Shoes have always been thought of as the items on our feet. We run in tennis shoes, spend our summers in sandals, and cozy up in slippers, but recently shoes have taken on another more unstable form—the form of a salary.
“Everyone is looking for a way to make money, but in the past five years, when it started, it was probably like a 3 billion dollar industry, and now it’s worth north of 20 [billion dollars],” co-owner of Opulence Shoes, Christian Springer said.
Social media is credited with the rapid growth of the shoe market. Shoe resellers and companies post drops and new shoes, but that’s not the only way social media affects the market.
“You can really easily create a high-value shoe by putting somebody of fame and fortune on that shoe, or in that piece of clothing,” Christian Springer said, “You put an NFL player or Taylor Swift on a certain dunk low or something, and then that shoe becomes really popular.”
Though this is a good business move for large shoe companies, the sustainability of it all is questionable. Popular shoes are being mass produced and priced higher, but popularity doesn’t last and those shoes are often left unsold in large amounts. This cycle repeats itself creating large amounts of waste in shoe supplies. Reselling and buying bots are ways to help with this unsustainable practice.
“If we’ve had inventory, whatever that might be, for a while, well we might discount it, or find another place to sell it,” Christian Springer said, “That way, we can put our money in, into what’s popping at that point in time. But it’s, it’s just, you just keep recycling in and out as quick as you can.”
But no matter the practices being used it is clear that the sneaker market is going to always be a a popular way to make money and a popular way for everyone to express themselves.
“We have, we have little guys like this coming in, like 10 year olds are really into it, that kind of age, because they’re seeing TikToks and watching the shoe videos,” Christian Springer, “And then we have 56 year old men and men who are really big collectors and have been collecting since they were kids, then we have women kind of looking for like a cute thing to go with their dress or outfit.”
