First Wear Podcast

Who Really Created the Monster of Modern Resale Culture?

• Season 1 • Episode 3

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📬 Got a story or a hot take about sneakers? We want to hear from you!



Sneaker resell culture has taken over — but who’s really to blame? In this episode of the First Wear Podcast, we break down the history and growth of sneaker resale, how backdoor deals and price spikes impact real sneakerheads, and whether reselling is destroying or saving the sneaker community.


From everyday frustrations to reseller hustles, we look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of modern sneaker reselling. Join us for authentic sneaker stories beyond the hype, with real community voices weighing in on reselling, backdooring, and the future of true sneaker culture.


🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube — link in bio!


#SneakerPodcast #ResellCulture #SneakerCommunity #FirstWearPodcast #Streetwear #RealTalk





S/O to @theesneakerteacher

🎧 First Wear Podcast: where sneaker culture comes first and hype takes a back seat. New episodes every Tuesday — audio drops at 6 AM EST, video at 6 PM EST. Follow @firstwearpod to join the conversation and share your sneaker stories with the community.



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Welcome to First Word Podcast

Speaker 1

Welcome back to the First Word Podcast . I am your host , edotreep . Hey , today is episode three , definitely seeing some slow and steady growth , but slow motion is always better than no motion . Hey , shout out to the community . Y'all really been supporting me over the past few weeks . Surprisingly , I didn't think it was going to happen this fast , but y'all really bonding to the vision and that's my main focus for this podcast was to build a community . Like I said , it's a podcast for the people , by the people .

Speaker 1

I've been seeing y'all clicking on that . Submit a topic link in my link tree as well , but y'all not participating . Trust me , it's all private . I'm not collecting your email . I'm not going to send you any spam emails . I don't have time for that and I don't like that myself . I'm going to be the only person that see your response until I decide to you know , create an episode geared towards it , and I'm going to shout you out , as always . You know what I'm saying , but don't worry , nobody's going to see your stuff . But if you don't feel comfortable using the link , just drop your topic down below in the comments , across all platforms . First word pod . I got y'all .

Speaker 1

So , speaking of that , today's episode is brought to you by the community . So this is what I've been , you know , trying to push out . I want y'all to tell me what you want to hear on the podcast . I don't want to tell you what you want to hear . That makes sense , like y'all can let me know . It's your podcast . It's really . I

Topic: Who's to Blame for Resale Culture

Speaker 1

wanted to be interactive . So today's episode is brought to you by my dog , sean P , aka the Sneaker Teacher , with two E's . Don't forget the two E's . But yeah , he's doing his thing on TikTok , instagram and Facebook . I know on TikTok , for sure , he's over 20,000 followers . He had to redo his channel because TikTok was tripping , so he's back up to 20,000 and he's steady climbing . So , yeah , shout out to the sneaker teacher . But his topic was who is to blame for the resale culture ? Now , that is definitely a three-part . Think about , yeah , a three-part answer . There's plenty of blame to go around , for sure , plenty of blame . So , yeah , off , rip .

Speaker 1

Reslling is basically when you purchase something for a particular price and then you either go to a third-party market or , however you choose , to sell the shoe or sell the item again for whatever price you see fit , and reselling has been around since the beginning of time . Reselling is across all items . Like it's not just sneakers , everything is getting resold . No stanley cups I know they were . People are going crazy for getting resold . What are those new joints , the little boo-boos ? I think they're getting resold now . Tickets for sure . Like the resale market for tickets is outrageous now . So , yeah , reselling is everywhere .

Speaker 1

And then once money , big money , gets involved , you know everything kind of you know takes a turn because , like everybody that's in the sneaker community has resold before

How Sneaker Companies Feed Resale

Speaker 1

. Like maybe it's not to the extent of what it is now , but if you can get a pair , an extra pair , and you can flip it , either for you know there's a few extra dollars , or maybe like as a favor down the line . Like I looked , I looked out on this release . You know I'm gonna need you for the next one or something . You know resell wasn't really crazy at first , like it was always there , but usually there's like box price plus love . Like give me 20 , maybe 30 on top of that , like 50 at the most . From what I remember , like everybody has different experiences , but you know , when I was like dabbling in like a little resale or whatever excuse me , it wasn't it wasn't crazy . Like I was not taxing , there was no taxation without representation back then . You know it was like 20 , 30 on top of the retail price and you keep it moving . And now , like stock x , goat and ebay and what else , uh flight club . Flight club was like the first resale joint that I recall being outrageous price-wise . But now you know all the quote-unquote resellers , you know they go to StockX for their prices .

Speaker 1

Even though there's been a lot of uh replicas , unauthorized authentics , whatever you want to call it like , it's not the you know actual shoe . And I know people are saying how can a shoe be fake ? You put it on your feet same materials , same factories , all that . But the community know there's a difference between a retail pair and a non-retail pair , but that's another story for another day . Stay on topic . So off rip man .

Speaker 1

The first entity that should get blamed is definitely the , the companies man , the sneaker companies . When there is a market , you have supply and demand , like simple . So when a shoe is limited or seen as exclusive , unattainable , then of course the demand goes up because the supply is limited . So when you have people , when you have a certain amount of people , you know going for the same item . Everybody can't get it , of course , and a lot of people suffer from FOMO . So if they can't get it for retail , which for the most part is very tough these days , depending on the release , it's starting to get a little bit better now .

Speaker 1

When I say a little bit like slightly , so you have , you know the people that take advantage of that and that's how you . So you have , you know the people that take advantage of that and that's how you create this resale problem that we have today . Like $220 retail shoe is going for 400 plus 500 plus , depending on the model and how limited they are , and it's like it really takes one person to set the market . It takes one person to say I will pay whatever I have to pay to add this shoe to my collection , and that's like the trickle down effect . So as soon as it gets sold on whatever platform they use or if they like a hand to hand join the person , that word of of mouth gets around like I just sold this shoe for 700 . Now that's the new going rate for that shoe , so everybody's gonna change their price to what the last sale was . So it's like it gets out of hand pretty fast , man .

Speaker 1

It's like I don't understand when that shift started . I want to say it had to be done , you know 2020 . We know what happened during 2020 . And I feel like , because there was such an abundance of free money quote unquote you know , a lot of people were making more money with the unemployment boost

TikTok and Influencer Impact

Speaker 1

than they would normally working . So it was like you had that extra income that you wouldn't normally have . So then people kind of started to , I guess , take on a new hobby .

Speaker 1

A lot of people started getting into the sneaker game around that time just because they had the influx of cash that they normally wouldn't have . And a lot of people well , everything was shut down . So you're just on your phone , phone on the internet all day scrolling , and then sneaker twitter . You get all the links and everything . So people were like more focused on what was coming out , what was hot , and of course , people were trying to you know , pick up side hustles . So a lot of resellers were born during that time . If you could just sit in your crib and try to like buy everything that's coming out with your extra bread or however you funded your business venture , then that's how a lot of the problems started and people were just buying anything and they really didn't care about the price , especially because it was free money technically or whatever . So that was like the biggest cause for the shift in my opinion . Like , these are all my opinions , I definitely want you to um tap in the comments section on this video if you're watching it , if you're listening , the comment section on whatever platform views , or my social medias first , or a pod , you can tap in there as well . I want to hear your thoughts about it . Now , like I said , that's just what I think .

Speaker 1

And then you have the bots and it's definitely tough to compete against the bots now . So , yeah , like your average resellers that you know , they might just have an eBay page , like a social media page , and they just buy locally , buy selling trade locally and , you know , go from there . But your super resellers are the people that have those bots . And bots . It gets expensive because not only do you have to compete with , like , the security and software on these websites , you have to compete with other bots and the prices get crazy . So it's like you really have to have bread to be one of those super resellers . And then the bots a lot of websites do not stand a chance , man . It's like they post a link on sneaker , twitter and it's like instantly sold out because the bots are already set up for the future . Like whenever this goes live because they have the monitor set up so it just like keeps refreshing and refreshing and refreshing . And whenever you get a random restock or anything like that , when the product goes live it's over with . They already have the account information , the payments , the address for shipping is automatically calculated and then it's gone . So it's like it's .

Speaker 1

It's just it's rough because a lot of people I know a lot of people personally they don't even try to get stuff at retail anymore . They just go straight to StockX , goat or whatever the local boutique , like a consignment shop or whatever , because they know it's just going to be a waste of time for them to try on any platform . It's just easier for them to just go ahead and set the money aside . They just pay to play . And that adds to the problem , which I understand . It like if you want the shoe , you're just going to pay the money , get it out . The way isn't the headache and the hassle is not worth it , but it's like that's just keeping like the resale business alive because you have the people that are just going to go ahead and get it out the way they want , to get an early pair or whatever . So it's like , instead of like battling or going up against the resale , they're just kind of folding and , um , you know , accepting their fate , which I definitely understand .

Speaker 1

The sneaker game isn't what it used to be . It's slowly but surely kind of getting back to the you know where you can , you can catch a few , um , the new releases sitting on the shelf . Sizing may not be ideal for people like me that wear 12 , you know 12 and a half , because usually that's like the first size gone now , since that's the money size , for whatever reason . So the resellers are definitely capitalizing on us , the size like 11 and a half and up , because if you look on GOAT or anything like that

How We All Share Responsibility

Speaker 1

, the initial price might be cool , but as soon as you go to those 11 and a half , 12 , 12 and a half , 13 , the price is double . It never fails . I don't recall when that shift happened Because I remember going into the store and I could get a size 12 . A lot of times they were like on display because they were just sitting there so long . But now release day if I don't go and get it right then and there it's a wrap . Even online when , like shoes are sitting , those 12s are gone . You can have what eight through , probably eight through ten and a half , maybe eight through , probably eight through ten and a half , maybe eight through eleven , eleven and a half and up it's a wrap . You got like ten , maybe fifteen minutes after the release to try to find a twelve or whatever . It's crazy man .

Speaker 1

And then TikTok definitely caused a lot of the issues as well . I know the Black Cats , the Black Cat 4 . Of the issues as well , I know the black cats , the black cat fours . I think that's when I really realized the , the influence that tiktok had , because there was no reason for that shoe to go for the price that it did . I want to say like six , seven hundred , maybe at its peak , and I'm like it's just an all black four like , not even like a leather joint , it's a suede or nubuck , whatever the material was . And I don't even remember it like being that crazy when it first released .

Speaker 1

So when they retroed it and I'm pretty sure that they were sitting for a minute , but for whatever reason , the tiktok influencers just made that shoe into the craziest drop of all time Once I seen it shoot up to like I said 600 , 700 , I was like what is going on ? And that just changed the game forever . So TikTok is another . One is another . Well , I guess influencers in general , once you got a platform and you have people that watch you and you know , you say this shoe is the hot shoe or this item is you need to get this item it creates that buzz and that's how that price start to skyrocket . So tiktok definitely messed the game up for sneakers , in my opinion , especially with that black cat ford , like that kind of reset the market for real , because then you seen the change in everything . A lot of the stuff started to go crazy .

Speaker 1

And then with the retros man , the last on the last dance documentary , every og jordan colorway just shot up because they were doing a time where , like Jordans were sitting , if y'all remember , like between 2017 to 2019 or whatever , you could get retros like on the shelf , depending on your area . You know some areas . The volume is not as big as you know the major markets . Of course , you get to select few stores that actually get certain pairs and you don't get a lot of them , so they'll sell out . So I know how it is like different areas or regional or whatever , but like overall , during that time if you wanted retro you could get it easily . A lot of the times they were going on sale , but once that last dance documentary cause , I fell for it too .

Speaker 1

I'm not gonna to lie Seeing it , reliving those moments , especially the generation before us , well before me . They actually lived through the jordan , the original jordan releases , and then like the original retros , and they could see mike rock the shoes , like that's when social media wasn't around the internet , like it wasn't what it is today , like you didn't see the the shoe a year in advance on a blog site or something . Like he debuted the new shoes on court and then they release so . So for them to like , relive those moments and like the shoes that he was wearing , it kind of like brought back , brought that nostalgia feel like . Because , like I said , it hit me too and I didn't remember mj playing until like 97 , 98 when I was , like you know , 6 , 98 when I was . That's when I remember , like I remember the last shot and all that . So it's kind of like it created like a new , a new love for the retro .

Speaker 1

So of course , everybody was , from the old heads down to like the younger generation that never actually like watched mj play , so like the , the Jordans weren't really a thing . You have everybody locked into the Last Dance documentary and you're seeing everything for the first time . A lot of people were seeing those games and those clips for the first time and you're seeing them rocking to certain retros . It's a different energy man , so that kind of like . Every OG colorway just skyrocketed and I was like oh my god , obstacle in place for the people that wanted the shoes . It was so crazy , like it was dope , but at the same time it's like now it's , everything is just outrageous . I don't know , it's just a lot .

Speaker 1

Like I said , there's a lot of blame to go and as much as we want to just blame the companies and the resellers themselves and the influencers and the people that just got to pay to play , you have to blame yourself as well . And I say that because the sneaker community is powerful . Man like these companies wouldn't produce certain items , they wouldn't , you know , collab with certain artists or creators or designers if it wasn't for the community . They listen to us , even if they don't outright give credit . They're tapped in . They have people that are tapped into social media . They see what you're saying on Twitter , they see what you're saying on IG and TikTok , because a lot of the time you it's like a big conversation or like a big topic on twitter .

Speaker 1

Somewhere down the line something happens . So you know like a shoe comes out or colorway , I think . Even recently sneaker fetish shout out to carry . He said that one of aj wilson's colorways should be like unapologetic or something and then , as you've seen , recently a colorway job that was that was titled unapologetic and then he , uh , he found his old tweet and you know he quote tweeted like the time stamp and everything . So it was like they're tapping in , like for sure .

Speaker 1

So when people like really tap into the sneaker community and they see what like certain pairs or like shoes in general mean to the community , it kind of it's like they take advantage . You know I guess quote unquote because like they see like dang , this shoe means this much to this group of people . I could see if I can capitalize off of that which you know , essence of resale . You know that's kind of like what happens . They know a shoe is on high demand , they know that there's a group of people , there's a market for it , that are going to pay a certain amount because they want to add that shoe to their collection or whatever , for whatever reason sentimental or just , you know it just looks good and then they're going to set the price to whatever and hopefully , once you get into what the shoe means to you or like why you're connected to that shoe or like drawn to the shoe , you're going to pay .

Speaker 1

You know I fell victim to the hype a few times , depending on what shoe it was . I think the last shoe that I actually paid resale for definitely the kobe pe's , the questions , the yellow toe , and I'm just so mad that they re-released them and you can get them for like 70 , like I wanted them when they first dropped . That initial release was outrageous . I did not expect anybody to care about a rebook question at all . I know they were still doing the time where you know the track . It was the kobe tragedy and , like everything kobe related , it was just impossible to cop without like a plug or a bot or whatever . So that was like the last shoe that I paid more than I should have , but that was more of like an emotional you know attachment . Like kobe's my favorite player , I'm a laker fan .

Speaker 1

We know what happened and it was just like dang , I really want these shoes and I went back and forth a lot because I was like I can't believe I'm about to pay this amount of money for a Reebok question but without somebody like me attached to the shoe for whatever reason , that listing would never have been . You know , they would have never created that listing because they would have said nobody wants this shoe . So I'm not going to waste my time . So I have to take blame in that and you watching this , you listening , you have to take blame for the resell game as well . There's different levels to blame , of course , but you know there's been .

Speaker 1

I'm pretty sure there's been a time where you fell victim to the resale gang because you really needed that shoe for whatever reason , whether it was a gift , like maybe somebody close to you for close to me and they usually don't ask for anything or they don't wear shoes , but it's like one particular

Finding Balance and Looking Forward

Speaker 1

shoe that they want , or colorway silhouette , whatever . I'm going to try to make it happen . I'm going to do my best to make it happen within reason . I'm not going to pay you nothing too crazy , but then again , when you're in a sneaker game , what's really too crazy For the average person . My background is crazy , so the price we pay for like retail is crazy . So it was like . You know that's all subjective but , like I said , within reason you have to be able to justify your purchase . At the end of the day , whatever your threshold is is your threshold , but we have to take blame . You yes , you , on the other side of that phone , other side of this screen you have to take blame for what we're going through now and the resale market is crazy . I know you don't want to , you don't want to accept it , but you have to take blame . I'm sorry to say that . Oh man , this was a good topic . I'm not gonna like . It's like .

Speaker 1

Resale really is getting outrageous across the board . There's times they resell . It's like a stock market . The prices go up and down . You never know what's going to happen . The prices could fall , the prices could keep rising . It's hard to gauge the market , man . It just takes one event , one picture , one video for the market to just switch . It just takes a celebrity or athlete to rock something random and now , all of a sudden , everybody wants it . So if you have it , excuse me , if you have it , you're going to mark it up Like we , we know how it goes and it kind of you know , I want to say it kind of like discourages new sneaker heads from you know , kind of entering the game just because , like the resale game just just makes the community it's like a negative taste for the community .

Speaker 1

Like every shoe isn't like that , of course , but it's like depending on what your taste is . You know , shoes is . There's a lot of shoes out there , a lot of different styles , a lot of different looks you can go for . And you know , maybe you only like phone posits , so you might now , yeah , with phones , you should . You should definitely be able to get any colorway you want for the low . Or maybe you're into like Jordan 4s , which is like the new hot shoe , jordan 12s , depending on the colorway and depending on the price . You're like dang , I don't even want to get into the shoe game Because the reseller just kind of turns you off to it .

Speaker 1

But just like with any hobby you have , there's going to be pros and cons . For sure there are going to be people that ruin it for everybody . You know resellers are everywhere . In every hobby you can think of , people are buying and selling goods for a marked up price so they can turn a profit . I don't believe that we're ever going to get away from resale , because it's always been a part of the culture . It just wasn't where it is today . I don't know .

Speaker 1

I just feel like , you know , sneakers and reselling go hand in hand because on one side it's like , yeah , they're taking all the pairs and marking them up , but on the other side it's like , if you have reasonable exclusives , you need a reseller that has the resources or they have the connections to get that shoe that you normally wouldn't have been able to get anyway . So the reselling is cool . Then , or you go to like a sneaker convention or a sneaker show and you see all these booths with shoes that you never like seen in person , or you know you don't trust the third party websites to authenticate the shoe . So you have tons of resellers with their table set up and you can actually hold the shoe . You can see the shoe in hand , which you normally may not have had access to . So it was like you know , reselling is cool , right ? So it was like you know , I don't right . So it was like you know , I don't know . Man , you gotta take the good with the bad . You just have to use your own discretion when it comes to like .

Speaker 1

For me , resell is the last resort , always personally , because with all the restocks going on and all the avenues that you can pay for to get alerts and stuff like , you can like sneaker twitter solo links , sneaker shout solo retriever , they like I think they all have . They might have their own page on it , but you can . It's free on twitter . You just follow the accounts . You can turn on the post notifications . So whenever they drop a link , you know sometimes it's a little late because they definitely want to push the information out to their paid members first , which I understand because that's the service you're paying for . You want to be able to get the information before everybody else to give yourself a better chance to cop that shoe . But yeah , like everything is restocking these days . Now the volume or the frequency of the restock is definitely different for every pair , but unless you like really need it , the right , then and there , if you have patience , you know you're going to get a delayed w .

Speaker 1

So far I've been pretty , pretty lucky with uh , with the delayed w's . There's a lot of shoes that I really wanted and I was like I'm not gonna pay resale , I'm just gonna wait . And it's been working out . You know , sometimes it works , sometimes it doesn't , but with the amount of shoes that I have now in my collection , I'm a little more like , okay , I can get the next one . It's not really that deep unless it's like something that I really want , like og . I think I'm getting more into like the ogs now , the 90s basketball shoes , like the original colorways , I think that's yeah , that's where I'm at now my sneaker journey . So any og colorway that I never had or maybe I just needed a new , fresh pair like that's that's my go-to these days .

Speaker 1

But yeah , man , just to summarize it once again , everybody is to blame , everybody takes a part in this resale culture . The only way it'll change is if the companies continue to like overload , like flood the market . That's the only way that you can really like slow resale down . But there's always going to be exclusive drops . There's going to be this is going to be that . So you can't really stop it , but you definitely can slow it down , because you see a lot of pairs now , depending on the colorway or the silhouette that they're under retail before the actual release date , which is crazy to me because now it's like the stores or like the boutiques and or like the company itself .

Speaker 1

There's some trickery going on , because there's no way a 210 shoe is on the aftermarket early for less than what the retail price is . So are y'all taking a loss or , no matter what price you post , you're making a profit . That leaves a lot of money left on the table . So it raises the question what's really going on behind the scenes ? I don't know . If y'all have any insight , please let me know , because are they still in the shoes or what's going on ? It's crazy .

Speaker 1

But yeah , definitely I want to hear your take on this . I know a lot of people are affected by resale one way or the other . So please let me know how you feel about this and shout out to the Sneaky Teacher once again for this crazy topic . It was fun . So I look forward to hearing , or I look forward to more topic submissions in the future from the community . Like I said , I want this podcast to be interactive . So , as you can see , I'm living what I'm talking about . This is my vision for this podcast . Let me know what y'all want to hear . We appreciate y'all for tuning in to this joint man , it's the First Word Podcast Buy what you like and wear what you love . And remember yesterday , you said tomorrow .

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EdotREEP

Host