Sneaker Invest: A Complete Guide For Investing In Sneakers

Gone are the days when your investment options were only limited to stocks or the real estate market. Today, sneakers are an equally hot commodity that could earn you hundreds or even thousands of dollars with every resale.

But before you start your sneaker invest journey, you need to know what to look for when investing in sneakers and how to find the best pairs to invest in.

Below, you’ll learn all about investing in shoes, including the benefits of investing in sneakers.

What Does It Mean to Invest in Sneakers?

Investing in sneakers is the process of buying a sneaker at retail value and then selling it on the second-hand market for profit. You can do this by investing in people who are looking to sell their sneakers, or you can also buy shoes directly from stores like Stadium Goods NYC, Flight Club, Kith NYC, and the retailers’ websites.

Sneakers have always been a popular part of pop culture. In recent decades, they have become more than just casual footwear. These kicks are now seen as investments. If you take the time to go through all the sneaker news, especially for major releases, you can see that prices can vary massively between different brands.

Some people buy sneakers to wear or collect them, while others simply buy them because they know they will be able to flip them at a profit.

When you decide to invest in sneakers, you’re not only collecting shoes that are sought after by other collectors but also making pairs available for purchase that are no longer available on the retailers’ websites.

Suppose you buy the latest Nikes from the company’s most recent drop. The stock sells out on the same day. Now, you’re at an advantage to sell that sneaker at a higher price because it’s no longer available on the retailer’s website for the actual price. All other resellers will do the same thing.

Similarly, you can also resell vintage sneakers or sought-after pairs to make a profit. For example, the Air Jordan III OG’s are extremely expensive because Michael Jordan was wearing them when he slam-dunked on Dominique Wilkins. The earliest editions of Air Jordan III OG’s sell for as high as $4,500, although their retail price was much lower at the time they were released.

Benefits of Investing in Sneakers

Sneaker investing isn’t actually a new concept. In fact, it has been going on for many years and will continue to gain popularity in the coming years. There are several reasons why you should consider becoming a sneaker investor too.

Easy to get started

Getting started with investing in sneakers is comparatively easier than entering the trade market or crypto trading. You don’t have to understand complex concepts or spend hours keeping up with the news.

Instead, you can get onto a retailers’ online site and purchase your favorite sneakers. Once you make the initial investment, you’ll be able to keep track of how much they’re worth and see which pairs will give you the most returns when it’s time for resale.

High returns

By reselling shoes at a higher price than what you initially paid for them, you can earn a lot of money with just a little initial investment.

For example, if you purchase an Air Jordan 2 Retro OG at retail value for $190 and get a profit of $150 when it’s time to sell, your ROI is 75%.

If you were to invest in stocks, crypto, or other financial instruments, you’ll be hard-pressed to get such high returns — especially with the same initial investment.

Low initial investment

Since it’s easy to get started, newbies will be able to enter the sneaker-collecting business with just a few hundred dollars.

It’s also very easy to find sneakers and flip them. Nowadays, there are many sneaker cook groups and online resources that you can use to find the best pairs to invest in and to keep up with upcoming drops.

How to Invest in Sneakers

When investing in shoes, you need to understand the factors that make a pair of sneakers valuable, the best places to resell the sneakers, and how to cop in-demand pairs.

The first step in sneaker investment is to cop or buy sneakers.

When there’s a new drop, retailers don’t normally let you buy more than a single pair. Sure enough, a single pair can earn you some profit when resold, but if you want to make sneaker investment a full-time income-generation method, you’ll need to buy multiple pairs.

That’s where bots and proxies come in.

Copping sneakers

A sneaker bot is software that helps you cop shoes by automatically placing an order for them on the retailer’s site.

On the day of a drop, the retailers’ websites are jam-packed with buyers. By the time you add a second pair to the cart, it’s likely it would have been sold out already. A bot solves this problem by allowing you to buy limited availability stock quickly as it places orders for you automatically.

Meanwhile, the issue of one-buyer-one-pair can be solved by proxies. A proxy is a server that allows you to place an order on the retailer’s site using multiple accounts. The retailers’ websites look at your IP address to determine if you’ve placed an order before, and they won’t let the same address place multiple orders.

Proxies mask your IP address and give you a new one for every attempt at purchasing a sneaker. This way, when you use proxies, retailers won’t recognize your previous requests and will allow you to purchase multiple from the same computer.

You can use the following types of proxies for investing in sneakers:

• Residential proxies: These proxies come from residential users and tend to be the safest and most reliable. Rayobyte residential proxies let you cop sneakers without worrying about getting blocked.
• Data center proxies: Data center proxies are more affordable than their residential counterparts and have fast connection speeds. Rayobyte data center proxies enable you to cop limited stock sneakers before they sell out from the retailers’ websites.
• ISP proxies: These proxies are a blend of residential and datacenter proxies, which means you get both reliability and speed. Rayobyte ISP proxies let you cop sneakers at 1 Gbps speed with 5 real IP ASNs.

What Makes a Pair of Sneakers Valuable?

When investing in shoes, you need to know which pairs to cop. Which sneakers will earn you the most profit? Which pairs are more likely to sell out quickly?

Here are some factors that determine the demand and profitability of a pair of sneakers.

Brand

The brand obviously matters since people prefer buying sneakers from more established brands, like Nike. The demand for Jordans is much higher than the demand for Reebok shoes.

Keeping this in mind, there’s no point in buying sneakers from no-name or lesser-known brands since they won’t sell for a higher price.

Besides popular brands like Nike, Puma, and Adidas, look for brands that frequently collaborate with public figures and celebrities since the hype around their products is usually higher than other shoes.

Condition

Sneakers that are kept in good condition will always be more valuable than those that are worn out.

Some people purposely make their sneakers look old and dirty so they can sell them as “used,” but it usually ends up backfiring when potential buyers can tell that they’ve been worn out. Sneakers with clear signs of wear and tear won’t be worth much.

If you’re buying online, make sure to check the description carefully for any mentions of damage or excessive use.

Release year

Sneakers that are released more recently will always be more expensive than those that came out years ago unless these pairs were associated with a popular public figure or worn by a sportsperson.

Of course, there are some exceptions. For example, the Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 v2 “Zebra” released in February 2017 has dropped in price since its debut because of the synthetic materials used to make them and other factors.

Limited edition

It’s best to cop limited edition shoes since there will be a higher demand for them. People won’t buy sneakers for a higher price from you when they can easily get them off the shelf for a lower price.

The 2018 Yeezy Boost 350 is a good example of this. The price of the sneaker has depreciated since its release because of overproduction.

Hype

Some sneakers are overly hyped due to their association with a celebrity or athlete. For example, the  Air Jordan 3 Retro “Black Cement” was originally released in 1988, and the follow-up releases came in 2001, 2008, and 2011.

The re-release of the sneaker made it one of the most valuable shoes today because of its link to Michael Jordan and limited production numbers.

Another example of this is the Yeezy 1 Grammy worn by Kanye West to the Grammy Awards. Although the shoes never went into production and West was only wearing a sample pair, the shoes were hyped to the point that the few samples that are floating around today are valued at well over $50,000 a pair.

Collaborations

Sneaker retailers often collaborate with brands, actors, celebrities, and artists to make their shoes more attractive and generate hype.

One of the most popular examples is Kendrick Lamar’s Nike Cortez Kenny IV which was inspired by his album, DAMN.

Some other popular sneaker collaborations include Alexander Wang x Adidas Originals, Cardi B x Reebok, Donald Glover x Adidas, Justin Timberlake x Nike, and Gigi Hadid x Reebok.

Investing in Shoes: Tips for Beginners

Are shoes a good investment? Certainly, but not everyone makes it in the sneaker investing market. As a beginner, you need to follow these tips to be successful in your shoe investment.

Use paid proxies

Free proxies might save you some money upfront, but they’re not reliable in terms of sneaker copping. When you’re copping the latest drops, you only have a few days, if not hours, to get your hands on sneakers that could possibly sell for double or triple the price.

You don’t want to bust your chance by using free proxies that get blocked the minute you try to buy a second pair. Instead, paid proxies are more reliable and come with dedicated support in case there’s a disruption.

Join sneaker cook groups

A sneaker cook group is a group of sneakerheads that coordinate to buy a specific pair and resell it for a higher price.

You can find fellow sneakerheads who will alert you about upcoming drops and provide tips for sneaking investing.

You can search on social media for groups that offer these opportunities.

Choose a reputable seller

Finding a reputable platform for selling sneakers is essential if you want to make sure that your shoes arrive in the condition advertised and to avoid any payment or fraud issues.

When choosing a platform to list your sneakers, consider the following:

• Commissions: Resale platforms charge commissions for selling your shoes. Decide if the commission is worth it for you, depending on how much profit you want to make from your investment.
• Transaction fees: Most platforms charge a transaction fee for using their services. If possible, look for a platform that waives this fee or offers discounts when paid annually or by subscription.
• Customer support: A good platform will offer 24/7 customer support so you can get in touch if there’s a problem with your order or sneaker.

List your sneakers on several platforms

Listing your sneakers on several platforms ensures that people find them wherever they’re shopping. This is essential for maximizing the number of potential buyers and making substantial sales.

Final Words

It’s amazing that we live in a world where sneaker invest opportunities are joining the ranks of stock, indices, or crypto trading. You can combine your passion with income to make money on the side by copping valuable sneakers that promise high profits.

Proxies are an integral part of sneaker copping since they allow you to buy multiple pairs of sneakers. The more sneakers you buy, the higher profits you’re likely to make.

Invest in limited edition, good condition, high-quality, and name brand sneakers to maximize profits from your shoe investment.

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