How Sneaker Reseller Make Over $3 Million Per Year

We're all well aware of the booming business that is sneaker reselling. Whether you've taken to eBay to buy a pair of retro deadstock kicks, or you've sold a pair or two from your own collection, it easy to see that there is money to be made dealing sneakers on the secondary market.

In fact, it was recently reported that the sneaker re-sale market is worth approximately $1 billion.

One reseller, Derek Lew, knows this better than everyone as he claims his company, Sole Supremacy, generates $3 million annually solely from reselling sneakers. Lew founded Sole Supremacy, which many of you are familiar with, in 2008 after he began selling kicks from his own collection.

He slowly began cumulating sneakers from others who were selling on eBay, and would flip them to make a profit until finally he launched his own site which now accounts for 50% of his sales- the other 50% of his profit still comes from eBay.

In an interview with Highsnobiety, Lew said;

I started about seven years ago. I lost my job that I was doing really well in, and to find a new source of income I started selling my personal sneaker collection. I realized I was getting more money than I originally paid for my shoes – so I figured that there was probably a ton of other people out there just like me who needed to sell their shoes for various reasons – to pay their bills, mortgage, car payments or whatever – and I could offer people money to buy their shoes for quick cash and then resell them myself.

How do you go about acquiring your stock?

Everything we have is just brought to us through our physical store – people will bring in their shoes – or sometimes entire collections – for quick cash. People will ship us stuff too. It’s all directly from our customers.

What’s the all-time most expensive sneaker you’ve sold?

The Nike Air Mag – probably for $7,000 or so. Although we have a pair of UNDFTD Jordan IV’s up for sale right now at $20k!

The full discussion is worth a read which you can check out here.

And if you're thinking of parting ways with some of your collection, check out the list of the 10 most valuable foamposites and the priciest Air Jordan 1s on eBay.