Sole traders: why there is a whiff of money among old trainers | Business

Sniffing for a living with foreign coaches seems like a bad job, but staying at his workstation, Matt Miller, inhales a Nike Air Jordan shoe with the enthusiasm of a sommelier.

Fortunately, the shoe has never been worn. Miller makes notes of leather and suede, but can probably also smell the money. The coveted Nike Jordan 1s – designed by rapper Travis Scott – are among the most coveted of StockX, a fast-growing trading platform for "sneakerheads," who collect or negotiate coaches and are willing to pay in excess. £ 1000 for a pair.

"I constantly test blindfolded," says Miller, one of the site-based London-based staff members charged with eliminating fakes in the global resale market of sneakers from around the world. training (or sneakers for Americans), which is now considered worth $ 7 billion a year.

"You are looking for the overall quality of sneakers, seams, odor. I tell my best authenticators to close my eyes and tell me which shoe it is. Each shoe has a unique smell. "

At a time when many traditional fashion retailers are struggling to seduce fickle young shoppers, major sports brands have won gold by partnering with tasteful designers such as Pharrell Williams and Kanye West. to launch limited edition shoe collections.

Yeezy's latest West shoes are so popular that British buyers were queuing in the early hours of Friday to get their hands on the latest iteration, which cost £ 180.

With demand outstripping supply of these highly prized products, StockX is presented as a "stock market for objects", allowing individuals to speculate on the most sought-after shoes, as well as on hoodies, such as S & P. It was shares of listed companies. Site users, mostly men and teenagers aged 20 to 20, traded for $ 1 billion worth of equipment not worn in the past year. The British market is worth 200 million pounds.

"A stock market is the most effective way to create a market price for any badet," says Josh Luber, a former IBM consultant who co-founded StockX with US billionaire Dan Gilbert four years ago. "We brought efficiency and transparency [of that model] facilitate the purchase of products when supply and demand are limited. "

The sneakerhead scene was once a subculture, but the Internet and sites such as Instagram forced it to enter the mainstream as the worlds of fashion and music came up against huge online audiences about social networks. At the same time, the trend has shifted to dresses throughout the generations, with last week's athletic trend helping propel JD Sports Fashion into the FTSE 100 largest business index. British.

"The growth we see today is due to the arrival of Instagram," Luber said. "All sneakerheads have always wanted to show off their shoes and see what others are wearing. Brands invite fashion designers and artists to make shoes: Kaws [the American artist and designer Brian Donnelly] makes shoes with Nike so that it goes through many parts of the culture. "

There is no warning on profits on StockX but market forces continue to apply as the stock of celebrities increases and decreases. Justin Timberlake gave a boost to the Air Jordan 3 prize when he took them to the Super Bowl, but the personal difficulties of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo made his Nikes difficult to change for a while.

StockX's Detroit-based funders include Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, and GV, the venture capital arm of Google's owner, Alphabet. There are also many famous investors, including Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem, Mark Wahlberg and the model Karlie Kloss. To date, $ 50 million has been raised to fund the expansion – Luber says other fundraising campaigns will follow.

StockX is currently focusing on the expansion in Europe; She recently opened an office in London as well as the first authentication center in the region, to ensure that the products sold are authentic, in an industrial area of ​​West London.

"London is the center of the European basketball world … as a market, we have to make it a local experience and allow people to quickly find the product," says Luber, who, with his combat trousers and platform sneakers orange, looks dressed for a rap battle rather than meetings with city costumes. Aged 41, he has 400 pairs of coaches, but says that this is a result that, in the "Pantheon of the great sportswear collections, is not even registered".

The London depot – another site four times larger than this one will soon open in Eindhoven, the Netherlands – is the focal point for trade in the region. Every day, several trucks of shoes and clothes are deposited at the back door so that the staff can control them. The mountain of stocks is gradually being sifted by an expert like Miller, before the package can be settled and sent to the buyer.

The average salesman is a single trader – literally – who has queued for new shoe launches or who has gained an advantage over styles that they believe will increase in value. Sales generate a payment processing fee of 3% and a transaction fee of 9.5%. But the customer base is becoming more common. "It started with basic sneakers," says Luber. "But now these are people who have just bought their latest pair of shoes from JD Sports or Footlocker but never browse eBay ads. The retail and resale market has begun to blur.

In the London depot, boxes of trainers are piled up to the ceiling, but the reality is that few trainers will be worn, as traders badume their value will increase. Miller, a collector with hundreds of pairs, confesses to having bought eight pairs of Travis Scott Nikes – who stand out thanks to the reversal of Nike's famous swoosh on the side – but he would not even consider trying them. "I keep them for when they go up in price. I wear cheap sneakers myself, $ 200 maximum. For me to put $ 1,000 sneakers on my feet, I can not do it. "

Hot shoes on StockX

Jordan 1 Retro High Scott Travis

One of the most popular and most anticipated releases of the year. Travis released approximately 5,000 early pairs on the Super Bowl Day market and a similar amount on his birthday. The first pairs reached nearly £ 2100 on StockX because they have not been made public, which makes them extremely sought after. The market is now stabilized with smaller sizes reaching around £ 900 to £ 1,300 and larger sizes from £ 550 to £ 800.

Nike LD Waffle Sacai Blue Multi

Sacai, a luxury Japanese fashion brand, collaborated with Nike to launch the Waffle. The first pairs traded between £ 800 and £ 1,500 on StockX, which people were willing to pay because they loved the shoe and did not know if it would be marketed any more. The price of sneakers is now between £ 240 and £ 350, depending on their size, as they have finally been released in quantity.

Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 v2 TRFRM

Kanye West has long had a significant influence on the footwear industry. His Yeezy True Form was particularly sought after, as it was an exclusive EU outlet that was generating demand in Asia and North America. On the day of the release, the Yeezy 350 True was trading for around £ 250 to £ 300 on StockX but was climbing around £ 400 for some sizes in the days following the release. The market has been very stable for a while and £ 300 – £ 400 will be enough to guarantee a pair of your size, but a smaller size, Yeezys (UK 3.5-6.5) orders a higher resale because there have been fewer .