Image via Complex Original
The sneaker reselling industry is worth a billion dollars, but it could be in trouble. A few weeks back, a report was published by Campless that showed eBay sneaker sales were on a decline for the first time in the three years the analytics blog had been around. According to the data, the report stated that eBay had grossed $26M in resale sales in January 2015, which was down 5 percent from the previous year.
Campless's numbers were also taken into account by a bigger source: Goldman Sachs. In an article published by the Portland Business Journal, Goldman Sachs consults Campless on the possibility of the sneaker resale market becoming oversaturated, thus seeing a drop off in sales numbers and having an impact on the sneaker retail industry. "We believe there is a relationship between the resale and retail markets," the report claimed.
More retro product is available then ever, and a limited or coveted sneaker seems to release every Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Restocks of once-sold out sneakers are common, and it's resulted in an endless supply of items that people originally had to search high and low for.
With eBay's sales taking a slight dip, it's posed a different question: Where are people selling all of these sneakers that are being released, if selling them at all?
New buying and selling platforms have emerged for the individual seller.
The short answer is the Internet, but it's more complicated than that. There are sites that now specialize in selling sneakers on the secondary market. K'lekt, a German-based website that connects buyers with sellers, specializes in retro runners, European exclusives, and vintage product. There's also Grailed, a newly formed site that is similar in concept to K'lekt, but caters more to a menswear-specific audience. The reason is how simple the process is, instead of scrolling through thousands of random and uninformed listings.
"People come to us because we have curated content," Jake Metzger, co-founder of Grailed, says. "With eBay, you have to sift through the junk."
EBay has also become notorious for its auctions that last anywhere between a few days to a month. Grailed offers its users a system where they can either buy the item or make the seller an offer. This policy, along with making an earnest attempt to rid the site of fakes, has attracted customers, Metzger says.
Twitter has become a marketplace in itself.
Other sellers are cutting out the middleman all together. Twitter and Instagram are largely popular in sneaker culture, due to their platforms that allow for the quick sharing of information and images. Both of these social media destinations have become prime spots to resell sneakers. They don't have selling fees and they allow the buyers to directly interact with the sellers.
Tyler Blake, who built his love for sneakers into a social media role with Concepts, has become known for reselling on Twitter, where he currently has over 30,000 followers for his account @therealtblake.
"I love Twitter and Instagram because I like dealing with people I’m familiar with," Blake says. "I’ll sell sneakers for cheap because I like to have a strong engagement and trust with my following. If I ship them to someone on Twitter, it’s someone who I know, or at least see on the Internet everyday. It’s a lot less likely that the kid is going to scam me."
But scamming is still an issue.
Getting scammed on the Internet is a large concern for anyone selling sneakers. As Blake says, "When I first started to sell sneakers, people were more worried about getting scammed by the seller. Now people are more worried about getting scammed by the buyer."
This is able to occur because people like to use "gift" payments via PayPal, which allows the seller to avoid paying fees on the money they're pulling in. "What the sellers don’t know is if you use a gift payment it’s super easy to call PayPal and say there was a data error," Blake explains. "Sneakers will get shipped, and then the buyer will contact PayPal and get their money back once the sneakers are already in the mail."
A fear of these situations has forced Blake to resell his more expensive pairs —which he says are around $300-$400 — in person. His goal, though, is to avoid selling sneakers for large sums. It allows him to sell more sneakers overall. "Everything usually sells in 10 or 15 minutes," he says. "A lot of people follow me just to see what I’m selling. I’m helping local people move their collections. I’m able to price them at non-Flight Club prices, and they sell quick."
EBay still plays a pivotal role to established shops.
Consignment stores, however, are still a popular way to resell sneakers and people like the idea of dropping off a pair and having someone else go through the work of selling them. The stores usually take 20 percent of the selling price, but some of these shops don't see eBay as a bad route to unload items.
Some see the online market place as a way to market their store. "I see eBay as an extra outlet to get our brand to the public," Tony Chen, owner of Soled Out NYC, says. "We throw in sticks and a receipt from the store with all of our information on it. It gives us more exposure."
Being an established platform, eBay's reach is far wider than smaller shops or unknown people on social media. It's where the general public is going to go to buy after-market sneakers."A lot of people go on eBay to find that one gem they have a hard time locating," Chen says. "EBay has the capabilities to reach the masses. It's a waiting game to find the right buyer, but it's worth it to add those buyers to our clientele."
So what's next?
There's money being made by reselling sneakers, and people are still profiting off of eBay. Per Campless' report, the eBay sneaker market is worth $334 million, down from $338 in October 2014. It's just that the limited-edition sneaker-reselling industry has grown so large that it's started to change. Anyone can be a reseller now, and it's shown that they're using more common means to flip the sneakers they've come across or have been holding onto.
Whether it's for simplicity reasons or that they want to shop from a more personalized site, there are now other options for buyers and sellers. And they're showing it with their dollars.