OPINION: The Philly rapper was captured on video complaining about ridiculous resale prices and then paid the ridiculous price for no good reason at all.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
This past weekend in New York — actually it was in Secaucus, New Jersey, but whatevs — was the Got Sole sneaker convention. If you’ve never been to a sneaker convention, it’s a place where you can buy, sell and/or trade shoes, and you can enter raffles and such to win shoes. It’s a good time, especially if you’re a sneakerhead as you walk around looking down doing sneaker checks. The last time I went to a sneaker convention, I’m not sure I saw anybody’s face since I spent my whole time looking down at folks’ feet to see the heat in the room.
Either way, sneaker conventions are also where you see a lot of sneaker influencers — the folks who get shoes way in advance either for free or at a premium cost and do videos and such — and sometimes, celebrities. Such was the case this past weekend when a few celebrities stopped through to pick up some shoes for pay and, well, for free. More on that in a few.
But first, let’s talk about the sneaker resale game. Anybody who is into sneakers probably has a love/hate relationship with the resale game. For a lot of us, it is how we get the coveted releases we want. The most popular releases typically sell out quickly, and we’re left having to go through resale shops or sites to get our shoes, usually at a premium. At that point, it’s on you as a consumer to decide how much you’re willing to spend on a pair of shoes you really want. Shoes that might go for $170-$220 retail (from the actual manufacturer or a store like Foot Locker) can have markups of over $100-plus, and in the case of truly coveted collaborations (think Nike and Virgil Abloh’s Off-White collection), some shoes are in the thousands of dollars range. Again, it’s up to you to decide how much you want to spend. One thing that is typically true though, shoes purchased in a resale shop typically cost more than those purchased on a site like StockX or GOAT. But as the saying goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Which brings us right back to Got Sole this past weekend. Meek Mill (one of the celebrities who pulled up) was shown on a video “debating” with a vendor over the price of some Pine Green Nike SB x Air Jordan 4s. This shoe, in particular, was a very hot item when it was released back in March and for a few reasons. For one, pine green colorways are always popular. Jordan 4s are among the most popular Jordan silhouettes but the SB collaboration, which stands for “Skateboard,” means the shoes would have additional cushioning for the skateboard crowd. Again, the shoes were popular. They retailed for $225 and on popular (yet controversial) resale site StockX, they’re going for around $400 on average (a size 9.5 is $388 and a 10 is $422 right now).
Anyway, the vendor was selling the shoes for $500 (about $100 worth of markup compared to the online price), and Meek Mill is seen basically telling buddy that he should cut the costs for Meek Mill (and presumably others like him — more on this later) because Meek buying them could lead to a promo for dude and possibly more money in the future. The dude kind of stood his ground, though maybe Meek in his attempt to teach him a lesson also offered to pay the $500 for absolutely no good reason at all. In fact, I’m STILL confused as to why Meek bought the shoes from him. I’m almost SURE Meek could have gone to another vendor in that same space and got the deal he wanted. Paying the vendor $500 to make the point that Meek could pay the cost but the vendor will lose out on our more is crazy to me. There are SO MANY SNEAKER SELLERS that I don’t know if this guy, all of a sudden, lost out on a ton of sales. Maybe he did. Maybe Meek would go to that next vendor — which he did — and drop a lot of dough just to make a point.
See, I absolutely wouldn’t have spent $500 on those shoes. I would have ordered them online and called it a day, even if it only saved me $50 overall once shipping and handling were in play. It’s the principle. Meek was there to spend money, as evidenced by the thousands he had in hand that he was walking around with. But I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t spent more than the online price simply because I had a pair of shoes I wanted in hand at a shop and felt like, “Well, I know these are real, and I can have them today.” I hate waiting. So to that end, I get Meek’s frustration at being overpriced on some shoes, though Meek’s issue was that he’s Meek, and because he’s famous, vendors should realize the long game.
That same scenario seems to have happened to Jim Jones, who was also in attendance. In a separate video, Jim Jones was gifted a pair of Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1s, which retail for over $1,200 right now and in return, Jim Jones shot a quick commercial for him that was posted. Now, is it going to make me go to dude’s IG page to buy from him? Not at all; dude ain’t sending ME any free shoes, and my guess is that all of his shoes will be the same price as shoes everywhere. At least the StockX, GOAT and eBay sites have “authentication” services. But I can appreciate the long game buddy is playing by giving Jim Jones free shoes. And later that day, Meek Mill did go to another vendor who dropped the price to what Meek was willing to pay on some of the MSCHF x Crocs Big Yellow Boots.
I suppose the question overall is should vendors make concessions for celebrities in the building? Probably. They’re already overcharging people so maybe this is a way to get new customers. Except that resale space is so saturated, I’m not sure it makes a difference. What I will say is this: I felt Meek’s annoyance at paying a fully inflated price for some kicks, though I just hate overpaying at all. Meek was annoyed that his name didn’t change the price. We live in different worlds so I suppose that tracks.
All I know is Meek Mill was me — even if for different reasons — overpaying for some shoes just because I have them in hand.
Annoyed. He is all of us.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio. He writes very Black things and drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest), but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said: “Unknown” (Blackest).
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