Naturally, the biggest sneaker conventions only go to the biggest cities: LA, New York, Miami, etc. If you or your store are based out of a smaller city/rural area, you probably consider whether you should make the effort and pay the price to travel to sneaker conventions pretty often.
And we’re here to make the cases for both sides:
Reasons not to go:
An airplane ticket across the country will run you $500+ on a typical day, which is a lot of money, no matter what way you put it. You also need to move the pairs you’re planning on selling, and move the pairs you buy back to your home city.
Driving is typically much cheaper but much more time-consuming. This means giving up some flexibility and availability to other resellers, and just in life. If there is not someone who can watch over the store while you’re gone, a convention can get tricky.
Sometimes the convention is simply just not as good as promised, and you don’t get the returns or sells that you want to.
Reasons to go:
Networking is key in sneaker resale. If you can build relationships with another reseller that you trust, your turnover, profit margins, and quantity will likely go up.
Variety is everything at a convention. Most resellers will have the usuals, but this is where the outlandish, high-dollar pairs are sometimes sold. These are the pairs you can bring back to your home city and make extreme profits from, which brings us to our last point:
Negotiation. It’s easy to say no to an Instagram DM offering to buy your shoes, but it’s not as easy to say no in person. By negotiating in-person, you can get higher bulk-deals or negotiate a much lower price of a certain pair than you could online.
While the price may be high sometimes, keep in mind that you may be making more money with the shoes you buy at the convention than you would otherwise. Additionally, business with resellers you meet at the convention will help you sell faster and more efficiently.
There is absolutely a case for both sides. To go, up-front cash is needed, and in a month like February, the resell industry can get slower. There is no wrong decision, but consider the future money to be made as well. Also, if you’re just looking for more consignment action, we may have the solution for you.
Mateo Moyon