Nike has plans to be carbon neutral by 2024...which probably means a whole bunch of things
but if we take the simplest approach to that statement ever - that can mean that roughly 51% of Nike products being sold will be used and refurbished. I know that’s probably not EXACTLY what ‘carbon neutral’ from Nike means, but now that Nike is also cutting out the middleman - retailers and big box stores - I do think we can expect a huge uptick in the amount of refurbished shoes hitting the market.
I, for one, love the idea. I’m a dude who actually prefers to purchase *used once or twice* shoes that I plan on wearing as (1) they’re cheaper and (2) I don’t feel like I’m a climate-change denier for un-deadstocking yet ANOTHER pair of shoes that I don’t need and (3) I prefer to dig through the randomness of used shoes as I do digging through a million pairs of deadstock shit you can find anywhere.
Anyway, it had me thinking about the secondary marketplaces: GOAT should be ok with this. eBay should be fine. Another Lane and the consignment shops should be fine...But what about StockX? Seeing that their model is based on the idea that they can ONLY facilitate the sale of *brand new* items - and I know this is an overly simplistic way of thinking about this - but are they really going to just cut out 51% of the product Nike is putting out?
Is StockX going to add categories for ‘New’, ‘Like New’, ‘Gently Worn’ or ‘Cosmetically Flawed’ for Nike specifically? Or are they going to develop their own in-house ‘grading’ system? Or will they tap @thesneakersavant AGAIN for helping them build it out? What do YOU think StockX needs to do to adapt?