The Sneaker Savant

This might all just be a rumor...but from what I’ve heard...one of the worlds most successful sneaker resellers built his brand through buying out mom and pop shops in an unconventional way…Again - this might be a rumor - take EVERYTHING I saw with a grain of salt UNLESS I am very adamant about it and I’m not very adamant about this.

But back in the late 90’s and early 00’s, a lot of these small mom and pop shops were in a bit of a catch-22 with Jordan Brand. In order for them to get the hot Jordans (ie: the retros), they also had to take in countless variations of Team Jordans and Jumpmans. If you ever went to any of these shops in the early 2000’s you’d remember that the retros would sell out immediately, but all of the Team J’s would gather dust for YEARS. Slip-ons, cleats, winter boots, etc. All of them just sat. This left mom and pops with a tough decision - should they even bother with the latest retros that were sure to sell out if they had to take up valuable real estate with all of these Team Jordan bricks?

So this reseller...he figured this out early on. He’d hit up local shops and he’d strike a deal with them, essentially saying ‘I will buy out all of your Team Jordans if you’ll let me buy out all of your Jordan retros on release date.’ For any retailer - the possibility of selling everything on day one is probably quite tempting...and from what I understand...all of his local shops took him up on the offer. So he started expanding to neighboring towns. Soon he had homes in his city absolutely packed to the brim with Jordans. I heard his bathroom was even full of shoes ready for resale.

I’m not gonna say who this dude is...I’m sure some of you know...but it’s an interesting concept and turned out to be a pretty brilliant business move. To me - dealing with shoes I have no interest in is a bitch. I never in a million years would have come up with an idea like this.

So the question remains - would you cop the shoes on the top in order to cop the heater on the bottom?