{"id":4269828,"date":"2021-04-01T13:12:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T11:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/from-a-sneakerheads-passion-to-the-future-of-e-commerce\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T12:37:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:37:48","slug":"from-a-sneakerheads-passion-to-the-future-of-e-commerce","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-au\/insight\/from-a-sneakerheads-passion-to-the-future-of-e-commerce\/","title":{"rendered":"From a sneakerhead’s passion to the future of e-commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/button>\n\t\tFrom a sneakerhead’s passion to the future of e-commerce\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tTerence de Waard\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t1 April 2021\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\tIt\u2019s half-past two on a sunny summer\u2019s day at the third edition of DEPT\u00ae\u2019s annual Festival. Queues of highly anticipated enthusiasts have already gathered outside the Circus stage. In ten minutes time, lifelong sneakerhead and StockX CEO, Josh Luber is to begin his enriching talk about his passion and e-commerce.\u00a0StockX<\/a>\u00a0is a revolutionary live marketplace for buying and selling sneakers, streetwear, watches, and handbags. Josh Luber is about to give valuable insights into his venture into the secondary sneaker marketplace. Given DEPT\u00ae\u2019s sizeable sneaker culture, this is one of the day\u2019s most in-demand talks.\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tE-commerce 101\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tAfter entering the crowded Circus tent and making his way on stage, two pairs of the Air Jordan 4 appear on the screen in front of the audience. They are both black, they both have a white accent along the side, and both retail at $190. To the common eye, they are the same. On the secondary market, however, on websites like eBay or StockX, the shoe on the left resells for $230 whereas the one on the right resells for $23,000 according to Josh. \u201cThat\u2019s the same price as a car, is this crazy?\u201d he exclaims. He quickly follows up by asserting that, \u201cthis is merely supply and demand, this is e-commerce 101\u201d. Apparently, Nike made hundreds and thousands of the cheaper shoe on the left side. Whereas the shoe on the right, was a collaboration between Air Jordan and Eminem with only 10 pairs released worldwide. Continuing along the e-commerce 101 class, he explains that demand is exorbitant because it\u2019s Eminem and that supply is non-existent because there are only 10 pairs. And that, these same basic economic principles of supply and demand have almost no bearing on the rest of our e-commerce existence. Similar to the way that consumers interact with almost any other website to buy anything at any time anywhere. What consumers\u2019 experience is something more like supply and deceive. He follows up his lesson by amusing the crowd with various real-life marketing examples of how companies like Amazon try to deceive buyers. \u201cA cat litter box for $27 seems like a reasonable price,\u201d he said, down from a list price of $2159 and, \u201cthere\u2019s only one left for this unbelievable offer!\u201d he shouted out to the crowd\u2019s amusement.
\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tStockX is the exact opposite of everything that is wrong with eBay and Amazon\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tShifting towards eBay, Josh pulls up the search results for a pair of Air Jordan 12 Wings from their week of release. He points out to the audience that there were 1,223 results for this particular shoe and that the top four results were $25,000, $25,000, $18,000 and $15,000. Having analysed eBay data, he was able to reveal that the average selling price for this pair of shoes was, in fact, $932 with a maximum of $1,600. \u201cThis is significantly off the $25,000-$2,000 marks. And as a consumer, there is literally no way of knowing this, unless you scroll through all 1,223 results\u201d, he says. \u201cHow can we offset the \u2018supply and deceive\u2019 manner of marketplace websites given basic economics and the basic supply and demand of the secondary market for sneakers?\u201d Josh asks rhetorically. The answer is, of course, StockX.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tFrom campless to StockX\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tThe secondary sneaker market has gone from an underground aficionado scene to a global $5 billion dollar industry. Lifelong sneakerhead Josh saw an opportunity and created Campless, the Kelley Blue Book for sneakers, using data to determine the true market price of sneakers. \u201cCampless was essentially a price guide for sneakers, a \u2018sneakerhead data\u2019 company which collected, analyzed and published data and derived insight related to collectible sneakers and the industry,\u201d he explains. He continues by describing his overall logic behind creating StockX. \u201cIf you know the true value of a pair of sneakers along with understanding asset pricing and portfolio construction, then, perhaps you can operate as a stock market for sneakers. Tracking product and portfolio value over time.\u201d From what started off as a pie in the sky idea, could lead to being the future of e-commerce. Backed by the investor, American businessman, and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, they sought out to create a stock market for consumer goods.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tStockX and its three tenants\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tStockX is indeed a stock market of things that integrally acts as a marketplace for sneakers, apparel, handbags, and watches. As he rather enthusiastically explains similar to being in a sales pitch; \u201cthis is an evolution of eBay. A marketplace which connects buyers and sellers in the exact same way as the world stock market, for the purpose of buying and selling certain products.\u201d The website works by a live bid\/ask model where buyers place bids and sellers place asks with the market price determined by the lowest ask price. When the bid and ask meet, the transaction happens automatically. By utilising data, StockX is about everyone\u2019s understanding of what these interchangeable commodities are worth. Josh then proceeds to explain that, to create a marketplace for consumer goods, you need three tenants: authenticity, anonymity, and, transparency. StockX physically authenticates every single product that it sells on its website across four operation centers around the world: Detroit, Arizona, New York, and London. \u201cAuthenticity is the core of enabling the larger marketplace,\u201d Josh says. By sitting in the middle, StockX also guarantees anonymity. The company makes sure that both the seller and buyer are genuine. \u201cThere is a tremendous amount of value that comes from that anonymity. And the most important thing is, it creates transparency\u201d, he exclaims. He continues by explaining that there are only three buttons per product page, buy, sell and view all sales, it is the same process as when buying or selling particular stocks. Data is collected to provide the customer with sufficient information to make an informed decision about what a commodity is worth.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tThe future of e-commerce\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tKeeping to his eBay and Amazon examples, Josh mentions that anything that sits between those two companies, selling products with a finite supply, people will ask themselves what the demand and price is. As he continues, he explains that the reason why StockX is involved in the market for sneakers, apparel, handbags, and watches is that the related brands all leverage scarcity to be able to sell their products. Nike, Jordan, Rolex, Supreme and Louis Vuitton all drive prestige and hype to market and sell their products. \u201cThey all inherently understand the idea of having a product with greater demand than supply,\u201d he says. Josh\u2019s speaking time is up, so he quickly ends by stating that StockX is a fix for a broken system. A company which gathers data to allow consumers to make the most informed purchasing decisions. StockX is a revolutionary live marketplace and the future of e-commerce.\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t