The internet has had a profound effect on all our lives, influencing everything from the way we watch television, to shopping to the products we purchase. The internet has greatly affected “sneaker culture” in that prior to widespread use of the web, popularity of sneakers and sales were often regional. At one time, one must either live in a certain area or know someone in that community in order to get certain styles of sneakers. Today, the internet allows us to choose our sneakers with the mere click of a button.

The internet provides information on release dates of limited-edition sneakers as well as those produced and sold solely in certain regions. Now, a person can simply hop on the internet in order to purchase that limited-edition sneaker or those that were relegated to a distant region just two decades ago. E-commerce has broken barriers that once were virtually impossible for most consumers to cross. Plus, the internet provides sneaker release dates so no one has to be left out of the sneaker industry’s latest offerings.

However, the internet is contributing to another phenomenon unheard of prior to the internet – reselling. Reselling of sneakers is at an all-time high, which has both good points and bad. Retailers have difficulty in that if they get a limited number of Yeezys, millions of shoppers may flood the organization’s website, crashing it.

The internet has created a raffle of sorts where consumers are searching for certain brands and styles of sneakers. Even parents are getting in on the selling aspect of retail; many will order that coveted pair of shoes at the retailer’s price (usually around $150). Then, they put the sought-after shoes on the internet where those who weren’t lucky enough to get those shoes from a retailer will pay $800 or more for the latest styles. It’s a win for the retailer who makes their initial profit, but the internet seller on eBay or other resale sites banks a huge profit, too.

However, the “purists” on the internet see this resale opportunity as a bad thing. At the same time, those with careers in retail might not have their jobs without the internet as it operates today.

Social media is also a driving force in both the initial sale and resale of sneakers. Online sneaker education chiefly comes from social media as well as sites that post reviews on upcoming popular models of shoes. Some look at the online sneaker sale movement as somewhat a “cult” thing; however, a company’s social media presence is definitely having a positive effect on sales.

In the 1990s, most of the attention a sneaker received was due to an athlete’s wearing a certain brand or style of sneaker. Maybe consumers would see the shoe on television; however, prior to the great improvements in high-definition television, it might be impossible for consumers to see an athlete’s kicks. Perhaps a photoshoot in the latest edition of “Sports Illustrated” would show that same cool shoe; however, consumers were on their own finding the exact brand and style of shoe.

Social media sites such as Instagram post photos of athletes in high resolution, and consumers can definitively see what their favorite athlete is wearing. Plus, one can quickly go to their preferred web browser to find the shoe and all available online shops. Even with limited-edition offerings, such as Nike’s LeBron James sneakers, consumers are still clamoring to get their hands on a coveted pair. A great example of this is Super Bowl LII, when Justin Timberlake wore a highly sought-after shoe. Those who have certain apps on their phones are alerted that the celeb is live wearing a limited-edition pair of shoes. By the next commercial break, most of those limited-edition shoes – made in a certain quantity, by the way – are gone.

Perhaps shoe enthusiasts should be more concerned with the amount of shoes being produced. Consider the Virgil Abloh Ten Nike – only a certain number of people will get this shoe during the initial drop. Some consumers report only getting error messages when trying to order. A larger number of shoes produced would help prevent this, but manufacturers have little desire to do so. Perhaps retailers should look at ensuring this won’t happen due to their website crashing.

Maybe consumers should be satisfied with the “halo effect” of shoe drops. If a consumer fails to get the coveted Yeezy 350 on its initial drop, then maybe the purchaser should consider the Alphabounce or the Ultra Boost. Regardless, consumers will need to move quickly to get any of the higher end sneakers desired by many in the public.

Perhaps consumers may need to consider looking for a product that is not the hot item at the moment. Few sneaker releases sell out almost immediately, unless the product is one of the highly coveted styles. Unless consumers must absolutely have that exact style, buyers will have to then scour the resale market where some of these shoes sell for up to $1,500. If money is no object, then it’s great to wait on the resale. However, those on a budget will have to find other ways to get that coveted shoe.

Sneaker education tells us that eventually, everything – no matter how popular – goes on sale. This includes those limited-edition sneakers. Consumers should perhaps worry not about what LeBron’s next shoe will look like, but on how they can still procure a recently released and still popular shoe at a much lower price.

Sometimes it pays to look back on previous releases instead of the latest, newest releases. Consider the Air Jordan, after 20 years plus of production, a shoe still as popular as it was upon initial release.

Back in the day, people chose their kicks based on what was popular in their location – on the street, down the block – today, people are looking to the latest sporting event and what a favorite celeb is wearing rather than one’s closest friends. Jordan chose to capitalize on Timberlake’s popularity and his appearance on the Super Bowl’s halftime show. It’s a decision that turned out to be highly profitable for the company.

Procuring our favorite sneakers today is no easy task, but we consumers have more avenues today than our predecessors just two decades ago. Download those apps and set your notifications to be able to get those coveted kicks at the best price possible.

After learning about trademark law, copyright law, and patent law, another important part of sneaker education is learning about trade secrets. So what is a trade secret and how is it protected?

A trade secret is a business method, customer list, pattern, idea, or some other non-public piece of information that a company will go through great lengths to protect. Trade secrets are important because companies work tirelessly to develop independent ways of doing business and to create a special product or a process, and they need to protect these items. The information is used in business to create an opportunity to obtain an economic advantage over competitors that don’t have that information. A really famous example of a trade secret is the secret ingredients in Coca-Cola’s recipe.

How Do Trade Secrets Apply to the Sneaker Industry?

Companies like sneaker companies go to great lengths to protect their trade secrets. In 2014, trade secrets were a topic at the highest level when three former employees left Nike to join Adidas. These gentlemen left and allegedly took with them information relating to various aspects of the Nike brand, including their processes of making sneakers and other confidential information about marketing, promotion, and many things that we discuss in our book about the business side.

As soon as these three gentlemen announced that they were leaving Nike to join Adidas, Nike filed a lawsuit. In it, they alleged that these gentlemen were taking specific confidential information, otherwise known as trade secrets, and using it for their benefit and for the benefit of Adidas. In its complaint, Nike asked for damages of over $10 million, claiming that this information was extremely sensitive and highly valuable to their brand. The case ended up settling out of court. But eventually, these gentlemen made their way over to Adidas, soo it was worked out. But it just goes to show you the extreme lengths and costs that companies will go through to protect their trade secret information.

Because trade secrets are so sensitive, it’s hard to know which companies have what information. But companies spend a lot of money on research and development to create trade secrets and to gain an economic advantage over their competitors.

How Does a Company Protect Its Trade Secrets?

One method that companies use to protect their information is by having employees that come into the company sign NDAs. NDAs are “non-disclosure agreements,” and they protect exactly what trade secrets are, confidential information such as data, customer lists, processes, patterns, and other sensitive and highly valuable information. NDAs are useful. But they don’t always work because many employees leave, and they go and use the information elsewhere. Sometimes, it’s hard to prove that an employee has breached an NDA. So they’re used to create a chilling effect to make sure that employees know that there will be a liability if they disclose the information that they obtained through their relationship with the employer.

Another way that companies can protect their trade secrets is through restrictive covenants in their employment agreements. We’re not going to get into much detail on restrictive covenants in this module. But when an employee joins a company, the company will sometimes ask an employee to waive certain rights and to abide by certain restrictive covenants. So if an employee comes to a company and then leaves, they may be asked, for a certain period of time, to not work for a competitor, to not disclose confidential information about the company, and to not solicit other employees that have worked for the company. These are what are called restrictive covenants. They’re methods and tools that companies use to protect their trade secrets through employment agreements.

Another way that companies can protect their trade secrets is by filing a lawsuit. This is, obviously, the most final and nuclear option in the trade secret protection ladder, but this is sometimes the last and best option when sensitive trade secrets are at stake. A company can bring a lawsuit against an employee or another corporation that it believes has stolen their trade secrets, and through litigation, they can try to work out protecting that information, stopping the dissemination of the confidential information, and, in some cases, returning the confidential information and trade secrets back to the company.

Now that we’ve covered trade secrets, we’ve really gone through all of the main facets of intellectual property law. We’ve covered trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets. After learning these basics of intellectual property, we can then move on to our next section, which is the law of sneakers and the more practical side of the business, which we call “The Art Of The Sneaker Deal.”

For the record, I cannot stand the term “sneakerhead” because I feel like it defines someone as only being into sneakers. In addition, the term tends to draw direct associations to negative terms like crackheads. I prefer to use words like sneaker aficionado or sneaker lover instead of sneakerhead. Although I love sneakers, I have never been addicted to them. I have never put sneakers above and beyond everything else.

The term “sneakerhead” has been adopted by large companies and the mainstream media. It’s also often used by people who aren’t super passionate about sneakers to describe others who are. It’s an easy phrase to describe someone that is really into sneakers.

Sneakers Bring People Together

Sharing a love for sneakers is a great way to create a bond between people, but it’s not the only thing that matters. There are many other aspects outside of sneakers that draw people together. The sneakers may be the initial common bond that can put people in a room together, but their conversations and other interests keep the bonds alive.

The term “sneakerhead” is fitting as a quick and easy definition of someone that loves shoes, but it does not explain the full meaning of the word. It’s not an accurate description of what really takes place among the people in the sneaker community. There’s also camaraderie, friendship, and kinship. There are stories being exchanged between sneaker lovers of all kinds. There’s an entire culture.

I have sneakers in my closet from countries all over the world. These are from countries I’ve never even visited. They were sent to me by friends that live there. Friends that I made while they were visiting the States. We bonded over our love of sneakers. This is an example of the global phenomenon and kinship that the word sneakerhead doesn’t fully encompass.

Sneaker Industry

There are so many different ways to describe what a sneakerhead is. I can think of at least three or four versions.

First, there are the Hypebeast Sneakerheads. These are the sneaker lovers that are out to buy the latest in everything. And they are buying these things because of the hype or the influences. Many of the influences come from musical artists. They are buying the next Yeezys because Kanye is wearing them or Pumas because Pharell is wearing them. They choose the sneakers they buy based on association, not on the design of the shoe.

Then you have the OG sneakerheads. These are the true shoe-collecting sneakerheads. They are the people buying the Stan Smiths, the never-worn first-edition Air Jordans, and the ripped-up 80s Jordans used for playing pickup basketball back in the day. These are the sneakerheads that appreciate the history of the brands like Pony. They want to be a part of that big-city culture in places like New York or LA.

Next, there are sneakerheads like me. I’m more interested in the design aspect of sneakers. This is partly because I am a designer myself. There are different aspects and elements that go into the design of a sneaker. I want to know how they can evolve, I want to know how to keep them relevant, and I want to know how to put new technology into them.

Finally, you have the new-age sneakerheads. These are the people that initiate the influences that shoes have on buyers. These are the kids that basically create the trends for everything. They are essentially hypebeasts without even realizing it.

Sneaker Culture

Ultimately, I think that a sneakerhead is just someone who really cares about footwear. They care about all things related to sneakers. They like the stories, the history, and the scene.
They want to know what’s happening and where it’s going.

I’m still not a huge fan of the word sneakerhead because it’s been so diluted by companies and people looking to make money off the term. It’s an easy shortcut to explain to people what you are into, but I don’t personally like to define myself that way. Sneakerhead typically refers to people who care about the stuff and want to spend their free time dedicated to it.

I work in sneakers, and I can’t really ever turn that off. On the weekends, I’m still thinking about sneakers or reading about sneakers. I’m still texting my friends about what sneakers are coming out, sneaker reviews, or how specific brands are being presented. So basically, being a sneakerhead is just this idea that’s always in the back of your head, and it frames the way you look at the world.

Before there were websites and social media channels dedicated to sneakers, you didn’t really see a lot of sneakers in the media. This made it harder to connect with them. Most of the sneaker ads that aired were celebrity-based, linking them to specific releases.

I remember seeing videos of certain shoes like the banned Air Jordan 1. When these sneakers were first released to the public, they were only carried by outlet stores. So naturally, this made them super coveted. Today, those same shoes could sell for thousands of dollars.

Sneaker Industry Chaos

There was this one sneaker video of an outlet store with a large drawn gate in front of it. It was early in the morning, and people were waiting outside of the gate to enter. No official line was formed yet because they had to wait for the gate to open before moving into the plaza area in front of the store. Eventually, security came and opened the gate. As soon as there was a gap underneath the gate, people were on the ground crawling under it.

So as this gate lifted, the crowd emerged from it, and people start sprinting to get to the storefront. They were running as fast as possible to get there and form an official line. This happens every time there is a massive Jordan sneaker release.

The new sneaker releases were always accompanied by these funny local television coverage pieces done by people who don’t actually know what’s going on. So they would fumble around, trying to figure it out as they went, and it rarely made sense.

Let me tell you a little bit about why these shoes are important to you. You see, they have the icy gum bottoms. Just lick them. They are limited editions. These shoes are never coming again.

I remember when the Galaxy Foams were released in Orlando in 2012. There were news teams covering the event with helicopters overhead and cops at the mall, shutting things down. It was pure chaos.

There have been a lot of fights at New York City sneaker stores that have gone viral. With so many people pushing and shoving each other over shoes, eventually, the cops are going to get involved, and the whole event will get shut down. In New York City, Supreme can’t release their Nike collaborations in the store anymore because of moments like these.

Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Meme culture has also contributed to big pop culture sneaker crossover moments. We all remember the Damn Daniel thing with the white vans sneakers.

Damn, Daniel. Damn, Daniel. Damn, Daniel. Back at it again with the white Vans.

The “Damn, Daniel” kid eventually became so popular that he received a free supply of Vans for life. It’s interesting to see how these top-name brands react to these moments. There is a lot of free marketing, and they have to figure out how to best take advantage of it. I remember when all of this was happening, and I emailed Vans to ask if they were doing something about this. They responded that they had a plan. Some people speculate that Vans planned this, themselves, as a marketing strategy. I don’t believe that, but some people do.

“A lot of people get copyright and trademarks mixed up,” says sneaker industry professional Kenneth Anand. What is a copyright? A copyright protects an original work of authorship. “Original works of authorship” can include, but are not limited to, architecture, graphics, pictures, sculptures, works of literature, or other types of artistic work.

Examples of Copyrights

Jay-Z would have a copyright on the lyrics that he writes for his songs. He would also have a copyright on the songs themselves, as they are fixed in MP3 or CD format. Artist Daniel Arcam would have a copyright over his paintings, unique Pokemon, and eroded DeLorean sculptures.

Writer George R. R. Martin would have a copyright over his books for “Game of Thrones” and the screenplay for the HBO TV series “Game of Thrones.” These are various examples of the types of copyrights that you can have.

Benefits of Copyrights

“One of the main goals of copyrights is to allow the inventor the ability to reap the benefits of creating the work,” Kenneth Anand explains. This means that whoever owns a copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce, publish, promote, and sell their works of art. In order to obtain a copyright, the work must be fixed in a tangible form. You cannot get a copyright for just an idea.

Obtaining a Copyright

In order to obtain a copyright, your work must follow three basic requirements. First, the work must be original, meaning it must be independently created rather than a copy of something else already existing. Second, it must be creative, meaning that there must be some minimum basis of creativity for the work. Finally, it has to be fixed. Copyrights cannot be ideas or things made up out of your imagination. Instead, they must be fixed in some tangible form. If a work has all three of these elements – original, creative, and fixed – you can obtain a copyright for it.

What types of works can you copyright? As said before, a copyright protects works of authorship, such as songs, books, videos, and other similar creations. You can even get a copyright for fabric patterns, jewelry designs, software, and architectural designs.

Copyrights in the Sneaker Industry

What do copyrights mean for sneakers? Are copyrights even applicable to sneakers? Typically, under US law, you cannot get a copyright for things that are useful articles, like hoodies, shoes, and/or pairs of pants. These are useful articles that are not copyrightable because they are not considered creative, unique, or original. However, there are some ways copyrights can be applied to sneakers.

Many sneaker companies are now turning to copyright law to protect their designs. How? First of all, designs on the side of a sneaker can only be copyrighted if they are separate and distinct from the useful article (the shoe) itself. Kenneth Anand’s former colleagues at adidas, for example, obtained a copyright application and protection for the design of the Yeezy 350 Boost.

“Well, they applied to the copyright review board. And they originally denied their application, because the copyright board said that the designs on the side of the Yeezy were not original, and were not separate from the useful article itself,” recalls Anand. “They were not satisfied with this so they appealed. And ultimately they were able to obtain a copyright application for the design of the 350 Boost, which is the stripe pattern that everybody knows and loves of the 350.”

It took many years and a lot of legal fighting, but Kenneth Anand’s colleagues managed to obtain a copyright. Today, more and more sneaker companies are turning to copyright applications for a cheap and easy way to protect the designs on the side of their sneakers, as long as the designs qualify as copyrightable works.

While sneaker companies are turning to copyright law to protect the patterns and designs on the side of their shoes, copyright law is traditionally used in the sneaker industry in many other ways. “For example, you can copyright your website, photos, or other promotional materials that you create, in relation to the sneakers themselves,” Kenneth Anand continues. “So copyright is useful in many ways to protect a sneakers brand and all of the collateral that goes around building that brand.”

An important thing to note about copyrights is that you must ensure your designs do not infringe on other people’s works. If you do not, you could find yourself in a lawsuit that could take years to resolve and can be quite costly.

Final Thoughts

Sneaker education expert Kenneth Anand highly recommends that you make sure anything that you are creating is original, creative, and fixed in a tangible form. If you meet those three requirements, you will be on your way to obtaining a copyright and protecting your own intellectual property.

This history of sneakers in film and videos really dates back to Spike Lee movies like “Do the Right Thing,” and “She’s Gotta Have It.” Lee helped bring sneaker culture to the forefront of film. There is one iconic scene in the movie “Do The Right Thing” where the character, Buggin Out, is wearing a pair of Air Jordan 4s. During this scene, his sneakers are run over by a passing bicyclist. This moment in the movie is, still to this day, one of the most powerful sneaker scenes in film history.

The famous movie scene not only displayed the Air Jordan 4 sneaker on the big screen, but it also exposed the idea of someone getting angry about their shoe getting scuffed. Afterward, Buggin went home and tried scrubbing out the scuff with a toothbrush. This is a very real feeling that all sneakerheads have felt. Spike Lee was able to bring this emotion to film because it was something he experienced himself.

This exposure led to Spike Lee, Nike, and Jordan forming a longer relationship. They worked together to develop stylized shoe commercials that resembled films. Their partnership was a starting point for sneakers in film and pop culture. After that, sneakers played a significant role in movies like “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Blue Chips,” and “Like Mike.”

If it weren’t for Spike Lee and his movie “Do The Right Thing,” we wouldn’t have the sneaker video content that we have today. Sneakers used to play more of a complementary role to performance, but nowadays, sneakers have become more of a main attraction. There is sneaker video content all over the web, on YouTube, and on Instagram.

Sneaker Industry

Sneakers have always been a big part of sports like basketball. However, these sneakers cater to a specific audience of people already predisposed to them. For example, any basketball fan that saw Michael Jordan wearing Air Jordans already knew about them, even if it was just peripherally.

In “Back to the Future,” Michael J Fox wore a pair of futuristic-looking Nike Macs that were almost the costar of the film. The shoes, and that particular part of the film, were both created by famous Nike designer Tinker Hatfield. This unique project was an excellent opportunity for a man who is creative on many levels to flex in an entirely different lane.

A Shift in Sneaker Culture

This shift in sneaker culture created an area in film and video where people would notice sneakers that they usually wouldn’t. Sneakers are often viewed as just a necessity. Just something that people have to buy their kids every year that often comes with a surprising price tag. But when you see something amazing like the Nike Mac in the movie “Back to the Future,” it raises awareness. Those shoes become so much more than just another piece of a school uniform.

Great Scott!

Sneakers like this have a cultural context to them. They represent this importance to another generation that people may not recognize. The futuristic sneakers designed for the movie “Back to the Future” became the future of shoes in reality when Nike created and sold the light-up, self-lacing shoes based on the film.

The cross-over commercial for Nike’s new Back to the Future-inspired sneakers launched in 2011. In the commercial, the shoe store employee shows the futuristic sneakers to the athlete customer. He’s talking about how the shoes light up when Doc shows up and asks if the sneakers are self-lacing. The employee tells him that they will be adding that feature in 2015.

Sneakers in Television

Popular television series like “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Seinfeld: were iconic sitcoms, but they were so much more to sneakerheads. A true sneakerhead will never forget Will Smith, standing in the empty living room wearing his all-white Jordan 11s in the last episode of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” or the episode of Jerry Seinfeld when he put his feet up on the coffee table, revealing his Air Jordan 7s.

These were all vital moments in the sneaker culture, and they happened before the internet was a big thing. Now websites like Complex make lists of the best sneakers aired on hit TV shows, and sneaker brands tell stories around these pop culture moments.

On-court sneaker coverage in the NBA has definitely changed. In the ’90s with Michael Jordan, you had to wait and watch the game and see what they were wearing on TV and kind of squint and try to match what you saw in the sneaker store to what they were wearing on their feet. Now, we have 4K cameras and HD TVs. You can see every detail, and there are a lot more choices in terms of on-court basketball sneakers than there used to be.

There used to be four colors of Air Jordans every year. Now, there are eight colors of Air Jordans that come out a month. Now, there are websites and blogs that are just dedicated to what NBA players are wearing on court. I think it’s changed along with how technology and the internet has evolved. It’s just made everything a lot more accessible.

Building the business of sneaker media is a topic discussed in the sneaker education course.

“Nice Kicks” was, in a way, the Forefathers of the Blog era when it came to sneakers. You know, the blog was the “who, what, where, when, and why” of athletic shoes. Then, when that blog caught on, a lot of other companies were developing blogs. They were predecessors of, “Sneaker News” and “Hypebeast” and, of course, “Complex.” These sites were the original group to kick off the popularity of shoe blogs and online sneaker education.

I remember “Nice Kicks” and “The Shoe Game.” “Sneaker Files” was another of the early ones. These were the first pillars of popular shoe media and sneaker education. However, you’ll remember that I was saying that those blogs didn’t get invited to press trips and press unveilings back in the day. Now, they’re on the priority list for brands.

“Bobbito’s Confessions of a Sneaker Addict” was essentially the first recorded piece of sneaker media. I actually remember talking to Bobbito about this, and I remember him telling me that before his blog, the only way that you could see athletic shoes in the media were during basketball games. He would say that viewers would hope that a player got injured so the camera would shoot a close-up on their feet so they could see what shoes athletes were wearing in the NBA.

That was the first time you saw someone write passionately and knowledgeably about the subject of sneakers, and it was in a legitimate magazine. I think that was really the genesis of all of athletic shoe media. Then, from there, Bobbito went on to write the first book about the sneaker industry, “Where’d You Get Those,” which is, I think, over a decade old now.

That’s the beginning of the print age, and then, SLAM launched “Kicks” magazine, started by Russ Bengtson, and that was the first real magazine dedicated to this type of shoe. That was an offshoot of SLAM.

Then, you have the internet age that came in. Sneaker blogs really started first with forums and message boards like “Nike Talk” and “ISS,” which eventually turned into “Sole Collector.” These forms were kind of like hives of sneakerheads where these people would post leaks or things that blogs pretty much cover now. The difference between forums and message boards was that you could have actual interaction with other people in the community, where opening up a print magazine, you really couldn’t have that.

Now, it’s kind of evolved to web blogging. Those forms and those message boards turned and evolved into actual publications with branding. The heads of these sites could curate the news and things that were covered and then still have a lively comment section where there’s a community of sneakerheads interacting with the content and interacting with each other.

Fast forward to the mid to late 2000s, that era turned into social media and online blogs. Then, even shorter, easier versions of blogging, basically, where everything was in 140 characters or less. Everything could just be as simple as an image with a caption. Through that, you start to see the arc of where sneakers on the internet and how people who are consuming this content grew. None of that would have been possible without “Bobbito’s Confessions of a Sneaker Addict.” That was really the start of everything.

Like everything else in the world, the price of sneakers has consistently gone up over the years. This is due to inflation, but even more so, due to market demands. For example, when the original Air Jordan 1 came out, it cost $65. Nowadays, you are paying around $160 for the same sneaker. That’s almost a $100 price increase that happened over the past 30-plus years for that one shoe.

Sneakers Are Used as a Status Symbol

The price of sneakers used to be viewed as more of a status symbol. The New Balance 990 was the first sneaker on the market to cost over $100, so if you saw people wearing them, you knew they had money. Many drug dealers, specifically in the Philadelphia and Washington DC areas, wanted those sneakers to display their status.

The same thing happened with the Nike Air Foamposite One. They became a status symbol because of their price. They were about $180 when they first came out in the 90s, and they quickly became the known shoe of hustlers. Status is how sneakers and the sneaker culture were given life and why sneakers are more expensive now than ever. Today, there are New Balance sneakers that cost close to $400 and certain Air Jordans that are over $300 a pair.

The price increase of sneakers is also causing the resale market on shoes to go up. It’s not just about the initial price of the sneakers, it’s also about the demand. A pair of Yeezys that retail for $220 can resell for over $1,000. Most people that I know aren’t going to go out and buy a pair of $1,000 shoes, so the cost is almost fictional at this point.

Most ordinary people aren’t paying the $1,000 price tag on resale shoes, but celebrities and rappers are. They buy them outright with cash, or they make trades. They are taking four or five pairs of shoes that they own and trading them all in for one new pair. This is what’s driving the economy on sneakers up. Of course, people are looking to cash in and make as much money as possible on the secondary market, so I don’t see this ending any time soon.

Sneaker Education on the Stages of the Sneaker Economy

There are different stages of the sneaker economy. First, there is wholesale, which is the sneakers’ manufactured price and the cost retail establishments pay to procure the sneakers. Next, there is retail. Retailers are where consumers would buy the sneakers. The retailers can charge whatever cost they want; however, there is a suggested price created by the manufacturer called the MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price.) This price is just a suggestion and does not have to be used by the retailer. Finally, you have the resale economy. In this day and age, sneakers are the most popular on the resale market. This is where a new kind of retailer comes into play, called consignment shops. Consignment shops can include physical stores and also sites like eBay and Amazon.

Resale Market of Sneakers

Consignment shops thrive purely on the resale market because the value is based on popularity and demand versus supply. For example, let’s say a popular sneaker hits retail stores, and only 2,000 were made, but more than 2,000 consumers want them. When these sneakers enter the resale market, they become more valuable due to their rarity and exclusivity. As a result, the value from their box price is going to skyrocket.

If you are going to resell your sneakers, then be prepared to pay out some of the profit because everyone wants a cut. If you are reselling shoes with a consignment shop, they will take 20% of what you make on them. If you are reselling them online using an e-commerce site, which allows you to sell anything, then be prepared to pay sellers fees and such.

Now you have companies that are starting to index the resale value of sneakers that are historically released over time. It’s almost as if we are treating future models of sneakers like current commodities. When you have companies tracking the resale value of sneakers in real-time, it speaks to how the resale sneaker market has come to be worth over one billion dollars.

This sneaker resale market is crazy because, to be quite honest, many of these sneakers are widely available. Some consumers just assume that specific sneakers are going to be hard to get, and it’s this way of thinking that drives the value of the sneakers up. It’s similar to the speculation that goes along with the stock market.