Projected to be a $95.14 billion dollar industry by 2025, nearly doubling from its $55 billion dollar valuation in 2016 and fueled by millennials and Gen-Zers with smartphones and a wifi connection, the sneaker industry has seen stunning growth over the last five years. This expeditious increase has fed an even faster growing resale market: While reports put it at around $1 billion, StockX, the self-anointed Stock Market of Things, estimates the sneaker resale market to be worth significantly higher at $6 billion. For several years running, resellers as young as 16 years old have made upwards of a million dollars from getting their hands on high-demand, limited-edition sneakers and flipping them for profit. (The more tech-savvy teens out there have perfected the engineering of bots, too, which can complete the online checkout process faster than humans, helping them to secure rare product.) In the last five years alone, platforms like GOAT, StockX and Grailed have popped up, each having their own consumer ecosystem for both buying and selling to sneaker enthusiasts via their digital marketplaces. Read more at Fashionista.
