What’s often ignored, however, is the extent that Nike actually controls the market for deadstock kicks. While ASICS, New Balance and adidas shoes do come up time to time in the hands of resellers, the environments that the resell market thrives on, namely exclusivity and hype, have been expertly manipulated by Nike to create a unique network that guarantees sneakerheads will continually go to extraordinary lengths to buy the products (We the suckers here).

It’s evident both Nike and resellers boom off limited releases, but the Swoosh is so skilful at predicting demand that the volume for big drops (like the ever-popular Jordan Retro series) is calculated so that only a portion of the release hits the resell market – roughly 4%, Campless estimates. Drops may sell out instantly – keeping Nike and Jordan at the front of the sneakerhead conversation, but they aren't so limited that resellers can charge huge premiums where Nike could have been making retail sales. (Woohoo for us!! Better prices!!) 

Not each release is perfectly balanced between exclusivity and availability; Nike will occasionally choose to re-position itself at the top of the market by causing chaos with an extremely limited release. This hype can then be leveraged to drive huge sales for future releases, as was the case with 2013’s What The LeBron X. Nike produced a tiny run of the shoe, which unsurprisingly sold out instantly. When it came to the 2014 release, the What The LeBron XI, Nike dropped the sneaker in far greater quantities, and built off the previous release’s hype to create a large volume of retail sales as customers thought the drop was highly limited just like the year before. (Silly Hypebeasts!!!) 

This tactic is sometimes used on a much grander scale, as high-volume restocks can be used several months after a big release to turn unhappy customers into sales dollars. Spontaneous restocking (like the 13 Jordan models that were re-upped on May 18, or the huge Retro re-release the year before) allows the brand to satisfy Jordan-hungry customers who missed out the first time, while using the madness surrounding the restock to persuade previously-undecided customers to pull the trigger too…

SO, what you probably all are thinking is “Why don’t they just make more sneakers or raise the price?”

Stay tuned next week for the answer….

For now...