Josh Luber // The Art of the Sneaker Market

“Ideas are worthless. Execution is the only thing that matters.” After three attempted startups and a lack of enthusiasm for corporate jobs, Josh Luber decided to try a new avenue: one that combined his passion for shoes with his entrepreneurial ability. Three years later and with the help of billionaire Dan Gilbert and experienced businessman Greg Schwartz, the three transformed Josh’s startup into StockX: the world’s first stock market for “things.” Recently valued at over $1 billion, StockX acts as a virtual marketplace for consumers to buy and sell highly coveted products including sneakers, streetwear, collectibles, handbags, and watches. As the former CEO who now serves on the executive leadership team and board of directors, Josh takes us through his entrepreneurial journey from selling blow pops in sixth grade to pioneering the resell market with StockX.

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Transcript

Josh Luber: [00:00:00] Today StockX is bigger in sneakers than what we thought the entire sneaker market was when we started working on this project back in 2015. Part of that is because StockX enabled access to people that didn't otherwise have access to shoes.

Owen: [00:00:30] Welcome to the Power of 2, where we explore the stories of unique individuals to understand how they define success and use that blueprint to lead an exponential life. I'm your co-host Owen Baim alongside my brother, Ethan and today we are joined by the co-founder and former CEO of StockX, Josh Luber. An Alumnus of Harriton High School located nearby our hometown outside of Philadelphia, Josh grew up a serial entrepreneur. Selling chewing gum in sixth grade and blow pops in ninth grade, Josh was always eager to start his own company. First it was tech experts, a computer consulting company; then it was Servinity, online scheduling for restaurant staff; and after that turntable.fm, a music company. In between each of his startups, Josh used his degrees from Emory University to secure corporate jobs as placeholders.

And while he held jobs such as Vice President of Business Development at Best Plastics and Senior Managing Consultant at IBM, it was evident that Josh ultimately wanted to trailblaze his own path. In 2012, Josh founded Campless, a sneaker centric data company acting as a price guide for shoes. In 2015, the startup that stemmed from Josh's passion for shoes evolved into StockX, a virtual marketplace for consumers to buy and sell limited-edition, in-demand, and highly sought-after sneakers. 

Also co-founded by billionaire Dan Gilbert and businessman Greg Schwartz, StockX now operates as a stock market of "things" including sneakers, streetwear, collectibles, handbags, and watches. To guarantee legitimacy, StockX has operation centers to act as a middleman and confirm each product's authenticity. This combined with fair prices based on data and analytics, emphasizes the company's desire to provide full transparency to both the buyer and seller. StockX's new method for selling collector's items eliminates bots, prevents campouts, and provides everyone with an equal chance to purchase highly desired products.

It is this method that has helped redefine the industry and contributed to Josh's appearance on The Business of Fashion 2019 list of most influential in the fashion industry. In mid-2019, upon an $110 million round of funding and a $1 billion valuation of StockX, Josh decided it was time to transition from CEO into a new role within the company.

Josh currently serves on the executive leadership team and board of directors, handling partnerships, IPOs, new product categories, and public speaking for the company. Josh continues to help StockX reach incredible milestone including most recently surpassing $2.5 billion lifetime gross merchandise value and $10 million lifetime sales.

In this episode, we discuss Josh's shoe preferences and his own collection, the reemergence of sports cards as well as other collectibles, and how StockX has grown its business by emulating features from the New York Stock Exchange, alongside much more. This week on the Power of 2 podcast... Josh Luber.

Ethan: [00:03:53] Hey, what's going on everybody. I'm Ethan Baim here with my brother Owen and welcome to the Power of 2. Today we're joined by the incredible Josh Luber, Josh welcome to the show. 

Josh Luber: [00:04:03] Thanks for having me. 

Ethan: [00:04:05] Absolutely. 

Owen: [00:04:07] Alright so we really want to start this with bringing it all the way back to your early years. You grew up in Philly, you went to high school at Harriton, which is actually a neighboring high school to where Ethan and I went— Wissahickon High School. 

Josh Luber: [00:04:21] Sure. 

Owen: [00:04:21] In sixth grade, you sold chewing gum and ninth grade blow pops. You've always been kind of like a serial entrepreneur. Did you have any other side hustles in those very early years?

Josh Luber: [00:04:34] Baseball cards, I guess. I get, you know, there's a— man there's a story I've told a few times that is like the most like perfect like a microcosm of all of this, which is— do you guys know who Gary Vaynerchuk is? 

Ethan: [00:04:51] Of course.

Owen: [00:04:51] Of course.

Ethan: [00:04:52] Big Gary Vee fans. 

Josh Luber: [00:04:53] Yeah, so, the first time I met Gary was right when we were starting StockX and this is probably like 2015. And we met in this— in New York this very like very, very New York like a lunch counter type of spot. Like super narrow, super, you know, tight. And we're just sitting and I was there before him and so he sits down next to me at the stool next to me. And we're as close as you can be without, you know, touching anyone, which I suppose will go away in the post-COVID world.

But, so we sit— and he's as intense if not more so in real life then he is in a— on his videos. And the first thing he ever says to me, right? Like, and again we've never like even talked before and he sits down and he looks at me and he goes, you're about my age. He goes, baseball cards or candy? And that was literally the first thing he said and I was like, "Oh, actually both". And you know, for people our age, right? I am 42. I think he's about like maybe five years older than me. Like that was the hustle then, right? 1987 I was nine years old, eight years old, right? Like trading cards were how a lot of us got exposed to any type of entrepreneurial hustle.

I, you know, started collecting sneakers right around the same time I collected cards and frankly looking back on it, I kind of wish that I had stuck with cards instead of sneakers just from a financial standpoint. But, you know, that was it, right. It was cards, from there it moved onto candy, blow pops, all the things that you can hustle then, but like, this is also the time this is pre-internet, right?

Ethan: [00:06:22] Right.

Josh Luber: [00:06:22] You know, today's kids get to hustle by making apps or sites or all sorts of other things. For us it was, you know, it was a hundred percent analog. 

Ethan: [00:06:30] That's great. And, you know, that's actually a perfect transition to another thing that we wanted to bring up because we know in addition to dunks, which were like super big early on in the sneaker game and are now back, we see these cyclic trends of other products outside of shoes.

And one of those big ones that you just mentioned and that we know you've been keeping an eye on and we've been keeping an eye on is trading cards. So, we would love to hear your thoughts on kind of the resurgence of trading cards and if you see any other products or trends that are going to be coming back in the near future. 

Josh Luber: [00:07:01] Yeah, you know, I spend a lot of my time these days at StockX helping get trading cards launched and, you know, we added cards to the site in— about six months ago I think now. And obviously, you know, the business started with sneakers and sneakers is the largest part of the business. And we obviously sell streetwear and watches and handbags and collectibles and a lot of other products.

But, if you look at all the other products that we sell, besides cards, they're all consumer goods that we have made fit the stock market of things model we've commoditized and we've standardized them down to a single product page where, because we authenticate it, we can create essentially this asset that allows this really efficient marketplace to just take hold and grow.

And the key to StockX's success has always been this unique model— the stock market of things model. But with trading cards, the really big difference is that trading cards already are investible assets. Trading cards are not consumer goods. And so we had this leg up as we started looking into trading cards that it fit our model really well.

But what we obviously couldn't have, I don't wanna say predicted, but we couldn't have influence is the fact that trading cards are also having a massive resurgence in its own industry, but also then just sort of in culture and in the rest of the world. And so the timing of that has really been great.

You know, to your point, you know, on the cyclicality, you know, Gary likes to point out that guys like Gary and I now have, you know, kids that are six, seven, eight, nine years old, the same ages that we were when we started collecting cards, you know, back in the early nineties. And now it becomes, you know, a thing to do it with your kids.

But, so it's— we're seeing this around, you know, around all of sneaker and streetwear and fashion culture, this sort of slight influence of trading cards coming from different places. The absolute best example of this is right now Topps, which is the primary company that makes baseball cards is doing a project called Topps 2020 where they took 20, you know, artists, high profile people and had them redesign classic Topps cards and they're re-releasing them.

And so you have different artists and different people. Well, they had Ben Baller do one. And Ben Baller's Mike Trout crushed every other card in— like it sold like 10X any of the others. So the fact that you have somebody that is so core to like the sneaker, street wear, you know, core StockX customer culture.

Now goes and creates a trading card at Topps and it becomes this top selling card in that world. Like the convergence of these two spaces are— it's here, right? I mean, it's absolutely here. And the fact that cards fit the StockX model and the other things we do really creates a perfect storm. And so we're pretty bullish on trading cards, both for StockX and as a whole, you know, over the next couple of years.

Owen: [00:09:54] Yeah, it's unbelievable because you've even said yourself, you believe trading cards are a better product than anything else StockX sells, which to us is pretty crazy because, you know, sneakers accounts for about 75% of StockX's business, so for you to predict how big, trading cards is going to get and how important you think it is to StockX's business, um, is really interesting and cool to hear about.

Josh Luber: [00:10:19] Yeah and it's, you know, there's more similarities, which is that, you know, today StockX is bigger in sneakers than what we thought the entire sneaker market was when we started, when we started working on this project back in 2015 and part of that is because StockX enabled access to people that didn't otherwise have access to shoes.

And so we helped grow the market and I think we're going to start to see the same thing that happens in trading cards as well. That, you know, we will help to grow the market. So, can it be bigger than sneakers? Maybe like I think so. Can we dominate it like sneakers? Like maybe I think so, but, you know, there is a major difference in that at the time when we launched sneakers and grew the market, we really were and have always been the leader as opposed to trading cards we're coming into a highly competitive industry that there's a lot of really great players, there's a lot of really great places for people to buy or sell cards. So, you know, we're certainly not, you know, we're certainly not naive that there's not, you know, a lot of people focused on the space, but man, like the fact that like this unique model works for cards and it should work better than the way it worked for sneakers, which obviously worked really well, is really exciting. 

Ethan: [00:11:36] Yeah and you brought up Ben Baller before so let's talk about that because I know that StockX helped to debut his slides like as an IPO. And I know something that you guys have rolled out on the platform is these blind dutch auctions.

So can you explain to everybody what a blind dutch auction is and how this method can help eliminate bots, prevent campouts and provide everyone an equal chance to cop a highly desired product or sneaker? 

Josh Luber: [00:12:04] Yeah, for sure. So this is also a super relevant topic, you know, the two things I probably spend the most time on are trading cards and we call IPOs or initial product offerings.

And that's when, you know, a brand or a person releases a product directly through StockX into the marketplace. You know StockX the core business we are a secondary market, right? We are an evolution of eBay. We connect buyers and sellers who want to buy or sell something. But the IPO model is about then working with those brands to release products directly into the market. So when we started going down that path and said, alright this is what we're going to do and obviously it makes sense to work with brands. The question was well, given our unique stock market model, what is the right way to release a product into the stock market of things? What is the right way to release a product that has a true market value that we're not going to have retail price?

And that's the starting premise here, right? The Ben Baller slides and other IPOs that we've done as a starting point, there is no retail price, right? You tell the world how many pairs are available, how much supply is out there. That by the way is also a major change. You will never see a retail product that has no retail price and you will almost never see the supply that exists.

So already this is a massive shift from the way that the rest of the retail world works. But here's why we think that it's beneficial. And by the way, we didn't make any of this up. All we've done at every step of the way is just copy how the stock market works. And in this case, we did the same thing.

We copied how the IPO of certain equities are released and how they're priced in order to figure out what is the efficient way. So 1. no retail price. 2. we tell everybody how many pairs available and then the products are sold via blind dutch auction. Now a blind dutch auction, which sounds complicated is actually pretty simple.

You allow everybody to bid blind. Everybody just bids whatever they're willing to pay for the item. There literally is no, you know, there's no minimum, you don't have to beat anyone else, you have three days, there's no rush. Just tell us what you want to pay... that's it. The more complicated part comes when we select the winners and when we determine the price. And the way that's done and the dutch auction part of it is you have to know how many pairs were available.

So let's say that for the Ben Baller slides that we sold last year, let's say there were 10 black size nines. Okay, so 10 black size nines so the top 10 highest bidders win that product. But, the way the price is set, what's called the clearing price, is if there's 10 black size nines, then the 10th highest bid becomes a clearing price.

So let's say— 

Owen: [00:14:41] Right.

Josh Luber: [00:14:42] —the top bidder bid a thousand dollars and then $800, 700, $600. And the 10th highest bidder was $400. Well, everybody pays $400, even the person that bid a thousand dollars. That's called the clearing price. That's a dutch auction. That is a super powerful mechanic because first of all, it ensures that the top 10 people who were willing to pay the most, they win the product. And that is a very fair result. Second, because of the dutch auction mechanism, the clearing price, 9 of those 10 people then get the product for less than what they were willing to pay. So that is really great. Everybody gets very happy. They win the product for less than what they were willing to pay.

So that's a very fair result. And then finally, it's a way of setting a true market price because we know all 10 of these people are willing to pay at least this amount. And so that's what we did for Ben Baller. That's what we've done. We're actually in the middle of an IPO with New Balance and No Vacancy Inn right now, and again, we didn't make this up but what it ends up is, the end result becomes a clearing price, a price that these products sell for, that ends up being greater than what the retail price would have been but less than what the resell price becomes. And that's just a really fair outcome to give everyone the same fair shot to be able to buy that product. You know, there's no camp outs, there's no bots, there's no "you have to know a manager". Everybody has the same fair chance to get that product, and that is really, really core to the whole thing.

And, you know, at every step it's just about fairness. 

Owen: [00:16:09] Yeah, that's so dope and it seems like it's completely taking out an inefficiency in the market. So do you see, or are you thinking that other companies are going to start to emulate what you guys are doing? 

Josh Luber: [00:16:23] Sure, you know, the reality of the blind dutch auction model, the IPO model, like I said, we didn't make it up and there's no reason why other people can't do it as well. You know there's some value we think in the stock market model, the full model and then the secondary market of StockX that goes with it and so we really view ourselves not as an alternate retail channel, but as a direct to consumer tool for those brands. You know, in the same way that the actual stock market is not a retail channel, it's just where IPOs happen and where stocks trade.

And so the idea is you would do an IPO on StockX and then those products continue to trade on StockX because then the resell market opens and those products continue to trade. So, the idea hopefully is that everyone, you know, comes together and you have a central place to do that. And then again, we're just the platform to enable it.

But, you know, at the core, you know, this is a good idea for a reason and so anyone can do it. 

Owen: [00:17:26] And going back a little bit on what you said about how StockX is not doing anything new, but they're really just copying what happens in the New York Stock Exchange. One of the things you even specifically say is, StockX hopes to make selling a pair of Nike's as simple and easy as selling a share of Nike on the stock market.

So currently in a situation, obviously with the coronavirus pandemic, the stock market is in kind of a spotty spot. How is that affecting StockX? Is business still running like normal or are you guys experiencing some difficulties during this time? 

Josh Luber: [00:18:08] Yeah, you know, we're very, very fortunate compared to most of the eCommerce world in that 1. we're a hundred percent online.

We have no wholesale distribution. We have no retail stores. So all of the businesse is online. And 2. even though at first glance the products that we sell are not necessities and they are luxury goods and people— the gut reaction is, "Oh, well nobody really needs a, you know, a pair of Yeezys, no one really needs Jordan's" and that is true.

The ecosystem that has happened around StockX by becoming the largest marketplace for these products, ends up being that these are mainly small businesses that are on opposite sides of StockX. You have a lot of people that are buying and selling shoes in order to pay their bills, in order to put food on their family's table.

And on the other side, you might have a lot of people that are buying in order to then take that and sell that somewhere else. And that's their way of making money. So there's so much of this that is, you know, as a business, you know, economy that exists in addition to obviously the consumers who ultimately want the products.

And then obviously, you know, I'm not an economists, but the fact that everyone is at home and has more time to shop online means that, you know, on the whole like our business has been pretty good. And we're very lucky and fortunate to say that. We don't, you know, we don't sort of count our chickens, we understand that it's a very turbulent time and things could change quickly but so far it's been pretty good and it kinda makes sense when you think about, you know, the sort of underlying factors of what StockX is and who the buyers and sellers are. 

Ethan: [00:19:45] Yeah and I want to go back and talk about a comparison between two specific shoes, some of the biggest, most well known groupings or brands of shoes out there.

So like we've— we continue to see classic Jordans like the Jordan 1s continue to sell well on the secondary market despite being around for 35 years and seeing hundreds of colorways. And on the flip side, we have shoes like the Yeezy 350s, which at one point were considered the most hype sneakers around, starting to decline after a few years and a few dozen colorways.

What do you think makes a shoe timeless as in how it continues to drive hype, sellout, and resell well for years and years? Is it the style, the backstory and origin, the marketing, or is it something else completely separate? 

Josh Luber: [00:20:32] Yeah, it's a good, you know, just sort of a good understanding or sort of acknowledgement of the way that, you know, these two shoes have been changing over time but are yet still such a huge part of the sneaker world.

You know, StockX and really the answer to your question, it's just supply and demand. I mean, this is like econ 101 at its most basic. And particularly when you have shoes that have so much history, so much liquidity, I use so much data in which to prove out the supply and demand it's even more so. You know, Yeezy 350s are a phenomenal example of— you know the shoe came out originally Kanye's— you know, the demand around Kanye, his hype, everything at that moment because probably never higher and there was no one that was even close to the same platform and parallel that he was on, right? This was pre-Virgil, you know, pre-Travis so like he stood alone and the demand was extraordinary. And then the shoes, because they were just releasing them, the supply was super limited relative to the demand.

And so you had this, you know, just massive premiums that went on top of it and the shoes sold for a lot. Over time, they've continued to release more and more shoes and put more supply out there because at the end of the day, Adidas is a retail company and they don't make any money when the shoe sells for a thousand dollars on StockX.

They make money when they sell a thousand more pairs at adidas.com, so they've put out more supply and at the same time, Kanye is— the demand around Kanye hasn't gone away, but it's just relatively, it's just less than it was before, right? The demand, you know, you have demand split between Virgil and Travis and everything else.

And, you know, Kanye has also done more controversial things between now and then. So again, it's just all supply and demand in order to say, you know, what's out there and who's buying it and who's selling it. And so, you know, timeless is kind of a hard word to define or go through, but at any given moment, you know, it's a function of supply and demand around that shoe and whereas the supply on a given shoe is a hundred percent localized to just that shoe, right? The supply of shoe "x" has no bearing on the supply of shoe "y" but the demand does, right? Demand carries over and if you have a lot of hype shoes before then the next shoe is more likely to have a little bit demand, you know, that bleeds off of it.

So, you know, honestly like this is why StockX has been successful because there's never been a great way to quantify demand and that's really what bids are on StockX, right? A bid is tied to someone's PayPal or their credit card like it's a true life bid so it's actually a true indication of demand at any given time and that sort of a little bit, you know, under the covers but like when you think about the StockX model and what it really shows like it shows demand and that's a powerful, powerful thing that you really can't get elsewhere. 

Owen: [00:23:31] Yeah and referencing demand, is the like Hypebeast and sneaker culture as big and popular in other countries besides the United States?

Josh Luber: [00:23:41] Yeah, absolutely. Obviously there's, you know, there's a little bit of difference at the style level, the taste level at the bottom. But, you know, as we were expanding into Europe two years ago and then Asia a year ago, you know, I would do a lot of press with a lot of different foreign reporters and almost universally the first question that anyone would ask is, "well, what's the difference in tastes between the United States and "x," whatever country we were in. And honestly, the answer is always at the highest level, nothing, right? It's Yeezy, Jordan, Supreme, Louis Vuitton, Virgil, Travis, like at the  high— top— it is identical everywhere around the world.

Now, underneath that, it might look a little bit different in Europe they like, you know, runners more than basketball; in Asia basketball more than runners. But you know, for what StockX sells and where the mass is like, you know, you know what it is, right? It's Kanye, Virgil, Travis. 

Owen: [00:24:37] Yeah. 

Ethan: [00:24:38] And is there a certain geographic area that drives this hype that kind of spreads around to other countries or is everyone just kind of borrowing and taking ideas from other places at all times? 

Josh Luber: [00:24:49] I think that may— used to be right. Like pre-internet like absolutely had more of, you know, individual areas that influence it.

But now, you know, it's a very, very I think global world or global culture for the products and stuff that we sell and that's fun and I like that. It actually goes to, you know, sort of higher level point, right? This— if I was like, "what's the one word that kind of describes the state of our industry right now?" It's convergence. It's convergence of retail and resell; it's a convergence of streetwear and high fashion; it's a convergence of sneakers and workwear; it's a convergence of trading cards and sneaker culture; and it's a convergence of cultures of different cities or different industries et cetera, that, you know, you end up with just, you know, one singular market that is a, you know, as a function of all those inputs at the same time.

Ethan: [00:25:42] Yeah and I was listening to what you said— you were talking about how, at one point, people were voicing complaints that— about how open and visible the StockX platform was and if you list a shoe for a certain price, what's not to say that someone's going to come in and just kind of undercut you and sell it for a dollar cheaper and that you had a really a great and interesting response about how that's just how the open market and the free market works. Do you have any additional thoughts on that? 

Josh Luber: [00:26:09] Yeah I mean, you know, that one I don't know if you like know the whole story. I mean, that's been a, by the way, that's been a constant complaint for a long time. The day we launched StockX, the people that were most upset with us were the people that used to be able to gouge buyers. The sellers that used to be able to gouge buyers. The sellers that used to be able to win off of imperfect information, right? Says, "Hey, I have this Yeezy you should buy it from me it's a thousand dollars no one else has any". But the reality was, there were nine other people around the corner that had a pair of Yeezys, but the buyers just didn't have enough information and transparency in order to see what was out there.

And so once you create a single product page like on StockX, now you have all the transparency in one place and you can see it. So, you know, it's that same people that were upset that we provided transparency, then they also get upset just about the process that, "Oh, okay you can change your bid or your ask by a dollar". But, like, that's the market, right?

We didn't make it up. People should be allowed to sell whatever they want for whatever they want. You know, and again, that's just the market. You know, Dan Gilbert who's a co-founder of StockX and from the beginning, you know, was really instrumental for us in terms of thinking through the stock market of things model, what we do.

He used— he always used to say that anyone that gets mad at that, should just become a buyer, right?

Ethan & Owen: [00:27:31] Right.

Josh Luber: [00:27:32] If the prices keep dropping and people keep undercutting it and you think the shoe's worth money, then switch sides and buy. And that's how you that's— you'll drive the price back up, right? And you're now buying it for less than what you think that's worth. And it's really true, like it is really, really true and— but again, this is also just an example where all we've done is just copy how the stock market works and you can go bid whatever you want for a share of Nike shoes, and you can go sell it for whatever you want and anything that restricts free trade is bad. 

Ethan: [00:28:02] Right and I know that keeping things visible and keeping trends visible is something that you've been preaching since the Campless days and sort of when you were pulling data from eBay instead of a— everyone had this misconception that things were a little more overpriced than they actually were.

It was just that the good deals were selling out. So I thought that was super interesting too, that you— when you did that deep dive into the shoe market on eBay in the Campless days, that was kind of revealed. But, now Owen's— we're actually— wrote a new kind of segment that we wanted to try out with you sort of like a rapid fire segment. So Owen's gonna run you through that—

Josh Luber: [00:28:40] Sure.

Ethan: [00:28:40] —right now. 

Owen: [00:28:42] Alright so— well first off, congratulations on being the first guest on our rapid fire segment. 

Josh Luber: [00:28:47] Awesome.

Owen: [00:28:48] So basically how it's gonna work is I'm just gonna read you off a list of questions, after each question, it's going to be a pretty quick answer for you. And then we're going to go through the list and hopefully for all of our sneakerheads out there, they'll really appreciate this segment. 

Josh Luber: [00:29:04] Alright, let's do it. 

Owen: [00:29:05] Alright so, what is your favorite shoe of all time? 

Josh Luber: [00:29:11] Jordan 1.

Owen: [00:29:13] What do you think is the most underrated shoe? 

Josh Luber: [00:29:17] Oh man. Air Max BW. 

Owen: [00:29:20] What do you think is the most overrated shoe?

Josh Luber: [00:29:27] That's a tough one. What is the most overrated shoe? You know, like I'm sitting here looking at like Jordan 1 Off Whites.

Owen: [00:29:42] Okay which pair of— 

Josh Luber: [00:29:43] They weren't overrated when they came out, right? But like, I think now they are so keep going. 

Owen: [00:29:49] There you go. To all the sneaker heads, they were not overrated when they came out. 

Josh Luber: [00:29:52] Yeah. 

Owen: [00:29:53] Which pair of shoes do you think is your biggest hidden gem? 

Josh Luber: [00:29:] Oh, so I have a pair of Adidas shoes that were designed by Emilio Pucci that I found in Hong Kong in 2006 that I've never seen before or since and nobody  knows about. And, yeah, they're just— they're absolutely extraordinary. 

Owen: [00:30:19] Very cool. What is the most comfortable shoe you've ever owned? 

Josh Luber: [00:30:25] I mean comfort like Air Max 90. Like I think Air Max— like if you had to pick one shoe to wear for the rest of your life, like wear one model shoe to wear for the rest of your life, I think Air Max 90s probably it, just from a comfort standpoint.

Owen: [00:30:36] Which shoe do you own the most pairs of? 

Josh Luber: [00:30:41] It's probably going to be Jordan 1 with Air Max 90 close second.

Owen: [00:30:47] And how many pairs?

Josh Luber: [00:30:49] Jordan 1, it's probably around 30, 30 ish, somewhere in that range. Yeah. 

Ethan: [00:30:55] Damn. 

Owen: [00:30:58] Which pair of shoes do you currently most desire? 

Josh Luber: [00:31:06] You know, I've like— I always think about the first Nike Yeezys.

I have a couple— I don't have the Red Octobers, but I have the other two Yeezy 2s. But I have no of the Nike Yeezy 1s and every now and then I'm just like, "shit, should I just go pay whatever the price is?" And every day I don't and then they go up and— So I feel like, if I could just have someone give me a pair that I didn't have to pay for, I think that's it.

Owen: [00:31:33] In 2015, you owned 250 pairs of shoes. How many do you own now? 

Josh Luber: [00:31:39] I think it's like around 400. So, you know, not too many more. I try to be pretty reasonable. I'll definitely sell off or give away shoes if I find that I'm not wearing them or if I get seeded stuff and I find that I— you know, it's not something— stepping out my style so, yeah. I think it's right around 400. 

Owen: [00:31:57] Gotcha. What is the longest you've waited in line for a shoe?

Josh Luber: [00:32:04] Probably only like 12 hours. Probably like an overnight— there were a couple of overnight campouts that we used to do like in high school, but like never like multiple days. Like I'm just— I need my like, you know.

Owen: [00:32:18] You have StockX. 

Josh Luber: [00:32:20] Well now— now I don't at all. I buy all my shoes on StockX.

Owen: [00:32:22] Yeah, exactly.

Josh Luber: [00:32:23] People that I have— I have hookups, but yeah. So I think probably just like a single overnight, it's never been multiple days. 

Owen: [00:32:29] And what's the most you've spent on a shoe? 

Josh Luber: [00:32:32] So the most I've ever spent on a shoe is actually the first Off White Presto's and I paid $900 for them when, you know, shortly after they released. And I realized these things were never going back down if I ever want it like kind of what I should've done on the Nike Yeezy every day.

And I just bit the bullet and it was— it had been the most I've ever paid and I've still never paid that much before. And I think they're now a couple of grand if you wanted to get them. So I'm glad I did but before that, and I think even before— after that, I don't think I've ever spent more than like five or six hundred on a pair so, but yeah, that's it; 900 for Presto's. 

Owen: [00:33:08] And besides yourself, who has the best shoe game? 

Josh Luber: [00:33:12] Oh man, there are so many like guys that have just phenomenal like sneaker games. You know just, I guess, top of mine just because he and I have been talking a lot recently is DJ Skee. You know, people know him for a lot of different reasons, but like that guy has been into sneakers forever and has so much stuff and cares about so much stuff that nobody ever sees or whatever I think is cool so it's pretty impressive. 

Owen: [00:33:36] And then our last question for the rapid fire segment: do you still own your oldest pairs of shoes? The Nike Maestro's? 

Josh Luber: [00:33:44] Oh yeah, absolutely. In fact, they're not the oldest. I think they're the second oldest that I still have. The Maestro's are our second oldest; they're from my junior year of high school.

Ethan: [00:33:54] Wow. 

Josh Luber: [00:33:54] But I have a pair of like from freshmen year of high school that was a pair of like tennis shoes that I used to wear and then it became a kick around shoe so— but yeah, those are the two oldest pairs that I still own. 

Ethan: [00:34:05] Great and that's it for that segment. Thank you, that was great 

Josh Luber: [00:34:08] Yeah, for sure. 

Ethan: [00:34:09] And I guess one more thing that I thought would be fun to do was I came up with a list. I called it lace, stash, or pass.

So I'm going to give you three pairs of shoes in a couple of categories and I'm going to ask you which one you're putting on now: lace; which one you're going to add to your collection: stash; and which one you're gonna pass on. Can we do that? 

Josh Luber: [00:34:38] Alright. Sure. 

Ethan: [00:34:29] Cool, alright we'll start with dunks. We have the Paris, the What the Dunk, and the Freddy Krueger's. 

Josh Luber: [00:34:35] So we'll pass on the Freddy Krueger's.

Ethan: [00:34:38] Okay. 

Josh Luber: [00:34:39] I will— I'm gonna wear the What the Dunks and stash the Paris.

Ethan: [00:34:45] Sweet. Jordan's: the Eminem/Carhartt 4s, the Chicago Off-White 1s, and the Oregon Tinker 3s.

Josh Luber: [00:34:54] Well, I'll pass on the Tinker 3s. I'm just— I don't really like wearing 3s, so even though I have a bunch, I like rarely ever wear them. So I'll pass on those. I will wear the [Chicago Off-White] 1s because like you've always gotta wear 1s. And the Carhartt's are pretty awesome to have on a shelf.

Ethan: [00:35:14] Sweet. Hypebeast lifestyle: we got the Mars Yard, Off-White Prestos, OG Brown Yeezy 750s. 

Josh Luber: [00:35:23] Oh, man. Well, I just told you about Off-White Prestos how I liked them, but I love— all three of these shoes I love. If I had to pass on one... yeah, that's tough. I guess if I had to pass on one it's the OG 750s but honestly like, I'd probably wear those— I'd definitely wear those more than I wear any of the other shoes, but if I'd have to pass on one, I'd pass on that. I'd wear the Presto's and I'd stash the Mars Yard. 

Ethan: [00:35:51] Sweet. Alright, Kanye: you got the Louis Vuitton Jaspers, the Solar Red Nike Yeezy 2s, and the Turtledove 350s. 

Josh Luber: [00:36:02] Definitely, would pass on the Turtledoves because I mean, like, it's just, you know, everybody's got turtledoves these days. I would stash the Jaspers and oh yeah and I'd wear the Solar Red's for sure. 

Ethan: [00:36:21] Sweet. Alright, Collab Air Maxes: the UNDFTD Air Max 97, the Parra Amsterdam Air Max 1, and the Atmos Animal Air Max 95.

Josh Luber: [00:36:32] Pass on the Animal, I don't wear like any animal prints. Definitely wearing the 1s and stash the 97s. 

Ethan: [00:36:38] Alright, last one. Recent collabs: CPFM and Nike VaporMax, the Clot x Nike Air Force 1 the blue ones, and the Sacai x Nike LD Waffle.

Josh Luber: [00:36:50] Definitely wearing the Sacai's and keeping the Clot's for my boys KP and Ed. And then passing on the VaporMax. I don't— yeah, I don't have any VaporMax I don't like wearing those. 

Ethan: [00:37:05] Shout out KP and Ed. 

Josh Luber: [00:37:07] Yep.

Ethan: [00:37:07] Alright awesome, thank you. 

Josh Luber: [00:37:08] For sure.

Owen: [00:37:09] Alright, so Josh we're gonna finish off this interview with a question that we ask all of our guests and it really comes down to the core of our podcast which is that not everyone takes the same path that— we want to inspire people to take the exponential path and that means defining success in various different ways. So we want to know from your perspective, how do you define success and what is success meant so far in your career? 

Josh Luber: [00:37:40] Yeah, so I get asked some version of this question a lot and, you know,  sometimes it's something around, you know, what would advice would you give your younger self or what advice would you give to younger people or, you know, which is a little bit different than how you define success or rather than how you like achieve success, but they're kind of the same because the short version of a long success is just like one foot in front of the other. You don't go from zero to a billion. You go from zero to one, one to two, two to three and so it's just one foot in front of the other. And so, you know, success is about small successes, right? It's about what is the win that you need to get today?

Is it that I need to send this email or I need to make this phone call or I need to do this podcast or I need to do, you know, whatever and those things build up, right? If you— you can't get the second win if you don't get the first. And so, that's really what it's about, man. It's one foot in front of the other and it's all the little wins.

Ethan: [00:38:48] Amazing. 

Owen: [00:38:49] Awesome. 

Ethan: [00:38:49] Josh, thank you, thank you so much for your time. This was really great. 

Owen: [00:39:53] Thank you, Josh.

Josh Luber: [00:38:54] No worries. Thank you guys. Good luck. 

Ethan: [00:38:56] Alright, take care. Thank you.

Josh Luber: [00:38:58] Bye.

Owen: [00:39:06] Thank you for tuning into the Power of 2 podcast. Ethan and I are two college students looking to inspire our generation and the ones to follow by sharing the stories of unique individuals. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you're subscribed to get notified when a new episode is released and follow us on Instagram @Baimbrothers for exclusive content. You can also check us out on baimbrothers.com for more information. Catch us on the next episode of the Power of 2. PEACE!