Nike Attempts to Check Resellers

Screenshot from http://www.kixify.com/

We all have some hobbies that may be weirder than others or more expensive, but nevertheless they’re our hobbies. A hobby that has been garnering a large level of popularity over the last few years is sneaker collecting. This isn’t a new phenomenon and can actually be traced back to the era of rap group Run D.M.C. rapping about their Adidas. Unfortunately, with the popularity of collecting shoes there comes a lot of disappointing situations ranging from program hacking, price manipulation, and even murder.

A shoe collector is commonly referred to as a sneakerhead. A sneakerhead has no traditional definition. However, I can deduce from a collection of opinions, that it’s a person who has a passion for wearing, caring for, and collecting a multitude of shoes. A common misconception about sneakerheads is that they are aligned to specific brands such as Nike, Adidas, or Jordan Brand. This is not true for all sneakerheads. Most appreciate shoes of all shapes, colors, and brands. If you were to search the popular sneaker selling website Kixify.com you'd see a large selection of popular brands, and an almost overwhelming number of brands that you wouldn't expect. A good case of this is Reebok and Under Armour. These brands represent a large amount of Kixify's website even though they're not usually considered fashion, or casual sneakers. This is a good representation of how diverse a sneakerhead’s collection can be.

Where there is passion there is an opportunity for financial growth. Not only for the companies producing the shoes, but also for the buyer of the shoes. Nike may be the most egregious company when it comes to capitalizing off the booming interest in sneakers. Nike has raised the price of retro remakes of their classic Jordan Brand shoes incrementally for multiple years. All of the price increases were not subtle: Some were $10.00 while others like this year’s Christmas edition of the Jordan shoe will have a $20.00 price increase. Along with an increase of price Nike has begun to release many of their signature shoes in limited quantities. This has opened the door for a group of opportunists known as resellers. Resellers are people who are well connected with stores, or have computer programs that allow them to buy more than the allotted number of shoes. This allows them to set the resell value of the shoes at prices much higher than typical value. Since they have a limited supply, and have raised the demand it makes it even harder to purchase the shoe at their original price.

Nike has decided to take a stand against resellers in the past, but their efforts produced no results. Past attempts include requiring buyers to enter captchas (the annoying mix of numbers and letters use to verify you're not a robot), and a Twitter RSVP ordering system that sounds just as confusing as you think. However, Nike has possibly put together a plan that might not stop resellers, but could at least hinder their numbers and possibly even out the shoe buying playing field. Nike has a new system to buy shoes where you enter a raffle by clicking a link on Nike's Twitter account which will tweet at a predetermined time. If you're selected by Nike's system you will then be permitted to buy the shoes from a selected Nike retailer. Please be aware that you can only pick the shoes up from the Nike store if you have a valid photo matching your Nike account name.

This system has its holes, but it’s best one Nike has produced. It’s too bad that people have already begun to come up with schemes to thwart the system. With enough research people began to find ways to create fake phone numbers and begin to flood Nike with hundreds of emails to ensure them multiple shoes. Hopefully other footwear companies will follow Nike's lead and employ a similar, or better, system in the future.