10 Ways to Beat Online Sneaker Bots

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If a sneaker is a non-Twitter Link Only (TLO) release, it means that you can access the product page on Nike.com without having to rely on @nikestore to tweet out the link. All you have to do is get the 9-digit style number of the sneaker, which is readily available on Nike’s Release Calendar, and enter it into the search bar on the site.

By searching for the style number, as soon as the sneakers are live on the site, you will be redirected straight to the product page. Keep in mind: if you search for a style number of a sneaker that isn’t available yet, you will get a “No Matches Found” page. Not to worry—just continue to refresh this page until the product goes live, which is typically 8 a.m. EST for Saturday morning releases.

Don’t be fooled by people selling early links for non-TLO releases. In this case, early links are completely irrelevant. As long as you have the style number of the sneaker, you’re good to go. Try it out for yourself right now. The LeBron XI Low “Easter” was a non-TLO release and has a style number of 642849-100. Plug that into the search bar on Nike.com and see what happens.

When it comes to limited releases, timing is everything. Every millisecond counts and is the difference between checking out successfully or getting hit with the dreadful “SOLD OUT.” To ensure that you’re putting yourself in a position to flourish on release day, take 15 minutes to just make yourself familiar with the online store’s layout and checkout process. This is especially important if you’re trying to purchase sneakers at a store you’ve never ordered from in the past.

Take note of everything and examine all the details. Seriously, we mean all the details. Know the exact position of certain buttons and where your shoe size appears on the site. Is it on the left side? Right side? Above the fold? Below the fold? Be familiar with all the steps in the checkout process. Do you have to be logged in? Will they only ship to your billing address? What forms of payment are accepted? All these details matter and will help the process go much more smoothly. While the next guy is fumbling and registering for an account during checkout, you’ve already hit “Submit” and on your way to enjoy your Saturday.

While Nike and Shopify-powered sites like Kith and Concepts actually place a hold on your item once it’s added to your cart, there are many online stores that don’t implement this like Supreme and Foot Locker. Therefore, not only is it a race to add the sneakers to your cart, but it’s also a race to checkout. To ensure you don’t get cart-jacked while entering your address and payment information, use the built-in autofill feature on the Google Chrome browser.

You can store your address and credit card information beforehand and fill out a checkout form in one click of a button. This allows you to speed through the checkout process, which gives you a higher chance of completing your purchase.

If you’re following stores or brands only, you’re not doing nearly enough.

It’s good to follow the people behind the brand: store owners, managers, and PR personnel. These are the folks working behind the scenes for every product and every release, and they can keep you in the know in regard to releases. Remember those “Red October” Yeezy II rumors were rampant last summer? It was actually Nike’s PR Director (@heidiburgett) that cleared the air on Twitter.

And who knows? By following this other group of people, you might even be the recipient to first dibs. For instance, there have been several times when Ronnie Fieg (@ronniefieg) tweeted about a #KithStrike before the announcement dropped on Kith’s Twitter account.

You also have plenty of bloggers and sneaker personalities that can help you out. From random online sales to silent restocks and overlooked stores, you’ve got to expand the network of people you follow if you want a shot at kicks these days.

Always have Twitter notifications enabled on your mobile device for some of your favorite online stores and sneaker personalities. Even if there isn’t a release on your radar, you should keep your notifications on because you never know when something big is going to break on Twitter.

By having notifications enabled, you have a higher chance of being able to cop sneakers that are randomly announced like the “Red October” Air Yeezy II or finding out about restocks and deals. Sure, you’ll probably encounter a lot of marketing tweets for products that you’re not interested in, but it’s worth it if you can score something like the “Red October.”

It can never be overstated how much Twitter has affected the sneaker culture. With so many sneaker companies and online stores using the social site to communicate with consumers and release products, it’s important to use Twitter wisely and efficiently. Consider the TweetDeck application from Twitter to customize your experience and zero in on all things sneakers.

TweetDeck allows you to filter tweets by user so that you’ll only be notified by a sound or pop-up when a Tweet matches your criteria. This is especially helpful for Twitter Link Only (TLO) releases. If there’s a TLO release for a pair of new LeBrons, follow @NikeStore and set your filter for the keyword “LeBron.” This way, if there are multiple products launching at 8 a.m. EST, you’ll only see the tweet for the LeBron sneakers that you’re interested in.

The best part about the TweetDeck application is that timelines are streamed in real-time as opposed to the occasional timeline delays that can be experienced on your regular Twitter.com homepage. That delay can be precious seconds wasted when it comes to limited release sneakers. You can get TweetDeck here.

We all know about the usuals—Nike Store, Finish Line, Foot Locker, Eastbay, Footaction, and Champs—but when it comes to copping a pair of sneakers, you’ve got to think outside the box and keep an eye on other retailers. For instance, were you aware that NBA Store released the Air Jordan XI “Gamma” on their website? Probably not. Also, there are plenty of regional chains—like Shoe Palace on the West Coast and Villa in the Midwest and East Coast—that release retro Js and highly sought after NSW gems online.

You could even try your hand at international sites that many people sleep on—literally. Due to the time difference of some of these shops, many people are asleep in the States during these drops. Some of the ones to check out include End Clothing, Hanon, size?, and Crooked Tongues.

Another option is to keep mom and pop boutiques on your radar. Sure, most of them do in-store releases first, but when pairs don’t sell out, stores will put them online or have them available for phone orders—that’s when you can swoop in. Places like Ubiq, Concepts, and Saint Alfred are ones to keep in mind.

If you strike out on a Nike Store release, the general consensus among sneakerheads is to simply wait it out for the Swoosh’s infamous restock. The key with these random restocks is understanding possible relaunch dates based on the past. Here’s what we mean—below is the complete list of the dates/times of all the restocks that happened on Nike Store going back to the beginning of last year:

• February 20, 2013 at 7:01 p.m. EST


• April 10, 2013 at  7:00 p.m. EST


• July 9, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. EST


• September 23, 2013 at 7:02 p.m. EST


• September 27, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. EST (“Doernbecher” V only)


• December 2, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. EST


• March 13, 2014 at 6:27 p.m. EST


• May 5, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. EST

Based on the eight restocks that occurred from 2013 up to this month, we can expect a restock once every 2 to 3 months—and from this pattern, you can likely expect the next restock to be in July or August. Something else to keep in mind: the launch time is typically between 6 to 8 p.m. EST.

While this doesn’t exactly guarantee you’ll score the second time around, it gives you a better idea of when to expect restocks and allows you to prepare accordingly instead of just waiting for the tweet to fall in your lap.

The age-old adage that you constantly hear from your parents and teachers about never giving up rings true when you’re trying to cop kicks. Seriously, instead of going straight to Twitter to voice your displeasure about how you struck out and that bots are ruining the “game,” you have to keep trying to add the sneakers to your cart.

If you initially receive a message that states the item is in other carts, it means exactly that: it’s in other customers’ carts, but it isn’t technically sold out yet. During the checkout process, anything can happen. Someone might change their mind and remove the sneakers from their cart. A payment could get declined. Maybe the person takes their sweet time and that “hold” on their kicks gets removed.

Don’t give up just yet until the item is in fact sold out. If you’re on Nike Store, Finish Line, or Foot Locker, they’ll tweet out that the sneaker is no longer available. If you’re on a Shopify-powered site like Kith, the size will disappear from the dropdown. Until then, just go HAM on your mouse.

Page Monitor is a free extension for the Google Chrome browser that keeps an eye on changes made on a website. All you do is specify a webpage that you want to track and set how frequently Page Monitor should be checking the webpage for changes (set it to 5 seconds for optimal use). Anytime a page is updated, you will be alerted with a notification on your browser to visit the page.

If you’ve been wondering how some sneakerheads are always able to catch restocks or are always on top of scattered sizes that make their way back to a site from canceled/returned orders, chances are they’re using Page Monitor. You didn’t really think someone was actually sitting there refreshing the page all day, did you? You can get the Page Monitor extension here.