Sneaker apps are the future of industry

by Kyle Seidman, technology reporter

Sneakers are coveted by men, aged 12-30. The  sneaker industry is worth 10 billion dollars and there’s a variety of reasons for it. People get satisfaction out of having rare sneakers and enjoy the way they look and getting compliments from strangers. There’s a certain prestige with having these extremely rare sneakers.

People don’t only buy sneakers to wear, they buy them to sell. Sneakers are sold by stores at retail price and sometimes the shoes sell out. When this occurs, if the shoe is either a limited edition, an amazing color, or both, pairs of shoes may sell for double, triple, or even more than the retail price, allowing for a hefty profit.

This has caused some consumers to  buy shoes for the sole purpose of selling them, not wearing them even once. This is called reselling, and the people that do this have formed their own community.

There are limited ways to sell your sneakers online with apps such as Ebay and Grailed People who use these apps are sometimes subjected to scammers, and there may be nothing you can do about it to get your money or shoes back. However, two new up and coming apps  are changing the sneaker reselling game, GOAT and StockX.

These two apps have sellers ship their shoes to their headquarters where they inspect them to make sure they’re real. Once they have been inspected and are guaranteed 100% real, they ship the shoes to the buyer. This has lead to better customer satisfaction, because no one is getting scammed.

Andrew Dedomenico, junior, stated, “I don’t get why people have this as a hobby, wear your shoes.”

Vasili Christakos, junior, said, “It’s a risky business, you have to watch yourself.”

More apps similar to these may come about soon because companies are starting to see the money in this idea to stop scammers in the reselling industry.