I always do the Should You Buy To Flip, posts. This morning I realized something interesting about a shoe that initially had a very bad online response. The Air Jordan 31 Banned was released at the same time as the Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG Banned. The complaints were the standard, “Jordan Brand is horrible! Jordan Brand is dead! Jordan Brand can’t get it right.” In all of these complaints, my initial thoughts on the shoe was this was not a very strong business decision by the Jumpman. I failed to look at certain things in regard to the sneaker business. Those things didn’t stop me from moving into the resale market with the XXX1. I actually added a full size run to my online shop, but only after I visited a couple of local stores here in the sneaker capital of Memphis and realized that the stores carrying the shoes at the retail price of 185.00 were actually selling through them well enough to get a restock. While the XXX1 is not killing the resale game like the 1, the numbers are a bit surprising:
- First check: The sneaker does not show up on Flight Club, which in this instance isn’t a bad thing. This means that a lot of people are buying them to wear and they are also sleeping on the shoes.
- Second Check: The average price of recent sales on eBay average out at 250.00 per pair. Even after fees you can net something on the shoes, but if you have a Footlocker discount of any kind, coupon or e-mail, you can save 20 dollars and add that into the profit.
- Wearability and Marketing: The last few Jordans were narrow fits. This Jordan actually utilized the one build that a lot of sneaker designers fail to understand about shoes. It’s also one of the things that make a shoe a lot more wearable for more than on the court use… The TOEBOX. The Jordan 31 has a wide toebox. This allows the toes to SPLAY. What is splaying? It is the natural process of the toe being able to function as it should, which prevents knee pain and allows for a better walking and running shoe. The toe box on the 31 is by far the best design that Jordan has created in about 10 years in my opinion. The Marketing has also been excellent. Jordan Brands subtle diss of KD defecting to the Warriors is just enough to make Westbrook an underdog and everyone knows MJ loves an underdog.
Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by the resale value of the 31 and I only seeing it getting better with the next release of the Fine Print 31.
