So I’m sure everyone here is far more versed than I. Occasionally I find a pair of shoes I like maybe try to hunt a pair down I missed release on whatever.
But I’ve never really gone the distance to wait for a pair. Cue April x SB dunks. I’ll take whatever hate these bring me. Look cool, gonna buy a pair for me and my nephew.
Now these are being released in select skate shops, cool, so I contacted the two nearest to me. They both said, on day of release they will be a raffle inferring they will not be selling to regular customers only raffle winners??
Like I’m willing to wait in line for something and possibly not have a chance to get them that’s the name of the game… But only a raffle to gain access when they already reduced the number of stores? Is this regular for release or something fishy going on with this retailer trying to just increase business for a big release?
There are a lot of factors that come into play with sneakers and sneaker releases. A lot of popular silhouettes will automatically have challenges of obtaining just because they are that model (good examples are Jordan 4s). Now add in factors like colorways, special materials, and/or OG-ness (not sure if that’s a word, but I’m going with it).
Add another layer for Collabs which then adds the fact of limited stock numbers. For example, the recent Nike Dunk SB X Tightbooth collab had a stock number of roughly 50,000 pairs being released, also keep in mind that is 50,000 TOTAL, so different sizes will have another limited number attached to it, for example, Men’s size 10 had roughly 4000 pairs available and Men’s size 11.5 only had 1500 pairs.
Next, you’ll need to consider the number of people who are going for that pair as well as factoring in folks who backdoor pairs, resellers, and those with AI BOTS who do mass purchasing. All these factors will build scarcity and will decrease the chances of an average shopper purchasing said pair.
So to help combat some of these factors, shops and Nike themselves are doing drawings/raffle-style releases as a way for someone to fairly get a pair. Some shops may do first come first serve, sign up a week before release raffles, sign up the day of release for future notifications of a win, or some may just have you wait in line for a raffle ticket and hope you get one. So long as the release method is fair, skate shops/ clothing boutiques won’t be in violation of their Nike contract, and that is the most important aspect for them.
So to sum it up, yes, it’s normal release practice for Collabs and really hype shoes to have these various types of release methods.