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Answering my inquiry question #5

June 10, 2019 - 5th grade, Social Studies

Resell has revolutionized the sneaker business in positive and negative ways. Two ways resell has been positive is it has made collecting rare sneakers for people easier and, as a result, created a profitable sneaker market for individuals involved in the buying and reselling of sneakers. Two negative ways resell has affected the sneaker business is that is has made it harder for regular sneaker fans, who may not have a lot of money, to get the sneakers they want and, worst of all, it has increased the number of violent crimes related to people wanting to steal sneakers that they are able to resell for a high price. Social media has also revolutionized the sneaker business because millions of people use social media everyday and it is a free to find ways to buy and sell sneakers. Instagram is one of the top social media sites that influences “sneakerheads,” people who collects, trades, or admire sneakers as a hobby.

Resell involves buying sneakers from a retail store, such as Footlocker, and then turning around and selling them for a profit. For example, someone could have bought the Air Jordan 3 Retro for $100 when they came out in 2000, but they are recently being reselling for $7000! In addition to people buying sneakers in retail stores and reselling them, they can buy them in specific resell stores or online through Ebay or or StockX and then resell them again.

Advantages of Resell on the Sneaker Business

One advantage to the resell business is that it has made it easier for people to collect rare sneakers. Not everyone involved in the resell business is doing it for the money. There are a lot of people who love sneakers and collect them as a hobby. For example, David Friendly, the director of the movie, Sneakerheads was interviewed for the article, “Inside the World of Extreme Sneakerheadz.”  He was quoted as saying, “The truth is, to a passionate sneakerhead, sneakers are art. It’s a passion. When you learn about it, you get sucked in and you want to learn more and be knowledgeable.” So, for a lot of sneaker collectors, collecting sneakers is their passion and they hold on to their sneakers. They learn how to find sneakers for their private collection and that may include buying retail or from someone reselling. So, reselling really helps these types of collectors.  

Another advantage to the resell business is that it has created jobs and allowed people to make a lot of money. For example, according to the article, “How to Make Money Reselling Shoes” most people starting out could make between $80 to $100 dollars per pair of sneakers. If people want to make more money they will need to buy more expensive sneakers, around $500 per pair. In the same article, however, it mentions how some people are making hundreds of thousands of dollars… a month! One of the most successful people to resell sneakers is Benjamin Kapelushnik, known as Ben Kickz who started reselling sneakers when he was 13 years old. He got famous after reselling to DJ Khaled, who is an American DJ, record executive, songwriter, record producer and media personality. DJ Khaled started telling his friends about Ben Kickz and they started using him to get cool sneakers, too. At the age of 16, Ben had made his first million!

 

Disadvantages of Resell on the Sneaker Business

 

One disadvantage that resell has had on the sneaker business is that is has made it harder for regular sneaker fans, who may not have a lot of money, to get the sneakers they want. It used to be that when new sneakers hit the retail stores, people would try to get there early in the morning to buy the sneakers they had heard about or seen advertised, but that is not happening in the same way anymore. As the author of the article, Flip Tax: The Cons of Being a Professional Sneaker Reseller writes, “The glory days of waking up a little early to make it to your local sneaker boutique just in time for that Saturday release are merely memories of yesterday.”  Instead, now people in the resell business are finding ways to snatch up the “cool” sneakers either from retail stores or online so that they can resell them to make a profit.

Another more dangerous disadvantage is that it has increased the number of violent crimes related to people wanting to steal sneakers that they are able to resell for a high price.  According to the same article, “Attackers are attracted to sneaker loot equivalent to cold hard cash and no signs of tampering or serial numbers to worry about, while victims face dire consequences ranging from fistfights to assault with a deadly weapon.”Just ask anyone outside of your local hyped boutique — some barely can recall the history of the player of which the shoe is modeled after, let alone the colorway or even the model being sold.

 

Does Social Media affect the retail business

 

 Social Media affects a lot of the retail businesses because that is how they get their business. They get it from social media apps like Instagram and Facebook. Todd Kirssin the person that I interviewed said that “ Social media has played a big role in their companies success.” DTLR the company that Todd Kirssin works with is a retail company has a big social media following on Facebook and Instagram. For my site visit I went to a store called Nohble in the Bronx and I talked to the manager there and asked him if social media plays a big role in there companies success and he said it plays a big role in their success.

There are a lot of factors to take into consideration when deciding whether to resell sneakers. You could gain a lot profit reselling and you can lose a lot of profit too. Retail and Resell has revolutionized the shoes business because it has offered sellers a way to get a lot of money and at the same time allowing consumers to get a lot of rare shoes. Social media has been key to connecting people to allow for reselling to be possible. I think reselling is a really great business industry because it allows people to make easy money just off reselling sneakers. Reselling could be used in all other businesses like the clothing industry and jewelry industry.

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