The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 200 — The need to know on raffles with Sole Retreiver
Woof woof!
What’s good, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me on this glorious Monday morning. Hope you had a fantastic weekend.
Is it just me or did this feel like the longest January ever? It was a good one, though. Hopefully, a sign of things to come in 2022.
Let’s rock. We’ve got a guest in the house today.
Things ain’t like they used to be
I can’t quite pinpoint the first time I discovered sneaker raffles were a thing. It was either 2013 or 2014. I hit my local Foot Locker for some Foamposites that were dropping that weekend.
The story only gets brutal from here.
An employee tells me they’re raffling pairs. My mind was blown. “Like, you can win them?” By now, you can probably see where this is going.
The response was basically “yes, but not for free.” And I was so confused. If you weren’t winning a free pair of kicks, what was the raffle for? That’s what a raffle is, after all.
This was when I discovered that you had to enter a raffle to win the right to buy the shoes. Not the pair outright.
I was dumbfounded. It seemed like a lot of work just to cop a pair of shoes. The concept of a sneaker raffle seemed very ridiculous. “No way this lasts,” I thought.
Little did I know raffles would become the primary way we buy hyped sneakers these days. Demand is as high as it’s ever been. If a pair isn’t being raffled you probably don’t stand a chance between the botters and the regular folks, just like you, who also want the shoes.
Raffles, as much as we hate them, cut through that noise…a bit. Your chances are still slim, but hey! At least you have a chance, right? But they’re not easy. They take time. And there are so many of them.
Many of you have come to me asking for best raffle practices and, usually, I’ll tell you your guess is as good as mine. I’m pretty much just as lost as y’all are.
So I hit up someone who has a clue for answers. Welcome, Sole Retriever.
Woof woof!
The following is my conversation with Sole Retriever, which has been lightly edited for brevity. Read to the end for a chance to get you a treat.
Sykes: Alright, let’s start with the basics. What is a sneaker raffle? I know this is extremely basic, but I feel like starting here will help people better navigate them.
Sole Retriever: Totally. So this is the sneaker release strategy most retailers are moving toward in an effort to make the fairest possible way for their consumers to get these sneakers in their hands.
Sneaker raffles can take on various forms. Whether that’s an online raffle with your email, your number and your name or if it’s an Instagram raffle where you have to leave a comment or drop a hashtag or if you have to physically go into the store and fill out a ticket. There are lots of shapes it can take but, in essence, it’s the way a retailer chooses to release a product in hopes they’re avoiding any abuse or automation. And, to clarify, you’re not winning the shoe. You’re winning the right to buy the shoe. At least 99% of the time.
Sykes: I’m so glad you said that last part because I think coming into it, a lot of newer folks coming into this culture learn that the hard way. It’s happened to me before. Is that something you see often?
Sole Retriever: Not really. Because we aggregate data for all the different stores. Unless the retailer isn’t clear about that then there’s no reason someone would come to us for that. The communication comes down to the retailer but anyone who is new to sneakers might assume that because, generally, when you enter in a raffle you win something for free. But most retailers do a good job of that.
Sykes: You mentioned the different types of raffles before. I feel like I don’t have a chance when it comes to certain retailers and their raffles. So I’m wondering from you all, what makes a raffle good or bad?
Sole Retriever: There are really two functions at play for determining if a raffle is “good.” The first is stock. Do they have a decent allocation of pairs? The other is tech — the way the raffle is being held. And they work in tandem.
If the retailer has great tech behind the raffle they’re hosting — many don’t have great tech — but if they had great tech and a great entry mechanic but one size run, people are still going to be pissed off because not many people are going to win because they’re not that many shoes. So a “good” raffle, again, is one with decent stock. Because people will win.
Sykes: What about the tech part of that?
Sole Retriever: It’s interesting. Some retailers have simple forms you fill out and you hit enter. But there’s a trade-off with ease of use. The brands and the retailers, we find, some of them really care about getting the shoes into the hands of people who will actually wear them. Some of them do some sort of trivia question about the shoes.
For example, when CNCPTS drops a Dunk they’ll ask some sort of historic question about it. Something that makes it fun but also deters people who might not be a true fan in their eyes. And they’ll sometimes do a flash raffle where it’s 15-minutes. And some will have a CAPTCHA on their site.
Sykes: Are there any retailers or raffle styles that you see work better than others?
Sole Retriever: Any that go beyond just the typical, hey put your e-mail in and hit enter. When stores engage users in any sort of way and make it a more meaningful process, I think it not only helps the retailer but also it gives the user a more wholesome experience.
Sykes: So for me and so many others, all of these raffles can get pretty tedious, man. There are so many. It can be overbearing.
Sole Retriever: Raffles, in general, are super fragmented. Which retailers are posting them? When are they being posted? How do you enter it? Do you have to be in store? Do they ship to this country? It’s just such a fragmented process.
That’s why we exist, though. It’s to centralize all of that for the user. And you’ve got to be in it to win it. Even if you enter with retailers that have a ton of stock, there’s no guarantee you’ll win because of the ease of entry there at like an END. or an SNS.
Sykes: What do you mean by that? In it to win it?
Sole Retriever: We cover close to 2,000 retailers across the globe. People are discovering stores they didn’t even know about. Instead of just entering the five main raffles, if you enter 50 or you enter 100 you will inevitably have a much better chance of winning.
That’s our main value prop. There’s a lot of great stuff happening. And what we’re really trying to do is put it all in one place and have everyone know what they want to know when they want to know it.
Sykes: What’s coming in 2022 for you all?
Sole Retriever: One of the big things is constantly improving our app. We’re pushing out awesome updates all the time and trying to improve the experience for users. We’re always working on that and always will be. We want to make it more worth the time and money.
We’re also working on some Blockchain stuff in the near future. And, to that point, as with anything we do, it’s going to be done right and properly and the community will be involved. So we’ve got a bunch of really cool stuff planned out.
Thanks for reading! The first 100 subscribers to use the code “KYW” on Sole Retriever’s mobile app will bypass immediately through the waitlist to join the app for $4.99 per month.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: Ishod Wair’s SB is more of what sneaker culture needs
In a sneaker world where there is so much…sameness and staleness, Ishod Wair’s new signature SB sneaker is an amazing change of pace.
This shoe has the goods. The details and colorways on these things are sweet. But that’s not why I’m hyped about it.
I’m just glad we finally got a sneaker that isn’t a Jordan 1 or a Dunk or a collab that actually felt a little bit different. Sneaker culture needs more of that in 2022.
Enjoy.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Yeezy 700 MNVN “Resin”— Monday, January 31
Nike Dunk Low “Panda” — Wednesday, February 2
Nike Dunk Low “Brooklyn Nets” — Wednesday, February 2
Jordan 1 Low “Green Toe” — Friday, February 4
Air Jordan 1 Zoom CMFT “Olive Aura” — Friday, February 4
Thank y’all so much for rocking with me today! Hope you enjoyed that interview. There’s more where that came from! Have a fantastic week. We’ll talk on Wednesday.
Until then, peace and love. Be easy. Be safe. Be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯