How To Get Into The Sneaker Game: The Ultimate Guide

If you’ve spent enough time in the shoe world, you’ve probably run into sneaker copping or reselling. You may even be here because you want to get into the sneaker copping business.

Fair enough.

To start sneaker copping and reselling, you should know a few things. For one, you must familiarize yourself with the sneaker lingo since you’ll be communicating with sneaker enthusiasts.

Secondly, you must know where and how to get your hands on the most hyped-up sneakers that are likely to sell. In this guide, we’ll cover how to get into the sneaker game and everything you need to know about buying sneakers in bulk to make some extra cash on the side.

Know the Sneaker Slang

If you want to fit in with sneakerheads, you must speak their language. You certainly do not want to use the wrong terminology when working with a whole subculture and community of diehard fans.

So, what’s the first step? Learn the lingo.

Here are some words you’ll commonly hear in the sneaker reselling business.

• Copping: It means making a successful sneaker purchase. Most retailers won’t let you buy more than a single pair when they drop a sneaker. Copping means successfully getting your hands on multiple pairs.
• Drop: It’s when a retailer releases a new sneaker style.
• Grail: It’s the most desired sneaker you sell.
• Double Up: When you like a sneaker so much that you want to buy another pair, you’re doubling up.
• Deadstock: It’s a sneaker from an old release that is completely new and has never been worn.
• Fire: It’s an adjective for a “dope” or super cool pair of sneakers.
• F&F: It’s a rare sneaker that’s only released for the friends and family of designers and collaborators.
• Fugazi: A pair of sneakers damaged beyond repair, or a pair that is fake.
• GOAT: The greatest of all time.
• Kicks: A word for sneakers.
• Quickstrike: It refers to limited-edition sneakers released without notice.

These are some words you should know before you start reselling sneakers. Once you get in the game, your vocabulary will expand.

How to Get Into Sneaker Reselling

Once you’ve started speaking sneaker, it’s time to learn how to spot the best kicks for reselling. There are two ways to go about it. You can either look for shoes you want to resell personally or opt for the pairs that are hot at the moment.

If you want to start making a profit right from the bat, you should buy sneakers that are already popular in the sneaker space. It’s easy to find which styles are trending currently. For instance, you can check the r/Sneakers subreddit to get an idea of what buyers are looking for.

The second option is to buy sneakers that YOU like. You may have a certain preference for a brand, price range, style, or color scheme. Whatever you choose, there will definitely be people out there who have the same tastes as you.

With this approach, you might start making a profit a little down the line, but you’ll build a community of like-minded people. Once they begin to consider you a trustworthy source, you’ll have a loyal pool of customers who are always waiting for you to come out with new stock to sell.

Suppose you want to cop upcoming Adidas sneakers only.

You can also join relevant communities on Discord or other social media platforms to keep in touch with people who are interested in buying Adidas shoes, especially the new drops. Or, you can join a general Discord group, like Sneakers, and go on from there.

Alternatively, make your way into sneaker cook groups, and learn everything about sneaker reselling from people who have excelled at the game.

How much do you need to start reselling sneakers?

The amount you need to get started depends on your ultimate goal. How much do you want to earn through sneaker reselling? For starters, it’s best if you buy a couple of pairs and figure out if this hustle is for you.

You can expect to earn anywhere from $80 to $200 per pair, depending on the kind of sneaker you’re selling. If you’re reselling limited edition sneakers, you can expect to get more profits.

But to reach that level, you need to be a trustworthy seller as buyers are highly skeptical due to the influx of counterfeit sneakers in the market.

Reselling limited edition or exclusive sneakers can earn you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in profit every month.

How to Cop Sneakers

So, you’ve decided the amount of money you want to spend on buying sneakers, and you’ve also selected the kind of shoes you want to buy. Now how do you get your stock?

Keep in mind that most retailers won’t let you buy more than a single pair with the same banking details or IP address. However, there can be other ways to get into the sneaker business by buying more than a single pair at a time.

Here are some methods:

Use a sneaker bot

In the sneaker world, a bot is a software component that allows you to quickly buy shoes when they’re available in a limited amount. The main reason for using sneaker bots is that they’re speedy, which means you can beat other buyers to the checkout.

Buying a pair of sneakers can be quite time-consuming. From adding a pair to the cart to checking out, you have to follow several steps that can take a few minutes.

Limited edition or high-demand sneakers tend to sell out really fast. If you’re even a few minutes late, you might miss the opportunity to buy the pair you really wanted — the Grail.

Meanwhile, a sneaker bot takes just a few seconds to buy the pair of shoes you want. When you couple it with a proxy, you can manage to purchase multiple pairs from the same website without getting blocked.

In this way, a sneaker bot allows you to buy your desired pairs of sneakers on the release day before they run out of stock.

Enter sneaker raffles

To give everyone a fair chance of buying a pair of kicks, some retailers require you to enter raffles. Basically, you enter a “lucky draw” where the website chooses which entrants can buy shoes first.

Instead of simply entering with one account, use multiple accounts. The more entries you have, the higher your chances of winning the opportunity to buy your desired pair.

It’s also a good way to increase your likelihood of getting the latest drop if you don’t want to use sneaker bots.

Use proxies

A sneaker bot may give you the speed you need to beat other buyers to that one perfect pair of sneakers, but it won’t allow you to buy multiple pairs by itself. That’s where proxies come in.

When you enter the sneaker game, you have to learn about proxies too.

A proxy hides your identity on the web and makes it seem like the traffic is coming from a regular user. With a proxy, you can buy multiple pairs from the same website since your IP address will be different for each order.

A combination of proxies and bots means that you can purchase multiple pairs at high speed — a perfect formula for success in the sneaker game. Here are some types of proxies you can use to cop sneakers:

• Residential proxies: Residential proxies are often considered the best for sneaker copping since they provide IP addresses from actual users. Therefore, the retailers’ website doesn’t get suspicious about your request. Rayobyte’s residential proxies allow you to use millions of proxies to cop as many sneakers as you want.
• Data center proxies: These IP addresses come from data centers. While they may not be as safe as residential proxies (from getting banned or blocked), they’re comparatively speedier. If you’re afraid the Grail will run out of stock soon, it’s best to use Rayobyte’s data center proxies with more than 300,000 IP addresses in over 26 countries.
• ISP proxies:  ISP proxies are a mix of data center and residential proxies. They are hosted on data center servers but are supported by an ISP network circuit. In this way, they provide the IP addresses of the ISP instead of the data center. Rayobyte’s ISP proxies are ethically-sourced with strict quality control and offer 1GBps speed, enabling you to get your hands on the best sneakers before your competitors do.

To learn more about how Rayobyte’s proxies can help you thrive in the sneaker game, follow our Discord channel.

Where to Cop Sneakers

You now know that a combination of bots and proxies will help enable you to buy sneakers for reselling. That’s awesome, but where do you buy these shoes from in the first place? Here are some ideas.

Retailers’ websites

It’s the most obvious place to buy sneakers. Nike, Yeezy, Adidas, Balenciaga, and every other sneaker retailer have a website where you can buy the latest drops from. However, you need to be on your feet as soon as a sneaker drops since the traffic to these sites is insane.

Sneaker marketplaces

These are websites where you can find sneakers from different retailers. Depending on the marketplace you’re on, you’ll see everything from new shoes to preloved pairs.

Social media groups

When you get into the sneaker game, it’s good to make a place for yourself in the community. Doing so will allow you to get in touch with fellow sneaker resellers who may know more about the market than you do.

If you’re part of groups from different social media platforms, you’ll get many leads on where to buy sneakers. Plus, the group members may also share news of any upcoming drops or restocks.

Discord

Discord can be a surprisingly great place to buy or sell sneakers. However, you’ll have better luck if you’re part of premium groups since this is where you can expect to find legitimate buyers or sellers.

The sneakerhead community on Discord is quite knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the sneaker game. Thus, it’s a good place to find your crowd.

Where to Resell Sneakers

By now, you should know where and how to buy sneakers. Now, it’s time for the good part — making bank.

You can resell your sneakers at the same places that you bought them from, minus the retailers’ websites of course. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• If you’re selling sneakers on social media, make sure you take appropriate measures to prevent fraud since there’s no third party involved to ensure buyer and seller protection. Some groups have moderators, but they typically don’t do much in case of fraudulent behavior.
• When listing sneakers on third-party sites or marketplaces, make sure to check the commission or share of the sale that the website keeps. Ideally, you want to opt for a website that doesn’t take too much of your profit. But then again, you don’t want to compromise on quality and safety either.
• You can also resell sneakers in sneaker cook groups. It’s best to be a part of a paid sneaker cook group rather than a free one since the former will have a higher degree of safety, control, convenience, and moderation.
• When selling sneakers on subreddits, make sure you’re doing it in a way that keeps you and the seller safe. Provide proof of authentication to buyers in order to establish trustworthiness.
• Some third-party marketplaces also have certain policies that you must adhere to. For instance, some may require you to ship the shoes to their headquarters for authentication before you ship them out to the buyer. Read these policies thoroughly before choosing a platform.

Taking pictures

An important part of sneaker reselling is taking good pictures. It’s best if you don’t pull pictures from the web or the retailers’ website for two reasons:

• The customers want to see original pictures of the shoes they’ll get, especially if it’s a preloved pair.
• Most third-party marketplaces will ask you to upload real images of the shoes rather than those taken from the web.

When taking pictures of the shoes, keep the following tips in mind:

• Take pictures against a solid background, preferably white.
• Take shots from all sides, including the top, front, back, and an angled shot.
• Don’t use props as they may take attention away from the shoes.
• To establish credibility, you might want to take pictures of the shoebox, the manufacturer’s tag, or the receipt.

Shipping the sneakers

The final step of the process is to ship the shoes to the buyer. You want to make sure that you’re packing the shoes as delicately as possible so that they don’t get damaged during delivery.

If you bought them directly from the retailer or if it’s a new drop, ship them as they are. But if you’re reselling preloved sneakers, pack them in a solid-colored box that has enough room for both shoes.

If you still have the dust bag, you could put the shoes in it before putting them in the box. Otherwise, use bubble wrap to fill the spaces around the sneakers to prevent any bumps.

How to Get Into the Shoe Game: Tips and Tricks

Given the hype sneakers get these days, there are many who’ll want to learn how to get into shoe reselling. The detailed version has been explained above, but here are a few extra tips that will help you thrive in the sneaker space.

Capitalize on collaborations

Collaborations are a huge deal in the sneaker world. People are ready to pay thousands of dollars for shoes that have a celebrity’s name attached to them. Travis Scott seems to be the Holy Grail in this regard.

The Air Jordan 1 High OG TS drop was a highly anticipated event since Nike collaborated with Travis Scott for it. The collection was sold out within hours of its release. A single pair of the high-tops was priced at $175, but its resale value went up to $1,000 and above.

Clean those kicks

If you want to resell preloved sneakers, make sure you clean them as much as possible. That will help you maximize your earnings by getting a better deal on the shoes.

Don’t use free proxies

When you cop sneakers, avoid using free proxies since they’re less reliable and increase your risk of getting blocked. Instead, use paid proxies with dedicated support so that you don’t miss out on the bag during a sneaker drop.

Don’t let go of the shoebox

The box your sneakers came in isn’t just handy for storage. It’s also a way to earn more on the resale.

Everything that came with the sneakers, including the receipt, tag, and box, will help you get a better resale deal as these items add extra value to the sneakers and establish their authenticity.

Final Words

Sneaker reselling is huge with regard to the hype and the potential monetary benefits. So, it makes sense why someone would want to know how to get into the sneaker game.

But to make any money in the reselling space, you need to know where to cop, how to cop, what to cop, and how to resell. It’s also useful to be a part of sneaker cook groups, online communities, Discord channels, and subreddits to stay close to the community for tips, tricks, and news about future drops. Diversifying your reach will be a big key to this game.

Finally, use reliable bots and proxies to avoid any disturbance or inconvenience during sneaker copping. Test out a proxy from Rayobyte to see how quickly it can pay for itself and then some.

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