A collectors sneaker store in
“We’ve always kind of seen [collectible sneakers] as a financial instrument,” said John McPheters, head of business development at Flight Club.
Like finance websites that record daily stock prices, Flight Club’s Sneaker Archive tracks historical pricing on collectible sneakers. And like property websites StreetEasy and TruliaTRLA -3.10%, which record how long an apartment has been on the market or what the average selling price for a given area is, Sneaker Archive shows granular tidbits like how long a shoe takes to sell and how a given size sells versus others for a given model.
Matt Powell, an analyst for Princeton Retail Analysis LLC who watches the $21 billion athletic-shoe market, says the collector market for sneakers has grown in the last decade as the Internet facilitated transactions.
“People have been collecting Authentic Jordan Shoes since the beginning of his career,” he said, referring to former basketball star Michael Jordan. “But the market has really expanded with the ease of finding a buyer or seller.”
Some analysts use collectible sneakers as a gauge of the broader market for Cheap Jordan Shoes. Christian Buss, an analyst who covers Nike Inc. for Credit Suisse Group AGCSGN.VX -0.50%, said he checked the auction website run by eBay Inc. for prices for the brand’s Flyknit Trainer+ when it hit the market in July 2012, during the summer Olympics.
“In the early stages of a launch, the product is only sold to core running accounts and ‘sneakerhead’ shops, and we want to know if that product is being adopted,” he said. “If it’s not, then we may have to ask the question if that product will be accepted by a broader audience.”