StockX, the biggest resale marketplace, is now valued $1 billion USD

On StockX, from its origins to its latest successes, we've reported for a long time now because the journey of the resale platform - even though it's much more than this - founded by Josh Luber reflects perfectly what has been the evolution of the international sneaker world. Today from StockX arrive two important news, that once again makes us reflect on the present and above all on the future of the sneaker culture. 

In just three years StockX has reached a value of $1 billion USD, as it was announced yesterday, a success obtained thanks to the $110 million USD in funding from investors. Along with this news comes the announcement of the name of the new CEO: it's Scott Cutler, former eBay executive, who has declared that will use these new investments to increase the presence of StockX on the European and Asian market, focusing on the retail of newly released products. Josh Luber, founder of the company, will remain the face of StockX. 

Even though by definition it's a secondary market, because of its numbers, the interest with which it's watched and how customers use it, the resale market has become primary, moving closer to traditional retailers such as Foot Locker, Nike or adidas. It's not a coincidence that classic retailers are now taking an interest in the resale world: last February Foot Locker invested $100 million USD in the GOAT Group, the company that controls two of the most important reselling brands in the world, GOAT and Flight Club. Last December, on the other hand, Farfetch acquired Stadium Goods for $250 million USD. 

It was Josh Luber himself to foresee such a growth, as he told us in this exclusive interview:

The resell sneaker market today is still just a baby. It is supposed to become way-way bigger and the reason why is that really happens is not much about the resell market getting bigger as it is the primary and secondary market converging and becoming one market. So today in the US the resell market is about $1.5/2 billion, globally it’s somewhere between $5/6 billion. The retail sneaker market -the primary market- is over 90 billion globally.

The giants of the sneaker world, first and foremost Nike and adidas, have never made official statements about the resale market, nor have they ever made concrete investments in this area. Nevertheless, it's indisputable that these brands are the first beneficiaries of realities such as StockX, that offers the possibility to buy (for a higher price) limited edition sneakers or released in very small quantities, making the demand grow through the roof. We should not forget though that StockX does not sell only sneakers, but also designer handbags, watches and streetwear, a kind of offer that makes the website the direct opponent of other marketplaces like TheRealReal, the leader of the industry. 

Luber has made some very interesting statements to the New York Times and reported by BoF, where he describes his future project. The idea of Luber is to replace static retail prices with a stock market style of shopping, a large-scale operation that the website is already experimenting with selected brands and products. Last January, for example, StockX ventured in this kind of operation with a sandal collection designed by Ben Baller, collecting more than 10'000 bids over the course of three days. The website used a complicated auction to determine which bidders got to buy the sandals and at what price. It resulted in an average price of $210 a pair — three times as much as they would have cost at retail, but lower than the majority of the bids. Reportedly many other brands are now interested in this type of retail system, even though Luber admits that it will take a long time to carry out this change. 

In just three years StockX has become an intrinsic reality of the sneaker world, with a website with more than 15 million unique visitors per month and that has just reached the value of $1 billion USD.