Jordan Brand Resell Prices Down 70%, adidas Resell Prices Up 30%

A little over a year ago you could line up at a Nike store or Nike approved retailer, buy a pair of sneakers, and successfully resell that sneaker for $60 – $100 above the retail price. To everyone in the sneaker-game this was a cool way to earn some extra money and for some sellers it’s their full-time business. But those days look like they’re over with most resellers trying to unload Jordan Brand merchandise for $10, $15, or $20 above retail.

Why? Over the past 2 years we’ve seen Jordan Brand produce more merchandise and raise prices, which is putting a strain on the Jordan Brand resell market. Some say this is by design because Nike doesn’t like the resell market so they want to systematically get rid of it. But whatever the reasoning the Jordan Brand resell market has clearly lost its value.

This has opened the doors for adidas to step in and pick up the market share that Nike and Jordan Brand are leaving on the table. Adidas sales rose 14.1%, with namesake brand revenue up 24.5%. Separately, Sterne Agee CRT’s Sam Poser wrote late Thursday that Adidas’ secondary-market penetration has perked up almost 30% over the last half year or so, citing the popularity of its NMD collection and Kanye West’s Yeezy style.

So the big questions are:

1) Is Nike losing by trying to win?

2) Did Nike hurt themselves by not respecting the resell market that made their products so popular?

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Somewhere in the world Kanye West is reading this blog post like …