For those who have never encountered it before, the world of online sneaker buying is often a revelation. Most people don’t appreciate just how passionate and competitive sneaker buyers are. New and limited-edition sneakers often sell out as soon as they go online. Any sneakerhead who wants to get their hands on the latest pair of hot sneakers needs the right tools on their side.
Buyers can use automated software to select the appropriate products and automatically go through the checkout process. However, retailers are forever looking for new ways of identifying and banning these tools from their platforms. Anyone using them needs to pair them with a proxy to avoid detection.
With the retailers blacklisting proxy server IP addresses as soon as they can identify them, it is getting harder for users to get working proxies to use. But finding the right proxy provider is essential for any dedicated sneakerhead.
The Biggest Industry You’ve Never Heard Of
The sneaker reselling industry is worth billions of dollars every year. Yet despite the massive amounts of money sneakerheads are spending, most people are completely unaware of their little subculture. Part of the reason for this is that the people involved tend to stick to their own self-contained communities. There are plenty of Discord servers and message boards dedicated to buying sneakers online. Telegram and Twitter are also popular tools for communicating with one another.
But why do these communities go to such great lengths to retain their secrecy? After all, while these groups are hidden from the general public, users openly discuss their experiences with different proxy providers and buying tools.
With tool-assisted buyers snapping up sneakers as soon as they go on sale, new releases are all but guaranteed to be in short supply. Entire stocks of limited-edition sneakers can evaporate within minutes of a sale going live.
Buyers can use the same tools to purchase new sneakers automatically and immediately list them for resale elsewhere. With a considerable markup, of course.
A Digital Gold Rush
You will see a story in the media about the niche world of online sneaker buying every now and then. These stories often make it sound as if buying and selling sneakers is an easy way of making money. From the slant of many of the media pieces written on this subject, you could be forgiven for thinking that buying and selling sneakers was as easy as installing the right software and joining a Discord group.
But sneaker buyers are in constant competition with one another. Even with the latest tools at their disposal, there are no guarantees for sneaker resellers. The existence of automated tools means that anyone who is reasonably computer literate and motivated to learn can break into the game. The total cost of a reliable residential proxy and the automated buying software you need is well above $100.
The main reason that sneaker resellers try their best to keep their discussions on the down-low is so they can stay one step ahead of the retailers. The game of cat and mouse between resellers and retailers will probably never end. Every time websites come up with new verification methods, bot developers devise ways of defeating them.
Another motivation for keeping their discussions as internal as possible is to avoid triggering a flood of new users. Although the whole process is much more complicated than most media pieces convey, lots of people have the capacity to set themselves up to do it. A flood of new users would create a lot of problems for resellers. Not least, it would mean that discussions would be much more out in the open.
Knowledge Is Power
The most dedicated sneaker resellers have to make an effort to stay at the forefront of developments in the underlying technologies. According to Proxyway, knowing which proxy providers can be trusted, which automated tools are best at fooling verification systems, and, of course, knowing where and when the next major release is dropping can all give resellers a significant advantage.
This kind of information is valuable. Other sneakerheads will be willing to pay if you can point them in the right direction when they are getting set up themselves. Newbies have to cycle through the various options without any inside knowledge, trying different combinations of proxies and bots until they find one that works. Many people would prefer to just pay for the right information. After all, with a working sneaker buying setup, you could easily make back whatever it costs you to get things going.
Ultimately, it is probably the simple monetary value of this information that keeps sneakerheads from blogging about it. It is also probably beneficial for the proxy providers that the buyers keep quiet about which services work and which don’t. Any proxy provider that starts advertising that their service can bypass retailers’ security will become an immediate target.
Instead of putting this information out there where anyone can use it, those in the know are either keeping it to themselves or ensuring it remains within their trusted circle. Even though sneaker buyers regularly compete, there is a real sense of community among them. Once you find your way into the right Telegram groups or Discord channels, you will find plenty of people willing to help you. But, be warned, buying and selling sneakers is by no means a guaranteed money-maker. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme.