User:Tyswitzer/Sneaker collecting

Nostalgia
While the simple answer to collecting sneakers is "I like them," there is a lot more to it than that. Sneaker collecting is largely inspired by the history and the nostalgia behind different sneakers. For sneakerheads, it is not always about acquiring the latest releases or having the most expensive collection. The vast majority of sneaker lovers have a deep history behind the sneakers they wear and collect. One popular motive behind collecting sneakers is based on what people watched and who they looked up to as a child. Athletes and superstars are people who have a significant impact on individuals and the shoes they purchase. Growing up in the 1980s when Jordans were first released, kids looked up to basketball players who were rocking all of the latest styles.

Mainly due to the media, there has been a great deal of traction around the sneaker collecting culture. Articles, TV shows, radios, etc. are all forms of media that has brought loads of attention to the world of sneakers. Through these outlets, children were able to see and listen to their favorite athletes wearing the freshest kicks around. This is where the history comes into play... At a young age when sneakers first began to bang, the issue of course, was that these shoes were either unattainable because of popularity or due to the aftermarket price tag that parents were unwilling to pay for.

The sneakers individuals see their favorite celebrities wearing from an early age is one of the reasons why the shoes they buy create such a sentimental feeling. Sneakers that were once so desirable yet so unattainable from a young age is something that individuals can afford as their lives go on. The feeling of acquiring a pair of shoes that you have been eyeing since you were just a kid is what makes sneaker collecting so special and nostalgic.

Sneaker stores
Just like many individuals have a dream of traveling the world or visiting a place they have always wanted to go to, sneakerheads have one similar and that is in the form of going to different sneaker stores. Similar to if someone loves traveling and wants to go somewhere new, sneakerheads enjoy the destinations of their passion. Stores such as Kith, Concepts, Rif LA, Union LA, Undefeated, and more are all places where sneaker loves enjoy spending time. One of the most popular sneaker stores in the world is Flight Club, a consignment store, with physical locations in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.

Flight club has revolutionized the way sneakers are bought and sold, being one of the first consignment shops to open in 2005. Sneakerheads lovers have made Flight Club a destination to see some of the most exclusive, rare, and most famous sneakers in the world first hand. Flight Club is a store that has often been compared to as a museum for sneakers, with multiple sections dedicated to different kinds of sneakers. A full wall holds all of the latest Nike, Jordan, and Yeezy releases, while another section holds some of the rarest and most expensive sneakers with a price tag of upwards of $50,000. The store also holds a section with the entire collection of 1985 Jordan 1s, the shoes that started the sneaker culture and craze. Flight Club along with many other stores not only serve as a place to buy sneakers, but a place to experience the excellence of sneakers in person that were once only a digital image in their minds.

Industry growth and reselling
StockX estimated the secondary resale sneaker market to be worth $10 billion in 2021 and to reach nearly $30 billion by 2030. In response to the significant surge of interest in sneakers between 2010 and 2020, the sneaker market has expanded into online retailing and auction sites. Sneaker retailers have begun to adopt creative means to release these limited-production sneakers. Some have implemented a raffle system for both online and in-store sales, while others have implemented a first come, first served model. The SNKRS app was launched in 2015 by Nike to give more access to the latest sneaker drops in addition to expanding its consumer audience. The app implements multiple variations of raffle systems – most notably 10-minute-long "draws" – and as of 2020 mostly eschews the older first come, first served model, given that the large majority of shoes sold via SNKRS are heavily hyped. (Nike still sells the vast majority of its products via its separate, non-SNKRS-related app, along with sales through traditional brick-and-mortar sellers such as Foot Locker as well as large department stores.)

Due to the popularity of these rare sneakers and streetwear culture, the emergence of a large-scale counterfeit market has risen to meet the demand for these highly sought-after sneakers. However, in response to the large counterfeit challenges, new companies have taken off. The shoe reselling market is dominated by StockX and GOAT. Sneakers have some of the highest resale multiples among retail consumer goods, and the two aftermarket websites (each of which also allows for buying and selling via custom-designed phone apps) have a de facto monopoly on the niche, though eBay launched its own authenticated-sneaker initiative to compete with them (and mitigate their reputation as a common outlet for counterfeit sneaker sales). The old-school sneakerhead community routinely expresses distaste for the resale community, especially buyers who only do so for profit, not appreciation for sneakers' history or artistry.

Apps like SNKRS were made to give ordinary buyers a fair chance to purchase a given pair, but with mixed results. While Nike has the financial wherewithal to continuously improve the app to prevent bots from exploiting it, this is generally not the case with small, independent sneaker boutiques; on many such sites, bots and proxy servers in particular (which "spoof" IP addresses to obfuscate multiple purchase attempts from a single buyer) have made it difficult to purchase hype sneakers via scheduled drops before they sell out. While StockX and GOAT have not disclosed how many sellers on their platforms sell goods en masse, they are believed to be the most popular outlets for doing so; StockX sold $1.8 billion in merchandise in 2020 alone (including sportswear and some other lines, but predominantly sneakers). Sneakers are resold for prices that can exceed 10x return on the most coveted, low-production releases.

These sites provide a trusted platform where buyers can buy shoes from sneaker resellers, though on occasion both are accused of delivering counterfeit shoes that somehow passed their "legit checks," the specifics of which are kept close to vest. On both StockX and GOAT, a buyer places an order for a given pair of sneakers, and the seller sends the purchased item(s) to StockX or GOAT facilities for inspection and verification; products are shipped to buyers if they are successfully authenticated. StockX allows registered users to watch and track resale prices in real time, along with publishing longer-term pricing and sales trends for sneakers that have been available for extended periods of time. Additionally, sneakers bought from StockX arrive with a QR coded tag on the shoes as an ostensible guarantee of their authenticity, but some buyers have nonetheless claimed that the shoes they have received are fakes – though given the opaque nature of online sneaker reselling in general, it is rarely possible to discern whether such claims are accurate.

Sneakerhead slang
During the 2010s, teenage sneakerheads influenced by hip hop fashion and skater subculture began to develop their own jargon. Commonly used words include: • "ACG" – All Conditions Gear, a brand of sneakers produced by Nike

• "ADC" – Adidas dot com

• "Beaters" – Sneakers worn despite creases, scuffs, stains, and smell

• "Bots" – Custom-written computer programs designed to cop sneakers in mass quantities, with varying degrees of success; much like the sneakers they are used to purchase, the most desirable bots are sold in limited quantities and frequently resold via online forums such as Discord for well above their original purchase price

• "Bred" – Black and red sneakers; if in reference to the original black-and-red Air Jordan 1 design, "banned" is used as a preferred synonym

• "B-grade" – Shop-worn seconds sold at a discount

• "Chucks" – Converse All-Stars, though the "Chuck" nickname has been used to describe them since at least the 1950s (e.g. Chuck Taylor All-Stars), in reference to their original designer, Chuck Taylor

• "Clearout" – is used when you decide to sell many pieces of your collection often to make room for others

• "Colorway" – The combination of colors or symbols on a pair of sneakers

• "Cop" (used as a verb) – To purchase or acquire

• "Deadstock" – A pair of sneakers that has never been worn, tried on or re-laced.

• "Deubre" – Also called lace tags are popular on shoes like Air Force Ones

• "Don't sleep" – Used literally relative to sneaker drops, e.g. collectible Nikes that are most often released at 7:00 am West Coast time in the US, when many sneakerheads would normally be asleep; informally used as a synonym for "don't forget"

• "Dope" – Fashionable

• "Double up" – Buying two identical pairs of sneakers

• "Drop" – Release of a new sneaker

• "Fire" – Very good

• "Flop" – Poorly sold

• "Fresh" – New and cool

• "Fugazi" – Fake

• "GOAT" – Greatest Of All Time (most commonly a reference to Michael Jordan, in sneakerhead terminology, or the reseller store of the same name)

• "GR" – General release, or common

• "Gum sole" – Sneakers with solid rubber soles in their original light beige color

• "Gutties" – Scottish slang term for trainers/sneakers.

• "Heat" – Rare sneakers that draw looks

• "Hypebeast" – Trendies who only buy the latest release. Hypebeasts buy whatever the celebrities are wearing and tend to copy people like hip-hop artist Kanye West. By 2020, hypebeast became a derogatory term in many countries for a hipster whose style had begun branching out into designer streetwear.

• "High Top(s)" – A shoe that rises above or on the ankle mainly used for ankle support during sports.

• "J's" – Another name for Jordan brand shoes

• "JB" – The Jordan Brand logo (see below)

• "Jumpman" – Basketball player Michael Jordan, but in sneakerhead culture more commonly used to describe the Jordan logo depicting Jordan created by legendary Nike designer Tinker Hatfield and first seen on the Air Jordan 3 (and most new Jordan designs since then)

• "Instacop" – Impulse buying

• "Kicks" – Shoes

• "L" – Loss/unable to purchase

• "Lit up" – Great

• "Lows" – Also called low tops are shoes that sit below the ankle

• "Mids" – Situated between highs and lows in the Air Jordan 1 lineup, but generally viewed as much less collectible

• "NIB" – Unworn, new in the box (as is required to sell shoes via popular reseller StockX)

• "OG" – Retro re-release of an original design or colorway, derived from the term "original gangster" but generally limited to describing variations of the Air Jordan 1 High

• "Quickstrike (QS)" – Limited edition sneakers and prototypes with a regional early release, especially Nikes

• "Reseller" – A person who buys large quantities of unworn popular sneakers to sell at a profit; also used to describe retail stores, both online and off, that sell collectible models at prices usually well above original retail, including StockX, Stadium Goods, Flight Club and GOAT

• "Red October" – Very rare red sneakers by Nike and rapper Kanye West

• "Silhouette" – Design of a sneaker

• "Sitting" – Referring to sneakers produced in large quantities that go unsold

• "Slept on" – Unappreciated by the wider community

• "SNKRS" – is used as short for sneakers

• "Steezy" – Stylish

• "Tackies" – South African teenage slang for sneakers

• "Threads" – Clothes

• "Tonal" – Sneakers in a single color, as in monotone.

• "Trainers" – British slang for sneakers

• "Unauthorized / unauthorised" – counterfeit

• "VNDS" – Very Near Dead Stock sneakers that have been tried or worn once/twice and that look new while maintaining clean, spotless soles and no marks/signs of wear.

• "Uptowns" – New York slang for Air Force 1's

• "W" – Win/successful purchase

• "Yeezy" – Sneakers designed by rapper Kanye West