With popular sneakers selling out in seconds, many people rely on resellers to get their kicks. But buyers beware: one TikToker says that the shoes his father got from a sneaker reselling website turned out to be fake.
TikToker Adrian (@.adrian._) says his father bought a pair of Yeezy Wave Runners from StockX, a well-known sneaker reselling platform. They brought the shoes to the mall, where employees at multiple sneaker stores said the shoes were fake. Adrian’s first video about the situation has reached over 6 million views since Dec. 3.
The shoes Adrian’s father has retail for $300. On StockX, the average sale price was $453 over the last year. Replicas can cost anywhere between $60 and nearly $200, depending on quality.
StockX reached out to Adrian in the comments. In a follow-up video, Adrian showed screenshots of his TikTok DMs to the StockX team, in which he clarifies the shoes were bought by his mother as a present for his dad. In another follow-up, he told a StockX representative to contact his father and the representative offered to either re-authenticate or refund the shoes. It’s unclear if they ever resolved the issue.
According to their website, StockX has “expert authenticators” that check every item before shipping them out. The company claims their authentication process has a 99.95% success rate.
“We’ve gone out and we’ve acquired fake pairs, we’ve acquired real pairs, we’ve ripped them apart,” StockX co-founder Josh Luber previously told Complex. “We’ve documented every variant, we’ve created training materials, we have created training classes, there’s mentorship and hierarchy and all sorts of rules depending on how valuable a sneaker is.”
Sometimes, it’s hard to tell the difference between a replica and an authentic pair with factory defects. Earlier this year, one TikToker claimed StockX sold her a fake pair of Nike Dunks. But most commenters said they were probably real, and her complaints were likely a matter of quality control issues from Nike.
Still, many of the commenters on Adrian’s video agreed that StockX is unreliable.
“I never trusted them because I sold fakes on there,” one commenter said.
“Most of StockX is rep,” another commenter said. “I thought this was common knowledge.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Adrian via TikTok comment and StockX via email.
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