Yeah - I like to say that I did my time in the sneaker world. It’s extraordinarily profitable but it’s also extraordinarily toxic. I’ll probably end up writing

Yeah - I like to say that I did my time in the sneaker world. It’s extraordinarily profitable but it’s also extraordinarily toxic. I’ll probably end up writing something long-form about it. Biggest thing that you wouldn’t know looking in from the outside is that bots can only get you so far. Bots for well-known sites are basically at their theoretical limits. Bad server-side software basically makes it random whether you’ll actually get in at that point. Information is what really determines whether sneakers are going to be profitable or a complete waste of time. I ran with groups of people who had relationships with employees of all the big sneaker manufacturers (primarily Nike and Adidas). I’d know months in advance what was going to release and, perhaps more importantly, what was going to re-release (causing the price of existing pairs to crash). People belonged to strong (and private) groups. Never too big, ~15 people was the max for the really good ones. Usually you’d have a slack channel with a ton of integrations, anywhere from simple in-stock notifications to full bot integrations that would allow you to buy sneakers with a saved credit card by tapping a button on the notification (so much for PCI compliance). Those groups are difficult to access. You have to build up a reputation before you have a chance, most of the good ones will literally interview you. You’d pretty much be blacklisted if you leaked information. Overall it’s a lot like cracking culture if it suddenly became 100% legal.