How Hackers Make Buying Sneakers Unfair

In the Information Age, hackers aren't just people who delve into the deepest layers of the web, unveiling celebrity nudes and extracting classified government information. Sneaker hackers are very real (and no, we're not talking about the '90s movie). Tech-savvy individuals circumvent and manipulate the processes of any number of websites for their own benefit—including getting their hands on sought-after sneakers, or, at the very least, avoiding paying retail.

As the sneaker community has grown, much of the shopping, especially for limited releases, happens online—and hackers have found their way into the stock room. Almost everyone is affected by them, either in time, money, or missing out on an anticipated drop. They've become a very real presence in today's specialized footwear market, and here's How Hackers Make Buying Sneakers Unfair.

At the very base level, exploiting coupon codes and promotions is a hack. It's sort of like the sneakerhead's equivalent of Extreme Couponing, but stacking discounts or feverishly hunting down promo codes is a gateway to technological rule-breaking in order to get what you want. Remember when United Airlines goofed and accidentally gave away free tickets? These sorts of mishaps expose vulnerable areas in a site's infrastructure, ones that code-savvy sneaker enthusiasts can exploit for personal gain.

A lot of getting a step up in sneakers when it comes to technology is pattern recognition. Almost all password protection is based on algorithms. That means that for any reputable website, when you put in your password it doesn’t check to see if it’s your password letter for letter, instead it gets run through a very complicated math problem (hello, Algebra 2), whose result is compared to what the site has on file.

It’s the same way for expensive application serial codes and discount codes at your favorite sneaker stores. People who are good at math, and actually paid attention in calculus, can crack these algorithms and generate codes that fit the algorithm without being an official code—but they still work. This can really hurt the retailer, cutting into profits. And depending on how rampant the exploitation, could lead to the cancelation of codes or the entire program. Some Twitter accounts even tweet these codes out at regular intervals, mostly just to flex mathematical prowess. You may be able to save a few bucks, but you also risk getting your account closed at certain websites.

Even those who aren’t hackers can still recognize patterns. Many stores use patterns when it comes to naming their products on their websites, and those patterns make their way to the URLs. As we all know, an early URL can mean the difference between copping and striking out (especially when you’re up against bots), and if there are early links for friends and family, they can be pretty easy to find. The stores can mix it up, using different letter and number combinations to express the same things (gel-lyte-3.com vs gellyteiii.com), and there are finite combinations. It’s a constant push and pull. Either the e-commerce manager figured out a dope combo, or the homie at his computer trying different URLs all night struck gold. And nothing beats a good site map.

There's a lot of stressing about bots. It's a weird name for them, implying some sort of wired, self-aware computer that's just as likely to make you a cup of coffee as it is to help you on Nike.com. They're not robots, though, they're lines of code written by people who have found weaknesses in the code of the retailers website. That's just a few more words to explain "hacking." If you have a good bot, it's because you know a good hacker.

Bots are the direct result of artful hacking. Almost every issue we've had with sneaker releases in the last 18 months has been a result of the rapid spread of bots, and the ways retailers and companies have attempted to thwart them. They're why your Js sell out within seconds every Saturday. They're why folks get a dozen pairs when your fast clicking fails to get just one. They're why you're paying resale prices. These few lines of code are making the whole industry more expensive for everyone else.

When hackers and bot users are successful they walk away with a lot of shoes. The more learned among them will keep it to themselves, resell the shoes they want to resell and toast the rest of us who missed out. But some who use the talents of hackers put their successes on social media, flaunting the pairs that they stocked. You’ll see them all unboxed in a grid ready to go to their thirsty homes. For them it’s a treat, but for everyone it’s a headache. It makes the retailers look bad, puts pressure on them to make changes to protect against hackers (sup, Captcha?), and makes those who missed out sad in either their hearts or their wallets. It’s disheartening for everyone involved, except those who copped without challenge. Hackers make the entire system unfair, turning it into a "pay to play" system forcing a whole new, involuntary layer on process.