It’s 10:00 a.m. on a Wednesday, and while some students are dragging their feet to the cafeteria to get a snack, sophomores Oliver Manilow and Noah Rauschenberger are screaming at one another on the sophomore bench. This is not an argument about March Madness.  It’s sneaker-related. They’ve just managed to buy for $200 a coveted pair of Air Jordan III shoes that should resell for almost double its retail price.

Jordan IIIs feature a grey tongue and sole, a black body, accents of red along the inside, a red Jordan symbol, and a black and grey marbled layer above the sole. The shoe itself is below the ankle, wideset, and made of premium leather.

For young shoe lovers like Manilow and Rauschenberger, resale is much more than a hobby. It’s a business that combines a love for shoes and a love of profit.

Manilow developed a love for sneakers in 2013 by customizing shoes on the Nike website to pass time. Eventually, in 2013, he began to buy and sell shoes to kids on his travel basketball team. From there, his love grew—and transformed him into what is known as a “sneakerhead.”

Rauschenberger caught on to the sneaker game right as it was trending in America. From there he treated Manilow like Google, asking him all his sneaker-related inquiries until he was sufficient in shoe knowledge to fend for himself in the resale community.

According to Forbes, since 2004, the international sneaker market has grown by more than 40%, to an estimated $55 billion. With this market increase, teens and young adults have seized the opportunity to profit from reselling something they love.

Parker’s young entrepreneurs begin the process of selling shoes weeks before the shoe releases. “You have to do your research,” Manilow said. “Not all shoes are going to turn a profit.”  

Manilow himself wears a rotation of sneakers throughout the week, most frequently the Adidas Multicolor Ultra Boost 3.0s, which include colorful threading throughout their primeknit body along with the signature 3-stripe Adidas symbol.

Once Manilow and Rauschenberger have decided on a shoe to buy, there are many ways in which they can make the purchase. The main apps the two use to buy shoes for retail price and get rare shoes at their original release include Adidas Confirmed and Nike SNKRS.

While Adidas Confirmed releases a mixture of Adidas brand shoes, such as Yeezys and Human Races, Nike SNKRS releases Nike brand shoes such as Jordans and Air Maxes.

The apps also differ in terms of process. The Nike SNKRS app allows one to immediately purchase the shoe once it releases, and the Adidas Confirmed requires one to sign up to be eligible to reserve a pair of the shoes–and then to make a reservation to purchase the shoe at a local store.

“Adidas Confirmed is definitely harder to purchase off of,” Rauschenberger said. “The shoes that release there are more desired, and the app is constantly reminding people when reservations will start.”

After one has purchased a pair of shoes, according to the First Sale Doctrine, the original copyright owner no longer has rights to the physical item, and the new owner may do whatever they choose with the product–keep it, donate it, trade it, or for sneaker resellers like Manilow and Rauschenberger, resell it. For such entrepreneurs, the process of looking for a buyer begins.

There are many ways to land a buyer. Rauschenberger likes the app Stockx. The name comes from its similarity to a stock market for shoes: The more people who want to buy a shoe, the more the price goes up. The fewer people who want to buy a shoe, the lower the price drops. The price is always apparent to the public.

Stockx has made it easier to sell shoes because the buyer and the seller are instantly connected when a bid and an ask are equal. But this streamlined way to sell also has its drawbacks. Many users on the app are selling shoes for lower prices compared to past profit margins–to earn cash as soon as possible after they purchase the shoes. This deflates the value of shoes and reduces profits.

“Before Stockx, shoes could be sold for two to three times their retail value,” Manilow said. “Now shoes are usually selling for under 200 percent their original price.”

Even with the deflating profit margin, Manilow and Rauschenberger have managed to make money. In less than 1 year, Rauschenberger has managed to make around $1,000, and over the the course of 3 years, Manilow has made around $3,000, which he has reinvested in shoes and clothing–partly for resale and partly to keep.

Rauschenberger now owns 13 new pairs of shoes, and Manilow owned 20 pairs prior to selling 17 of them after deciding he didn’t need them all.

“I didn’t start selling shoes because I wanted money,” Manilow said, adding, somewhat curiously, “I started selling because I liked shoes and getting money.”

When Manilow entered the shoe business in 2013, it was not very mainstream, and websites like Stockx were not invented yet. It was a simpler time when the value of shoes was not apparent, and buyers were more willing to purchase for high prices. “At the time, the market for reselling was small,” Manilow said, “and there was large profit to be made on every deal.”

The two students find the current industry frustrating but enjoy the problem solving. “It’s a challenge,” Rauschenberger said, “but I’m up for it.”

One challenge Manilow has faced is a ban from Stockx. He was not notified that a pair of shoes he listed was purchased by a buyer, he said, and he did not send the shoes in time. As a result, he was banned and hasn’t used the app since.

Face to face transactions have not been completely eliminated by websites and online shops, and sneaker conventions are another way to make deals. At these conventions, resellers have booths where they display a variety of shoes, from Jordans to Yeezys. It is here that the reseller becomes a salesmen for the next few hours, convincing customers that shoes are worth more than they are and that they are a must buy.

“It’s easier to sell in person at conventions,” Manilow said. “The buyer can’t see what others bought it for as I am negotiating with them, so there is generally a bigger profit made.”

Manilow has made it to ten sneaker conventions in the Chicagoland Area over the course of his career.

Rauschenberger and Manilow have found other ways to avoid using sites like Stockx and Ebay, which take a percentage of each transaction. Both have instagrams on which they sell shoes. Manilow created his instagram account, @kg.kicks33, in August of 2017, and Rauschenberger created his, @312_hype, in February of 2018. They use Paypal due to the low 2.9 percent fee on transaction to receive payment for selling their shoes.

Sophomore Micah Derringer admires the precocity of Manilow and Rauschenberger. “They’re getting an early start on business,” Derringer said. “Everybody starts somewhere, and this is benefiting them by putting money in their pockets and teaching them the skills they need to succeed in business.”

Through the process of selling shoes they have become salesmen and their own publicists, and with each sneaker deal the two students close, they are taking steps towards pursuing their passion for shoes and a future in business.

Manilow and Rauschenberger enjoy the business and the cash that comes with it, but they don’t intend on being professional shoe resellers when they graduate. “I think that reselling has helped teach me about business,” Rauschenberger said. “I’ve learned how to make something sell and how to maximize profit.”

Manilow plans to take these skills into real estate.  “Shoes and houses are both tradable commodities,” he said.  “If I can sell shoes, why can’t I sell a house?”