Preface

I started collecting sneakers a year ago because I love trend culture. The first pair of shoes I bought at that time were from Air Jordan I. I surfed FOOTLOCKER, an international sneaker online sales platform, the purchase was almost the original price. After that, except some familiar dealers, I will also buy on the regular online platform in China. Among these platforms, Poison is my most commonly used APP to buy sneakers.

Introduction

In modern society, online shopping has become a consumer and an important way of spending. As for special industrial sales, they often have some popular industry standards in the industry. To some extent, the trend culture is different from the normal range of commodity value. Due to the specific consumer groups and consumption needs of the industry, most goods will be higher than the factory price. In the global overall clothing market, different from luxury brands and other popular brands, the tide brand has gradually shown a strong development potential as a dark horse. The tide brand is more and more favored by capital. In 2017, Supreme was bought by Carlyle Group for 50% of its shares for $ 500 million. A number of luxury brands are also scrambling to make good deals with the tide brand. Even LV, which has sued Supreme for infringement, has chosen to co-name with Supreme. (winshang,2019) From 2010, the global tide brand circle has begun to enter the field of daily life, began to integrate more modern spirit, and began to move towards the public. The channels for selling tide brands are more online platforms besides physical stores. These platforms often have their own industry pricing, thus forming a secondary market. And sneakers are the most typical representative products in this industry.

The market of sneaker culture

For ordinary customers, sneakers are just a consumable item. But in the eyes of sneakers, each pair of shoes has its own story, which is exactly the belief they have been pursuing. At the end of August 2018, the NBA lifted the restrictions on the color of the shoes worn by players. This decision has made every game on the professional basketball court of the NBA almost a catwalk, and players passed more styles and colors to express your creativity and personality. Compared to NBA players, although ordinary people do not have sneaker sponsors or annual salary of millions or millions, the attitude of pursuing individuality is the same. With the upgrading of consumption and the widespread spread of trendy culture, more and more people are pursuing their own individual consumption, and shoes have therefore gradually changed from pure sports products to fashion trendy products.

Digital business on sneaker market

Poison is an online marketplace and clothing reseller, primarily of sneakers. Buyers can publish the sneakers and psychological prices they want to buy on the platform, and spot distributors or individuals can sell on the platform. The product needs to be sent to the platform for certification by a professional sneaker appraiser, and it is determined that there are no problems before being sent to the customer.

This operation mode provides a very convenient sales channel for the sneaker brand market and rationally regulates the order of the secondary market. For buyers, their rights will be guaranteed, because the platform provides professional product identification to prevent the circulation of fake goods. In addition, the price of any product on the platform will be adjusted according to market supply and demand. For some products with more currency, the price on the platform may still be lower than the normal market price, and for some limited and joint products, the corresponding price will naturally be much higher than the original price. The premium of tide brand products is reflected in the market circulation. For a limited number of products, the market price of each item sold will increase.

In addition, Poison also gradually develop into a multifunctional social platform. It upgrades brand sales in the secondary market into a communication platform for trend lovers. Users can not only buy and sell goods on the platform, but also share their collocations with the community to achieve a more comprehensive promotion and influence.

However, Poison also has certain disadvantages. For example, all products are out of stock and need to wait for the distributors in stock to ship. Since each product comes from a different dealer, the buyer and the buyer will have to bear the costs separately, increasing the cost of purchase. In addition, for after-sales, the platform needs to contact the dealer again to reply to the customer, and the communication efficiency is very low. It can be seen that the development of the platform needs more improvement. Nevertheless, the sneaker culture market is facing huge business prospects. All platforms are built on a large consumer group, and they have been standardized and improved.

Reference

[1]  Hyman, Dan. “A Nasdaq for Sneakerheads”. The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2019.

[2] Griffith, Erin. “Buy Low-Tops, Sell High-Tops: StockX Sneaker Exchange Is Worth $1.8 Billion”. The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2019.

[3] Wade, Reggie. “StockX is now valued at over $1 billion”. Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 28 June 2019.

[4]  “Sneaker site StockX raises funds, hires eBay executive”. Reuters. June 26, 2019. Retrieved August 12, 2019.

[5] Lv, L., Huiguang, Z., & Surya, S. (2007). Sneakers. Southbank.