Price declines are signaling that the froth has left the market, leading sneaker heads and analysts alike to wonder if the market is crashing — or just normalizing.Altan Insights, a data and research provider, looked at price data from the resale platform StockX for over 100 popular sneaker releases from the last several years. It found that the average price return in 2022 was negative 7%.Some pairs in Nike's latest Travis Scott collaboration sell for around $500 now.
"It got to a point in 2020 and 2021 where basically every single sneaker that released on [Nike’s] SNKRS app was selling out and going higher on secondary markets. It barely mattered what it was."As with most other asset classes, the changing macro environment — rising rates and the general risk-off mode — has impacted the flows of money into the space.Unremarkable shoes that shouldn’t be selling out and then popping to a 50% premium aren’t doing so anymore.
Resellers, especially those with scale, can still turn a profit — but it's harder for the fringe reseller to make much, Sykes says. "The fever pitch that the market was once at is gone ... I think we're finally starting to get back to a period of normalcy that we were once in, where you can resell sneakers and make a profit — but it's not going to be as crazy, and it's not going to be as profitable," he adds.
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