Randy* still remembers buying his first pair of real sneakers, the Air Jordan 13 Flint. Ever since then, he's been a sneakerhead.
Being a collector while growing up in south Florida wasn't easy. Randy couldn't easily get to a bigger city to buy sneakers in-store, so he was stuck buying online. But he was too slow, and he always lost out. Eventually he started using browser extensions that would put sneakers in his online cart the second they went on sale.
Then he hit the goldmine: bots.
"It's like putting a Lambo next to a Toyota Corolla," Randy said, comparing bots and extensions. "A bot was quicker. It would do everything, add to cart and check out. You could set up information and put your credit card info in."
Eventually Randy quit his day job at the batting cage for a more lucrative career of reselling sneakers.
Take the much-desired Adidas (XETRA:ADS-DE) Yeezy Boost 350 V2, Kanye West's sneaker. If you were lucky enough to grab a pair of the Zebra colorway at retail, you'd pay $220 plus tax. At sneaker consignment store Flight Club, it's between $1,250 to $2,500 a pair. Ebay (EBAY) has a pair for $1,750. And at on sneaker stock market site StockX, the 52 week high was $3,072 a pair.
"I do feel bad, but I don't mind reselling," Randy explained. "It sucks because as a collector, you want to have the shoe and not pay overprice for it. But, at the same time, it's a hustle. People are out here flipping shoes. That is literally their job."
"People are doing a lot worse things out here," he added. "I'd rather sell shoes than sell drugs."
Hacking the sneaker wars
In-store limited edition sneaker releases usually go to bigger cities like New York or Atlanta, where sneaker culture is more prevalent. If you're willing to spend four days in waiting in line, maybe you'll be lucky, but even then you''re not guaranteed to get a pair in your size.
If you don't want the hassle, you can buy a pair online from a third-party seller. But unless you're willing to pay top dollar to someone reputable, there's a good chance of getting stuck with a counterfeit pair. Remember those Flint 13s Randy bought? He sold them to buy Air Jordan Cool Grey 11s (NKE). When he received them, he found out they were fake.
Or, you can buy a bot.
AIY Expert Solutions is a company with employees in Australia, Lebanon and Nigeria that sells sneaker bots like AIO Bot and Another Nike Bot for about $325. More than 40 employees run the bots, providing tutorials, customer support and up-to-date software engineering.
Some people claim bots are unfair because they allow technology to beat out humans for products. But people just want an honest shot at getting limited edition sneakers, AIY Expert Solutions vice president Alex* explained. If everyone has their own bot, it levels the playing field. He notes that even in-store sales are often unfair because retail workers can "hide" shoes for friends or for a side profit.
"It was never easy," Alex explained. "The Big Yeezy [Kanye West] promised everyone we would have some. It's been four years! Might as well have gone for the lotto."
AIY Expert Solutions has sold tens of thousands of bots to date, according to Alex. On average, each bot has only purchased about 2.5 pairs of Yeezys. Some people do buy 50 bots then and buy 300 to 400 pairs at a time, but those few-and-far-between professionals are "edge-case users" who do not represent the majority. Most bot owners just want a couple rare pairs.
"That's not something that's going to kill the community like one person buying 3,000 pairs will," he said. "I get resellers, but I think everyone should have a fighting chance against resellers."