SNEAKER BUYING AND RESELLING THREAD

It’s hard taking an L every time a new sneaker drops

You wake up early for what feels like a lottery

And you never get that pair you really want

But you see resellers get every pair they want

And they make racks

How?

THREAD BELOW

Why sneaker reselling?

It’s an industry that has experienced huge growth over the years

StockX, which is the eBay of reselling, is worth an estimated $3.8bn

Sneaker reselling itself was worth about $6bn in 2019 and is predicted to grow to $30bn by 2025

Huge opportunity

Here’s some acronyms you NEED to know:

BNDS (brand new dead stock) - pair hasn’t been worn and usually hasn’t been laced

PADS (passes as dead stock) - may have been worn but good as new

BST - buy, sell, trade

WTB - want to buy

WTS - want to sell

Less common phrases, but important to know:

Steal - a very good price to buy for

Low balling - a bad offer from a buyer

On hand - already own the pair(s) you want to resell, so no sourcing required

Backdooring - getting sneakers before they’re released to the public

Sneakers are a perfect example of supply and demand

I’ll speak about supply first

You can’t resell sneakers that have unlimited supply, because people can buy them from stores for retail

Retail means the price a store sells them for

Target sneakers with limited supply

Let’s say 1000 pairs were released

You have a supply of 1000 pairs that are new (DS - dead stock)

But supply continues to fall as people buy them for personal use and they’re no longer DS

Of the 1000, let’s say 200 are worn

You now only have 800 DS pairs

Less supply available means price (usually) goes up

But on the topic of supply, you have to be careful about restocks

This brings more supply back to the market

I use these 6 apps to keep track of the latest sneaker news

There will be more talk of StockX later

Demand is, well, how much demand there is for the sneaker

(Okay, that’s simplifying)

Demand is harder to predict, because taste and fashion always change

My bread and butter are Jordan’s (especially Jordan 1), Nike Dunks, Yeezy and any special collaborations

Demand can be as simple as it’s a nice colorway, so people will buy it

Dunks, Jordan 1 and Yeezys are fashionable now

It could be because a new release looks like a previous and more expensive release

Travis Scott Jordan 1 and Jordan 1 Mocha is a great example of this

You can’t just pluck your resell prices out of thin air: this is where StockX plays a part

You can use StockX to check the price

You can see Bids (price people want to pay) and Asks (price people want to sell)

You can also see a graph of the price of the sneaker over time

You can also use StockX to make predictions about where you think price will go

Let’s say there was a new Nike x Off White Dunk releasing

I could check the price of a previous release, compare the supply and perhaps the colorway and make predictions off that

Getting pairs: this is the part most people care about

Do I get most of my pairs through raffles? No

Do I get most of my pairs in store? No

Do I get most of my pairs through backdooring? No

I get most of my pairs from ... resellers

But combine all methods for best results

I’ll start with raffles

These are a lottery and with odds of a lottery, simple

Can bots and cook groups help your chances with these? Yes

Are they necessary? Absolutely not

I don’t use either

Best bet is to get friends and family to enter too, but raffles aren’t effective

In store is what you should aim for

This gets max profits because you pay retail and I’ve always sold for profit this way

Use the apps from the previous tweet to find out when and where pairs are dropping

Take friends, as you’re usually limited to one pair per person

Another method I use is paying people I know to queue for me

Some days, I’m just too lazy

Don’t pay too much, because that’ll eat into your profits

In store buying also ties in with backdooring

This is when a store will sell you the pair before they sell to the public

Target the sneaker stores, but a special trick is independent streetwear stores

It’s cheesy, but wear your best sneakers and give staff the idea you love sneakers

You don’t have to, but it helps when you buy something

I then always ask “is there a contact list for drops?”

You may have to pay for these exclusive lists, which is often worth it, or you can get it for free

I get messages whenever there’s new drops in store and get pairs reserved for me

It’s bad, but many independent stores rig raffles in favour of their friends, so be nice to them

Your network is your net worth rings true in sneaker selling

As I said, most of my pairs come from resellers

But you have to get out there and build a rep

And it needs to be a good rep

For UK people, The Basement is a good Facebook group to start in

Create social media pages

99% of my sales are through WhatsApp

Start selling on Facebook groups and ask around to see if there’s any reseller groups on WhatsApp you can join

Sneaker reselling is very much a community like any other, so make friends and people will bring you in

When you’re in these BST groups, you’ll see people putting WTB and WTS

Always use StockX as a reference as to how much you should pay or how much you should sell

StockX is convenient for reselling, but chops into your money more

It can be a good place for you to start though

Never ever ever ever sell fakes

This is sneaker reselling suicide

You will get banned from groups and people will not buy from you and you’ll struggle to start again

It takes experience to spot a fake

You can use the CheckCheck app for now and watch YouTube tutorials

I’m in the UAE and I’m aware that sneaker reselling is different here than the UK

I’d recommend posting pairs that you’re selling rather than meeting in person

Use PayPal when buying from people you don’t know so you’re protected if they’re fakes

Bonus: there’s a lot of arbitrage that exists in sneaker selling when international

In the UAE, there are no Supreme stores

I can make big money bringing Supreme over here

I have a supplier in the Philippines where retail is much cheaper

UK people wear Air Max, UAE don’t

Point is, as you grow, you may notice trends that exist in other countries that don’t exist where you are

This comes down to the networking part again: make friends with many people and those living in other countries

It opens up price opportunities to take advantage of

The best way to get good at all of this is to start

No amount of Twitter threads will give you the same experience as just doing it and learning trends for yourself and networking with others

Start small and begin with buying pairs for retail: it’s almost risk-free

It’s cliche but you should genuinely be interested in sneakers, not just money

You will spend a lot of time researching and keeping up with news so you need to enjoy what you’re doing

It’s difficult to cover everything in this thread, so feel free to ask me questions