July 16, 2018

Written byJVG

The 2018 Yeezy Butter Release was a Flop for Shoe Resellers. What’s next?

Uncharacteristic of the formerly legendary Yeezys, the Butter colorway flopped, selling at and even below retail at certain points. Where’s the brand headed? Here’s our take.

Shoe resellers and sneakereheads everywhere have been asking: Is it even worth it to source and flip Yeezys for profit any more in mid to late 2018?

Yeezy’s were the absolute king of the shoe resale game for years.

Although the past dictates the future, much has changed, especially in the shoe world…

Since their debut in Nike in 2014 with models like the legendary Red Octobers, Kanye West and his Yeezy brand were the absolute hottest to hit the scene ever, surpassing prices of Nike Air Jordans and setting a new, incredibly high bar for the price in the sneaker aftermarket.

Many people like Benjamin Kickz, a teenager from Florida, have capitalized on this market and built fortunes on this steady aftermarket that’s been around for years, a market that previously was entirely dictated by Yeezys.

The game has changed…

A 20% premium over retail.

For Yeezy’s ??? That’s quite low…

With the Red Octobers actually selling at $20,000 a pair on eBay like Kanye said in his song All Day, it’s amazing to see that the price is in the same dollar range as retail.

What’s the cause of the drop in the resale price?

Fear

Too many newbies who fear not being able to make profit will simply sell at any price that is above what they bought at, even if it’s only a few dollars more.

Here’s my message:

Stop ruining the game for everyone!

Yeah it’s exciting that you can make guaranteed money but you need to keep it good for everyone and hold steady to the price.

If no one sold Yeezy Butters at under $350, I am pretty confident that the price would have stayed at $350+, and that those who bought extra pairs that they wanted to sell, they’d be able to flip for a $100 profit like all Yeezys have been in the past even at their lowest point last winter with the release of the Blue Tints and the Beluga 2.0s in 2017.

Is it Kanye’s fault…?

“Yeezy’s for everyone”

Kanye West famously said that he’d make Yeezys accessible for everyone when he first partnered with Adidas in 2015.

In mid to late 2018, is this bold statement that many believed to be bullsh*t becoming true

Yeezys remain hard to buy

I’m surprised that the resale price on the Yeezy 350 v2 “Butter”, which released on June 30 2018 for $220, dropped so low.

We wrote a quick guide on the best ways to get Yeezys, and although this greatly increased many reader’s chances of getting the shoes, many people took L’s and were left empty handed or stuck staring at the Adidas page for way too long.

Nike waging a war

Ever since Kanye betrayed the swoosh brand for adidas, Nike has been waging a war with adidas for celebrity collaborations of shoe models that almost always will resell for a nice profit over the retail price.

Adidas is doing very well this year and may be adding rapper and mega celebrity Drake onto the team, and if they do so we can expect tons of hype and profit from those shoes, which will likely be called OVO’s as they were with Nike.

Nike has held the crown this year for shoe releases in the $1,000+ range, led mostly by Virgil Abloh’s Off-White brand but also with hot collaborations like KAWS and the Travis Scott Cactus Jack, which although is currently reselling for a much lower range, held a price of over $1,000+ with highs of $2,000 that were seen before and immediately after its release.

Other models like the Sean Wotherspoon Air Max 97/1 had insane resale values initially and still sell for more than triple retail for roughly $500 in profit per pair of shoes if acquired for the retail price.

Adidas diversifying and innovating

Adidas is pushing the boundaries of technology and creating massive hype and high resale value while doing so, most notably with its Adidas 4D Futurecraft, of which the friends and family version was reselling for over $2,000 on top of its already high retail price of $400.

We first saw the Ultraboost technology with the Yeezy boost

The three stripes brand is also capturing the recent “dad shoe” trend (prime example: Balenciaga Triple S) with the Yeezy Desert rat and more recently the Adidas Yung 1, which also appealed to the cross culture of video games and anime that is popular with many sneakerheads with its bold Dragon Ball Z inspired colorway.

What’s next for Yeezy’s? Which shoe models should I sell now?

Perhaps Kanye’s jump from Nike to Adidas between 2014-2015, reportedly because of lack of creative reign and control, diluted the resale value of the shoe as so many models and versions of Adidas Yeezy Boost are being released, at least 5x more than the Nike Air Yeezy’s which only had 2 versions, with the 350 v1 and v2 boost, the 750, the 500 desert rat, Calabasas and the upcoming 550 boost.

We’ve also got this post with a Mid 2018 list of 12 of the hottest shoe releases that made resellers money in just the first 6 months of the year to give you a better idea of this market, and check out our blog and sign up for our email list below as well to get notified of our monthly release posts.

Back to the original question….

Is it even worth it to source and flip Yeezys for profit any more in mid to late 2018?

Well…it’s no longer a world where anything Yeezy flips for insane amounts.

There will be a day very soon where Yeezys will sell for under retail.

In deals that aren’t open to the general public, many people have been selling Yeezy’s like the black color of the Calabasas, the Blush 500 Desert Rat, and even in some cases the Yeezy Butter at or under the retail price.

Keep an eye out for the new models.

The 550 Boost is still upcoming and due to drop some time later this year in 2018, but even though the new model may mean a high resale price, it all depends on how limited Kanye makes this release.

It’s just a matter of whether or not Mr. West decides that the 550 Boost is the general release Yeezy that everyone will be able to buy who wants it–in that case he’ll make a lot of money and resellers will turn elsewhere.

The market remains strong for sneakers and reselling limited releases, it’s just a matter of keeping up to date and sticking with the trends.

Many profitable shoes have dropped this summer (June and July), and many have not been Yeezys.

Investing in sneakers like the stock market

Perhaps the opportunity lies in buying a rare release, and rather than quickly flipping it, holding on until the price goes up.

You could even make a return on your money if you buy above the retail price if you hold on long enough.

The Air Jordan 3 was shown to have beaten the stock market.

Most recently, in the past year, the Air Jordan 1 x Off-White Chicago has shown incredible gains that surely crushed the stock market, with an aftermarket price doubling from $1,000 to recently over $2,000, all on top of the original retail price of just $190:

Pro tip:

We may be wrong with this one, but given the initial price drop and rise of the Air Jordan 1 Off-White Chicago, perhaps the same will happen in the future with the other colors that released this year, most recently the baby blue UNC color of the shoe, which has a flat resale value that may be due to rise:

It takes knowledge of the history of the brand and the demand of different people and what they want, and we have condensed the advanced knowledge into a highly reviewed guide, the Hypemaster Playbook, which is 160 pages long, and a must read for anyone looking to dive into the profitable world of selling sneakers.

Selling sneakers is an incredibly exciting way to make a living, whether it’s Yeezy’s or whatever new brand will hit the scene (Off-White is a newcomer to the shoe world, debuting in 2017. Here’s a whole guide about this insanely profitable brand and their relationship with Nike. ).

Learn how today, continue to check out our many other blog posts or feel free to check out the free preview of the Hypemaster Playbook!

Thanks and as always, I wish you all the best!
JVG

Author

JVG

JV was inspired to start Six Figure Sneakerhead after having more people asking questions than he could answer about sneaker reselling when they saw the success he was having. His intention is to create the top resource for sneaker resale education worldwide and loves to see when customers succeed, and he's always accepting feedback for all offerings which are constantly updated to suit the customer needs and the current times.