

For Young Traders, a Market Where Air Jordans Are Blue Chips - applecore
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/business/a-thriving-market-where-air-jordans-are-blue-chips.html

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hagbardgroup
Several years ago, a boss of mine assigned me to an account to write sales
copy for one of these sneaker trading services.

And then kicked off the account on the same day.

People will make markets for relics of the saints that they venerate. In this
case, the saints are sports heroes, and the relics are just replicas of the
holy artifacts worn by the saints when they performed their miracles.

This'll probably follow a similar trajectory to the bubbles in comic books and
trading cards, which some of the interview objects even make themselves. 'Till
then, there will probably be some opportunities here, so long as you don't
expose yourself to the inventory and instead help to facilitate the
transactions.

I doubt this has a lot more room to run, because NBA Finals TV ratings are in
significant decline year by year, and college ball players do not play long
enough to develop a strong enough cult of personality.

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anishkothari
> I doubt this has a lot more room to run, because NBA Finals TV ratings are
> in significant decline year by year, and college ball players do not play
> long enough to develop a strong enough cult of personality.

I'm not so sure about this. Rap/hip-hop culture is fairly popular around the
world and they are popularizing sneakers just as much as basketball is. I
don't have numbers on this, but basketball is going global, too. American
players play in pro leagues all across Europe and Asia. Sneaker culture is a
representation of this lifestyle.

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hagbardgroup
Could be, could be. It'd have to shift to more of the rap cult of personality,
though, over the sports personalities.

