Tracking down a ‘ sole’ searcher
His sole- searching goes beyond tracking down the right size
Dominick Ruiz sat at the kitchen table in his parents’ home and held up the Kanye West Adidas 750 Boost — size 8 — as if they were crown jewels.
He bought them from a friend for $ 2,000. He thinks he could resell them for twice that, or more. But, they’re comfortable, so he’s keeping them for himself. “I’m lucky to have this shoe,” Ruiz said. Ruiz, 16, is an up- and- coming star in the sneaker resale market, an estimated $ 1.2 billion- a- year industry in the U. S., where sneakerheads buy and sell rare shoes through social media and at trade shows like baseball cards.
He is on his cellphone at all hours. He drives hard bargains. He is desperate for respect in an industry where his peers can flash sharp elbows and attitude.
And sometimes it can go horribly wrong. His mentor and best friend, Jamal Gaines, was killed in a robbery last February at a sneaker store. Gaines was 21.
Ruiz was shattered. But he pressed on, drawn to the connections he has made, energized by the challenge — and the money — by tracking down the right shoe in the right size.
“He’s trustworthy,” said Joseph Diorio, 37, the owner of Solexchange. “He has a very good reputation. If he says he’s going to get you a shoe, he’s going to get you a shoe. If you don’t have trust in the community, you don’t get anywhere.”
FROM STATEMENT TO BIG BUSINESS
When he was 12, Ruiz went to a sneaker store and bought a pair of Nike Air Jordan Doernbecher 4’ s for about $ 200, us- ing money he made from chores. A couple of years later an attendee at a sneaker show offered him $ 800 for them. It was a tidy return — 300%. He kept going to shows, making connections with savvy traders like Diorio and Gaines.
He worked at a store, taking photos for its Instagram account, which has 100,000 followers. Gaines suggested Ruiz include a picture of himself — and his own Instagram address — in one of the posts, and he took off. Ruiz now has 24,200 followers who can see his latest products: Nike Air Jordan Shadow 1 for $ 300; Nike Air Jordan Royal 1 for $ 500; and photos of himself sporting his favorites.
“I didn’t think it would become this big sneaker world where people are paying $ 5,000 for a sneaker. I never would have thought that would have been me. But now I go to sneaker events and spend that,” Ruiz said.
It has become a big sneaker world. A pair of Air Jordan Doernbecher 4 is listed on eBay for $ 1,750. A pair of Nike Air Yeezy 2 is listed on The Solexchange for $ 6,000. In all, about 9 million pairs of sneakers are resold each year nationwide, Josh Luber, who is developing analytics to track the industry, said in a Ted Talk he gave last October in San Francisco.
It’s an unregulated market that essentially was created by Nike by controlling the supply of shoes that it makes, he said. And it releases them into a market of fans called sneakerheads who have a passion that isn’t unlike baseball cards or rare coins or vintage automobiles.
“But once a pair leaves the retail channel, it’s the Wild West,” Luber said in the talk.
ANY SHOE YOU’D WANT
His parents are wary, but supportive. They don’t let him attend sneaker shows alone anymore.
“Do I worry? Of course I worry,” Elaine Ruiz, 50, said. “It’s a lot for a kid to handle.”
“He’s a really good judge of character, and he is wise beyond his years and he communicates both with his dad and myself,” she said. “The communication and the bond that we have has helped him.”
When the school year begins, Ruiz will be back in class and trading sneakers in a juggling act that he acknowledges isn’t ideal. He knows he needs to improve his grades and land a good SAT score if he wants to reach his goal and go to college. But for now, life is pretty good for a teenager who can get any shoe you want.
“I bought this shoe off of a good friend for, like, $ 350,” he said, holding a Nike Supreme Air Force 1 Hi.
“I could get, like, $ 500 for it, but I think I’m going to keep it because it’s a size 8, and it’s hard to come by in my size.”