Sneakers are big business these days. The global sneaker resale market alone is projected to reach $30 billion by 2030, representing a huge jump from the $2 billion it was valued at in 2019. There‘s serious money to be made flipping the latest drops – if you can get your hands on them!
To really understand modern sneaker culture, you first need to understand the lingo. Sneakerheads have their own language full of slang, nicknames, acronyms and abbreviations – it can be pretty overwhelming if you‘re new to the game! But if you want to buy, sell and trade sneakers in 2024, you‘ll need to learn how to talk the talk.
Don‘t worry though – we‘ve put together the definitive sneakerhead slang dictionary for this year and beyond. And since I‘m an expert on using bots/proxies to "cook" hyped releases, I‘ll also share some inside knowledge on the technical side of the sneaker hustle. Let‘s get into it!
The Basic Slang
First off, let‘s cover the basic slang every sneakerhead needs to know:
- Colorway: The color scheme of a shoe. "What colorway is that?"
- Silhouette: The model or shape of a shoe. "The AJ1 is my favorite Jordan silhouette."
- OG: Stands for ‘Original‘ – the first release of a shoe. "The 1985 Jordan 1s are the OGs."
- Retro: When a brand brings back an old shoe in a new release. "The Cool Grey 11s retro on 12/11 this year."
- GR: General Release, a shoe anyone can buy, not limited. "The all white Air Forces are a GR."
- PE: Player Exclusive, special colorways made just for pro athletes and not sold. "PJ Tucker has the best PE collection."
- Sample: An early prototype of a shoe that may or may not see a public release. "Samples hit different!"
Now that you‘ve got the basics down, let‘s talk about the various types of sneaker releases and how hard they are to get:
- Bricks: Shoes that sit on shelves and/or don‘t have good resale value. "Those Puma MB1s are bricks, I can‘t move them."
- Quickstrike (QS): A limited edition shoe from Nike with little advance notice. "Dunk Low ‘University Red‘ dropped as a Quickstrike on SNKRS."
- Hyperstrike: An extremely rare and hyped release, Tier 0, in the hundreds of pairs only. "The Off-White Jordan 4 Sail was a Hyperstrike for sure."
- Friends & Family: Exclusive sneakers only given to a brand‘s inner circle, not sold to public. "The Fragment Travis Scott Jordan 1 Lows were a Friends & Family pair."
As you can see, the more limited the release, the more hype (and resale value) the shoe has. With so much money to be made, sneakerheads and resellers go to great lengths to get these exclusive drops. This is where bots and proxies come into play – but more on that later!
Key Parts of a Sneaker
To really flex your sneakerhead knowledge, you gotta know the parts that make up your favorite kicks:
- Upper: The top part of the shoe that covers your foot. Usually made of leather, suede, mesh, or knit.
- Toebox: The front part of the shoe where your toes go. "The Off-White Air Force 1 has a metallic silver toebox."
- Midsole: The squishy foam part between the upper and outsole that provides cushioning.
- Outsole: The bottom of the shoe that actually touches the ground. This is where the herringbone, traction patterns, etc. are.
- Tongue: The flappy part below the laces that sits on top of your foot. Often has the main branding.
- Sockliner/Insole: The soft cushioned part inside the shoe that your foot rests on. Pull it out for size tags.
- Laces: The strings you tie to secure the shoe to your foot. Can be swapped to customize.
- Backstay: The rigid back part of the shoe that grips your heel, often has a pull tab.
Some bonus material parts to know that can help legit check sneakers:
- Aglets: The plastic or metal tip on the end of shoelaces that make them easy to lace.
- Deubre: The little plastic or metal rectangle that holds the laces in place, like on Jordan 11s.
- Toecap: Extra rubber or plastic material on the very front of the toe for durability, like AF1s have.
Key Sneaker Brands & Designers
The sneaker world is dominated by a few key sportswear brands and the iconic designers behind their most famous silhouettes:
- Nike/Jordan: The Swoosh is the undisputed king of kicks, largely thanks to their Air Jordan line with His Airness Michael Jordan. Notable Jordan designers include legend Tinker Hatfield and the late great Virgil Abloh.
- Adidas: The second biggest player, they‘ve put out iconic models like the Stan Smith, Superstar and NMD. In recent years they‘ve surged thanks to the Yeezy line with Ye (FKA Kanye West).
- New Balance: An old school brand that‘s made a huge comeback in the lifestyle running shoe market thanks to their retro models and clean colorways. Collabs with Aimé Leon Dore, Salehe Bembury, and Joe Freshgoods have serious hype!
- Reebok: Another classic sportswear brand that has seen a resurgence thanks to retro models like the Club C and collaborations with celebrities like Cardi B.
Rare Sneaker Conditions & Reselling
The condition and completeness of a pair is very important in the resale market. Here are the key slang terms to know:
- Deadstock (DS): Shoes that are brand new, never worn, with original box/packaging and all accessories (extra laces, hangtags, etc). The ideal condition for reselling.
- VNDS: Very Near Deadstock, worn briefly but in like-new condition with minimal flaws.
- Beaters: Your go-to daily sneakers that are worn down heavily but still have some life. Not really resale worthy.
- B-Grade: Sneakers that don‘t meet quality control standards due to defects but still get sold at a discount. Can be good beater pickups.
Here‘s some of the slang associated with actually buying and reselling sneakers:
- Cop: Successfully buying a pair of shoes, especially a hyped release. "I copped the Military Black 4s!"
- Cook: Buying a bunch of pairs of a hot shoe on release to resell for profit. "I cooked 20 pairs of the Shimmer 4s."
- Flip: Quickly reselling a hyped release soon after to make a nice profit. "I flipped the Taxi 1s for double retail!"
- Hold: Keeping a shoe for a while to let the resale price rise before selling later. "Red Thunder 4s were a great hold."
Botting & Proxies: A Web Scraping Expert‘s Perspective
These days, hypebeasts and resellers are using sophisticated software called sneaker bots to automate and speed up the checkout process and secure Ws on limited releases. Instead of clicking through a site manually, a sneaker bot can submit hundreds of entries to give you way more chances at copping. It‘s essentially like having a whole army trying for you!
Some of the most popular bots right now include:
- Cybersole
- Kodai
- Ganesh
- Wrath
- Phantom
- Prism
Of course, every sneakerhead is trying to use a bot, so competition is fierce. Sneaker sites employ advanced anti-bot protection to stop automated checkout and ban suspicious IP addresses. Serious sneaker botters have to use premium proxies to hide their IP, avoid rate limits and bans, and keep going for the cop.
Residential rotating proxies from trusted providers like Bright Data, Smartproxy, Proxy Seller and OxyLabs work best for botting since they come from real devices with clean IP reputation. Datacenter proxies are faster but get banned more easily.
Cook groups have become an essential edge in the sneaker resale game. These member-based online groups provide a wealth of insider info, early links, and botting tools/support. Some of the top cook groups right now include Notify, Teknikal, Tsunami and Flyky6 – but memberships are very limited and can cost hundreds per month! You really have to put in work to get a spot.
Sneaker Hype Market Data & Trends
To show you just how crazy the sneaker resale market has gotten, here‘s some data from StockX‘s Big Facts 2021 Report:
- The global sneaker resale market was estimated at $6 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $30 billion by 2030 (Cowen)
- Jordan Brand dominates with 4 silhouettes in the top 5 most traded on StockX in 2021
- Average resale price of Nike and Yeezy sneakers increased by 50%+ vs. 2020
- Over 1300 different sneakers sold for $1000+ on the platform in 2021, more than double 2020
- The most expensive sneaker sale was a pair of Nike Air Ships (MJ PE) for $1.5 million
So as you can see, collecting and reselling sneakers is serious business these days! Gone are the days of simple lineups outside Foot Locker – if you want the rarest pairs in 2024 you need to have a sophisticated setup with bots, proxies, and insider information to compete.
Sneakerheads are a competitive but tight-knit community, and that unique culture has spawned an entire language of its own over the decades. Hopefully this ultimate slang guide has given you a solid crash course in how to talk like a real sneakerhead. Now get out there and secure some Ws – and don‘t forget to hide behind those residential proxies 😉
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