We visit StockX’s 15,000 square feet facility in Detroit to peek into their authentication process and sit down with Co-founder Joshua Luber to chat about the sneaker empire.
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We are a consumer goods marketplace we Are an evolution of eBay all we do is Connect buyers and sellers who want to Buy something we’ve become the largest Marketplace in the world for sneakers And street wear but the reason why is Because how we connect buyers and Sellers is the exact same way that the World stock markets connect buyers and Sellers and there’s a whole lot to that But at the core you turn the concept of True market price so in stock X and the Same way you buy a share of stock you’re Getting the true market price for that Product or that asset and that’s what Stock X is this is the stock X Authentication Center which is actually Within the Quicken Loans data center This is either our fifth or sixth Different authentication Center here in Detroit the first was one guy at a desk Sitting next to me outside of Dan’s Office right well we’re finally at a Place where we have 15,000 square-foot Facility for the authentication process To happen and we do sneaker street wear And handbags here and everything that Comes in the morning processes out that Day so what kind of qualifications do You have to have to work here there’s Many jobs here The authenticators are sort of the most Notable for any authentication position I mean we could theoretically teach
Anybody to do it but you know usually It’s someone that has to really love That product because you know an Authenticator can see a couple hundred Pairs of shoes a day you know and so you Know a lot of times we find people that Come out of retail maybe they worked at Foot Locker or you know or maybe they Were reselling on their own it’s usually People that love sneakers so when I give This I take it from the rack the first Thing that I want to do is look at the Label and I want to inspect the box for 360 or the box to make sure that it Isn’t messed up it doesn’t have any rips Or holes in it once I’ve done that take The lid off I have an invoice in here That gives me most of all the Information that I need on here from There I will scan it on our little Scanner pop up on our screen what I need And from there I will take both shoes Out if you want to set them up left and Right because you want to make sure that You have a left and a right shoe not to Rights not to left so once I set them Side-by-side I do my 360 inspection Once I’ve done my 360 inspection I want To go into my right shoe and do a more Detailed looking to it there’s a bunch Of different things you can look for you Look for stitching you can look for to Make sure that the size of the Nike sign Is right it just varies for different
Shoe so it just depends on the shoe plus I’ve checked that I give it a quick whip The reason I give it a whiff is because Somebody shows are a lot older and they Have them in people home so you just Want to make sure that it’s not feeling Like people home but they’re a smoker They have pets or anything like that you Want to make sure that it smells like it Would be from the factory once Everything is correct My grandma authentication tech and I Always want to make sure that I tag the Left shoe once I tag this shoe I want to Place it back in the box factory wrap it Back up like it should be and they’re Not pass’ it’s in my processor what do You do with so we get a fix you um Typically some customers don’t know that Their shoes are fake so what we do is we Just send it back to the customer and Let them know their shoes are aren’t any What’s next for stock eggs yeah so the Business grows in three ways we can Continue to sell the same thing to more People but also to go to that next Customer into that retail customer so Today stock X is certainly very well Known within the sneakerheads community And this way traditional resale market But it’s about going to that retail Customer get that person they’ve bought Their last pair of shoes on on Footlocker or Nike comm that never would
Have tried to buy a pair of Jordans on On eBay three or four years ago so one It’s that it’s sell the same product to More people to is other product Categories we’re starting to do this Already and what’s happened organically Though is you get a lot of these Subcategories that then are basically Worthy of their own category to get Broken out collectibles is the fifth Category and then we’ll see what those Subcategories look like as we get into Things like you know additions where you Have some of these artists that they’re Not creating toys but they are creating Something that has you know there’s only 500 of them Daniel Arum is an artist That has products that sell somewhere to Cause where they will sell out Immediately and then resell and then Maybe you’re in traditional toys as well Like Star Wars and he-man and GI Joe and That sort of thing so you run a sneaker Empire you still like sneakers yeah Sometimes I sometimes I think that I’m Sick of it yeah and then I end up down Like walking through the authentication Center looking at every pair of shoes And then a back be back on stock And by five more pairs I buy more Sneakers today now that I’d ever did
