Sneaker Resale Industry Stats and Facts

• The sneaker resale market is worth $6 billion
• The US sneaker resale industry is worth $2 billion
• The global market is expected to grow 400% to $30 billion by 2030
• Sneakers make up 25% of the entire secondhand apparel market

What are the most expensive re-sale sneakers ever?

• The most expensive pair of sneakers ever sold was the Kanye West Nike Air Yeezy Grammy Prototype for $1,800,000
• This is 193% more than the second most expensive pair of sneakers ever that sold for $615,000
• 5 of the 10 most expensive sneakers ever sold we worn or autographed by Michael Jordan
• 13 of the 15 most expensive sneakers have been Nike or Air Jordan
• Adidas, the 2nd largest sneakers company in the world, has no sneakers in the top 15

What sneakers make the most profit on the resale market?

Brands

• Jordan’s are the best performing resale sneakers, re-selling for 54% above retail price on average
• Nike sneakers resell at 46% above retail price on average
• New Balance sneakers sell at 39% above retail price on average
• Adidas is 4th in terms of resale markup at 32% but sells in much higher volumes than New Balance and Converse
• Converse sneakers sell at 30% above retail price on the resale market

Successful sneaker resellers examples

• Joe Herbert, West Coast Streetwear, was consistently making $200k per month from re-selling sneakers and as much as $600k on good months
• It later emerged his mother Ann was a VP at Nike and he may have been exploiting connections to attain his sneakers
• Benjamin Kapelushnik, a.k.a. Benjamin Kickz, made his first $1 million reselling sneakers before he was 18 years old and counts DJ Khalid amongst his celebrity clients
• Adeel Shams makes $10m worth of sales per year with his business partner Davon Artis with their company CoolKicks.

What are the biggest platforms for reselling sneakers and sneaker resellers?

Some of the best places for individual sneaker resellers are marketplaces such as StockX or GOAT. Many have also made business by selling sneakers on Instagram.

StockX stats

• StockX is valued at $3.8 billion
• StockX has raised an estimated $690 million in funding
• StockX was founded by Josh Luber, Greg Schwartz, Chris Kaufman and Dan Gilbert (who is the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the parent company of Quicken Loans)
• They have 5 authentication centres in 3 countries to ensure all products sold on the site are real (USA, UK and Netherlands)
• StockX overtook eBay to become the largest marketplace for auctioning sneakers in 2017
• More than 7.5 million transactions are made per year on StockX
• $1.8 billion worth of transactions are made per year
• The average transaction on StockX is $240
• StockX generates over $400 million per year in revenue

Stadium Goods stats

• Stadium Goods participated in the Chinese market and made $3 million in sales on Singles day (a Chinese sales event similar to Black Friday)
• In 2019, Farfetch purchased Stadium Goods for $250 million

SNKRS stats

• Nike SNKRS app has been downloaded over 400 million times from the Apple app store
• The SNKRS app makes up 20% of Nike’s digital sales
• That totals approx. $750 million
• In 2019, Nike hosted a pop-up store in Atlanta exclusively for SNKRS customers

Poshmark

• In January 2021, Poshmark went public on the NASDAQ stock market
• It was valued at over $3 billion during the IPO
• In the first 5 months after going public, POSH lost 56.60% of it’s stock value dropping to $44.05 per share after closing at $101.50 on its first day of trading
• Poshmark acquired sneakers authentication company Suede One in October 2021

GOAT and Flight Club stats

• After raising an additional $195 million in funding, GOAT is valued at $3.7 billion 
• GOAT has raised a total of $492.6 million in funding
• GOAT acquired rival Flight Club in 2018
• The average item on GOAT is sold for $330
• The average item on Flight Club is sold for $400 
• GOAT’s revenues are unknown as a private company, but it is known GOAT has positive earnings before EBITDA in 2020