
You See Sneakers, These Guys See Hundreds of Millions in Resale Profit - mblevin
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/you-see-sneakers-these-guys-see-hundreds-of-millions-in-resale-profit/
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jfoutz
Nike is masterful at making its brand appeal to the very hip and the very
lame.

Go to a kids soccer game, you'll see dads wearing Nikes. Go to a hollywood red
carpet event, you'll see stars wearing Nikes. Different models of course, but
nike has a shoe for everybody.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out Apple studied Nike's approach when they
first made the s3 available for super cheap with a contract. Maintaining
luxury status, and selling to everyone just seems impossible. Nike is one of
the very few successes.

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achille2
Tim Cook is a Nike board member.

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tuxidomasx
It seems like they are making the shoes a luxury item by restricting the
supply while making the designs very unique. It becomes almost like a bespoke
or custom-made item because of the rarity.

Kanye addressed this practice in some of his interviews where he called out
Nike for setting a high price point for his Air Yeezys and only making a small
number even though the demand was high.

He apparently switched to Adidas where his shoe design will be more widely
available. I'm curious to see how well a popular, uniquely designed shoe that
isnt restricted in supply can compete with the limited edition variety.

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adamnemecek
To each his own I guess but I'll never understand the appeal of this.

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omegaham
I think that all collectors are slightly strange to people outside the group.
Coins, guns, action figures, baseball cards, comic books, you name it -
there's going to be a group of people spending a very large amount of money to
get a big or rare collection of it.

Personally, I think that spending money for artificially scarce products is a
little silly, but I can think of worse things to spend money on. At least
these collectors can recoup their costs if they decide to stop.

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marincounty
I understand collecting. Everything you named I can see the alure. I would add
cars, watches, guitars, marbles, etc., but tennis shoes? Or, I could be out of
the demographics? Maybe women are attracted to guys who wear Nikes? That whole
Peacocking thing, "I fresh, young, and full of ---?" If it's the latter; I get
it!

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brudgers
Michael Jordan and LeBron James are associated with basketball. Referring to
sneakers as "tennis shoes" suggests perhaps you are not in a targeted segment
of the market.

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anishkothari
Related NYTimes article from April 2014:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/business/a-thriving-
market...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/business/a-thriving-market-where-
air-jordans-are-blue-chips.html)

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jsilence
If only some of the money would end up in the hands of the young female
factory workers who are struggling to make a decent living.

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ljk
Counting the time spent in line and the efforts to re-sell them, is it really
worth it?

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jpatokal
From the friendly article:

 _Given how much time he had spent in line, however, I wondered how he felt
about earning the equivalent of minimum wage._

 _No problem, he said. He’s hoping to start his own consignment shop and sees
the long waits as practice toward delivering on his promises._

 _“For me, I think it’s worth it.”_

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Glyptodon
Just like Magic cards, I guess.

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cdr
Magic (at present) is a bit different in that the manufacturer will print
effectively unlimited amounts of the cards for the 6-12 months a set is in
print, and will actively seek to reprint staple cards that get expensive
enough to make them difficult to acquire for play. The few limited-run
products they produce can get a bit silly though, yes.

~~~
Glyptodon
Eh. It doesn't seem a whole lot different than how they're 'reprinting' Air
Jordans.

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pkaye
I guess people are wealthy enough to spend this kind of money on a collectible
(or get worn out if you actually use it.)?

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onedev
Ah the good ole' Yeezy 2s. They're legendary and yet I'll only ever be able to
afford a replica pair.

