The reaction of reselling websites to Coronavirus

While the outbreak of Coronavirus keeps the doors of sneaker stores around the world closed, the digital trade has not suffered any particular interruptions and so has the resell market. Limited edition sneaker resell sites, such as StockX and Stadium Goods, have closed their venues but have not reported significant sales collapses. So much so that a StockX spokesperson told Complex: 

While we've made some modifications and added precautions within our workspaces, our online marketplace remains open, stable, and strong. Like the rest of the world, we are closely monitoring the ever-evolving situation and making necessary adjustments to ensure the safety of our community. 

In short, while fashion and sportswear brands such as Nike and adidas are facing heavy economic losses, the secondary streetwear market, due to its own digital nature, not based on physical stores, has not suffered significant shocks yet.

Independent resellers, instead, are most at risk – a second career for many, whose assumptions are based on the existence of physical stores and drop in-stores, and who, with the closure of retail companies, begin to perceive the first difficulties. Andre Arias, a reseller and curator of @solestreetsneakerco, while complaining the problems arising from the closure of physical retails, notes that online traffic does not appear to have stopped even though the health emergency has led to a slight drop in prices. The biggest problem is for independent resellers who do not have enough stock to guarantee an income during the quarantine. Arias put the question in very clear terms: "My storage of sneakers is essentially my savings account." A problem, however, that is easy to evade with a good organization. On the other hand, the fluctuation of the exchange rate in international currencies, which can be detrimental to the reseller during a time of economic uncertainty, could create potential difficulties.

During the health emergency that is affecting the world, however, all those realities that have successfully developed their contactless side in recent years are the best to resist. Paradoxically, it's precisely the digital world that, being immune from any virus that is not computerized, has not suffered the heavy crisis that now afflicts the more traditional business. It remains to be seen, however, what the consequences will be on the secondary market of a potential prolonged crisis for the primary market, from which, the secondhand world remains dependent.