Nike sells shoes.  Lots of them.

But I had no idea about the 10’s of thousands of rabid “sneakerhead” collectors who comprise an aftermarket conservatively worth $1.2 billion per year in the US alone!

A market artificially created by Nike by limiting supply.  One that’s made them billions in profits.

This TED talk by Josh Luber details how Nike created a marketing method the likes of which has never been seen before.   And why the Air Jordan 3 Black Cement released in 1988 might be the most important sneaker in history.

Keep any eye out for a fascinating application of the 80/20 rule where Nike accounts for 96 percent of all shoes sold on the secondary market.  (96% is 20% of the top 20% in the 80/20).

And those “resellers” made almost twice the profit of their closest competitor, Adidas!




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