Like so many others, Daniel Arango saw opportunity in the early 2020s sneaker boom.
Arango and his partner, Simon Lum, opened the New York-based resale shop District One in 2021, expecting to cash in on what was at the time an exploding market for hyped shoes. By then, resale businesses such as Stadium Goods and Flight Club had sold for millions, and Arango and his wife, Kristi Gonzalez, were themselves generating millions in revenue flipping shoes.
Aftermarket premiums soared, and more people piled in, from folks like Arango who’d been reselling for years to the average sneakerhead who just bought the latest collaboration on Nike’s SNKRS app.
But by 2024, the resale bubble had burst, and today, countless resellers who thought they had found a golden ticket are struggling to make ends meet.
“We see it every day — people lose money trying to get by and make a little bit of money. It turns into the opposite. They lose money,” Arango said. “How do I know? Because they come and sell me the shoes.”
The market has cooled so significantly in large part because of stagnation from the brands at the top. Nike and Adidas put the nail in the coffin of their own hype. Nike increased production of popular styles like the Nike Dunk and the Air Jordan 1, resulting in oversaturation of the marketplace. Adidas cutting ties with Kanye West in late 2022 contributed to its aftermarket decline, but even before that moment, the brand had flooded the market with dozens of releases and a number of new styles. While other brands like Asics, New Balance, Hoka and more have successfully captured some of that energy, it hasn’t been enough to offset the decline of the biggest players in the game.
The sneaker resale market is still humming, but it’s not what it used to be. Top brands like Nike are working to recapture the magic they lost by overproducing their most coveted products, but with big premiums no longer guaranteed, resellers are searching for new ways to turn a profit.
The State of Sneaker Resale
Brendan Dunne, who for years covered the sneaker business at Complex and recently became StockX’s senior director of customer community and engagement, attributes resale’s decline to missteps by the big players, but he also adds that, while the market isn’t what it was a handful of years ago, the top of the industry has given consumers reason for optimism.
“I do think that even Nike’s own executives would admit that there wasn’t that much exciting product from them coming out of the early 2020s,” Dunne said. “But I do think that because of that, these brands have been motivated to find their magic again, and I think 2025 has been particularly exciting, even if we feel like ‘23 or ‘24 were slow.”
The numbers bear that out, according to the latest data from UBS. Nike and Jordan footwear prices on the secondary sneaker market continued to decline year on year in June, by 6.8 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively. But, according to the report, the declines were a slight improvement from an 8 percent decline for Nike and a 6 percent decline for Jordan Brand in May 2025.
Part of that movement is Nike simply launching more limited sneakers that people care about. Needham & Company released data on what the company calls “high heat” launches for June 2025, defined as product launches that sell out completely in primary distribution channels and then sell at a premium on resale platforms.
There were 17 such launches in June, with Nike accounting for 15 of them. Instead of consisting of the traditional styles like the Jordan 1s, Jordan 3s, Jordan 4s and Nike Dunks we saw rule the market years ago, there’s more of a mix of other styles like Air Max 95s, Air Max DN8s, Foamposites, Total 90 IIIs and more. The highest resale premium was a 91 percent markup for the Caitlin Clark Kobe 5 protro — a player-exclusive shoe from Kobe Bryant’s signature line made for the WNBA superstar. The shoe retailed for $190 and resold on average for $362 across platforms.
“It’s not 2020 and 2021. It’s a different market, but the reality is we’re still seeing collaborations and limited releases move,” said Garry Thaniel, eBay’s general manager of US fashion and former GM of sneakers.
Branching Beyond Sneakers
In this new marketplace, participants have to find new ways to make ends meet. Sneakers alone won’t keep the lights on anymore like they used to in the early 2020s. A seller’s portfolio usually has to have more to it than that. StockX has spent years expanding its platform to include a wider range of goods, from gaming systems and electronics to collectibles like Pop Mart’s Labubus.
“The more categories we have on the platform, the better,” Dunne said. “The more ways we can help connect consumers to the products they want and help these cottage industries grow.”
Ebay has functioned similarly. The platform still believes in its sneaker business, Thaniel said, but eBay has always been a marketplace that sells a plethora of consumer goods. It’s spread its authenticity guarantee into other categories like streetwear, handbags, watches, trading cards and more. It’s also begun using generative AI to curate looks for users and nudge them into buying other goods.
“I love my sneakers, but I also love a nice timepiece. I love my sneakers, but I might want to buy my wife a beautiful bag. Or I might want to buy myself a beautiful bag,” Thaniel said. ”We want to be a destination for all your needs.”
For up-and-coming operations like District One, the secondary market’s cool-off has prompted them to expand into categories they hadn’t emphasised previously. Arango says they’re selling more tertiary brands like Asics, Hoka and On that didn’t have the strongest presence a few years ago. They’re also buying and selling more products from high-fashion spaces. They’re offering Chrome Hearts and Louis Vuitton apparel pieces and stocking Prada and LV trainers on their shelves where Nike and Adidas used to be.
“These are things that people who want to differentiate themselves — [who] want to spend $700 on a sneaker — that’s what they’re buying now,“ Arango said.
Leaning in on sneakers is still an option, too, but because hyped shoes aren’t fetching the premiums they used to, resellers are having to focus on volume. Vernon Simms, a reseller who started selling in the secondary sneaker market in 2016, said he’ll sell anywhere between 600 to 1,000 pairs of sneakers per month. That strategy has been a more profitable one for him, he said, as opposed to chasing margins.
“I don’t think anyone’s sneaker business — if that’s the way they operate — has been sustainable,“ Simms said. “I have a lot of friends and just people I know who’ve done it and they’re gone. They’re done. They’re not even selling sneakers anymore and it’s because they took that approach to it.”
Simms’ approach has allowed him to weather the downturn in the market. He said he’s made over $10 million in revenue so far, including at least “$3 million or $4 million” in early the 2020s, when the market was humming.
Not for Amateurs
These days, just winning a sneaker raffle is no longer a surefire way to make money. The effort it takes to turn a profit is considerably larger.
The big players in the secondary market who have built up clientele over the years are striking deals and buying up volume everywhere to juice their own profits. Those deals take thousands of dollars of investment. The average person doesn’t have access to that sort of capital.
“You can’t compete with people who have millions of dollars in this game and spend millions of dollars a month on product,” Arango said. If you’re just trying to make a quick buck, Arango suggested skipping sneakers and trying for something like Pop Mart’s Labubus. The current sneaker marketplace is best suited for established resellers who have been around for a while. Most of them prefer it that way, according to Simms.
“Back then everybody and their mama was at the mall in line doing raffles. It was stress. It was war. The profit was nice, but that weekend when the shoe comes out, I’d be at 10 malls that day,” he said. “Nowadays, I go to maybe two places to get my inventory. I’m online with my wholesalers that ship to me. It’s easy.”