In five years, the number of sellers on StockX have increased to 900,000, and the secondary market platform has grown its authentication centers to 10 from the one it had in 2016. Also, the “stock market of things” went from four authenticators to the 300 it has today. So it’s a safe assumption that they’ve seen their fair share of fake sneakers.
StockX released its “Sneakers: Then and Now” report today, highlighting the trends and changes that have surfaced since its debut in 2016. In the report, the company revealed the shoes with the most attempted fakes five years ago and in 2020, which are arguably the most popular shoes from each year.
In 2016, StockX said the most attempted fake shoes were the Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 “Beluga,” the 2016 release of the Air Jordan 1 Retro “Banned” and the 2016 version of the Air Jordan 11 Retro “Space Jam.”
Last year, the most attempted fakes spotted by StockX were the Off-White x Air Jordan 1 Retro High “Chicago,” the Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 Retro High and the women’s-exclusive Off-White x Air Jordan 4 Retro “Sail.”
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Jesse Einhorn, StockX senior economist, said having a women’s-exclusive sneaker on the list is representative of an important growing trend the platform has experienced.
“The fact that a women’s exclusive sneaker, the Off-White Jordan 4 ‘Sail,’ ranked among the top three most attempted fakes last year speaks to the growing popularity of women’s sneakers on our platform,” explained Einhorn. “As we note in the report, women’s sneaker sales have grown 1,500 times since 2016, and we now sell more women’s sneakers every four hours than in all of 2016 combined.”
What’s more, Einhorn detailed how the types of sneakers StockX has seen the most attempted fakes of has changed in five years.
“In addition to seeing far fewer fakes come through our authentication centers, one of the biggest changes we’ve seen over the last five years is the type of counterfeit sneakers that people are trying to pass,” Einhorn said. “In 2016, the top three most attempted fakes were relatively accessible Jordans and Yeezys: the Yeezy 350 Beluga, Jordan 1 ‘Banned’ and Jordan 11 Space Jam. These sneakers were extremely popular, and were all among the top five best-sellers on the platform that year.”
He continued, “What we see today stands in stark contrast to that. The top three most attempted fakes in 2020 were distinguished by their extremely high resale values. The three most attempted fakes in 2020 — the Off-White Jordan 1 ‘Chicago,’ Off-White Jordan 4 ‘Sail’ and Travis Scott Jordan 1 High — all fetch resale prices in the thousands of dollars, with the Off-White Jordan 1 going for as much as $5,000.”
