{"id":2860,"date":"2020-08-21T14:56:59","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T06:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novelship.com\/news\/?p=2860"},"modified":"2021-08-23T11:21:23","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T03:21:23","slug":"selling-sneakers-during-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novelship.com\/news\/selling-sneakers-during-a-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"What It’s Like Selling Sneakers During a Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

COVID-19 has turned most industries upside down, disrupting the retail landscape on its head. Lockdowns induced by the first wave of the virus followed by the post-pandemic<\/span> social distancing measures<\/span><\/a> have left retailers and brands in a daze.<\/span><\/p>\n

How COVID-19 shook the sneaker resale market<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0The second half of the pandemic saw even a titan like Nike – the biggest player in the sneaker game –\u00a0 not able to withstand the effects of\u00a0 COVID-19. According to a <\/span>report<\/span><\/a>, Nike\u2019s sales fell 4% versus the same period last year. Despite being one of the stronger performers in the US retail market, the impact of the pandemic continued to affect Nike\u2019s sales,\u00a0 hampering much of Europe and the US – the company’s biggest market. This was most likely caused by 90% of Nike\u2019s physical stores closing in North America, Europe, and much of Asia (excluding China). Furthermore, Nike\u2019s retail partners were forced to close as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the brand’s digital sales went up to 79%, with the business doing more direct-to-shoppers online selling, as a whole it was still not enough as those numbers only made up\u00a0 30% of Nike\u2019s total business.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image via qz.com<\/p>\n

With thousands of retailers forced to close their stores, small businesses and resellers have been hit hard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of these issues come from the fact that sellers have been forced to spread their resources thin, holding back on their expenses. One of the bigger resellers in the market, Stock X, had reportedly laid off 12% of its workers and closed most of its physical drop-off locations. At the time of the pandemic’s first wave, 300 of the 500 most popular sneakers had witnessed a decrease in their resale price. While the percentage (4%) of the decline was not drastic\u00a0 – unlike the stock market’s\u00a0 25% decline – the first few months since the outbreak had left businesses and the community shaken.<\/span><\/p>\n

Turning profit selling sneakers during a pandemic<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While the market definitely saw a bit of volatility as the pandemic crept across the world, with many retailers slowing down sneaker production due to the drop in sales, as a whole, the sneaker market is far from falling off.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, since the initial dust settling, some have even thrived. Cases like that of <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Danny Hasbani<\/span><\/a>\u2019s, a 17-year-old sneaker reseller who earned about $500,000 this year alone is an example of this. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Some believe that the significant drop in limited-edition sneakers prices was only temporary, caused by the initial panic of the pandemic.\u00a0 As more people flock online to do their shopping, marketplaces that have focused on their online channels have begun to see profits.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the physical retail stores experienced a massive drop in visitors, this did not stop sneakerheads from rushing into the online apps and platforms to get the latest releases. In a recent press statement by StockX, they confirmed that May and June 2020 were their biggest sales months since creation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Changes in the resale market<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For those who are interested in<\/span> selling sneakers<\/b><\/a> or are already doing so, some of the reasons for the recent boom in sneaker sales could be the following:<\/span><\/p>\n