Buying Hyped Sneakers:

Most people who produce content to ‘help’ with your sneaker game are either trying to sell you on a bot or cook group subscription, or discuss ‘jigs’ to help experienced buyers secure multiple pairs per release. Alternatively, they’re full of shit and use enticing-all-caps titles like “HOW TO COP EVERY SNEAKER YOU EVER WANTED EVERY TIME EXCLUSIVELY” as clickbait so they can get more views on an 11 minute video of them talking about their own sneaker collection without dropping a single nugget of good information. I don’t like that. I’m not a hypebeast or a sneakerhead and I’m far from masterful with technology. But I like sneakers. And I like money. And I like being able to secure them both without wasting too much of my time or too many of my funds. To experienced buyers this article may be a little redundant. But if you’re trying to get lucky on a pair of hyped sneakers, I will do my best to quickly and clearly pass along some lessons I’ve had to learn the hard way.

1.) Arrive Early/Eyes on the Prize

This may seem obvious, but the systems that companies use to release these shoes can be very temperamental. This touchiness, coupled with huge amounts of traffic on site during a release, can make the simple act of purchasing a pair of sneakers incredibly complicated and frustrating, incredibly quickly. My most recent lesson in this was during the ‘Air Jordan 1 Tie Dye’ release on Footlocker. I got up at 6:30 to prep for the 7:00am release. I signed into my Footlocker app on my phone and brought up their website on my laptop. After laying out my credit cards, I still had 25 minutes to kill. This is where I messed up. I browsed Instagram and checked my Email, going back and refreshing the Footlocker app every few minutes. When 6:57 hit, I closed all my extraneous apps and opened up Footlocker again. To my surprise, they had signed me out of the app since last I checked. To my panic and frustration, they wouldn’t let me log in again. I’ll spare you the gruesome details of my turtle-speed internet preventing me from getting a pair on Footlockers website and simply remind you to keep your eye on the prize and your phone on the app, well in advance.

2.) Buy Internationally, Sometimes

Nike and Adidas will occasionally release or do a restock of a sneaker in Asian or European countries and not make them available in North America. You can still get your hands on them, it just takes a bit more time and planning, something I’ll cover in the next section. But buyer beware, purchasing overseas can carry a hefty cost. The first time I won an END. clothing raffle post-Brexit it cost me $122 in duties to ship it into Canada. And that was on a $300 pair of shoes. Bye bye resale profits. The moral of this story is to do your research. For example, I buy from German retailers all the time and their duties are far more reasonable so try your best to uncover post-checkout expenses before you buy.

3.) Set up Internationally

Turns out that having a foreign bank account is good for more than just stashing the money from your most recent heist. For most retailers this doesn’t matter, but if you want to buy new products directly from Nike or Adidas you’ll need to be set up in whatever country they’re releasing that product in. Buying from Adidas Japan or Nike EU is a great way to increase your odds of getting a sneaker you really want. Don’t want to get up at 4:30 in the morning for your local release? Try copping a pair of Yeezy’s on Adidas Japan the day before. In the middle of the afternoon. Japanese Standard Time is 16 hours ahead of my local time zone, so when Adidas releases a shoe at 8:00am JST I’m rested and ready to go. Because it’s 4:00pm where I am. The only catch is that this requires a lot more set up, since Adidas will only ship and bill to people in the country that the release is taking place in. Luckily, most of it is quite simple. First, you need a re-shipper. I use Tenso in Japan and Ausff in Australia. Next, you need billing information. Your North American address can’t be used in any capacity, and Adidas won’t accept payment if your credit card details and billing address don’t match. So either open a foreign bank account (some banks will let you do this electronically) OR alternatively, purchase a prepaid credit card and use your re-shippers address for billing.

4.) Turn Your Twitter On

Twitter is a pretty horrible place sometimes. Unfortunately, it’s also the best place to stay updated on releases. I can’t tell you how many times a sneaker has released early or on a different website than advertised and I got a pair because of a timely Twitter notification. @SNKR_TWITTR, @CDNnotify, and @Yeezymafia are all great resources.