As quarantined progressed, I found more and more people reselling shoes as a side-hustle or even a living. Almost every article I read said reselling shoes was the new wave and the best side-hustle. Almost daily, I was reading articles explaining how people were making ten-thousand a month and quitting their day job to resell shoes. Reselling shoes was always made to sound so simple. All you do is log into Snkrs at 10:00 am and buy the shoe. Then, you resell the shoe for profit on Stock-X or eBay.
With shoes selling for one-hundred dollars and immediately reselling for thousands, it was hard for me to not give reselling a try. It seems like a perfect business where you can’t possibly lose any money or time. However, after six months of hard work, all I did was lose money. People are lying to you when they say there is still serious money to be made in reselling shoes, and here’s why.
Viewer Discretion: I am not a financial advisor and therefore I am not responsible for any loss when participating in the following activities.
Shoe Investing
In the current state of reselling, Nike Dunks are really the only shoe that’s reselling for profit immediately. Nike Snkrs has become nearly impossible to hit on, so most resellers are making money off of shoes appreciating. The art of quickly getting a shoes and quick flipping it is becoming less and less common. Since bots have taken over the Snkrs app, it’s nearly impossible to even get a shoe anymore.
The majority of money made off of reselling shoes is holding. Rarely do I ever see someone make tons of money off of quick flips alone. Shoes are sort-of-like the stock market in this way. While it’s very possible to make money off of quick flipping, the way in which shoes are so predictable and the way in which the fashion industry gains hype mean shoes can double in price in just weeks.
When the Jordan documentary came out, certain Jordan shoes went up by hundreds of dollars in just one day. The stock-market like effect that has happened to shoes is mostly the result of Stock-X treating shoes like the stock-market. Now, even low-tier releases that wouldn’t have meant anything two years ago are investing pieces.
Youtubers such as Sneaker Invest claim to make over six-figure per year off of investing in shoes alone. Other big names in Sneaker Reselling such as BenKickz have been in the game for years and are just now selling off old shoes for way more than they were worth years ago.
The sneaker game has also become revolved around bots. People pay hundreds of dollars per year just to get better odds at shoes. These bots are another reason that investing has become so popular, since shoes are nearly impossible to get now.
All of this sounds amazing if you’re new to the reselling game. It sounds like all you have to do is get lucky on a few quick flips, expand your portfolio, get a few shoes to invest in, and BOOM, you’re a millionaire. However, you have to remember, if it could make anyone rich, then everyone would be doing it.
I’m here to explain to you that shoe reselling is dead and that there’s no more room for any knew sellers. You can make limited income, but there’s so many better side-hustles.
Shoe Reselling Flaws
My first point is that shoes are such a trend it makes it hard to see any reliability in certain shoes. Dunks, as I mentioned before, are popular right now. The hype has caused the What The Dunks to go from four-hundred dollars to ten-thousand dollars. But this doesn’t mean that the shoe is actually worth anywhere around this.
The Kd Nerfs used to resell for over two-thousand dollars, now some sales are dipping under five-hundred dollars. The Jordan 2 Just Don Blues used to go for over twelve-hundred and now consistently sell for under seven-hundred dollars. The decrease in hype has all to do with the shoes only being valued on ever-changing fashion trends.
When the shoes were hot, they were worth a lot of money. Now that the shoes are no longer in style, they’re no longer worth as much money. This makes investing in shoes a pain since most shoes that increase in price will eventually decrease. It takes a skilled professional with years of experience to see the market trends.
But that’s the problem because shoes have not always been the hot thing to resell. Two years ago everyone was reselling Supreme, and now a bunch of key parts of the brand are worth nothing. Investing long terms in shoes is now a terrible plan since there is a very strong likelihood we will no longer see such great resell numbers.
The YouTuber I mentioned above, Sneaker Invest, has been making great investments revolving around Dunks and Jordan 1’s for a while now. These two shoes are fairly likely to go slowly over time, but most people don’t have the capital he does to actually make money off of this.
He can buy one-hundred pairs for one-hundred-seventy dollars and sell them all for two-hundred fifty dollars eight months later. He made eight-thousand dollars in eight months, which is great, but most people can’t afford this capital.
Most people can only afford to buy one pair of shoes, and that’s only eighty dollars in eight-months. A slow returning investment will always mean that you can’t expand. So your investments really tie you up and disallow you from using your money elsewhere. Shoes as a whole are just a risky buy with low chances for a great profit.
I mentioned above that quick-selling is really a dead art. With shoes becoming nearly a pure lottery system, your reselling business is in the Snkrs’s app’s hands. While getting the shoes in store is another alternative, to get hyped releases you have to stand in line for hours.
Rating
When figuring out whether something is profitable, you must always remember to include time and risk in the equation. Shoe reselling is glamorous but not worth your time and money for the risk and profit. With an unpredictable market and a lottery system, the singular resell market is dead.
If you aren’t in the business already, don’t even try to join. The only real money to be made is for people that joined years ago. Overall, I would rate this side-hustle a cool 4/10. So many better side-hustles, such as reselling Pokémon cards, exist. Reselling shoes is just a waste of time, money, and effort.