Sneaker Kids Bring Their Game to the Secondary Market...
Hey!
My man in DC, Mike Sykes, has a good newsletter on sneakers and sneaker culture.
He sent out his newsletter this morning and it got me thinking about tickets because one thing I hear from the folks in the secondary market is complaints about the way that the “sneaker kids” have busted into the secondary market and “ruined” a lot of markets.
Here’s Mike’s newsletter:
To me, the most explicit example of the challenge of the “sneaker kids” hitting a tour and showing that there is no there there…is the Travis Scott tour where you could buy great seats for $20 or less for almost every date.
Complex looked at the sneaker resale business from a reseller standpoint. It is still worth reading even if it is a few years older…
Things have only gotten more complex.
I’m also into these two pieces:
I share these different pieces even as they are a little older, because they are reflective of the trends we are seeing in tickets.
It isn’t just resellers and the secondary market, the challenges of this kind of fake demand bleed over into every part of the business.
Some examples besides Travis Scott?
I paid $90 for this ticket about an hour before the show in Baltimore:
Why does this matter?
There are brand implications.
A double whammy, even.
Your brand perception is that your tickets are priced outrageously. So, people don’t even try and make the purchase.
People might see your tickets listed on the secondary market at prices well below the initial face value, destroying brand equity.The negative impacts of dynamic pricing.
I get it, you can use dynamic pricing.
You should also know that there are pluses and minuses:
Pluses: respond to demand and max revenue.
Minuses: customers don’t like it and you can train people to act in a way that may not benefit you ultimately like waiting which happens more and more frequently now because customers have been trained to wait for ticket prices to drop at the last minute.Your strategy and plans can be thrown to the wind if you aren’t careful.
How do you judge demand?
How do you communicate your offering?
What do you do when the BOTs and “sneaker kids” have blown up your building or the demand for shows?
Why am I sharing this?
You have to pay attention to the world around you.
Look at what people are cutting back on due to the expense of things…
Tell me:
Do you have a BOT issue with your venue?
How are you managing demand issues when the secondary market shows tons of tickets at low, low prices?
What’s your favorite pair of sneakers right now?
Mine, I got a pair of “Fear” Jordan 3s for Christmas. I love them because that was the first pair of Jordans I ever had as a kid.
Come say, “What’s Up?” in the Slack Channel.
I’m dropping a new podcast with Al Crawley this week, but check out the podcast stream. Dr. Bijoy John’s episode on sleep was a hit!
Do me one favor, share this newsletter with someone that has been talking about the impact of BOTS or the secondary market. Maybe they never even considered the connection between sneakers and tickets.