Students Snag Exclusive Sneakers on Nike SNKRS App

Twenty minutes before a sneaker release, one UA student is setting up his computer to check his Discord, email and proxies, while making sure his bot is ready to go before release. Five minutes before the drop, he starts his tasks and starts solving captchas – a tool used to differentiate between real users and automated users – waiting to see if he gets an email notification signaling that he has checked out a pair of shoes. 

Releasing exclusive kicks each week, the Nike SNKRS app has become known for its competitiveness in its drops of shoes among sneaker fans and sellers. While some students use the app to buy shoes for themselves, others use it as a way to buy a pair to resell for profit. 

With increasing hype surrounding multiple product releases throughout the year, Nike continues to be the number one selling sneaker brand with revenues of over $21.42 billion in 2018, according to Forbes. 

Pearce Hungate, a senior, buys shoes the second they are released, often during class and with the intention to resell, he said. 

“At 9:00 AM exactly you gotta refresh the page and then you can start punching in your information,” Hungate said. “So when you do that, you have to punch in your card information  and everything, and I’ve got down to about 5 or 6 seconds.”

Hungate has attempted to buy 15 to 20 pairs of sneakers during his two years on the app, and of those attempts he secured a total of two pairs, he said.

“Of the two that I actually got, one wasn’t even one of the more hyped drops, like it didn’t even sell out after, “ Hungate said. “I did get one that sold out immediately afterward, I felt pretty cool about that.”

Sneaker bots – an automated software designed to buy and autocomplete the check out process – has made the already nearly impossible process, even harder, said Quincy Nauert, a junior. 

“The app is already so hard to use and the culture is pretty cut throat in terms of like the more bots you have or the better bots you have, the better chances you have of getting the shoes,” Nauert said. “But for just like regular people, it’s just nearly impossible to be able to get pretty much any shoe that you want.”

Hojun Chang, a sophomore, said while he does not use a bot on the Nike SNKRS app, he has used them on websites like Footlocker, Finish Line, Champs and eBay. 

“It’s difficult to bot SNKRS because you need verified accounts, so you need verified phone numbers to create an account,” Chang said. “So that’s why I don’t do it on SNKRS, because you need a bot and you need to buy an account.”  

Getting ready for the drop the night before, he gets his bots up by creating tasks – what bots do to check out a shoe, Chang said. Lately, he has been setting up 500 of them to try to buy different sizes of shoes. Although 500 is on the small side, he has done 1000 before. 

Chang said he rarely buys shoes for himself, usually going for the internet’s most hyped up pairs with plans to resell them. He is also connected with a Discord group, an online group-chatting platform, where members alert each other with release details.

“I just look through what’s releasing and then if they look nice I’ll look up what they’re reselling at, or I’ll just look into my group to see what they’re telling me to buy,” Chang said. “I’ve been using it for almost a year and I’ve probably got less than ten pairs.” 

Nauert also uses the app with the intention to buy and resell, typically going after the shoes with the largest profit margin. However, he sometimes buys shoes simply because he likes them, he said. 

“An average of like all the shoes that I resold, I would say that like it’s normally about a $200 profit,” Nauert said. “Sometimes it’s really low, only making like $50-$100 and then I’ve had shoes that have made like $500 or $600 profit.”

While his Nike SNKRS app usage has significantly declined since downloading, Hungate said he will continue to use the app despite its troubles when trying to get a limited pair of sneakers.

“I still use it pretty often, less now because I’m running out of space and also realizing here’s how much money are you spending on shoes,” Hungate said. “It’s definitely a hobby of mine and something I’m going to keep using this fight despite the setback.”