Sneaker Culture is DEAD... The Sad Truth 

I miss the fun I had copping sneakers in person after camping out

UA and reps are the new sneaker culture where they buy to wear. not resell. its a reaction to resellers

What I miss about sneaker culture was getting a pair for retail 😂

Tiktok and resellers killed sneaker culture, but it wont stop me from buying sneakers I want 😂

I miss 2013 sneaker culture the good old times

“I seriously congratulate anyone who’s able to make money selling shoes.” I don’t. I believe wholeheartedly that resellers who bot up 90% of the stock should be condemned and shamed as the greedy, unethical a-holes that ruined the party for all of us. …giving them a pass is part of the problem.

I love sneakers. What I miss the most is the forum discussions about kicks. These days, all the forums I’ve been have evolved - they talk about reselling and selling shoes, making money which I totally understand. I miss those days getting to know people who appreciates and discuss about sneakers

I have to agree with Tom. Going to the sneaker store and seeing nothing great is a real disappointment. It sucks that reselling has taken over the sneaker game. People who really want shoes can’t get them because of resellers. For example, I wanted the J Balvin 1’s and a lot of people online were clowning them and when release day came I could not get them because of resellers and bots and it’s just the worse.

Because nobody cares about the actual shoe. Just “what’s the resell” or “how can I cop to resell”. As a person who still likes shoes to wear and buys them every other week for personal but also got into reselling, sometimes I feel guilty and annoyed lol. I still think a combination stockx, the yeezy era, and gentrification of sneaker culture caused this lol

Good points. The culture will never die. Its taking a hit right now cause it near impossible to get shoes right now on release day and resell prices can just be ridiculous. Snkr app Ls are killing the fun

It went from chatrooms, bent-up matching hats and aftermarket laces at the mom and pop shops to, "yo bruh $30,000 escrow wire bot, hoard and show off on Insta."

And certain people in the scene ruined it just trying to make money and not wearing shoes. I’m glad, maybe now, I can get shoes to wear instead of watching a ton of sneaker videos with walls of sneakers that people don’t even wear!!! The people suck now and are shady AF. I would to pay 500 bucks for a decent pair of Jordans but not every pair that comes out. You used to be able to actually get the sneaker that you wanted, now it’s all people trying to resell. That’s why the Uni Blue 1s are so damn cheap and a ton of other Jordan’s are declining in price which I’m stoked about!!! I like wearing my shoes and the thought that they could be worth 2K in 6 months doesn’t make me want to put them on feet, though I will, as I pay retail for my shoes. Or I used to because in the last 6 months, I’ve taken every L possible. It is what it is.

The fact that UNC AJ1, AJ4 and Hyper Royal AJ1 released back to back to back are worth 1 months rent in some parts of the 5 Boros is crazy. One thing to see crooked thieving eyes while rocking Air Dior 1/Supreme Dunks, another to see those same eyes with Raging Bull AJ5.

Don’t really watch Tom’s videos, but I’m going to have to agree with him on this one. Reselling has taken over 🤷‍♂️

I come from a era where you didn't have to camp out all night to get a pair of Jordan's. Nor did you have to wake up early every Saturday to get denied a pair of shoes that you really wanted! Resellers have killed the shoe game. It will never be the same 💔

I will always remember as the realrayray aka the guy the wore every colour of champion hoodie before it was popular

Let’s not forget that not everyone lives in a big city, so online and resellers to some extent have opened up opportunity to a wider audience too. My local stores are whack and travelling in to London expensive. Sometimes easier to just pay 20-30 over retail for some people.

I don't like the sneaker culture right now, and to be honest I don't think yters that only did sneaker content will get their veiws back that's just my opinion. but that could change you never know. but I don't think anytime soon unless something big happened but idk what that would be its not good right now

Coming from a country that has less residents then an average city from the USA, even here before the pandemic we would get new releases in stores, but now with the increasing popularity of resale and backdooring we are not getting anything anymore. Not just in my country bit in the region as well. Nike doesn't even ship new releases in the region, or ships 5-6 pairs per country, because we are not a target audience. I get it its a business and there is no love in business, and this, as well as the whole health situation is the new normal that we have to get used to.

Taking my dollars to more lifestyle and running shoes now! - Tired of all the L's on Jordan 1's and as you mentioned, stores unavailability/backdooring to friends and family, so nobody else can get them and I REFUSE to pay resell -

This is true but its real sad for people like me who Got into sneaker because of Harrison nevel and all those dudes. And now see the world you just Got in fall apart because of the people who made you go in there

I've met plenty of good ppl camping out for kicks... Unfortunately those days are dead..

Foot locker will have the same fate than blockbuster

I really miss the fun of going to the store as well 😩😩😩

NGL I have resold a solid amount of shoes but sneaker reselling killed the game. My goal was to make enough in reselling to cover the costs of personal shoes I wanted and that’s exactly what happened. Also, regurgitated content on YT didn’t help either. Everyone legit copied the same content from each other and it’s just not authentic. I really don’t even watch much sneaker content on YT anymore cause it’s just so boring now.

Just discovered the hobby and the pain of living in a small country with more resellers than sneakerheads , No retail stores that take in the shoes, No sneakersapp and one online outlet Who takes in Jordan 1s, its all pain but the 1 jordan 1 pair i got love then to bits

I agree, the sneakers culture is dead thanks to all the resellers and there bots, oh well it is what it is?! guess it's time to focus our interest elsewhere, smh

Eventually all this copping-hype will drain those who don’t truthfully care about shoes. I still remember so many og colorways sitting back in 2013-2016 it’ll return that way again.

3 people killed sneaker culture, their names are Travis Scott , Virgil Abloh, and Kanye West ….

There are alot of so called sneakerheads these days that are actually Just People Who like air force 1s and air Jordan ones, and there is nothing wrong with that in itself, but its like saying you are a fan of Dortmund but only knowing Erling Haaland.

I agree ig the saying nothing good last forever is true. 😞🤦🏾‍♂️

Sneaker videos everyday gets a bit repetitive and probably why views go down. You can only talk about shoes so much. Glad you're diversifying your content 👍

I retired from sneakers in 2012. But now it’s 100x worse

Completely understand but I’m starting to resell sneakers to make money so I’ll be able to start collecting honestly there’s so many sneakers I love but just can’t get lol

Tom Nike is smart focusing on variety now, if you see how Jordan1's and Dunks been they are just crappy colorway and quality too, but if you look at Air zoom CMFT's and Jordan Mid's I think those are where they gonna put more emphasis on for next year at least I believe.

Yes it will come back once they finally get some bot protection in place but more importantly once in store pick ups come back too Party of the good content is waiting for releases and sneakers events Like tony b2wild does he still manages to go in store which makes the content better

This dude has all this money but his room looks like a college dorm room. Cmon bruh!

Yup. Now I gonna sign up on my app and cross my fingers. Resellers are wack too

It’s why people by reps because of resellers

I got a W on the Snkrs app this morning on the AJ KO Jordan 1 Chicago colorway‼️💪😃🔥💯

I agree with you Tom. Getting shoes in person always beats online

You forgot to mention that all the newbies who are wearing Jordan 1 mids because influencers and tiktokers told them they're cool are also a huge driving factor in why sneaker culture is dead.... Literally everyone owns a Jordan 1 these days, it's sad. I met a girl yesterday wearing dunk highs and she was 100% sure they were Jordans.... 🤦‍♂️ She had no idea what dunks are even though she owns them. She just bought them from some instagram reseller because they "look like those Jordans everybody wears these days".... Oh yeah plus she has absolutely no idea who Michael Jordan is... But none of them do, it's just a cool shoe to wear like all the tiktokers. 🙃 These people are buying sneakerheads shoes because they're being told they're cool on Instagram. Sneakers that used to belong to sneakerheads are now just another fad that's in fashion. Our culture's identity has been stolen and diluted.

Is not dead is keepnaped ....till we stop paying resale

My interest in sneakers hasn’t dropped. But I do watch less sneaker RU-vid videos because they have just become so incredibly stale and lifeless. Partly because you can tell the creators themselves haven’t really got the passion for it anymore. I now mainly watch creators who have amazing knowledge like nightwing on weartesters for example.

I miss getting Shoes 👟 it’s Hard to get anything now

I camped out in the freezing cold for the gold pack now all the shoe stores are doing raffles

Sneaker re sellers went to sportscards

People are turned off by the whole sneaker reselling market . Its trash !

i hope it recovers cause the culture sucks right now. people got shoes on there feet they ain't even know the history or name of. especially talking about jordans. someone not to knoe what mike did in those shoes is a shame tbh. won't stop me tho I'm all about the collection

Love the topic this goes for anything my man. I’m in the hobby of cards and have been since I was a kid but now I can’t do that because of resellers. Resellers are killing every market

I don't think it's less interest. I just think more people know what they are doing now

I remember therealrayray weekly sneaker rotation days..

I miss camping out for Jordan's because you meant good cool sneaker heads & people that where in to the same things as you..the only thing that sucked is when it was a winter release & you where standing in the cold all night but it was still pretty cool in my opinion...😂

Great video! Sad reality we love in more

It's getting alot harder to get sneakers these days. I won't pay resale from a guy that artificially inflate the prices to the moon. That's why I'm buying replicas

I actually down size from 86 pairs to 10 pairs,

I wish I had a way of getting multiple pair for retail I swear I’ll give them away for free. When I bought my hyper royals for $550 I was extremely happy to have them but wish I could’ve got them for my girl and my older brother. So I know I’ll put smiles on people face just getting the shoe. And honestly the shoe isn’t worth it. It’s worth retail

This is the best video you have made for a very long time and yes you are correct SETH FOWLER unhype is the way forward! Two weeks ago sold my last pair jordan's, having over 60 pairs in my collection. The last pair of jordan's i purchased was in 2016 due to seeing a shift in the culture and noticing, babies, kids, teenagers, adults, middle age people and my friends grandmother was wearing Jordan's, to me this is not cool at all! Sneaker Culture is truly alive because it's based on unique fashion and not hype! You are not iconic if you are your friends are all wearing the same Jordan's or you have only Jordan's in your collection, you are just a sheep! Wearing any Jordan's at this point just tells people you are behind on the culture

Long story short just buy UA... the sneaker game is now the resell game and it's not fun

Wow I’ve been wanting to say this but couldn’t put it and you simplified it. The sneaker culture is DEAD.

you are welcome thank you dude

Thanks Tom....sneaker business needs new fresh ideas. Sports the Olympics this year and new companies. It's one thing to own a nostalgic sneaker lines like Nike and Converse, it's another to own a pair of sneakers by new creator's. New styles and names in the world of sneakers.....look for that....maybe you should create something. All that experience gives you great advantages....China again has a huge market....we saw the effects of a monopoly being bulldozed by covid. Stay small and have a nitch. Sneakers need to be specialized. Each customer has a price in mind. It's a culture with an insatiable apatite for fun.

Buy the jordan 1 KOs. True 👟 head sneaker

What was the name of that jordan 1 mid sitting on the shelf separated from the other jordan 1 high ?

"Crappy jordan 1 mids" they might be crappy to you bruh but they might be fire to someone else. The beauty of sneaker culture, everyone can have different likes

make contact the peoples you need to connected.thats is all my guy Tom

IF SNEAKER CULTURE IS DEAD , THEN I WOULD BE ABLE TO SECURE A PAIR ON EACH RELEASE AND THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED YET 🤔😂

What's your other business bro?

Bobble head is on point today.

There's just no drops that I've wanted in long long time.

Tom you put out the best content on RU-vid

Tom if its dead move your chnnal to something new and do sneakers on the side

Sucks that reps are becoming to new thing, sad

Stop complaining about people making money u resell shoes also

People are still interested in sneaker related content, they just don't watch your videos lol. Instagram/TikTok are more relevant in the sneaker space, and to be honest, the quality of your videos (specifically your sneaker knowledge) has diminished relative to others. One could argue that some good parts of the culture are slowly dying, but don't cite people losing interest in boring content as a reason to explain some phenomenon that doesn't exist. Also, resale prices and overall sales are at an all time high, which is bad for the culture but shows consumer interest. "Sneaker culture dying" does not equate to "people not being interested in sneakers," when the reason sneaker culture is dying is BECAUSE too many people are interested (high demand) compared to supply.

correctly my son Thomas

Sounds like you need to go to the dark side, rep sneakers FTW.

2:07 is the global virus Tiktok?

I say +70% of jordans releasing now would have sat before. Shits exhausting now time to let it go

Why don’t you do a “live”

Just got the Adidas Terry Fox Orion’s. they are 🔥 🔥 check them out!!

sneaker youtube allowed for regular people to turn enjoyment into views....seems as if your basing all of this on views rather then actual sneakers...i may be wrong...but you vs when you were in canada seems like a different person after some of your stuff got stolen...i know it sucks but your business model was to buy sneakers at resell and use that as marketing for your youtube and then using that to also market your t shirts...im sure you love sneakers but this seems just as bad as reselling...truly love your channel and you can do as you please...but you and i are part of the problem me as a reseller and you buying it to not put on your feet (unless its AJ1s lol) hope this doesnt go the wrong way and im still waiting on that Canadian sneaker store across from your former office or ur current one...idk lol

Not dead, but it’s getting there

deadend body

London sub

You want new content? Do it on cryptocurrency!!!!!

fun.is.fun thats is cool.dope.interesting ridiculous

no it didn't die, just got GENTRIFIED simple as that, also knows as GLOBALIZATION sorry if you sneakercookies doesn't feel special anymore for wearing SHOES

have a good one peace out bye

Why Am I First?

Nah stop i dont wanna watch this video

First

I remember the days when Jordan’s would sit on the shelf for weeks ain’t like that anymore the shoe game is terrible for the person who wants the shoes for there self

It really not dead, it's because of the Pandemic maybe in the future it'll all be coming back slowly. IMO.

It’s not fun when you can’t get any pair you want ever and that will eventually deter a lot of people including myself

Selling off my once big sneaker collection slowly and surely. Was great when I was in highschool but never wore any of the pairs. Turning 20 next year and need to start focusing on bigger things

Reselling reached its peak, and that had to tank after a while. It just became obnoxious to an extent that you don't even care about it anymore. The resale culture is outright stupid.

This video hits hard. Its been a year since ive hit on a shoe. Resellers piss me off when they get on facebook and say i only got these to make money

The sneaker culture will make a come back. It is clear that the culture has hit a slight decline, because of the current status of sneakers in general. But once the majority of society starts going back to some sort of normalcy, especially here in the US. Then we'll start seeing an increased interest in sneakers again.

I gave up dude. Been collecting since ‘00-‘01 and of course much has changed. I remember walking into a footlocker in NY and picking up a pair of Bred 11’s for $125. No line up, no fighting, just a normal day. In fact, I changed my mind at the counter and told the cashier, you know what give me a second pair. No problem whatsoever. I wore one pair into the ground (still have them) and gave the other to my friend for retail. As I get older, no time to join every raffle, try for every SNKRS drop, or pay ridiculous resell. Every sneaker that remotely grabs me, I can pretty much assume I’m not getting it. Not fun anymore. Call me a quitter, but I just accept it as a part of getting older. Can’t have everything you that you want in life.