One of the coolest emerging aspects of sneaker culture is the trading and reselling of highly sought-after kicks. As many have experienced, sneaker drops are often disappointing because everyone is vying for the same pairs of limited edition sneaks and some sell out in minutes, or in the case of Nike’s SNKRS app, are reserved days or weeks before the shoes even hit online stores. Many of the people who are the first in line are quick to flip shoes for two or three (or more) times the price. Eventually, before ever being tried on, they end up on reselling apps or sites like StockX, Grailed, and Stadium Goods.
The only problem is you can’t tell if you’re getting a fake when you buy online and it’s hard to get an idea of condition simply through photos. Reselling app GOAT’s mission since its 2015 founding by college friends Daishin Sugano and Eddy Lu was to add an authentication process to the reselling game and make secondary sneaker purchasing easier, and the app’s latest $100 million investment from Foot Locker will looks to further that goal while strengthening the brick and mortar store’s digital capabilities.
You don’t have to be a business analyst to see that shoe stores like Foot Locker are going out of style. Sneaker brands — especially Nike — are more interested in selling straight to the consumer online than selling through stores. Through this new deal, not only will buyers potentially be able to access the GOAT app in stores, providing appeal to consumers, the app will be able to spread to Foot Locker’s more than 3,000 global locations in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
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Obviously, this is just a business deal between some very rich players, but for the hypebeasts among us, the sneaker resale game is changing for the better thanks to this move. More ways to authenticate purchases and the ability to venture out into more than just sneaks is a good thing for Foot Locker and GOAT, respectively. And as the price rises, so does the legitimacy of street style and urban gear in high fashion.