
Unlimited concurrent sessionsLarge network with over 100 million IPsContinuous proxy rotation99. 2% success rateCountry, city, state-level targetingIP whitelistingFree proxy manager add-on
Oxylabs has some of the fastest sneaker proxies but their prices are definitely not for everyone. The cheapest package or residential proxies will set you back $300 per month, and that’s just for the standard variant. If you’re looking to get your hands on some next-gen residential proxies you’ll need to fork out $360 per month. In either case, the basic package comes with 20GB worth of traffic. If you’re willing to invest more upfront, you’ll be able to get a much better price per GB with the more expensive tiers. Especially if you opt for yearly billing where there’s a 10% discount on everything.
195 locations to choose from;
Unlimited concurrent sessions;
High success rate for all proxies;
Great customer support;
No free trial for individuals;
Little information provided for SOCKS5 and mobile proxies;
Fairly expensive, no matter the plan you choose.
5. IPRoyal
With a little over 2 million IPs in its pool, IPRoyal’s network is quite a bit smaller but most of the other companies on this list. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The provider is reliable, only uses 100% genuine residential proxies and, in spite of its small size, the network does cover all the most important locations.
IPRoyal’s Sneaker Proxies Service Page
Even more importantly for the purpose of this article, IPRoyal has some of the best sneaker proxies around. Unlike other companies, IPRoyal doesn’t shy away from advertising that it sells sneaker proxies. In fact, the provider goes as far as to claim that its dedicated proxies are fully compatible with any sneaker bot.
Some of the sneaker bots confirmed to work with IPRoyal include Easy Cop Ultimate, AIO Bot, Supreme-Bot, Better Nike Bot, Sole Player, and more. The sneaker bot proxies are anonymous, have a 99% uptime guarantee, support both HTTPS and SOCKS5, and come with unlimited bandwidth. However, it is worth noting that these are data center proxies, which aren’t quite as reliable as residential rotating proxies in some instances.
Luckily, IPRoyal also offers regular residential proxies, 4G mobile proxies and IPv4/IPv6 private proxies for those who are looking to try different types of IPs. The prices are pretty cheap across the board for all services, but unfortunately, there’s no free trial or money-back guarantee that we could find.
2 million IPsWorks with all sneaker botsUnlimited bandwidthUser: Pass and IP authentication99% uptimeSOCKS5 & HTTPS supportInternet usage controlFree proxy tester
IPRoyal charges per proxy and has an interesting business model where you can buy a bunch of IPs for 24 hours at a rate of $0. 80 per proxy. Supposedly, this is meant to compensate for the lack of a free trial. As far as the regular package is concerned, prices here start at $1. 6 per proxy per month.
Other services are similarly cheap, with residential proxies costing $3 per GB while data center proxies can set you back as little as $0. 4 per proxy per month. Meanwhile, you can get access to IPRoyal’s network of 4G mobile proxies for $90 per month or $7 per day if you only want to use it for testing purposes.
Guaranteed to work on most footsites;
Good proxies for sneaker bots;
IP authentication;
Affordable plans.
Small proxies network;
No free trials available;
No refunds.
6. Proxydrop
Proxy drop is a small company with big ambitions. Despite not having been around for very long, at least in its current form, the provider already managed to grow its pool of proxies to over 28 million, and that number is constantly increasing. What sets Proxy Drop apart from some of the other companies on the list is that it deals exclusively in sneaker proxies.
Proxydrop’s Sneaker Proxies Features
According to a statement found on the company’s website, Proxy Drop was founded by a team of sneakerheads who got tired of the drawbacks that come with most sneaker proxies. Some of the biggest problems include slow speeds, low success rates, and banned proxies. As a result, the team went on to create a service that doesn’t have any of those issues.
One of the biggest advantages you can expect at Proxy Drop is the low number of active users. The company says it currently has over 500 active users, which isn’t a huge amount in the grand scheme of things. Combine that with the sizeable IP pool and it’s clear that you won’t have to worry about competition from fellow members or a shortage of proxies when you’re using this service.
Some might see the low active users count as an indication that the service isn’t trustworthy, but that’s not really the case. It’s simply because the service is relatively new to the scene.
Proxy Drop is one of the best places to get Footsites proxies. Supreme, Nike, Adidas, and Foot Locker are just some of the big websites where the proxies are guaranteed to work. There are a couple of different types of proxies you can choose from, including residential, ISP, and DC Captcha.
Over 28 million IPsSmart server routingUnbanned and unthrottled IPsUser:pass authenticationWorks will all Footsites
Proxy Drop offers a variety of packages to choose from, most of which are fairly expensive. The cheapest package of standard residential proxies will set you back $36/mo and come with 2GB worth of bandwidth. If you’re looking to get your hands on some Elite or Prestige proxies, the prices will go up accordingly but so will the speed and the reliability of the proxies.
It’s worth noting that the prices listed by Proxy Drop are before VAT, so expect the actual costs to be a bit higher than advertised. All in all, Proxy Drop is an expensive service, even compared to big players like Bright Data or Oxylabs. However, it is a service designed for people who know how to make money from sneaker copping. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth.
Specifically designed for sneaker copping;
Upstanding performance;
No throttling;
Sizable proxies pool.
Little information regarding location coverage;
Costly plans;
Limited bandwitdth;
No refund policy.
7. PacketStream
PacketStream is a company that values simplicity above all else, making it a good choice for users who are new to proxies. The service is powered by a peer-to-peer network comprised of real residential addresses that pretty much anybody can join.
PacketStream’s Residential Proxies Service Page
The ‘Become a Packeter’ program, which allows you to sell your bandwidth for a bit of pocket money, is one of the main highlights of the service. However, the provider’s reliance on this system also makes its network of 7+ million IPs prone to sudden fluctuations. Generally, you don’t have to worry about running out of IPs but that could become a problem if enough Packeters decide to leave the network at some point.
PacketStream doesn’t offer dedicated proxies for sneaker copping but the IPs can be used for that purpose, among many others, because they come from real users all over the world and are thus resistant to banning. That said, PacketStream doesn’t support a city and state-level targeting or SOCKS5, making the proxies less reliable for sneaker copping compared to those of some of the other companies on this list. These features are said to be coming in the future but we’re not sure when.
On the bright side, PacketStream offers both sticky and randomized IPs, allowing you to switch between the two types at will. In addition, the dashboard is very clean and easy to use, albeit it could use a couple more features.
Over 7 million IPs99% uptimeRotating + sticky IPsReseller APIHTTPS support
PacketStream uses a very simple pricing system where you can buy bandwidth at a rate of $1 per GB. No tiers or anything like that to worry about. The minimum amount of bandwidth you can buy is 50 GB but that’s about the only caveat we could find. In addition to being incredibly cheap, the service also offers a free trial, which is always nice to see.
User-friendly service and interface;
Very cheap proxy plans;
Great for resellers;
Easy to obtain free trial.
No city-level targeting;
No support for SOCKS5;
Slow customer support.
8. Geonode
If you’re looking to test out some good proxies for sneaker bots without breaking the bank, Geonode might be just what you need. The service has a pool of only around 2 million IPs but they are all residential and sourced from real devices. The company stresses the fact that it does not mix data center proxies in order to make its network seem bigger, unlike some of its competitors.
Geonode’s Residential Proxies Service
While Geonode may not have the largest network out there, the service more than makes up for it when it comes to its features. First off, you don’t have to worry about the bandwidth here because Geonode doesn’t impose any data transfer limitations. Geonode is also doing well in terms of authentication options, allowing you to use both IP whitelisting and username + password to sign in.
The service is also very versatile, offering support for pretty much any protocol you can think of, including HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, SOCKS4A, and SOCKS5. SNI is said to be coming soon as well. Speaking of versatility, Geonode also supports both sticky sessions and rotating proxies.
Geonode doesn’t list sneaker copping as one of the possible use cases for its proxies but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t work on Footsites. After all, the company only uses private exit nodes so there’s very little risk of your IPs getting blocked or banned.
2+ million IPsIP whitelistingUser:pass authenticationUnmetered bandwidthSupport for HTTPS and SOCKS4/5Private exit nodes170+ locations
Geonode charges for threads rather than bandwidth, which can be either a good or a bad thing depending on the situation. The cheapest package comes with 10 threads and costs $47/mo while the most expensive one comes with 20, 000 threads and costs a whopping $8, 000 per month. There’s definitely something for every pocket here.
If you’re a first-time customer, you can check out the starter plan for 7 days for just $7. If you don’t like the service, you can get your money back after the trial period is over. Unfortunately, the money-back guarantee only applies to first-time customers.
Exceptionally versatile;
Lots of useful features;
Low-priced proxy plans;
No data caps;
Sticky sessions along with IP rotation.
Fairly small network;
No refunds for existing users;
Not the best performance.
9. Storm Proxies
Stormproxies is one of the best players in the game when it comes to backconnect rotating proxies. This makes them an ideal choice for a number of activities, including copping sneaker sites.
Storm Proxies’s Sneaker Proxies Features
Although you can use Stormproxy’s standard rotating residential proxies for this purpose, the company recommends going for one of the packages that were specifically designed for sneaker sites. These plans are more expensive but they are guaranteed to work with shoe sites like Yeezy, Nike, Adidas, Supreme, Eastbay, Footlocker, and many others.
The company offers unlimited bandwidth with all packages and access to a pool of over 40. 000 residential IPs. The proxies rotate every 5 minutes and you can choose between US or EU-based IP addresses. All packages are limited to 1 access IP so you can only use the service from a single computer.
Aside from that, you can expect instant delivery, highly anonymous IPs, and a very fast network optimized for performance and multi-threaded tools.
40K+ residential IPsProxy plans for sneaker coppingHTTPS supportIP authenticationUnlimited bandwidthHighly anonymous
The cheapest package of residential sneaker proxies will set you back $90 per month and includes access to 10 ports. On the more expensive side of things, you can get packages with 200 or even 500 ports for $900 and $1600 per month, respectively. Stormproxy only offers a 2-hour money-back guarantee with its special sneaker proxies.
Great performance sneaker proxies;
Customer support available at all times;
Automatic, instant proxy delivery;
Easy to use.
Can get quite expensive;
Geo-targeting unavailable.
10. PrivateProxy
PrivateProxy can rightly be considered a veteran, having operated for well over a decade at this point. It may surprise you to learn that despite its age, the service only has around 100. 000 proxies on offer. However, the difference between PrivateProxy and other companies is that here you are the sole user of the IPs you purchase, regardless of whether you’re getting data center or residential proxies.
PrivateProxy’s Sneaker Proxies Features
PrivateProxy has a number of special packages aimed exclusively at sneakerheads. The company claims to offer some of the best proxies for sneaker bots and guarantees that the IPs will let you cop shoes from pretty much any website. There’s even a free trial available for users who want to test out the sneaker proxies before committing to a purchase.
Some of the top brand websites you can use the sneaker proxies on include the likes of Adidas, Nike, Zalando, and Yeezy Supply. European sneaker brands like BSTN and Footpatrol are mentioned as well. Big footsites like Eastbay, Foot Locker, Footaction, and Champs Sports have not been forgotten either. It’s worth noting that using PrivateProxy to cop from any of the last four mentioned websites will make you ineligible for the company’s refund policy.
Another thing you need to keep in mind about PrivateProxy is that the company is very much focused on the US, UK, and German markets. If you want to cop sneakers from other countries you’re better off trying a different service.
100, 000+ proxies15 data centersGuaranteed to work on sneaker sitesExclusive subnet for each clientFree proxy swaps upon renewalUnlimited connections
PrivateProxy’s charges per IP and its prices are reasonable, however, you will have to buy them in sizeable chunks. The cheapest package comes with 200 IPs and will set you back $355/mo. That’s less than $2 per IP but the upfront investment is significant. There are also packages that come with 400 and 1000 proxies that give you even better prices per IP.
There is a 7-day trial for DC proxies and a 2-day trial for residential ones. The company does not provide refunds after the free trial. And, as mentioned earlier, there are no refunds at all for using the proxies on Foot Locker, Eastbay, Footaction, and Champs Sports.
Excellent prices per IP;
IP whitelisting;
Reliable 24/7 customer support;
Free trial for newcomers.
Requires large upfront investment;
Small proxy pool;
SOCKS5 not supported.
What Are Sneaker Proxies?
Sneaker websites are some of the most restrictive sites around and won’t hesitate to swiftly block your IP if they notice any suspicious activity. Naturally, you can shop for shoes using your PC without getting into trouble. If you’re trying to buy them in bulk, however, you’ll quickly realize that most big-brand sneaker websites don’t like that one bit. One of the main reasons why limited edition shoes are so expensive is because manufacturers produce them in small batches.
If someone is trying to buy a sizeable portion of the limited supply it tends to raise a few red flags. Particularly since those types of sneakers are usually expensive, which means that regular customers don’t usually buy more than one or two pairs. As mentioned before, sneaker proxies can allow you to circumvent that by hiding your IP, thus allowing you to mask the identity of your actual address. Proxy services give you multiple IPs to work with so even if some of them do get banned, you still have others that you can use.
Why You Should Use Sneaker Proxies Instead of General Dedicated Proxies
Given that sneaker proxies tend to be fairly expensive, a lot of people might be inclined to use dedicated proxies instead. Although you can get away with using regular proxies on some sites, you can expect a much higher degree of success with dedicated sneaker proxies. These packages usually come with virgin IPs, which means that the proxies are clean and were never used before on sneaker websites, or any websites at all in some cases.
It’s important to remember that sneaker manufacturers have a lot at stake here. Most people who make bulk purchases plan to resell the shoes for profit, which is bad for business if you’re the company that made the shoes. That’s why these companies actively target suspicious activity and don’t mind banning even entire subnets if it means stopping resellers. If you’re someone who wants to get their hands on those hot limited edition sneakers at all costs, you’ll need to be equally determined in order to maximize your chances of success. That means using the best sneaker bots and the best sneaker proxy services.
The Various Types of Sneaker Proxies
“Sneaker Proxies” is an umbrella term used to refer to proxy services designed to help users cop sneakers from specialized websites. While a lot of sneaker proxies work on all shoe sites, others need to be used on certain types of websites to achieve maximum efficiency. Here are some of the different types of sneaker proxies you may encounter:
Supreme Proxies
Supreme sneakers are all the rage these days, making them very difficult to acquire due to the high amount of competition. In order to even stand a chance, you’re going to need extremely fast proxies. Right off the bat, data center proxies are a no-go. Some residential proxies can get the job done but you’ll ideally want to use ISP proxies when copping Supreme sneakers.
Footsites Proxies
The name ‘Footsites’ is often used to refer to the websites of brands that fall under the Foot Locker company. These include Foot Locker itself, as well as Eastbay, Champs Sports, and Footaction. All these sites use the same release methods and backend, meaning you only need one type of proxy to target all of them. Since the releases are based on a queue system, residential IPs with long sticky times are the best choice here.
Yeezy Proxies
These proxies can be used to target all Adidas products but they’re most often use for Yeezy releases, in particular. The release system works similar to that used by Footsites so, once again, you’ll want residential IPs with long sticky times. In addition, ISP proxies have been known to also work pretty well.
Nike Proxies
Nike is known for cracking down very hard on sneaker bots, making their sneakers some of the most difficult to cop. You’ll need some very good sneaker bots to get through the system and the IPs you use must be 100% clean. You’re unlikely to be successful with anything other than residential proxies here.
Residential Proxies vs. Data Center Proxies for Copping Sneakers
As you may have noticed already, our list primarily covered providers that offer residential proxy services. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, residential proxies are considered better for targeting proxy sites. That’s because these types of proxies use the IP addresses of actual users and that makes them less suspicious than data center proxies.
In addition, residential proxy services usually rotate IPs so even if one of them does get banned, you can try your luck with a different one. The drawback of residential proxies is that you’re dipping into a pool of IPs that contains both clean and already blacklisted addresses. Some companies do a good job of removing the bad IPs from the pool, but not all of them.
Loading the Sneaker Bots with Data Center IPs
Data center proxies, on the other hand, have their own pros and cons. On one hand, these proxies are a lot faster and usually cheaper so you’re potentially looking at a higher return on your investment. On the other hand, data center proxies are much easier to block. Also, you’re working with a bunch of IPs that are part of only one or a couple of subnets and, as mentioned, sneaker sites have no problems blocking entire subnets. In other words, you risk losing all your IPs in one fell swoop.
That said, you can still successfully use data center proxies on some sneaker sites as long as you have virgin IPs to work with, though you’ll still need to be careful not to abuse them. PrivateProxy and a handful of other companies have been offering excellent data center sneaker proxies for many years so this is definitely a viable option, assuming you’re getting your proxies from a reliable provider.
ISP Proxies for Specifc Sneaker Drops
In addition to residential and data center proxies, there’s a third type of IPs that are sometimes used for copping sneakers. ISP proxies, also known as static residential proxies, have grown in popularity as of late and sit somewhere in the middle between the other two types. These proxies are registered directly with internet service providers (ISP), which makes them particularly difficult to block. They’re also static and very fast, but they certainly don’t come cheap.
There are only a handful of companies that sell ISP proxies and they tend to charge an arm and a leg for them. ISP proxies are available in very li
What a real Sneaker Bots attack looks like: A Deep Dive – PerimeterX
In our last blog, we talked about sneaker bots–what they are and what drives them.
In this blog, we will explore how they work, what tools and methods they use and what a real attack looks like. Last but not least, we will look at the damage they cause and how to protect your e-commerce website from them.
The Tools and Tricks of Sneaker Bots
In the early days, using tech to “cop kicks” required actually building a stack of tools. You needed a scraper to pull in the information, pricing and inventory, and then a bot for automating purchases. You didn’t have to worry about making multiple tries from the same IP address because retailers were only waking up to the bot problem. This has evolved considerably.
Today so called all-in-one (AIO) bots perform scraping, automated purchasing and scheduling. Their systems are designed not only to find inventory and click “buy, ” but also to constantly evaluate shopping cart processes and update whenever those processes change. Increasingly, too, AIO tools incorporate steps to outsmart bot solutions and evade detection. The best AIO bots can target dozens or hundreds of stores, allowing a single user to literally scour the globe for sneaker deals. After purchasing the tool, sneaker bot operators usually can install a browser extension to activate the bot.
CyberAIO home page advertising its speed and showing it’s “sold out” status
The Tesla of sneaker bots is a tool called CyberAIO by Cybersole. Designed with a beautiful User Interface, CyberAIO is also a technically sophisticated product. Built ostensibly on top of a headless browser – a stripped-down version of a standard web browser – CyberAIO has loads of features that allow its operators to simultaneously target numerous sites and sneaker drops. CyberAIO users simply pick the sneakers they want to buy from a menu of upcoming drops, set a budget, and then sit back. CyberAIO covers over 170 sites, including not only sneaker retailers but also brand sites and streetwear companies like Supreme -another company that uses limited release items to drive awareness and brand perception. And CyberAIO just came out with Android and iOS versions of its software.
The bot acts autonomously. CyberAIO gets around the standard bot-blocking CAPTCHA tools by queueing up multiple CAPTCHA windows and allowing the human bot operator to quickly answer them, providing verification that allows the bot to complete the transaction. CyberAIO has a reputation for being incredibly fast. This is crucial because, in reality, it is competing more against other types of bots than against humans.
Just like most popular SaaS tools, CyberAIO has a community of thousands of users in Slack and its own Discord channel where users can share tips and expert users provide support. Getting CyberAIO is almost as hard as buying a pair of Travis Scott AJ OGs. The bot’s shadowy creator sells no more than 100 licenses per month at a price of over $300 apiece plus bi-annual subscription fees. Ironically, there is a hot secondary market for CyberAIO licenses which can be sold for nearly $3, 000.
Oculus AIO tool marketing page advertising automatic CAPTCHA solver
Another popular AIO sneaker bot, OculusAIO, actually provides artificial intelligence features to help its bots navigate security measures. It can automatically solve simple CAPTCHAs, circumventing that security measure. A quick Google search turns up dozens of sneaker bots and the major ones, like Cybersole and OculusAIO have tens of thousands of public Twitter followers. They are not afraid to poke fun at those who try to block them and their users like to publicly celebrate their kicks conquests.
Tweet from a CyberAIO user showing hot shoes bought with the bots
Another technology tool that smarter bot operators frequently pair with bots is advanced proxies. A proxy is basically an intermediary that sneaker bot operators use to hide their identity. Proxies supply sneaker sites with a variety of different IP addresses. A commonly used one is AU Proxies. These proxy services are also not technically illegal even though they are often used for malicious hacking attempts. Note that proxies are also a key tool for protecting privacy in countries with repressive governments.
Twitter page of popular proxy provider AU Proxies
More advanced proxies today not only act as intermediaries but they also use IP addresses assigned to residential Internet connections to trick bot mitigation tools into allowing multiple connections from the same bot operator behind the proxy. Because a residential IP is more likely to be a real shopper rather than a bot, sneaker sellers are reluctant to introduce friction into the sales process and so are less likely to require a CAPTCHA solution or to block traffic from this IP. Residential proxies sell for two to three times the price per month of non-residential proxies that use cloud server IP addresses from public compute clouds and hosting services. For both residential and data center proxies, CyberAIO, OculusAIO and other AIO bots can help a user test and configure proxies, and will check to make sure they are working well.
Pricing plans for residential proxies on AU Proxies page
Anatomy of a Sneaker Bot Attack
Attackers receive early guidance on which targets might be the most valuable from online exchange websites that post prices for upcoming sneakers not yet released. Once their targets are clear, a bot operator begins testing out a target site a few days before a major sneaker drop to make sure they can solve any challenges directed at them by the site operator trying to prevent bots from buying up the limited inventory. Unfortunately, this early testing is difficult to detect; it represents a minute amount of traffic and is hard to distinguish.
Prior to the shoe launch, malicious traffic by bots is generally well below legitimate traffic. Once a hot sneaker drops and the bot armies swing into full gear, that ratio reverses; malicious traffic can be twice or three times the volume of legitimate site traffic. This traffic quickly drops off after inventory is exhausted and the bots move on to other targets.
Let’s look into a sneaker bot activity from a traffic standpoint. In the graph below we see the traffic from two shoe releases on November 2nd from multiple well-known shoe retailer websites. The first shoe was the Adidas soft version of Yeezy 500’s, and the second one was the Nike Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG “Fearless. ” The red line shows the unwanted sneaker bot traffic, while the blue line represents the human traffic.
As can be seen on the graph, the Nike Air Jordan 1’s that were launched at 7:00am were much more popular, getting 3X of the traffic that the Yeezy 500’s saw at the peak. During the launch time of both shoes the sneaker bot traffic ranged between ~55-68% of the total traffic.
For both shoes, resell items appeared online quickly and at much higher prices.
Adidas Yeezy’s 500’s resale example:
Nike AJ1 Fearless resale example:
Looking carefully, one can also recognize third and fourth spikes in traffic. These are the result of a restock notification from various different monitors. Here is the third spike trigger, at 8:58 am:
And this one triggered the fourth and smaller one at 1:42 pm:
These later spikes, are harder to see and not as pronounced as the first two. The reason is that those restocks were unexpected, so the larger bot operators did not have enough time to prepare, as it takes time for a singular computer to spin up a network of proxies and co-locations.
Another thing we can see when taking a closer look at the traffic is the clear difference in the traffic pattern between bot traffic and human traffic. In the graphs below, we see the traffic a day before the launch, just before it starts to spike up. As we usually see when comparing automated traffic to human traffic, it is pretty clear that while human traffic tends to grow during daytime hours and drop at night, the unwanted automated bot traffic doesn’t show this pattern.
This is typical of this type of automated traffic – sneaker bots don’t go to sleep.
The Real Costs of Sneaker Bots
We discussed above how sneaker bots harm regular online shoppers and sneaker lovers by jacking up the prices. They also hurt the brands which dislike seeing their shoes go for such high prices on secondary markets. The bots harm the independent sneaker shops as well, because it forces them to take extreme steps to protect their online inventory.
Launch Day Failures, Jacked Up Bandwidth, Lost Sales
More broadly, sneaker bots can cost large and mid-sized internet retailers and shoe brands big money in a variety of ways. To start with, bots suck up huge amounts of bandwidth and can actually take a site down on sneaker launch day. This could cost a large retailer millions of dollars per day because the bot operators may make an entire site unavailable, shutting out buyers not only of the hot sneaker but also of any other item on the site. This forces retailers and brands to spend big money for CDNs, extra server capacity and extra bandwidth to handle the crush.
Wasted Employee Time
Security, web operations and site reliability teams of retailers and brands often spend hours combatting the effects of rampant sneaker bots. This can mean reconfiguring cloud services, dialing up and down bandwidth, tweaking firewall configurations and server capacity, creating special scripts to lock out bots and more. In reality, maintaining and tuning all the tools and infrastructure required to stop bots would also require multiple full-time employees, and retailers would still struggle to keep up with rapidly improving sneaker bots. In addition, support teams often waste time dealing with angry legitimate customers on social platforms complaining that they couldn’t buy the shoes they wanted. All told, bots can suck up dozens of hours of staff time per sale. That’s time which could be spent on other more impactful and less reactive activities.
The Benefits of Outsourcing Sneaker Bot Protection
There are numerous benefits to using a specialized bot mitigation service to monitor and block sneaker bots. Rather than struggling to keep up with all the rapid advances in bot technology in-house, relying on a specialized bot mitigation firm will afford retailers and brands more comprehensive protection because the firm’s dedicated team will be better able to keep up with bot developments. The firm, too, can share that requirement across a wide variety of customers, all of whom will benefit from the collective intelligence gathering; any new capabilities showing up in sneaker bots will be detected sooner and mitigation improvements can be implemented more quickly.
At PerimeterX, we have a long history of working with retailers facing sneaker bot attacks and we are constantly watching developments in bot technology. With the holiday season upon us, and the sneaker market growing both more liquid and more lucrative just as bots are getting faster and ever-more sophisticated, the winter sneaker drops could cause a botpocalypse for unprepared retailers and brands – unless they get ahead of the curve on sneaker bots and make sure their Travis Scott Air Jordans don’t get the rapid-fire CyberAIO treatment.
Frequently Asked Questions about buy proxies for sneakers
How much is a proxy for sneakers?
Pricing. The cheapest package of residential sneaker proxies will set you back $90 per month and includes access to 10 ports.
Are sneaker proxies illegal?
A proxy is basically an intermediary that sneaker bot operators use to hide their identity. Proxies supply sneaker sites with a variety of different IP addresses. … These proxy services are also not technically illegal even though they are often used for malicious hacking attempts.Dec 17, 2019
How do I buy proxies with shoes?
Sneaker proxies are important add-ons to optimize your sneaker bot’s performance, whether you’re looking to cop multiple pairs, or just want to have more chances at copping. They are IP addresses that you can use as your own so you can appear as multiple different people.