Dive Brief:
- On Running, Asics and Salomon are among this year’s fastest-growing brands on the secondary market, according to a trend report released in August from sneaker reseller StockX.
- Sneaker collaborations, such as the recent On partnership with Kith and Loewe and the Salomon collection from Sandy Liang, helped spark sales increases, according to the report. Asics, for example, saw more trades in July 2023 than any other month in StockX history and has partnered with JJJJound and Brain Dead, among others.
- The 2023 report compares global trade data from January through July 2023 to the same period in 2022 across its sneaker, footwear, apparel, accessory and collectible categories. The report suggests that brands which perform well at resale could be bellwethers for the Q4 holiday retail season.
Dive Insight:
StockX, which launched in 2016 as an online trading marketplace, releases top 25 rankings that track what it sees as the fastest-growing brands. It began releasing trend reports in 2020.
Sales growth on StockX is measured by the number of trades a brand completes. In the case of performance athletics brands such as Asics, Salomon and On, growth of 72%, 202%, and 15,000%, respectively, was an indicator that running shoes have made their way into mainstream sneaker culture, per the report.
“On did not have zero trades a year ago, but it is a newer brand to our platform, so the product offering was more limited in 2022,” Drew Haines, StockX’s merchandising director for sneakers and collectibles, said in an email to Fashion Dive. “As stated in our report, we only included sneaker brands that had at least 5,000 trades in 2023, and we’ve seen well over 5,000 trades of On sneakers in 2023.”
The StockX report can serve as an unofficial indicator of trends, possibly predicting future sales at the traditional retail level, according to company executives.
Success on the secondary market can be a barometer for consumer demand, Scott Cutler, StockX’s chief executive officer, said in the release. “This report proves that despite a more difficult retail environment, brands are still breaking through and demonstrating growth,” Cutler said. “We expect the brands on this list to perform well in the coming months and through the Q4 holiday season."
In order, the top five sneaker brands on the list were On Running; MSCHF, which is best-known for its Big Red Boot and now its Big Yellow Boot collab with Crocs; Salomon; Asics; and Off-White, which saw a significant increase in resale on the StockX platform following the death of brand founder Virgil Abloh in 2021.
In sixth place was New Balance, which held the sole distinction of being listed as both one of the top-10 fastest growing brands and top-10 best selling sneaker brands. Ugg and Birkenstock also made the list with growth rates of 836% and 492%, respectively. Both Birkenstock and Crocs, also on the list, had collaboration releases that helped drive sales.
While the report from StockX does provide insight into how a particular brand resonates with customers, it can provide a limited snapshot of the overall market.
“Resale is really not a precise indicator of brand health, although the brands mentioned are doing very well,” Matt Powell, advisor at Spurwink River, said in an email to Fashion Dive. “Success in resale is based on scarcity. The rarer a shoe, the higher the demand.”
According to data from StockX, the average selling price on the secondary market for a sneaker in 2020 was $390. The most expensive pair ever sold was the Nike Mag Back to the Future. With only 89 pairs in existence, the average pair sold for $41,429.
A privately held company, StockX had a valuation of $3.8 billion in 2021 and was the recipient of $690 million in funding over 10 rounds.
