Follow-up:
As a former sneaker dealer/hustler/seller/pimp myself, I certainly do wish all the other sneaker d/h/s/p's good luck. It's pretty hard to do, and I think Nike is going to make it even harder to do. But we'll see.
I didn't even consider that it might make it easier for collectors to get their hands on the limited edition shoes. (finally, maybe now I can cop one of those damn Forbes dunks!)
Will - I'm not trying to bring discredit to anything Eric's done. The kid has probably the best USA-based dealer website on the entire internet, and his grill was on the front page the Wall Street Journal.
No doubt there will be publicity for Nike, and it will make their stuff even more desirable. The article basically tells you how to become a sneaker d/h/s/p - just make deals with store owners, so I bet that we'll see a lot more people trying to do it. That's going to make the Limited Edition models that much harder to get - for both d/h/s/p's and collectors - and will probably drive up the prices.
Ktown's right. (Whoa, did I just agree with him?!
) If you're well connected, you should still be able to get your stuff. No matter what system Nike can come up with, someone is going to figure out a way around it, and a way to "beat" it. It all depends on how harshly - if at all - Nike threatens and penalizes the retailers for being "sneaky"
Of course, I could be wrong, - Nike could do absolutely nothing about it. Which means that I just wasted a lot of time writing about nothing.
Jersey Joe
