The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 414 — StockX loses its plot 🧐
StockX's new express shipping option comes at the cost of the platform's best feature.
Gooooood morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. Appreciate you.
You guys. Duke?!?!?!?! Duke. Doooooooook. I can’t believe they really blew that game against Houston. Insane. Oh well. Come to the Wizards now, Cooper Flagg.
Also, big shoutout to Paige Bueckers and UConn. That’s how you finish the job. I love sports, man.
Let’s jump in.
StockX is cutting corners
In news that confused me quite a bit last week, StockX a new shipping option that has me baffled.
The details: The new feature is an express shipping option available for buyers thanks to what the company calls a new “verified seller” program.
The program will allow sellers to ship directly to buyers without the products going through StockX’s authentication process.
The purpose is supposedly to cut down shipping times significantly.
The sellers enrolled in the program will be a hand-picked group by the company. StockX says they’ll have “demonstrated the highest standards in terms of performance, product quality, speed of shipment and adherence to our terms and conditions.”
A product sold by a verified seller will be listed under StockX’s express shipping option, which will be signified by a rocket on the app. That designation was formerly reserved specifically for items the company “pre-authenticated” and held at one of its centers.
The twist: Buyers won’t know whether they’ve purchased an item from a verified seller or StockX’s authentication center until after the checkout process. Both options will supposedly deliver the product within three to six business days.
The problem: This is a highly confusing strategy from StockX. It feels entirely contradictory to StockX’s mission. Or, rather, what we thought the mission was.
When StockX launched in 2016, its authentication feature was its entire value proposition. That gave it a leg up on the industry stalwarts like eBay.
It worked so well that it actually shifted the marketplace. Eventually, in 2020, eBay also adopted an authenticity guarantee.
Here, with its verified seller program, StockX is setting aside the service that ultimately buttered its bread in the first place. It’s like the company is screaming, “Just trust us, bro!”
I don’t know about y’all, but that doesn’t work for me.
Here’s why: Transparency has never been a strength of StockX. While you might know what the current offer on a product is and how much it last sold for, you have no idea who you’re buying from. You have no way of contacting them before a purchase or after if something goes wrong. You strictly have to rely on the company itself as the go-between when making a transaction.
The reason why that works is the company’s authentication process. Say what you want about it. Is it faulty? Sure. Has it let people down before? Sure. But it’s always been the guardrails guiding hundreds of thousands of anonymous transactions along the road.
To cast that aside for a special group of sellers that only StockX knows is an entirely unfair ask for any buyer purchasing anything through the company.
My first thought when hearing this news was that Zadeh Kicks, the fraudster who used StockX’s platform to run his scam, used the platform and probably would’ve been considered a trusted seller.
Why should any buyer have confidence that there’s not another Zadeh out there waiting to prey on them via this platform?
The other side: The shoes sold via this new program will account for “less than 1 percent” of StockX’s total sales volume, according to CEO Greg Schwartz. It won’t impact a large number of buyers immediately.
StockX is also not the only company in the market to run something like this. GOAT has something similar. Even with eBay, the authenticity guarantee is only activated when a product crosses a $100 threshold. Everything isn’t always checked.
Yes, but: Three wrongs don’t make a right. In a marketplace where buyers are being asked to shell out hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars on easily counterfeited products, consumers deserve to have more protection than a half-hearted promise that the company will make things right long after the wrong has already been done.
The big picture: StockX has always been a seller’s first platform. But it’s leaning even harder in that direction with this move.
That’s a dangerous spot for the consumer to be in. It also might be a dangerous one for the company, too, considering it’s locked in the middle of a lawsuit with its authentication process at the center of everything.
Some room to breathe?
On Friday, many of you hit me up because you noticed a bounceback in the share price of many footwear companies out there. Buying the dip, are we? Good luck. You’re going to need it.
What happened: There’s a positive reason we saw a little bounceback in the market.
A bunch of apparel stocks rallied late on Friday after news that President Donald Trump and To Lam, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, were holding a meeting this week to negotiate a trade agreement between the United States and Vietnam. Trump announced the news on his social media platform.
Following the news, we saw a bit of an uptick in some of the stocks that deflated so much last week.
Skechers rose 2.5 percent. Crocs and Deckers jumped by nearly 5 percent. Nike rose by 3 percent. On Holdings rose by five percent.
The why: The meeting announcement here is hopeful news for the fashion industry. Vietnam is one of the top sourcing nations for so many of these companies. It’s a manufacturing hub for the industry. A hefty tariff means a hefty tax on the goods coming from the nation.
Buyer beware: While this is positive news, don’t forget who we’re talking about. This is Donald Trump — the dude who crashed the economy in the first place. He’s erratic. He’s volatile. We don’t know how this meeting will go. There’s a chance we could go right back to square one, considering we’re not that far from it anyway.
On Sunday night futures markets tanked again, indicating that there could be more movement in the wrong direction this morning. Markets around the world reacted similarly. The global economy is crashing.
Wish there were better news, folks. There’s not. We’ll find out more later today.
The new Nigel?
Jordan Brand made an interesting move last week. It signed snowboarder Zeb Powell to its roster, making him the first snowboarder ever to be sponsored by Jordan Brand.
He posted the announcement on Instagram with the caption “Sliding with @Jumpman.”
Who he is: Powell is one of the biggest names in snowboarding. He won the 2020 Winter X Games in the men’s Knuckle Huck competition. He became the first Black snowboarder to win gold in the competition’s history, which is quite the feat.
This is fun: After having so much success with Nigel Sylvester and the Bike Air tag, Jordan Brand really seems to be leaning into extreme sports here.
The brand found another unique star in Powell, who made a bit of history his own way and is looking to capitalize on it.
I’m not sure what will come from this, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.
A Joe FreshGoods surprise
Joe FreshGoods had a cover story for Footwear News that is undoubtedly well worth your time reading.
FN’s Peter Verry does a fantastic job getting Joe to open up about his five years at New Balance and what the next five years might look like. They address a ton, from JFG's work in his hometown of Chicago to rumors that he might leave New Balance soon.
Of course, they talked about upcoming projects. And there’s a pretty special one that Verry has seen that can’t be revealed. Here’s the section that caught me:
“Robinson, who designs under the moniker Joe Freshgoods, then unpacks a box filled to the brim with samples of sneakers that never made it to retail. Sitting on top of the pile, however, is a shoe that he will eventually release and is especially excited for the world to see.
That’s my baby. It’s super limited. That’s probably my new $2,000 shoe,” he says about the resale premiums fans often pay when they miss out on a release at retail.
However, after showing off the shoes, he sets them aside, requesting that any info be kept under wraps. Robinson, who loves to tease his projects on social media, said he’s trying to do a better job of hiding things.”
Guys. I really want to know what this shoe is.
I wonder if it’s that signature model that he was telling Coco Gauff about? I guess it’s possible.
Maybe we'll see it soon.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
We’ve got two big Kobe drops coming next Sunday for the anniversary of his final game in the NBA.
Nike .Swoosh Air Max 1 “Big Head Mode” — Monday, April 7
Nike Shox Ride 2 “Baroque Brown” — Wednesday, April 9
Adidas x atmos Taekwondo Mei Ballet — Thursday, April 10
Nike Zoom Kobe 8 Protro “What The” — Sunday, April 13
Nike Zoom Kobe 6 Protro “Dodgers” — Sunday, April 13
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading today. I know things are icky right now, but do your best to have a fantastic week. Enjoy the men’s NCAA championship tonight.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, give me a shout at mikedsykes@gmail.com or shoot me a message via Substack here.
Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
I'm reading up a bit on Zeb. I LOVE his Culture Shifters movement, I can totally get Nike and Jordan Brand jumping behind him.
Also...I'm surprised Nike and Red Bull don't work together more, athletes-wise!
Also also...Zeb x Nigel wen
That Nike litigation is the first thing I thought of when I heard of StockX's new shipping option.
They seem like unserious people.