43 Tips to Make Serious Money Flipping Sneakers

In between the outsole and heel tab, the emotional attachment to sneakers has grown significantly in the past few years among teenagers. With the increased accessibility and brand endorsements, many business-minded individuals have found their way to flipping sneakers and making handsome money. 

Let’s understand what sneaker flipping is and how you can make it work. 

What Is Flipping Sneakers

Flipping sneakers or reselling sneakers is a business approach that sneakerheads use to get multiple pairs of sneakers of the high resale value at a discount and sell them at a substantial profit. As a pair of rare sneakers can reach up to a hundred thousand dollars (read Air Jordan 12), it can be a lucrative and easy side business for sneaker enthusiasts. 

However, like any business, you need a well-planned approach towards procurement, pricing, storage, marketing, and distribution of the sneakers. These 43 tips will help you get started with sneaker flipping.

Tips to Make Money Flipping Sneakers

1. Follow popular sites like Hypebeast, StockX, and Sole Supremacy to get the latest sneaker updates faster. 
2. Research Sneakers beforehand and check their historical resale value before committing to one. 
3. Always buy from authentic sources.
4. Use a sneaker bot to procure sneakers more easily.
5. Use a sneaker proxy to make yourself anonymous while copping sneakers.
6. Follow sneakers raffle or draws to secure your pairs on priority. A sneaker raffle is a kind of lottery that manufacturers offer for sneakerheads to collect their favorite sneaker before anyone else. Although you still need to pay for the shoes, you’ll get the limited edition products before anyone else. 
7. Check size tags and box labels for authenticity before buying from a third-party seller.
8. Don’t buy sneakers that are hyped up. Chances of it being out of style a week later is humungous. 
9. Always set a budget before jumping into a sneaker sale. Your budget should depend on the historical pricing data of such sneakers. 
10. Consider copping limited edition sneakers as they have a much higher resale value. 
11. Hunt for discounts and mega sales on social media and Discord servers. 
12. Try to stick with the most popular brands like Nike, Adidas, Jordan, BAPE, and Yeezy. 
13. Consider sneaker flipping as stock market trading. Don’t ride the hype train, but don’t miss out on potential opportunities too. 
14. Calculate all the costs including the original price with taxes, electricity, your salary, your staff’s salary, and the profit to set a price tag for your sneakers.
15. Don’t sell a pair of sneakers at a loss even if it has gone out of style. The style is likely going to come back up soon. 
16. Don’t forget fixed costs like rents and salaries. Fixed costs are expenses that you need to bear even if you sell 5 sneakers or 50. 
17. Check past prices of similar products and analyze if you are lowballing your offer. 
18. Test and adjust your prices. If you keep a sustainable profit for every sneaker you sell, you would get ample opportunity to adjust the pricing as you go. 
19. Don’t set your sneaker prices too low. Close-to-bottom pricing sends wrong signals to the customers. They might start questioning your authenticity. 
20. If your product is good, don’t miss out on potential profit with appropriate pricing. 
21. To market your sneaker flipping business, you may want to set prices a bit lower than your competitors, but don’t set the prices to the extent of the destruction. 
22. Consider taxes while setting a price tag. If you are flipping a lot of sneakers, calculating the taxes might be a wise choice before releasing your new collection.
23. Keep an eye open to the dynamic market of sneakers. Don’t be too rigid with your pricing. If you notice your sales going down after a price change, act accordingly.
24. Give your customers loyalty points based on the value of purchases they make. 
25.  An unorthodox pricing strategy is to differentiate the price tag depending on the region. The VAT percentage and shipping charges determine this kind of pricing. 
26. Use shoe trees when storing your sneakers outside the box.
27. Keep your sneakers in a dark place. Sunlight can fade the colors to a yellowish tint. 
28. Gravity is poison for shoes. Don’t store your sneakers in a distorted way. It will cause them to lose shape. 
29. Use acid-free paper to stuff the shoes if they aren’t shipped with one. 
30. Keep dust and humidity out of your sneakers. Dust can fade the colors very easily. 
31. Use silica gel packs in your storage to keep them from molding. However, try not to use too many pouches for a single pair. Silica gel dries out the air and causes cracking. 
32. Use plastic wraps to avoid dust on the boxes. 
33. Dehumidifiers work great for sneakers. Check the sole adhesives before shipping your sneakers. 
34. Let your sneakers breathe. If you have a collection that’s sitting inside plastic wrapping for too long, consider taking them out once a month. 
35. Indulge your customers in your marketing strategies. Many small sneaker businesses lure customers in through giveaways. They are told to share a piece of content that drives traffic to their website or sales page.
36. Promote your shoes more persuasively during the holidays and offer your customers special discounts during those days. 
37.  Send out gift coupons to your potential customers to make them shop from you. 
38. Talk about your sneakers, their authenticity, history, and pricing from your official page to let your customers know about the purchase they will be making. Don’t shy away from leveraging video marketing. 
39. Distribute early-access invitations to your customers. Choose a set of customers who have been the most spenders in the past month or so and send them a personalized invitation to buy the latest limited-edition sneakers from you. 
40. Start a survey on your social media handles to understand which sneakers they are most interested in and devote more to getting them at a discount. 
41. Provide educational content on how to take care of premium sneakers or how to detect a counterfeit product. Your customers will love your content and trust you for their next sneaker shopping spree. 
42. Always be accessible to your customers. 
43. Tell the history of your sneakers as a part of your strategy. 

The Bottom Line

Hopefully, these 43 tips will be able to make your journey towards a successful sneaker flipper easier. As the tips are gathered from experienced sneaker flippers, you would find them helpful and applicable. We wish you good luck and happy sneaker flipping.