A lot of parents, and now a growing number of Millennials are a bit baffled by the sudden demand in sneaker world. Getting over the first question of why kids are so in love with sneakers now is the biggest hurdle, but once you get over that the game gets deep.
When I was a teenager, Michael Jordan was working on his comeback from baseball. The Jordan X was the introduction to his return, but it was the upswing of the sneaker culture. Michael Jordan was such a dynamic player, that kids and even adults believed that their game elevated when wearing his signature shoes. It wasn’t until Spike Lee aka “Mars Blackmon” came into play that the sneaker culture had it’s first look at a sneakerhead. Mars Blackmon is the spirit of the sneaker culture. The voice of the young men who wore the shoes because it gave them a particular feeling, Mars spoke that language.
We’re a long way away from those days. But I remember when the Jordan “Concord” XI was introduced. It was like seeing the iPhone for the first time for Jordan fans. The patent leather was the touchscreen, the clear soles was the shape, and the small details were the apps. As if the design by Tinker Hatfield wasn’t enough, MJ went to go on and win his fourth title while winning 72 games in the process. His greatest season came in the Jordan XI’s. So how did we get to this? 
The H-Town Sneaker Summit is a sneaker expo that goes on twice a year where thousands of shoe lovers come to buy, sell and trade their precious kicks. It’s a great way for small clothing lines to get their name out, and a cool way to exchange your kicks for some more heat. Expos like this one and the DunkXchange are where young sneakerheads go to learn the shoe stock exchange. You come equipped with the shoes you want to sell, in the hopes you can buy, sell, or trade your way up to the kicks you’ve been wanting. 
The sneaker game goes up and down just the stock exchange. Similar to wine or antique jewelry , the older editions are considered the most rare and exclusive. It’s one thing to have a sneaker, but if you have the original version in wearable condition it’s like owning a rare Merlot. Being aware of a shoe’s market value will allow you to sell when it’s at it’s highest point, in the hopes you don’t get stuck with it as the value diminishes over time. Because of this, reselling is at an all-time high. Some sneakers can net a profit of up to $1,000 depending on the condition and exclusivity of the shoe. The Nike Air Yeezy 2 was the catalyst of the resell movement. With the shoe only being released at a handful of stores in limited numbers, the demand was so high that the price went along with it. Right now a brand new pair can range anywhere from $3,000-8,000. And people still buy them.
The resell world is a dirty one. The demand and promise of profit margins are driving kids to wait outside in lines through the night for the chance to purchase the new hype. Due to violence, stores like Champs and Footlocker are doing raffles to make purchasing the shoes easier for both parties. Online is even harder, as computer savvy teens are using bots to purchase multiple pairs at a time to capitalize on the high demand. It teaches these young men and women how to be entrepreneurs, but at what costs? With the average high demand sneaker pricing out at around $150 a pair, it’s hard to keep up with two to three releases per month.
The game has changed, but there’s a lot of money to be made. It’s easy to get all these sneakers when you don’t pay rent, but for us 30+ year old adults with legitimate bills we can’t keep up. We remember the feeling we got when Jordan released those shoes. We didn’t want to sell them, because we knew what it meant to have them. Not to say the game is bad now, but it’s just…different.
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