We now live in a world where the prices of objects can be easily manipulated by companies, all driven by the laws of supply and demand. We all know that a few years ago, the sneaker market was booming. People were going crazy over shoe models and collaborations. A few days after their release date, a shoe could have been sold for twice or three times its original price on the resale market. This phenomenon was driven by the supply being fairly low and the demand being massive. Nowadays, people don’t have $500 or $600 to spend on a single pair of shoes, which is why everything has declined. In this article, I will explain how the market works, how you can put a value on a shoe, and how you can predict the value a shoe will have even before its release.
The market overview
If I had to describe the market in a few words, I would say that it’s really weird since it has a lot of trends that come and go, making it really hard to monitor consistently as it’s always changing. Some notable trends that have happened recently include New Balance selling out everywhere, Uggs, Jordan 4, and SB Dunk. But where can you see the market in real time? It’s very simple; you just have to go on websites like StockX or GOAT, where you can see the live prices on new releases. From there, check the latest Jordan 4, Jordan 1, or Jordan 3 releases. If the prices are close to the retail price after all fees, then you know that the market is down and there is not a high demand at the moment. Right now, as of June 2024, we can see that the newer hyped releases, such as the Jordan 4 Military Blue, don’t go for much above the retail price. This means that the demand is low and the supply is high. But don’t be fooled; they still sold out everywhere in most sizes.
How can you put a value on a shoe?
When you are not very active in the sneaker game, putting a value on a pair of shoes can be one of the hardest things to do. It’s always going to depend on many factors, such as why you are buying the shoe. For example, if you buy a shoe for resale purposes without wearing it, you’re going to want to look at the market on StockX and GOAT. They are both very good at telling a shoe’s market value, but you definitely need to know how to interpret the data. When you look at StockX, you definitely need to look at the seller’s option and not the buyer’s option. If you don’t already have a buyer for a shoe, you should try to pay as close as possible to the seller’s point of view minus all the fees, which you can calculate by multiplying the selling price by 0.87. If you buy from a reseller, you should always know that you probably won’t be able to sell for more on platforms like StockX because they are not that dumb. So if you buy from a reseller with the intention to resell, you should try to get a buyer before even buying the shoe. If you are buying a shoe with the intention of wearing it, then it’s going to be a little bit harder to find the exact pair you want for the StockX payout price. If you ask on platforms like Reddit or Discord, there are definitely a lot of scammers, so you need to be really careful and not trust everybody. I highly recommend asking for the shoe at your local reseller on Instagram, for example, and they will probably be able to find you the best price possible.
