By Abby Rosenstock

Pre-owned Jordan 1 Highs available for purchase. Photo credit: Instagram @804Reselling.

The sneaker reselling industry has become increasingly popular in the past few years and is projected to keep growing and increasing in value. In 2022, the worldwide sneaker reselling market had an outstanding value of $6 billion. Although I do not have ample knowledge about the reselling industry, my younger brother, Will Rosenstock (‘28), is heavily involved in this industry and could talk about it for hours straight.

Before getting into my brother’s personal experience with sneaker reselling, I asked him to describe the overall point of reselling, in simple terms. The simplest explanation he could give me was that you buy shoes for a regular or discounted price and sell them to make a profit. The most popular type of shoe to trade is Nike Air Jordans. Most of the extremely expensive shoes are from the early 2000s, and these often sell for upwards of $10,000. Richmond even has a sneaker resale store, Kicks Boomin, which was featured in a Match article in February 2022. 

According to Will and several news sources, the sneaker reselling industry skyrocketed and hit its prime during the pandemic. It has since calmed back down; however, the market is still staying decently strong. Another recent shift has been resellers catering to greater audiences. William explained that the sneaker resellers catered to people ages 20 to 40 about a decade ago. Now, since the industry has significantly developed, it caters to ages ranging from 10 to 50, which brings in many more contenders for each sale. 

Will explained that there are markets online, one of the most popular being Stock X, that display how much a certain pair of shoes might go for, and this sets the bar for how much people will pay for that certain pair of shoes. Another way to profit from sneakers, rather than simply selling them for more than you bought them, is to buy used sneakers in poor condition and clean them up in order to sell them for more. 

Will explain in detail the two methods he uses to clean up and refresh the sneakers he purchases that are not in pristine condition. The first and more complex method is called “icing.” Icing is a way to make the parts of shoes that become yellow or brownish over time white and polished again. This method consists of putting a special ointment on the shoes and placing them under an ultraviolet light. Over time, the light will eliminate the yellow-brownish color and make the shoes appear more new and white again. The alternate method is simply using a brush and soap. This old-fashioned method is simple, yet extremely effective. 

Comparison of the same pair of shoes before and after icing. Photo credit: Will Rosenstock.

Around mid-October 2022, Will and his friends started their own reselling account. I asked him what prompted him to do so, and he said, “My friends started getting into shoes, so I became more interested in them, too. We attended a sneaker convention in downtown Richmond together and had lots of fun. After that fun experience, we decided to create our own reselling business.” This business started as an Instagram account, 804Reselling. Although this account started somewhat out of boredom and curiosity, it has now turned into a business that brings in profit. 804Reselling currently has around 660 Instagram followers, and throughout his year-long career, Will has sold upwards of 50 pairs of shoes.

After asking Will what his favorite part about selling shoes is, he said, “I have so many favorite parts, it is hard to choose just one. I love my connections in this industry and enjoy attending these fun sneaker conventions. Another of my favorite parts is getting to sell people a shoe they really like and have wanted for a while. And obviously, it is nice to be making money while doing something I enjoy.”