Once reserved for message boards and loosely moderated forums, the sneaker and streetwear resale market has exploded in the past couple of years. And with money pouring into nearly every viable platform, GQ took a side-by-side look at the top players.
Leading the pack appears to be StockX, which received a $44 million investment from Battery Ventures last week and currently employs 400 people. But they’re not alone — as StockX founder Josh Luber told the website, “Three years ago, [sneaker and streetwear resellers] StockX, GOAT, Stadium Goods didn’t exist. Now, all three of those are worth at least $150 million.”
And that’s thanks, largely, to some serious VC money. StockX’s $44 million windfall represents only a small “piece of the massive pool of cash large firms are throwing at the sneaker and streetwear resale space.” How massive? Grailed took on $15 million in funding earlier this year, GOAT grabbed $60 million, and “LVMH’s investment company put an undisclosed but presumably ungodly amount into Stadium Goods.”
Though that influx in funding does spell good things for the sector, the experts were quick to note that there might not be room for all entrants. “If you look at other marketplaces, there tends to be one or two players that win,” Roger Lee, a general partner at StockX investor, Battery Ventures, told GQ. “You want to be Facebook, not MySpace.”
And that’s why StockX’s endgame isn’t just to exist as a platform for hype-hungry customers, they want to “treat these goods like stocks, generating something like the true market value for an item.”
And with a reported $2 million changing hands on their site daily, they might be on to something.
You can read more about it at GQ.
