Josh’s Sneaker and Streetwear Story
Tips and Tricks to Generating the Most Profit
On top of understanding the market and holding onto sneakers for the right amount of time, there are many other ways to help ensure top dollar is being made. According to Cowen research firm “North Americans spend over $2 billion a year on sneakers in the secondary market” (Welty 2019), and I will be listing a few tips and tricks to helping you tap into this market.
- Best Sizes to Flip
- The most profitable sizes in most shoes are generally smaller grade school (4-6Y) or smaller mens pairs (8-9.5).
- With very limited or hyped releases all sizes are going to resell relative to stock numbers in each size
2. Avoid buying your size to sell
- Acquiring your size to resell makes the process of selling a little harder. Personally, when I get a nice pair of shoes in hand, it often makes me admire and appreciate the shoe even more. With certain shoes it leads to me keeping the shoe and does not only cut into profits, it increases expenses.
- -As a size 9 myself I generally purchase 8.5-9.5 in case I want to keep the shoe even though I know I shouldn’t to avoid adding more unnecessary shoes to the collection
- Create as many connections as possible.
- Getting to know or helping out as many individuals as possible is often beneficial where they can help you out on day down the road. By talking to as many people as possible I’ve created connections with people who have helped me get new releases and even discounts on shoes
- You don’t need to win that shoe reselling for thousands to make money
- Winning a raffle for the hottest Off-White Jordans would be nice and be an easy way to make $700-800 in profits but this is not always going to happen
- Purchasing a bunch of smaller profit items and selling them will also get the job done
- Selling 1 shoe for $500 in profit vs. 10 shoes for $50 profit each both result in the same end totals just the ten shoes take less luck and a little extra work
Learning the Market and When to Sell
Sneaker resell can be a very risky endeavour if the correct knowledge and research are not obtained beforehand. With anything in life, mistakes are going to be made and imperative to learning. For me, my biggest resell fail was when I got my mom to come with me to our local Footlocker to enter the raffle for the upcoming Adidas NMDs and Jordan 4s. Two days later we both received the call for both shoes and confident that I could make some money I asked my mom to put 3 of the 4 pairs on her credit card. Both of the shoes ended up being “bricks” meaning that they would only go for retail or even sell for less. In the end I sold a pair of the Jordan’s for a $10 profit and had to get my mom to return the other 3 shoes. The market is just like any where prices can shoot up and down given any instance that could influence demand. Just like with stocks, you need to keep up with the prices and be aware of when to hold onto pairs or when to sell them to maximize profits. Another personal experience is when the Union x Jordan 1s released and I was lucky enough to get both pairs online. Having both pairs meant putting $700 on hold which I was unable to do at the time. To compensate I picked the pair I liked better and sold the other for $800. Technically I got my pair for free and $100 on top which is a win in most eyes. That is until I tell you that the pair I sold currently sells for $1600. Just seeing how one pair can double in value in the market is representative of the estimates of sneaker resell growing to a $6 billion industry by 2025 (Wolf 2019).
My personal pair of Union Jordan 1s that I sold for $800
My Intro to Yeezy Hype and Sneaker Raffles
Growing up I started just like any non-sneakerhead, purchasing shoes at the outlets or sometimes for retail at my local Footlocker. That was until one day when I went over to my cousin’s house and he showed me this new pair of Yeezys he just purchased. After I got my chance to look at them, he told me that he was still contemplating keeping them or selling them for $800. I immediately jumped up and was like “What! $800??”. Aiden then went on to explain how there was a whole new sneaker world past retail stores. Sneakers and streetwear have a secondary market where many items sell for hundreds of dollars above their retail price. I was always aware that certain shoes could be sold for a little more than retail but was unaware at the huge profit possibilities. Starting that day on I kept up with all the upcoming sneaker releases and the markets to see if any extra cash could be made. I downloaded all the sneaker brand apps, make friends with the employees at Footlocker and Champs, and even commute all the way from suburb Mississauga to downtown Toronto to enter every raffle for limited shoes. I even dragged my parents to the malls for certain releases for that extra raffle entry. Sneaker culture has heavily shifted from when I first got into them to present day. What was once a niche market for trainer aficionados, is now an ever thriving resell industry (Palmer 2019). What’s your favourite shoe or the pair that got you into sneakers?
Intro
Welcome to my blog! My name is Joshua Salonga-Chua and I am an avid sneaker head. Growing up I was happy with whatever shoes my parents would be willing to buy for me since it was still a new pair of shoes. Who isn’t excited for a new pair of kicks? Essentially, I was getting either converse or a pair that was on sale at the outlets. In 2013, sneakers really peaked my interest and I was always looking at the newest shoes coming out. At one point, I was coming home from school and going onto Nike ID creating different colorways of my favorite sneakers everyday. My favorite sneaker was the LeBron 11. I certainly created hundreds of different colorways dreaming that I could purchase them one day. A year or two later I began getting shoes for full price, either asking for them as presents or using my saved-up cash. Over time I got more and more into the sneaker and eventually street wear culture. Fast forward to today, I possess some of the sneakers I dreamed to own as a child and a whole lot more.
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