Last week, StockX announced that it was getting into NFTs. This is a big deal for both the crypto and sneaker communities, as it leaves an indelible mark on what’s to come by bringing both worlds together.
With brands like Nike and Adidas already having NFT projects under their belts, it makes sense for the mammoth reseller marketplace to enter the fold as well. Comparatively, StockX is setting itself up for its marketplace to host a few different deliverables with NFTs and sneakers that other companies haven’t quite tackled yet.
StockX’s first NFT venture is Vault, which uses tokens as a representation of authenticity and provenance for its sneaker resale market. This is helpful for those who flip sneakers as a speculative asset, where it eliminates having to send authenticated shoes back and forth.
StockX is hoping to use NFTs as a tool to reward top-dollar spenders and collectors. For its first reward, StockX held a giveaway of eight Kaws figurines that only NFT holders could enter. The idea of using NFTs as a way of gating-off and rewarding super-fans has been a growing trend, with StockX looking to utilize its strong community of collectors to reward behaviors those people are already engaging in.
With a heavy emphasis on Vault for its entry into NFTs, StockX’s execution of tying NFTs to sneakers made sense. However, there are a lot of questions remaining about how people are supposed to behave within this marketplace that differs from how other NFT platforms are set up: How are resellers supposed to price-in this “value add” of an NFT? What NFTs will be sold separately from sneakers? Will users be able to resell NFTs they buy off StockX on other platforms like OpenSea? Let’s break down what we know.
StockX announced Vault as its first offering, with more digital assets to come in the future.
Currently, Vault has 559 NFTs tied to sneakers for sale. Editions range from 1-of-1 for the A Ma Maniere x Air Jordan 3 Retro and Off-White x Nike Dunk Low “Lot 50” to 100 for shoes like the Kaws x Sacai x Nike Blazer Low and white-and-black Nike Dunk Low Retro.
Vault ties NFTs to shoes as a certificate of ownership and authenticity. This helps mitigate the steps of shipping and authentication for people who use StockX with the intent of reselling/trading shoes as alternative assets. For those who actually want to wear the shoes, the NFT is “burned” (where a token is sent to a wallet that can only “receive” them, effectively destroying it), and you can request for the shoes to be shipped (since the token is destroyed, you get the real shoes).
Looking through the initial sales on Vault, StockX has minted NFT editions from three to 250 available for different shoes.
NFTs like the Nike Dunk Low Retro White/Black do a good job of being reflective of their shoe’s real-world price, fluctuating based on resale demand. Other drops like the Jordan 1 Retro High OG “Patent Bred” started at $300 for an edition of 250, which peaked around $860 but are now closer to $670. However, shoes like the Ben & Jerry’s x Nike SB Dunk Low “Chunky Dunky” are somewhat more head-scratching for someone trying to gauge what’s for sale and how much the NFT is actually worth.
Minted as an edition of three, the Chunky Dunky NFT’s sales history lists five transactions, with the first two at $1,250 (in line with the actual sneaker’s market price) and the third at $3,000. If the sales history to number of editions is correct, one of the first three buyers resold their NFT for $3,500 and another resold theirs for $5,000 (around $3,500 higher than the sneaker alone). At the time of writing, there are two asks (one of $42,069, the other at $55,555) and a bid history that’s currently at $3,600.
People put up trollish prices like $42,069 all the time in the NFT world, but if someone isn’t digging through StockX’s order book, all they’re going to see is the high-end asking price. Advertising strategies like that worked for sneakers on their own because the market was backed by outside forces (like eBay or other resellers), however, having that advertised as the main sales price has deterred some from investigating StockX’s Vault NFTs any further.
Judging by the sales history for StockX Vault NFTs, it looks like those who are invested in the digital sneakers have started to define prices more closely tethered to what they’d feel comfortable paying for the shoes alone (plus the token holder’s benefits).
