Want to Get Rich Quick Reselling Sneakers? These Guys … – GQ
All these stories start the same way: with a pair of sneakers purchased for the retail price, and then flipped for a profit. They start this way because odds are you, or someone you know, has done this very thing, or will very soon. And the odds are decent, too, that your path to that cash, or your brother’s or your cousin’s, has resembled one of a handful of proven methods, whether it involves seed capital from the Bank of Dad or a little bit of gentle corporate hacking. Because as the secondary sneaker market has swelled to somewhere in the range of a $2 billion market with the potential to reach $6 billion by 2025, according to investment bank Cowen, it’s turned into a boondoggle for everyone sneaker resale platform Goat acquired Flight Club last year and then received a $100 million investment from Foot Locker in February. StockX, where people can sell sneakers alongside watches and streetwear, is now valued at over $1 billion dollars. But those profits are also trickling downwards, where a cottage industry is forming, eager to reap the profits of sneaker reselling. Below are the group of people you meet when you start flipping sneakers for profit. They are entrepreneurs who want to make you rich, and just might succeed. But don’t mistake them for benevolent—teaching you how to flip a half-dozen pairs of Yeezys will make them phenomenally wealthy, TatoneThe Sneaker Portfolio ManagerMatt Cohen’s story starts with a Supreme x Nike Dunk. In 2002, for one beautiful week, he can find new pairs of the Jordan 3-inspired collaborative shoes every day. Cohen pays his friends to ride the train down to the shop at 2 a. m. each night, where they wait overnight. With the head start, they are able to buy 10 pairs, all different colorways, and flip them for a large profit on, ever entrepreneurial, continues to sell sneakers through high school, and uses the money he makes to help him through college. He graduates and eventually starts working for Citigroup trading convertible bonds. “I hit this point where I knew there was something more for me to do, ” Cohen says. He and his wife pick up and move to Los Angeles without jobs. Cohen takes an interview with the VC fund Upfront Ventures, telling them about his lifelong passion for sneaker-based entrepreneurship Hold on, the interviewers say, did you say sneakers? Upfront, it just so happened, has recently made a strategic investment into a sneaker-resale company with a funny name:, three years later, Cohen is the VP of business development and strategy at Goat. Among the job’s most interesting responsibilities is his role advising Goat’s highest-level sellers, igniting in their bellies the same entrepreneurial fire that raged in his. They make up an elite task force of sneaker-selling mercenaries—one that, despite representing less than a single percentage of Goat’s overall user base, moves 40 percent of shoes on the platform. Enough shoes that the platform claims it sells more Yeezys than Adidas—a fact that only makes sense when you figure that a pair of Yeezys might change hands a half-dozen times before coming to rest. “When I was making that move [from New York], I thought about drafting my dream job, ” Cohen says. “I would never have drafted this job—it would never have been this good. ” The same skills Cohen used to analyze new companies at Citigroup he now applies to finding new opportunities and competitive advantages in the nooks and crannies of sneaker reselling for Goat ’s easy to share Cohen’s amazement that this job exists at all. A former Wall Streeter called in to advise cream-of-the-crop sneaker resellers? Exactly. But as sneakers have gone up in the value, and the resale market has ballooned with it, more and more people have started to treat them less like wearable objects and more like commodities, so much so that poaching a former Wall Streeter starts to sound less and less like startup in point: over the past few years, Cohen has helped Goat’s best sellers turn profits that would feel familiar to his former coworkers. In 2017, many of Goat’s best sellers made over $2 million in profit each. Last year, a chunk of those same sellers cracked $10 Cohen and a team of account managers work with sellers on an individual basis, helping them up their profits. Cohen and company noticed, for instance, that in 2016, Adidas NMDs were hot, hot, hot practically everywhere—except Atlanta. Across the city, NMDs were sitting on shelves, while customers in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City were willing to shell out resale-level money for the shoes. Cohen sent a flare out to Atlanta buyers to go and scoop up as many of the shoes as they could and sell them to NMD-starved of Cohen’s job revolves around finding these sort of peculiarities in the market. If it were possible, he’d just tell them all to buy the latest Travis Scott x Nikes, but making reliable money from shoes is about purchasing in bulk. It’s no coincidence that a significant part of Cohen’s day-to-day involves coordinating for massive amounts of shoes to be dropped off at Flight Club, the retailer Goat acquired in ’s job is ultimately about managing supply. Goat is a retailer, but one dependent on its customer base to fill up the digital shelves. Cohen’s job isn’t just about making sure resellers make the most money from sneakers, but making sure that when they do sell upwards of $10 million in shoes, they do it on Goat, where the company gets a small percentage—anywhere from 9. 5% for sellers in good standing to 20% with those who have sent wrong or fake shoes or the right ones but late before—of every sale. Over the phone, he sounds like he’s still pinching himself. “I hope that whoever reads this and is thinking about making a move takes the risk and just goes for it, ” Cohen says whimsically. “Because it’s one thing to have a job, it’s another thing to do what you love. ” If the thing you love is reselling sneakers, all the TatoneThe Would-Be Tim Ferris of SneakersJose Ortiz’s story starts with a Just Don x Air Jordan 2. He is working dead-end jobs, selling whatever he can find—toys and hoverboards—on the side, shaking the proverbial couch cushions of the secondary market. On eBay, he notices a pair of Jordans, retail price $350, selling for $1, 000. “I was looking at the sales history and there were multiples being sold every hour, ” Ortiz says. “Just that gap right there caught my attention. ” Soon after, he buys a different pair for $190, immediately selling them for $300. His time screwing around with hoverboards now complete, he begins entering raffles and buying up big collections people are trying to offload all at once. He eventually sells enough sneakers to make over six figures annually. It’s going great, and then a prospective Yeezy buyer pulls a gun on him. That was it for, Ortiz calls me from Bali, the latest stop on his world tour, and home to Six Figure Sneakerhead’s HQ. Six Figure Sneakerhead was an idea meant to remove him from the boots-on-the-ground element of sneaker reselling while passing on, and profiting from, what he learned in the process. It’s part blog, part series of ebooks, that, taken together, create a How-To guide for selling sneakers and valuable streetwear brands like Supreme. The texts are reminiscent of the fat volume of books a door-to-door salesman might have pitched unsuspecting rubes on in the ‘50s, or the basis for a seminar held in a conference room in a Newark Airport-adjacent Six Figure Sneakerhead course is meaty, with options for every kind of dreamer: there’s the “$10K Per Month Sneaker Workbook, ” the “2019 Supreme Resale Bible, ” and the five-part “Hypemaster Playbook, ” which starts with a familial “What’s up guys! ” The idea for the ebooks came from iconic hustlers and inspirational gurus like Tim Ferris and Tai Lopez, who sells a guide outlining “The 67 Steps To Health, Wealth, Love & Happiness. ” Ortiz’s success is a product of a very real demand by people who see in sneaker resale a new kind of get-rich-quick Ortiz’s mind, though, there’s nothing scheme-y about it. Sneakers are just a great investment. He cites their low entry cost, the immediate return on value, and the constant turnover of releases. For a young entrepreneur, or anyone looking to make extra cash on the side, there isn’t a better commodity class. He posts testimonials from satisfied customers, pleased with the new faucet of cash they’ve been able to turn on. One reads: “As a teacher who is trying to make some extra cash, your info has really helped. ”For Ortiz, sneakers have moved way beyond their original end-use. After he was robbed, he saw that the road to making more money doing this was only going to get harder. And the idea of doing a book—not a series of Youtube videos like most people his age—was attractive. “I like doing things that scale and if you write a book, once you plant the seed, you can get paid dividends for it, ” he says. Nowadays, Ortiz is about as far removed from the sneaker world as someone in his line of work can be. I ask him if he keeps any of the shoes he buys, or still appreciates them as a collector. He tells me he sold all of his not too long ago. “I don’t like to waste money, ” he says, “so I didn’t see the point in having them. ”Alicia TatoneThe Tesla-Driving, Squad-Mobilizing Teen KingpinAaron Maresky’s story starts with an OVO x Jordan 12. It’s 2016. He’s 15, and he’s been spending a lot of time in the hospital dealing with a serious case of Crohn’s disease. He’s filling his days poring over new sneaker releases—the day and time they’re releasing, what’s selling out, what they’re selling for on the secondary market—when he comes up with a plan. It’s foolproof, he thinks—he just needs the cash. So he asks his dad for $350, uses the loan to buy the 12s, and immediately flips them. He pays his dad back the $350, and uses his $400 profit to buy two pairs of Yeezys. The seeds of a sneaker empire are, Maresky calls me from the car to talk about the ensuing years. “I like driving when I’m on the phone, ” he says, “because I live with my mom, and she doesn’t understand when I’m on important calls—she yells. ” Maresky is 18 now, starting college this week. The car is the Tesla he bought himself—he’s attached a customized license plate that reads “AMNOTIFY. ”Maresky with his Tesla before prom
AMNotify is Maresky’s baby, and what’s typically referred to as a “cook group:” a crew that uses a messenger platform, typically Discord, to disseminate that info helps paying members “cook, ” which is fuccboi for “buy sneakers. ” Maresky declines to tell me exact membership figures, but says that upwards of a thousand people pay $60 a month for access to information that helps them stockpile coveted shoes. He keeps membership limited, so as to not dilute the value of the stuff flying around, which creates a phenomenon wherein memberships are perhaps even more valuable than grail sneakers. “I’ve seen a lifetime membership sell for $2, 500, ” he says. “Believe it or not, I’ve had people say, ‘Yo, I just spent $2, 000 on a membership’ and then come back to me a week later, ‘I made my money back. ’ Amazing feeling. ”How does a person make up $2, 500 in a week? In a cook group, that’s easy. The group creates bots to alert members to restocks. Developers who Maresky employs (he has a paid staff of 40) find backdoor access to hot releases, which allows members a brief but meaningful head start on the sneaker-buying competition. Real-life friends and acquaintances who work at boutiques and brands—known in this world as plugs—will put the group on notice for surprise drops, or even help rig resky is crafty when it comes to cultivating his sources. Last year, with Papa Johns reeling from horrendous PR gaffes, the pizza joint gave away 10, 000 codes for free pizza every day for a month. Maresky managed to score 1, 000 gratis pies and, after giving 90% of them to members, used the remaining 100 to send a sneaker store 10 pizzas—“A little bit of everything, he says”—for 10 days in a row. On the tenth day, someone bit. “‘Hey bro, ’” they wrote, according to Maresky, “you seem mad cool. What’s your Instagram? ” Together, Maresky and the employee rigged the store’s upcoming raffle, won 50 sneakers, and split them. From there, Maresky says this employee connected him with people at other stores so that he and AMNotify now have sources at a wide range of major sneaker retailers. (Maresky declines to name any. )Two AMNotfiy members show off their towering haul
Aaron MareskyAaron MareskyThe group has this sort of access all over the sneaker industry. Maresky claims AMNotify members bought at least 450 of the 500 Post Malone Crocs initially released, and owns 40% of the MCA Virgil Abloh Nikes, which are currently retailing $2, 000. One group member tells me they’ve sold $1, 489 worth of sneakers this month—and that’s below average. In a good month, this person will sell $2, 500 to $3, 000 worth of gear for a $1, 500 profit. A diligent spreadsheet keeps track of the shoes they’re holding onto—Yeezys, Sacai Nikes, and a pair of original 2017 Off-White x Nike Jordans worth $5, 000–and puts the on-ice collection’s value at $13, 751. 46. Together, Maresky claims that the group buys up 30, 000 sneakers a month and has made “collectively over half a million in profit on, like, a given day, ” he says, citing figures that come from internal Notify, after having success pooling their knowledge together to win HQ Trivia games, is branching out into other categories: Funko toys, but also art and stocks. (Provided you consider limited Stussy prints art. ) Sneakers will remain the bread and butter, though, with Maresky as the group’s leader. He just started college, where he’s majoring in business. It’s honestly hard to imagine what else he needs to learn. “I always say, ‘Another day, another dollar. ’”Alicia TatoneThe Benevolent Sneaker King of InstagramJordan Vankeulen’s story starts with the Nike x Off-White Air Jordan 1s, in the “Chicago” colorway. His friend is a great coder, and whips up a program that helps him purchase a pair of the shoes. In a single moment, he makes $2, 000 in profit. He is just starting at the University of Oregon, and his life has changed. “It was just like a spark, ” Vankeulen says. “Like, ‘Wow, that’s better than clocking into a minimum-wage job. ’ The big thing with reselling for me is that I can work one to three, four hours a day, every other day, and I’ll make a lot more money than I would working anywhere else. ”The coder friend doesn’t care to keep going, but Vankeulen does. He sees how much money there is to be had in sneakers, but doesn’t see many accessible resources guiding people’s investment strategies. So he creates the Instagram account Resellology and starts posting graphics made in Instagram’s Story function. The pictures lay out a shoe’s retail price, an estimated resale value, the most profitable sizes, and all the places the shoe will be available to purchase. “I saw that there were no other accounts really focused on the financial side, ” Vankeulen says. “The [accounts] were mostly just focused on leaks. I really just wanted to make something that everybody could understand. I just saw a big market that hadn’t been taken over and a lot of people who didn’t know what to buy or what to invest in. ”Vankeulen’s Resellology is part science but mostly gut. To determine projected resale value, he spends about 20 to 30 minutes going over resale sites like StockX and Grailed. He makes sure to check every individual size because the difference between smaller shoes and the more common sizes can be a couple hundred bucks. He’ll take into account how models of shoes have sold over the past year or so. “If there’s a nine-month to 12-month trend for Air Jordan 1s going up, I’ll recommend you hold for that long on it, ” Vankeulen says. Lastly, he says he checks in with sources around the industry who might have a rough idea of how many pairs of a shoe are releasing. A couple years in, Vankeulen now creates his graphics on Google Docs using the platform’s drawing feature. He makes money the same way everyone with a decent following does on Instagram: by pocketing ad revenue and selling sponsored Maresky’s cook group is the Harvard grad school of reselling, Vankeulen’s Resellology is the DeVry online university. Vankeulen knows about the bots, the chat groups, the professional resellers—but he wants to help those on the periphery who aren’t doing this for living, but rather are trying to scrape a few bucks are people like Vankeulen once was: broke college students looking for a way out of the slog of clocking in. Vankeulen guesses that more than half of the people who follow Resellology are in it not because they care so deeply about the latest Jordan retro but because of “the immense amount of profit that they can make, ” he nkeulen’s isn’t the most glamorous platform—the one that comes with startup equity or a Tesla—but it maybe best underscores how the sneaker industry has been reshaped in 2019. Resellology isn’t for the one-percent sellers, but for the masses who are dropping in with a hot sneaker and the understanding they’re better off selling than wearing it. Reselling shoes is no longer just for the hardcore sneakerheads, but for literally anyone with an Instagram sellology’s audience skews young, which is not a coincidence to Vankeulen. “It’s an easy way to make money and I think a lot of the opportunities that kids my age have don’t seem very appealing, ” he says. “You kind of get to be your own boss, be a lot more prideful. ” They are kids who have found a way to make a whole massive economy work for them. Rather than seizing the means of production, they are extracting unbelievable value out of what is already Instagram has been such a success for Vankeulen he’s reoriented his studies around a career in the sneaker industry. He’s taking graphic design—those Instagram photos are about to get that much spiffier—digital marketing, and business classes. “Every class that I take pretty much benefits my work, ” he says. He might start a cook group like AMNotfiy, but his dream is to open a store like Stadium Goods and Flight Club that sells rare secondhand sneakers. Hopefully, the stores will be in “some super-prime locations in downtown L. A. or something, ” he says wistfully. A place where he can continue to build an empire helping move the world’s rarest and hottest Best Shoe Cleaners Will Keep Your Kicks Box FreshThe cleaners, brushes, and bags that’ll save your favorite kicks again and again.
How to Resell Sneakers: Beginner’s Guide to Flipping Shoes …
Learning how to resell sneakers isn’t a new hustle.
This has actually been a successful side gig for decades in many cities and the explosion of the Internet and online commerce has opened up more opportunities than ever for selling and reselling sneakers.
If you grew up when the first Air Jordans came out, this shouldn’t be that much of a surprise.
While sneakers are often seen as a fashion statement, with many people believing the kind of kicks you’re wearing describes the type of person you are, if your first thought when seeing a pile of really nice discounted sneakers or tennis shoes is “profit potential, ” then you’ve come to the right place.
However, you may have heard that there’s more money to make by reselling shoes than by wearing them. Good news: you’re probably an entrepreneur.
In this post, you will learn how to resell sneakers for a profit, including important information like:
What the sneakerhead culture is, how much the market is worth, and how much you can make by taking advantage of it
The most expensive and sought-after shoes and sneakers in the secondary market
How to find the best shoes to buy and where to sell them
The pitfalls of reselling shoes
Additional tips to help you make the most out of reselling shoes
Learn How to Resell Shoes
As a heads up, this post is a great overview of buying and selling shoes for profit. However, if you want to learn from the true expert and get much more depth for how to make this business work for you, I recommend checking out the Six Figure SneakerHead – HypeMaster Playbook Here.
Learn How a SneakerHead Makes Six Figures HereUse code NICHEMONEY to get an extra 10% off.
ContentsHow to Resell: Sneaker Reselling for BeginnersHow Much Can You Make Reselling Shoes? How to Buy & Sell the Most Expensive and Sought-After Shoes and SneakersThe Process of Reselling ShoesHow to Find Shoes to Buy and SellHow to Determine if the Shoes Are FakeShoe Reselling TipsWhere and How to Buy and Sell ShoesThe Cons of Reselling ShoesHow to Avoid Common Sneaker Reselling MistakesAre You Ready for the Rigors of Selling Used Shoes?
How to Resell: Sneaker Reselling for Beginners
The flipping sneaker business in many places has provided an avenue for hustlers to ethically and ingeniously make a quick buck. And what seemed to be footwear that keeps your feet safe and warm serve a different purpose to other people.
Compared to some other ways of making money online, the sneaker resale market is very profitable and valued at around $1 billion. While only 4% of shoes and sneakers are purchased upon release for resale, the market benefits from side hustlers and entrepreneurs who operate in different channels.
The sneaker market as a whole has opened up itself to more people with the help of online channels. However, back in the day when the internet didn’t exist, there was a competition within the different communities and tribes in the market. People scoured through a thrift store and flea markets to get shoes under their market price.
Others would run to their nearest Foot Locker to get the latest pair of shoes. Information was spread through word of mouth and Eastbay mail catalogs. In other words, reselling sneakerheads worked in isolation with their communities.
There was only so much distance and area you could cover in the early sneaker game. That shared common experience within a small group of people made the sneaker market what it is today.
To get your fix on the latest sneaker news, you just need to hop onto Hyperbeast and High Snobiety or other sites that keep track of the sneaker fashion market. Both are fashion sites that extensively cover information and news about the culture for sneakerheads of all levels.
If you want to get connected with fellow sneaker lovers, you need to attend SneakerCon that takes places in the different parts of the world.
How Much Can You Make Reselling Shoes?
The short answer? Millions.
JV is a guy making six figures a year reselling shoes. He got his start flipping sneakers as a side gig while working retail. After 4 months in, he was clearing over $10, 000 per month.
He’ll teach you how to do the same thing he does, clear the big bucks, in his online course. If you add the code NICHEMONEY, you can get an extra 10% off.
Reselling shoes isn’t a rare phenomenon. A quick look at Amazon and eBay will reveal you a secondhand pair of sneakers up for grabs for every brand new pair. The process of shoe selling is all too common that there are people who made reselling shoes a profitable full-time job.
However, there are only a handful of people who have built an empire as shoe resellers. Arguably the most successful sneaker reseller is Benjamin Kapelushnik. Also known as Benjamin Kickz and owner of the sneaker marketplace Sneaker Don, he started in the business at 13 in 2013 and made it big two years after.
He rose to fame as the shoe supplier to DJ Khaled who referred him to his friends in the music and entertainment industry. He made his first million in 2016 and had been reselling rare and expensive shoes and sneakers to high-ticket clients since then.
Sneaker collecting is a thing and for individuals who can get a good deal on rare or hard to find sneakers like a limited release commemorative pair of Nike Air Jordan 2 Just Don, the Nike SB Dunk, or others, it can be ridiculously profitable to be reselling sneakers.
However, if we’re being more realistic, unless you know someone like DJ Khaled, it will likely be impossible for you to make that much money in two years. That doesn’t mean you should stay out of the sneaker resale game, though! If you follow the process of flipping shoes, you can get around $80-100 per pair for starters.
You can work your way to generating higher margins if you get better sneakers to resell, maybe around $500 per pair.
This is not a bad way to make money, and you’ll learn the exact process later on.
If you want to take a look at what some of these shoes are selling for, take a quick peak at eBay. Type in “Limited edition sneakers. ” Some of those options sell for hundreds of dollars!
How to Buy & Sell the Most Expensive and Sought-After Shoes and Sneakers
Ever since the 70s, there are only two brands that mattered to most sneakerheads: Nike and Adidas.
Both brands have produced lines of sneakers and shoes for athletes and artists. Some of those lines have withstood time and exponentially increased their value since their release. Some brands have made waves (Reebok) and are poised to make one (Under Armour, Big Baller Brand). However, if you’re in the sneaker industry, you can’t go wrong with these two brands.
Below are some of the more popular expensive shoes in the market pioneered by the two brands:
Most Popular Expensive Shoes to Resell
Air Jordan 12 ($100, 000+) – Michael Jordan needs no introduction. Aside from his accomplishments as a basketball player, he established the Jordan brand that comprises his line of Nike shoes. In fact, you can quickly make a list of most expensive sneakers based on his shoes alone. The most affordable pair of Jordan shoes could go for $4, 500 (Jordan III OG) on resale. However, the Jordan 12 collection is easily the most expensive pair of shoes in the Jordan line. In particular, the Jordan 12 Flu Game shoes, where he willed his body to score 38 points in a pivotal game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, tops the list at a whopping $104, 000.
Nike Air Yeezy 2 “Red October” ($6, 000) – Kanye West is one of the most popular artists to date. His fame prompted Nike to launch their first non-athlete collaboration pair of sneakers. Released in 2009, Red October was initially sold for $250. Since then, the pair is resold between $5, 600 to $6, 400. West collaborated with other footwear such as Louis Vuitton, BAPE, and Adidas. The latter started their partnership with West that ended up being the Adidas Yeezy Boost line. In fact, a pair of Yeezys is some of the most coveted shoes in the market outside of Jordans.
Nike Air Mag Back to the Future ($10, 000+) – Inspired by the sneakers worn by Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) in Back to the Future 2, there are only 1, 500 pairs manufactured by Nike. However, none of them made over to stores as all pairs were sold through auction. Proceeds went to Fox’s foundation for Parkinson’s disease research. The pair has glowing LED panels and upper contour.
As mentioned, there are other up-and-comer brands with pairs of sneakers worth looking into. Thanks to Stephen Curry, Under Armour’s stock is rising. And while Big Baller Brand built their brand around hype (for the time being until Lonzo Ball achieves greatness), the $500 pair of kicks they’re selling is interesting to say very least.
That being said, when you’re starting out with flipping sneakers and learning about the resale market for popular sneakers, you should stick with the most popular brands.
In the beginning, learning about the sneaker resale market, secondary markets, and spotting fake sneakers will take up plenty of time and energy. You don’t need to be speculating until you get your sneaker game up to snuff!
The Process of Reselling Shoes
While earning over a million dollars for reselling shoes at this stage is still possible, there are lots of obstacles you must overcome to reach that goal. Aside from bagging clients willing to shell out serious dough for sneakers, you need to learn where to find and acquire the most sought-after shoes.
The competition nowadays is fierce as you’ll be lucky to establish a client base as a beginner.
Therefore, you need to immerse yourself in the sneakerhead culture and apply yourself 100% to have a fighting chance. There are more individuals than ever involved in sneaker collecting so the sneaker resale market has room for more entrepreneurs (or sneaker hustlers, whatever term you prefer).
We’ve already discussed the sneaker industry in general above. Now, it’s time to delve into the process of the actual process of reselling shoes and sneakers.
How to Find Shoes to Buy and Sell
Before you can even begin finding shoes to buy and resell, you need to understand the market better.
Reselling shoes are similar to the stock market. There are pairs of shoes that don’t start out too hot but eventually accumulate value later on. Conversely, some sneakers generate lots of attention only to fizzle out as time goes by.
Want even more step by step details on how to find great shoes you can sell for a profit? Check out the Hypemaster Playbook for a great course into the shoe reseller world.
To truly benefit from learning how to resell sneakers, you need to purchase products that are sold on the cheap but have lasting value in the long run. One way of doing so is by buying the sneaker on release day at retail prices, which is where they are at their most affordable.
However, instead of lining up to store for hours to buy them, you can quickly place your orders on Frenzy, a Shopify-owned app.
It will notify you of the release dates of the latest sneakers from the biggest brands. From there, you can place your orders (ideally in bulk) and make a profit by reselling them. The goal of the app is to reduce that friction between retailers and consumers so both can seamlessly make transactions and make money faster.
However, new pairs of shoes come far and few in between. To make money in reselling shoes, you need to find pairs sold under reseller price so you can profit off them. But how can you know how much a pair of shoes cost?
This is where StockX comes in. The site shows how much the shoes and sneaker cost over a 12-month period.
Just like a stock market index graph, you will see the movement of price over time, thus giving you information on which shoes to acquire for reselling. It also serves as a consignment store where people can bid or ask for shoes for resale. If you got a pair of sneakers you want to sale, you could do so through the site.
Once you have the information you need, it’s time to search for those shoes online.
If you want to automate the process of finding the shoes that you want to purchase and flip, then use AIO Bot. Upon buying and installing on your computer, you can choose which shops you want to cop from. Enter the shoe you’re looking for, the size, and color and the bot will take care of searching the sites for you.
This is one of a couple of bots to help you efficiently find shoes for you to increase your chances of finding one without having to look for it personally.
However, before you get help from a bot, you may want to roll up your sleeves to do thing manually. A quick search on eBay for Air Jordan 12 yield these results:
There’s a chance you will see shoes way below market reseller price and sell them more than 10x you bought for them. Between StockX checking the price on StockX and buying/flipping on eBay, you can get started right now.
So your journey as a sneaker reseller begins. But how do you know that those aren’t fake sneakers?
How to Determine if the Shoes Are Fake
The last thing you want to happen is for you to purchase fake shoes mistakenly. This is a problem that pervades in online marketplaces without a middleman like Amazon or eBay. If the price is too good for its good, then maybe it’s a fake. But before making that conclusion, you need to learn how to find out if the sneakers are legit or not.
Below are ways that you can check if a pair of sneakers or shoes you’re trying to buy is genuine or not:
Criteria to Determine if Shoes are Fakes
Ask for tagged photos – The price should normally be enough to persuade you to purchase an item. However, you need to consider other factors that go into the sale of the sneakers. Tagged, hi-res pictures of the item are one way to account if the kicks are legit or not. Ask the seller to take multiple photos of the sneakers with the latest edition of the newspaper to see if it’s for real. You can then cross-reference the pictures with the actual version of the shoes on their official site. Refer to Fake Education on Instagram to find tips and information on how to spot fake ones.
Ask for the receipts – For new purchases, you must request for the receipt of the item to verify the authenticity of the sneakers. It the receipt proves that the shoes were acquired from the official stores, then it’ll be much easier for you to sell the sneakers since you have tangible proof that the shoes are indeed real.
Do your research – For Amazon and eBay sellers you can check their seller rating on their profile. Anything lower than 95% is to be avoided. Also, read the comments and reviews of other buyers. Some may just be complaining about relatively trivial stuff like slow delivery time and those that have nothing to do with the actual shoes. Lastly, check if the reviews were from real buyers and not profiles that were created to help hike up the seller’s rating.
Trust your instinct – If you did your homework and had all the facts that point to the authenticity of the sneakers but you still have doubts about the seller and shoes, then don’t proceed with the transaction. At first, you probably don’t have the intuition yet to determine if there’s something wrong with the shoes or seller. In time and with enough practice of buying and selling, you will be able to discern much easier.
While these tips will help you avoid purchasing bogus shoes, it’s not foolproof that you will entirely avoid such purchases. Just make sure to ma careful and alert enough to keep these provisions in mind when buying.
Shoe Reselling Tips
Below are a few tips for reselling shoes for top dollar. First you need to figure out where to buy the show and then you need to figure out how to actually sell the shoes for a profit.
We will also quickly review some of the dark sides of selling shoes and a few mistakes to avoid when you are getting started.
Where and How to Buy and Sell Shoes
Now that you have the shoes, you must find the best channels where you can sell them to turn in a profit.
You can start by creating an account on a consignment shop like StockX to resell the shoes there. Both sites serve as middlemen between buyer and seller. Therefore, you deal directly with either website to sell your shoes. Send them the sneakers when you’ve chosen the highest bid, and they will take care of the rest.
Sites like StockX are convenient ways to sell your shoes and ensures buyers that they won’t be duped by fake sneakers.
On the flipside, you don’t get the personal touch from consignment stores that go with seller-to-buyer transactions. However, if you’re not much of a salesman or a people person, then this shouldn’t be a problem.
If you want the traditional way of reselling shoes, you can always go the way of Facebook Groups, Craigslist, and eBay. These sites allow you to put your personal touch on your pair’s product page.
As a best practice, you need to be descriptive and detailed as possible about the sneakers. Leave no stone unturned and make sure that you are honest in your description. Assuming that you’re a new seller, it’ll take time before buyers warm up to you. Therefore, you need to keep working on gaining the trust of buyers and continue marching forward.
It may be a good idea to start small when you buy and sell shoes. This keeps your initial investment low, allows you to learn the game, and your buyers are more likely to take a risk when their investment is low too.
For more informal selling like in Facebook Groups and even in Sneaker Con, expect to encounter shady people who might show interest in buying your kicks. As mentioned earlier, you need to discern which among the buyers are trustworthy.
About the price, you need to check StockX to see the range of how much the shoes are sold in the market. You must also check the trend and volatility of the sneakers to come up with a price that will make you and your buyer happy. The market dictates the price, and the only unfair price is the one that no one is buying.
When it comes to your inventory, you may want to reinvest your earnings on another pair or pairs of shoes. Don’t cash out early in the game just yet. Do your research and find available shoes that you can purchase even before you have the money to buy them.
There are also more tools that you should look at including the GOAT app which is an app solely dedicated to buying and selling sneakers and is huge among sneaker resellers. This is another place where authentic sneakers can potentially be bought or sold, making this a great tool to find sneakers you couldn’t find in the secondary market, or to sell those that you did.
What you want is an efficient process where your money comes and goes to another and more expensive pair so you can exponentially increase your income. If done successfully, you can purchase items in bulk and multiply your earnings even more!
The Cons of Reselling Shoes
As a hustler, you need to be aware of the potential problems you will be facing with every venture you undertake. And as profitable as reselling shoes can be, it also has another side of the coin that you need to know before diving deep into the sneaker business.
Below are some of the more pressing issues:
Cons to Consider when Reselling Sneakers
Complicated marketing – Apps like Frenzy solves the problem of lining up for hours waiting for the store to open so you can become one of the first to get a pair. However, it also pushes the limit on how resellers can maximize the opportunity to get their hands on the latest pair of hyped sneakers. Apps that let you reserve shoes and sneakers before their release date and social media contests and raffles are just the tip of the iceberg. Over time, new ways of marketing to resellers will increase and become needlessly more complex, and there’s nothing you can do but keep up with the changes.
Sneaker violence – Resellers indirectly have a part to play in the constant violence that surrounds sneakers, just as much as consumers and retailers are culpable. Due to their high price tag and increasing value of sneakers, no thanks to resellers who exacerbate the issue, some people will go to great lengths and get their pair even if it means breaking the law. However, the sneaker culture is ingrained deep in the society that it will be impossible to remove malice and violence from the equation. It is something that comes with the job and perhaps a burden that every reseller has to bear.
Sneakers as an investment than footwear – Given the nature of reselling shoes, this question comes to mind: who is the market for sneakers? On the one hand, some consumers have a passion for sneakers and use them to promote their fashion sense. On the other, resellers try to get their hands on the most hyped shoes and resell them above their retail price. There’s nothing wrong with reselling as a hustle, but it potentially robs people who are genuinely interested in the kicks and plan on collecting and wearing them. In other words, the sneaker reselling business robs collectors from pursuing their passions righteously. Retailers do more marketing and promotional campaigns geared to resellers.
How to Avoid Common Sneaker Reselling Mistakes
While it’s important to be excited and have the energy to really jump into the sneaker resale game, sometimes you need to slow down. Jump on good deals. But any time you feel that something is off or there’s a red flag – listen to those instincts.
Even the top shoe reselling hustlers have been taken in by fake sneakers before. While in theory PayPal or other services have a money protection guarantee, getting your money back can be a hassle.
For anyone who has ever dealt with PayPal returns, it’s not a guarantee, either. If you get into a “he said, she said” argument with the seller of fake shoes a PayPal customer service rep is not the one you want making a final decision on hundreds of dollars.
Another common mistake, is not warning PayPal about a surge in transactions.
If they’re not used to seeing a lot of movement in your PayPal account, many transactions in the thousands of dollars for used sneakers could get the account flagged. This is a headache, but it is one you can work around.
If you have to upgrade to a business account, so be it. Better than losing out on deals. Or having your hard earned money frozen in the account.
Finally, have a plan for management.
Do you have a good bank roll and plan on buying a large number of authentic sneakers before selling? Are you planning to buy shoes and then flip them quickly? You need to know how much space you have, have a plan for tracking inventory as well as expenses and profits, and manage your process.
Taking time up front to make sure you have the space, tracking setup, and a backup plan in case things go sideways will save you a lot of headaches in the future.
Are You Ready for the Rigors of Selling Used Shoes?
This post offers a great overview, but you will need more if you’re getting into the game of buying and selling sneakers. If you want to learn from the true expert and get much more depth for how to make this business work for you, you don’t need to start as a newbie.
Without a mentor, your chances of losing money and wasting time are higher since you’re competing with the experts.
If you’re ready to learn how to become a sneaker reseller, you’re going to want a mentor to speed up the process.
How to Learn More About Reselling Shoes
I recommend taking a look at the Six Figure SneakerHead – HypeMaster Playbook Here.
Make Up To six figures a month reselling shoesUse coupon code NICHEMONEY for an extra 10% off.
Reselling shoes is a fun way to make money as a part-time job, if not as a full-time one, and regardless of your age. If you are into basketball and hip-hop or if you have experience in flipping items before, then you are already a step ahead of other beginners in the game.
If you’re looking for other ways to make some money, look at buying and selling concert tickets.
SNEAKER RESELLING SIDE HUSTLE: Your guide to making
A Cowen & Co. analysis from July estimates that the sneaker resale industry is worth $2 billion in North America and could reach $30 billion globally by 2030.
As the market for valuable sneakers booms, entrepreneurs are making a killing by figuring out the best ways to buy and resell sneakers.
Insider regularly interviews sneaker resellers and experts regarding the best practices for breaking into the industry and scaling a business. You can read all about it by subscribing to Insider.
See more stories on Insider’s business page.
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With the sneaker resale market continuing to thrive, Insider is covering all aspects of how to properly scale a business in the booming industry. From which sneakers to purchase to necessary technological investments, made in the form of bots that entrepreneurs entrust to nab pairs online, the following covers everything you need to know about how to break into the market that Cowen & Co. estimates could reach $30 billion globally by tting startedSneaker reselling is based on a simple concept that guides many other businesses: buy low, sell high. You’ll want to figure out how to track expenses and figure out net profit on each pair sold. One entrepreneur who made over $125, 000 in sales since January 2019 showed us his spreadsheet that he uses for tracking profits. You’ll also want to figure out your strategy. While some people might prefer to invest in a few pairs and wait for them to grow in value, others utilize a high-volume sneaker resale strategy to make money by moving product quickly at slimmer margins. Others focus on acquiring rarer pairs that can fetch thousands at auction. Some have even developed mathematical formulas to determine the best way to buy and sell. Lastly, it can be helpful to take a look at some up-and-coming sneaker resale websites to learn about new ways to make money in the more: A 16-year-old who made $125, 000 in sneaker sales reveals his pro tips for young resellers looking to break into the multi-billion dollar industry A sneakerhead who made nearly $7 million in sales last year reveals his secrets to tapping into the exploding multibillion-dollar resale market
The top sneaker seller on eBay who made $1. 5 million in sales in 2019 reveals how he grew business to dominate the platformWe got a look at exact spreadsheet a 16-year-old uses to make thousands of dollars in sales as a major sneaker supplier to stores and boutiques5 up-and-coming sneaker websites that resellers and collectors should use in 2020 to boost profit and nab hyped pairsA sneaker reseller whose store has made millions in sales since 2018 shares the mathematical formula he uses to determine which pairs will skyrocket in value
Scaling your businessOnce you nail down the basics, here are some tools to guide you on the next steps of growing your business. While many sneaker resellers can start from humble beginnings, it can take just a few months to hit sustainable profit margins. Attending sneaker events like Sneaker Con is a great way to build connections and make fast sales. But as your business grows, it is important to keep track of all of your sales and expenses to ensure that you file your taxes correctly each more: Here are 5 steps that independent sneaker resellers live by to pay their taxes every seasonHow a formerly homeless sneakerhead with just $40 to his name built a multi-million dollar resale empire in 6 yearsA sneakerhead who has attended more than 20 Sneaker Cons reveals his top 6 secrets for making the most money at a resale event
3 sneakerhead sisters could fetch over $1 million by selling thousands of their classic Nike, Adidas, and Reebok shoes through an exclusive eBay auctionSneaker bottingIn the sneaker resale world, a “bot” refers to a software application that expedites the online checkout process and helps resellers nab hyped pairs online — including limited-edition drops. Though a controversial aspect of the sneaker world, bots are often essential for purchasing the latest releases at retail prices. In many cases, these bots are built by former sneakerheads and self-taught developers who make a killing from their useful product. Bots, like sneakers, can resell for hundreds of dollars. There are even some bots that are meant to help users nab sneaker bots at retail. While sneaker-nabbing bots can give resellers a leg-up, they are often the cause of much distress on the side of footwear companies who are looking to mitigate the more: A sneaker reseller who uses multiple ‘bots’ to nab mass quantities of expensive shoes the moment they drop explains why the controversial tech is worth itInside the controversial underworld of sneaker ‘bots, ‘ where coded scripts resell for thousands of dollars and Twitter monitors can make or break a release
A 16-year-old’s sneaker bot business charged $200, 000 in fees since October. Here’s how his 600-member group secures the coveted software before anyone a self-taught developer with no formal training made $700, 000 in sales this year from his sneaker bot, Splashforce, that nabs hyped pairs in just millisecondsAs sneaker bots explode, a veteran reseller and YouTuber with over 160, 000 subscribers reveals 3 steps to profiting from the lucrative techIn the arms race between teenage sneaker bot users and footwear companies, one side is winning — and it’s not the billion-dollar companies
Cook groups and online services:While they normally charge hefty membership fees, cook groups are exclusive forums that supply information for anyone looking to break into the multi-billion dollar market. They usually offer members access to botting services in addition to exclusive details related to drops. We got a look inside a couple of these groups, including Polar Chefs, a thriving cook group with over 400 members that was started by a teenager who employs 23 people to help him run the group. Cook groups are often run on Discord, a messaging platform that has become a hotbed for sneakerhead activity. Read more: Exclusive sneaker resale groups make millions by paying insiders to leak information on valuable sneaker releases before they happen. Here’s a look inside one of these members-only a teen’s exclusive sneaker cook group that makes him 6-figures in sales, employs 23 people full-time, and nabs pairs of the hottest sneakers on the marketHow Discord went from gaming and alt-right hub to a sneaker cook group hotbed, where resellers charge fees to share their secrets for cracking the $2 billion resale market
A college dropout runs a multi-million dollar sneaker cook group, AMNotify, with thousands of members across the world. Here’s how he launched one of the first exclusive sneaker forums from a hospital bed in vigating the industry during the pandemicWhile slowdowns in shipping and supply chains caused some problems for the sneaker industry early on in the pandemic, the value of certain pairs, like the Air Force 1 and Air Jordan 1, has remained strong. Experts say that some pairs, like the Nike SB Dunk Low Travis Scotts or the Jordan 5 Retro High Off-Whites, will likely skyrocket in value after the pandemic. The CEOs of GOAT, Stadium Goods, and Bump all predicted that the sneaker resale market will continue to grow, and the proof is in the businesses. One teen entrepreneur that we spoke to said his business soared during the pandemic, bringing in close to $500, 000 in sales during more: The CEOs of GOAT, Stadium Goods, and BUMP outlined the best ways for sneaker resellers to navigate the multi-billion dollar market in the pandemicThe coronavirus outbreak is wrecking the sneaker resale industry, but investing in specific pairs can soften losses. Here’s how to navigate the market in crisis, according to the head of China’s Sneaker Con.
These are the sneakers most likely to skyrocket in value when the coronavirus panic dies down, according to the founder of the largest sneaker event in the worldA 17-year-old entrepreneur made close to $500, 000 in sales reselling sneakers during quarantine. Take a look inside his pandemic-proof business model.
Frequently Asked Questions about reselling sneakers business
Is sneaker reselling profitable?
Compared to some other ways of making money online, the sneaker resale market is very profitable and valued at around $1 billion. While only 4% of shoes and sneakers are purchased upon release for resale, the market benefits from side hustlers and entrepreneurs who operate in different channels.Nov 11, 2020
How much is the shoe reselling business worth?
analysis from July estimates that the sneaker resale industry is worth $2 billion in North America and could reach $30 billion globally by 2030. As the market for valuable sneakers booms, entrepreneurs are making a killing by figuring out the best ways to buy and resell sneakers.Jun 24, 2021
Can you legally resell shoes?
Generally, it’s not illegal to resell an item that you have legitimately purchased. Once you have purchased something at retail it is yours to do with as you choose. … If you’re using manufacturers’ logos to advertise the products you’re reselling, you need their permission.Apr 19, 2013