"Bro, what the hell are you doing?!" is the only sentence I can form when I walk into my brother's room, where he's bent over, biting his nails, with his three laptops, two phones, and an iPad all sprawled across the bed in front of him.
"New kicks are dropping in 10 seconds. Shut up!"
Most of us are aware of what Yeezys are, more specifically of how hard they are to get your hands on. When I first heard about these expensive ass shoes in high school, I scoffed at the people who bought them. Spending hundreds of dollars on a pair of sneakers? Nah, I'll pass. Now that I am the (proud) owner of four pairs of Yeezys, however, I actually understand the hype behind them.
To everyone else, the world of sneakers and hype apparel seems, to put it frankly, a waste of time. We are very oblivious, however, to the amount of patience and dedication these "hypebeasts" have. Buying and selling sneakers has shot into full-blown careers for many individuals, my brother alike.
Buying and reselling hype items started with just sneakers, or "trainers" as Europeans refer to them, but has gradually grown to include all sorts of items, even including "Off-White" rugs and Supreme furniture.
It generally goes like this. You download an official app, usually SNKRS, Supreme, or Yeezy Supply on Adidas, fill out your billing and personal information, and wait on the product drops. Users are very often not notified prior to drops, and therefore must always be ready, on edge, for any spontaneous drops. My brother often stays up for nights on end to make sure he doesn't sleep through an important drop, and for this, he has to set a plethora of reminders and alarms on his phone. Once you purchase the item, you have two options: keep it and flex on everyone you know, or make a smarter business move — resell it.
The unique thing about hypebeast items is that they are released in limited quantities, meaning that once they are sold out, the only place you can purchase them is from someone who managed to cop (attain) the product themselves. This also means that due to your desperation for the product and the limited availability, you will have to pay a higher price than the original. This price can very often climb quickly to five digits.
Many YouTubers and Instagram influencers rely on the purchasing, reselling, and marketing of these items on their platforms to make a living. We underestimate how truly unstable their careers are. Prices of shoes are constantly fluctuating, and due to the increase in the use of illegal bots on apps, it has become very difficult to get your hands on this stuff, with sneakers selling out in less than seconds.
When I first walked into my brother's revamped "hypebeast room," full of Supreme knick-knacks and a giant shoebox table, I honestly was a bit concerned for him. But the fact that he has been able to cultivate a career out of something so sporadic and unforeseen is honestly commendable.
