There’s going to be a little more heat in the sneaker marketplace this holiday shopping season.
Today, eBay is launching “The Sleigh Drop,” its holiday sneaker sale delivering exclusive access to the collections of famed collectors to its shoppers. For this event, sneakerheads can pick up looks from the likes of La La Anthony, DJ Skee and Jacques Slade.
“The Sleigh Drop” will be series of drops, which begins today with some of DJ Skee’s sneakers. SoleStage will start to list hundreds of pairs from Skee, including the Off-White x Air Jordan 1 Retro High and the Nike Air Yeezy 2 NRG “Pure Platinum,” and other shoes from his collection will be released every Friday throughout November. eBay confirmed that some of Skee’s pairs throughout the month will be sold via SoleStage’s account and others will be direct from the company.
After Skee, the drops will continue through December, with Slade starting Dec. 3 and Anthony starting Dec. 17.
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The timing of the event couldn’t be more ideal, with supply chain challenges hindering the rollouts of new sneakers to the retail marketplace and demand for high-heat sneakers increasing.
“With all the supply chain challenges going on, we wanted to give customers something that was new, that was rare and that was hard to find. We’re giving people an opportunity to get stuff they just can’t get every day. We’ve noticed that people want more unique products, and a lot of stuff that will be available on ‘The Sleigh Drop’ is going to be a one of one,” eBay GM of sneakers Garry Thaniel told FN.
eBay said the resale sneaker market is valued at more than $2 billion, and its sneakers category alone has seen double-digit growth over the past several quarters. Also, the company confirmed that eBay has on average more than 1.9 million sneaker listings each day, and in the first half of 2021, it sold more than 4 million sneakers in North America alone.
What’s more, eBay offered a look into its first half of 2021 sales, and said its women’s sneaker category grew more than 80% over the past year.
“We’ve worked with Skee and Jacques Slade quite a bit, and La La makes a lot of sense because one of the things that we’re pushing with the sneaker community is inclusion, we feel like women are really underrepresented,” Thaniel said. “It’s really important for us to make sure we’re the most inclusive marketplace out there, and that’s speaks to experience as well as the product we have on our site.”
For “The Sleigh Drop,” each collector will dive deep into their collections, and will offer their own individual experience.
“I’ve been sitting on somebody’s shoes and I need to clear out room, and I also want to give others an opportunity [to own them]. I get hit up all the time like, ‘Hey, I want to get some of your shoes. How can I do that?'” DJ Skee told FN. “There was a moment where we said let’s do something to let these sneakers have a second life, and we can donate a portion to charity and do a really cool activation.”
Skee confirmed with FN that he has “a couple thousand pairs of shoes,” and would like to cut that down to about 1,000. He anticipates posting 700-plus pairs for “The Sleigh Drop,” and he wears size 11 and 12. As for the charity, Skee said a portion of the sales will go to City of Hope.
Thaniel said eBay wants the experience to be natural and authentic for each collector. With this in mind, Skee, who has worked with eBay on activations in the trading card space, will add an individually serialized card with each pair of sneakers that also serves as a certificate of authenticity.
“It’s going to be really an experience that you’re buying, you’re not just buying a pair of shoes. You’re buying something with a story and a meaning behind it that comes with this really cool COA and a story because stories is what made the sneaker culture take off,” Skee said. “It was never just about a colorway. It was about the story behind that shoe, and sometimes that can get lost, especially as the market gets so big and so oversaturated. For me, it’s important to keep those those memories and stories alive.”
eBay confirmed that other companies, which have not yet been determined, will help with Slade and Anthony’s sneaker listings, and they will also work with charities of their choice for the event.
