It’s been a week or two since the last of the “Best of 2013” sneaker lists have rolled in, so hopefully you’re past the overload (or malaise) and ready for a different take on it.
Overload? Are we implying there were too many lists? You decide. Here’s the first 50 we found:
Sites like Complex, Quickstrike, Nice Kicks, SneakerFreaker, Sneakerpedia, Finish Line, XXL, Crisp Culture, Dunk360, The Boombox, AskMen, Global Grind, StupidDope, GiantLife, and SneakerWatch. People like DJ Clark Kent, Ronnie Fieg, Nick DePaula, Gary Warnett, Russ Bengston, Joe La Puma, Frank the Butcher, Jeff Staple, Pete Williams, Lawrence Schlossman, Jay Corbin, Brandon Richard, Luis Sanchez, David Fischer, Klaudia Podsiadlo, Jeff Carvalho, Christian Prieto, Brandon Edler, Andy Oliver, Trinidad James, Rick Williams, AlexThaGr8, and Zack Schlemmer. YouTube videos from TBlake, Damnn Ericka, YoAntyKicks and scores of other people like this one, this one, this one, this one, and this one. And those are just the overall “Top 2013” lists, not counting focused lists like best New Balance, Air Jordans, unreleased, collabs or more collabs.
So…in light of the 50+ options a sneakerhead has to read about the “best” sneakers each year, the Campless team has developed a different approach. In what has now become our yearly tradition, we present the “Staying Power List”. These are the 2013 Top 20 most traded sneakers that were NOT released in 2013.
This is our way of looking at the sneakerhead market, with data of course, to determine which kicks remain popular well after they’ve been released and which might end up being a flash in the hypebeast pan.
Comparing this year’s list with the one we put together last year (Part 1; Part 2) there are some interesting insights, for sure, but you’ll have to read through and see for yourself though. As always, the sneakerheaddata speaks for itself. And, it speaks the truth.
Ranking Criteria: a) number of eBay auctions that ended in a sale; b) in 2013; c) for sneakers released pre-2013; c) in DS or Used condition; d) and all sizes. Where possible, we’ve included a link to what the sneakerhead community thought about each release, at the time.
20. Jordan Retro X “Chicago”. Release Date: 1/21/2012. 2,289 pairs sold. What they said.
19. Jordan Retro IX “Johnny Kilroy”. 10/6/2012. 2,290 pairs sold. What they said. And for those that are still asking “Who is Johnny Kilroy” the team at KicksOnFire put together a pretty nice explanation here.
18. KD V “Christmas”. 12/26/2012. 2,306 pairs sold. What they said. This is one of two non-Jordans on the list this year. For reference, the Lebron X “Christmas” would have been #37 on the list, and the Kobe VIII “Christmas” #39, if the list went to 40.
17. Jordan Retro V “Metallic Silver”. 8/20/2011. 2,484 pairs sold. What they said. Interesting data point: This pair was #7 on our list last year with 1,521 pairs sold in 2012.
16. Jordan Retro XII “Playoffs”. 4/21/2012. 2,915 pairs sold. What they said.
15. Jordan Retro IX “Cool Grey”. 12/15/2012. 3,037 pairs sold. What they said.
14. Jordan Retro VII “Olympics”. 7/21/2012. 3,129 pairs sold. What they said.
13. Jordan Retro VI “Olympics”. 7/7/2012. 3,311 pairs sold. What they said. An interesting bit of data analysis we will save for a rainy day would be the overlap of eBay users who bought both the VI and VII “Olympics” within the same year and how many days there were between purchases, but we digress.
12. Jordan Retro IV “Military Blue”. 6/9/2012. 3,312 pairs sold. What they said.
11. Jordan Retro IV “White Cement”. 2/18/2012. 3,436 pairs sold. What they said. Apparently, still doing the right thing.
10. Foamposite One “Polarized Pink”. 11/21/2012. 3,771 pairs sold. What they said. This is the other non-Jordan on this year’s list after the KD V “Christmas”.
9. Jordan Retro VII “Raptors”. 9/1/2012. 3,777 pairs sold. What they said.
8. Jordan Retro III “Black Cement”. 11/25/2011. 3,914 pairs sold. What they said. This was #10 on our list last year with 1,458 pairs sold in 2012. The 3’s age like a fine wine.
7. Jordan Retro IV “Fire Red”. 8/4/2012. 4,374 pairs sold. What they said.
6. Jordan Retro IV “Thunder”. 12/22/2012. 4,612 pairs sold. What they said.
5. Jordan Retro XI “Space Jam”. 12/23/2009. 4,632 pairs sold. What they said. Yes, that’s correct. Even though the Space Jam’s were retro-ed in 2009, they were the #5 top most traded sneaker four years later. They were also #3 on our last year.
4. Jordan Retro XI “Cool Grey”. 12/23/2010. 4,766 pairs sold. What they said. These slipped from the #2 spot on our list last year.
3. Jordan Retro IV “Black Cement”. 11/1/2012. 5,656 pairs sold. What they said.
2. Jordan Retro XI “Concord”. 12/23/2011. 8,385 pairs sold. What they said. Down one spot from last year’s top ranking.
1. Jordan Retro XI “Playoffs”. 12/21/2012. 18,676 pairs sold! (This number is hard to break down with the restocks that happened in January) What they said.
It would seem we can make the same conclusion as last year — Jordan XI’s rule. But let’s step back a moment and ponder the data. Overall, the Jordan IV’s had the most colorways represented with five, followed by the XI’s with four. After that, we have the VII’s and IX’s show up with two colorways each.
Looking at volume sold, the IV’s combined for 21,390 pairs, all from retros released in 2012. (We expect the Green Glows and the Fear Packs to show up here next year) However, the XI’s were traded 36,540 times in 2013 and only one colorway, the Playoffs, was released in 2012.
Comparing this list with last year’s, one hypothesis might be that — “Jordan XI’s will always remain a classic and a cornerstone to a lot of sneakerheads’ collections. Once a pair of XI’s are acquired though, collectors look to fill in the blanks of their collections with recently retro-ed original colorways.” An easier assumption to agree on is probably this — “Nike continues to drop heat at the end of the year”. Eight of the top 20 pairs were released in December and three were released in November.
What did you see in the sneakerheaddata? Did you add any of these pairs to your collection in 2013?
