I was approached about my thoughts on Ivy Park x adidas. I’ve been inboxed and written a number of times, but I left the topic alone because I knew early what this release would be. In the conversation below, that took place long before this week’s drop you can read my early thoughts when asked about the original Ivy Park and the adidas Ivy Park. Remember this exchange took place prior to the drop with a friend who covers the WNBA:
Now that the first rollout of Ivy Park has taken place, it is not exactly like a Yeezy drop. When a Yeezy releases the delivery is stark and without flair. The page then disappears from the site. This Ivy Park release features an interface that allows for a click through to the product description. Every item has a sign up list that is open to anyone over 13. The page delivery is much better than any other page on the site. adidas’ signature players don’t even have a breakdown of each item and pictures of the athletes utilized throughout each item of apparel and footwear.
Even with this careful rollout of product, the response in footwear isn’t strong on the flagship model UltraBoost IP. At this moment on StockX the four Ivy Park models are garnering resale, but unlike Kanye’s initial signing with adidas which led to an increase in sales for the ZX Flux, NMD and UltraBOOST, there isn’t anyway yet to see if Beyonce will be a rising tide.
If you’re interested in how well the shoes are performing in resale I’ll revisit my rating system for Flipping here. We already know this was a limited drop, so I won’t waste time explaining that the shoes should be flipped. Any person buying them could sell them if they like. They can even sell the clothes (but that’s harder to gauge with so many items):
I do 3 checks before my decision and I weight them on a scale of 1-9. The max points on a scale = +3
Rating system: Tier 1: 0-25% = +1 Tier 2: 26-55% = +2 Tier 3: 56% and up is +3 (These additions are in regard to the ROI)
Right now the best shoe to flip is obviously the least expensive. The Sleek Super. The Sleek is a model that adidas has listed on their site for 50% off. It’s not a model that has been a hot item for the brand and it’s too early to tell if the heat from Ivy Park will carry over to non-IP products. This is also the model that could generate similar interest to Rihanna’s Fenty drops with the Creeper. Rihanna’s Puma x Fenty was cheaper across the board. Puma was also not sought after which means that she had a better chance to lift the boat than Beyonce does. Rihanna is better compared to Kanye and adidas.
First Check: According to StockX the Sleek Super has a return of 166% right now. The average price sold is $224.00. The other models Nite Jogger and UltraBoost are between 51% to 20% return. Making the two Nite Jogger models Tier 2 flips and the UB a Tier 1 flip.
- Number of UltraBoost sold: 343
- Number of Nite Jogger White: 354
- Number of Nite Jogger Maroon Orange sold: 430
- Number of Sleek Super 72 Sold: 810
Second Check: On eBay using the keywords ‘Ivy Park adidas‘ there are 1004 listings. I used to utilize eBay as the measuring stick for the number of items released. I now do this with StockX as the majority of items dropped in footwear are sold there. On eBay the listings are primarily clothing items.
Currently listed on 1/19/2020:
- 1004 items using the keyword above: Sold 473 items
- Men’s Athletic Shoes 166 items listed: Sold 48 items
- Women’s Athletic Shoes 328 items listed: Sold 135 items
- Items listed for Ivy Park under women 824
eBay is interesting because of the apparel. Most people bought the apparel for themselves. They aren’t flipping it. Right now the Jumpsuit has 10 listings. There have been 11 listings sold. This is the average price on the retail 120.00 dollar price:
- 224.98
- 185.99
- 250.00
- 240.00
- 225.00
The average price on the Jumpsuit is 225.19. The apparel is easily the most exciting aspect of the launch and it’s important for adidas that most women are keeping this gear to wear as opposed to flipping it for a considerable Tier 3 return. The listings for the products on eBay are barely hitting 50 items.
Third Check: I used to utilize Flight Club to check if a shoe was valuable enough to flip. FC is owned by GOAT and honestly I don’t think they are the measuring stick anymore. That title goes to Stadium Goods. Since neither of these locations are as reliable anymore and are basically outliers, I’m moving towards a classic strategy I used for flipping. How many pair of shoes are really available which gives us an idea of whether shoes are being bought at resale to be resold at a higher price later. I’ll stick with the UBIP.
The UltraBoost IP, the flagship, has 287 pair listed on StockX. Using a a model that I traditionally utilized with eBay I am making an educated guess on how many pairs of shoes were created for the Ivy Park releases:
- 70% of shoes are purchased to be worn
- 30% of shoes are purchased to be flipped
- 10% of those shoes will show up on eBay
This was how I originally calculated the number of shoes released since there wasn’t any way to know who got shoes. As DTC becomes the norm it will be harder to use brick and mortar locations as evidence of numbers available. I created this prior to eBay removing seller’s fees on shoes above 100 dollars.
I’m saying that 20% percent show up on StockX now and the others are split between eBay and GOAT. These numbers won’t be exact. Let’s check those numbers:
- 343 pair of UBs sold and 287 are listed on StockX: 630 pair
- 204 pair of UBs are listed on eBay with 54 pair sold. eBay lists sold shoes with unsold pairs. So that’s 150. If GOAT has 150 pair listed. That’s 300.
Right now the possible number of shoes in the resale market are at 930 pair. That means approximately 3000 pair of UBs were made. This also means that a similar number of Nite Joggers are probably available. The Sleek Super 72 however is probably twice that amount because of the price. Here is what’s interesting about that:
10 Reasons Why The ‘adidas Campus 80s StockX IPO’ Was the Most Important Drop of the Year
In the article above about StockX’s IPO with adidas I stated that the Three Stripes now had a measuring stick for the number of shoes that should be delivered. The IPO happened six months ago. It takes shoes about six months now for shoes to be shipped and landed. It used to take a year of planning, but adidas just signed Beyonce in April/May.
Above I wrote that the StockX IPO generated the value of releasing 3000 pair of shoes… If StockX agreed to this IPO at seller level 4 for adidas, they charged adidas 11% per transaction. When adidas sells a drop to retailers they are at 50%. adidas possibly netted 89% on a drop through a third party digital outlet. There wasn’t any shipping involved. The shoes were created and shipped straight to the customer at a markup up from the retail of 80 bucks for a Campus to the price, “Across all three sneakers, the average clearing price was $205, and the average number of Bids was 3308″ (StockX).
Could StockX now be the measuring stick for how many sneakers adidas creates? There is so much to unpack with this launch. Prior to the event I stated that this would have to be a very limited project. I also hinted at the fact that adidas is allowing Beyonce to be a global icon in fashion. This is something that never happened with Beyonce’s releases of Dereon and Ivy Park previously. Some things to ponder as we wrap up:
- Why isn’t adidas aligning Ivy Park and their WNBA athletes?
- Will adidas deliver Ivy Park to Foot Locker? (Remember I recently wrote that Foot Locker doesn’t even carry women’s apparel in many stores and this was a major issue for the brand?)
In-Store Visit Series: Foot Locker Was Ahead of Its Time and Should Go Retro
- Will Beyonce help adidas to recover from slowing sales?
- How long will Ivy Park hold its resale value?
- How will other brands respond to what is really just a large marketing campaign?