Collecting sneakers is actually a popular hobby. It’s so popular, in fact, that there’s currently a $400 million market for them on eBay. Back in the olden days, these collectors had to hop through garage sales and thrift stores to find all of those rare, valuable sneakers. As with many collectibles, however, eBay swooped in and made things a million times easier for people.
Before eBay, people who collected sneakers mostly scoured shop bins and garage sales in hope of finding something good. The searches were arduous, and limited to the collector’s geographical area. But then the online auction site launched in 1995, offering a single, addictive, worldwide focal point, accessible at any time and from anywhere, for people who wanted to sell their stuff, whether old laser pointers or Nike Air Jordans. Everything changed, and a market began to grow. Today, the numbers point to a growing, and increasingly globe-spanning, population of eBay-enabled sneaker collectors. Their spending on sneakers purchased over eBay has grown by double-digit percentages each year since 2010. Last year about 6.3 million pairs of sneakers were sold on the site. Of those, 1.2 million were priced at $200 or more, pushing total sales of those pricier models past the $400 million mark, and making them one of eBay’s top 10 fashion categories, according to Marcelle Parrish, eBay’s head of fashion.