Which sneakers come from foreign sellers?

In the previous post, “Which foreign countries sell the most sneakers into the U.S. sneakerhead market“, we opened up the conversation about foreign sneaker sellers.

As we stated then, our lens into the sneakerhead market is the U.S. eBay site but, on occasion, sellers from other countries join the party.  We found that Canada, Taiwan, France, Poland and South Korea, in order, lead the foray into the U.S. resell market.  We also examined average resell price and found that of the 20 countries with the most U.S. sales, Russia had the highest average price per pair at $525.

In that post, however, we made no mention the actual sneakers being sold by foreign sellers.  That’s where we pick up here.

This chart lists the 10 sneakers with the highest percentage of total sales from foreign sellers.  For example, the Asics Gel Lyte III Slam Jam 2013 had the highest percentage of total sales from non-U.S sellers at 81%.  This means that only 19% of Slam Jam sales came from U.S. resellers.

This Top 10 list was extracted from the 840+ sneakers that Campless tracks (which can be seen in our Sneaker Price Guide).  We first narrowed the list to sneakers which had at least 12 sales (1 per month) on eBay in 2013 (all conditions, all sizes).  We then calculated the percentage of total sales which came from a seller located outside of the United States, using eBay seller registration data.

Here, in table form, is the Top 10 List including total sales and foreign sales percentage:

Not surprisingly, the majority (6) of the top 10 were collabs with foreign sneaker shops, including:  Sneaker Freaker (Australia), CLOT (Hong Kong), Slam Jam (Italy), Bape (Japan), and two with Atmos (Japan).

Also unsurprising is the fact that there was only one Nike Basketball shoe in the Top 10.  That was the five year old Lebron 6 All-Star which just barely made the minimum volume threshold with 14 sold.  Although, if we had eliminated the Lebron 6, the next sneaker up would have also been Nike Basketball, albeit a European release – the Kobe 7 Barcelona Away (29.2% from foreign sellers).

In addition to the “Top 10”, there were 10 other sneakers which also had at least 1/3 foreign sales, but which did not make the 12-sale cut-off.  They were:

Lots of foreign collabs and European releases here, as well.

To close it out, then, let’s also look at the top 10 sneakers with no foreign collabs or foreign releases:

Did you cop any of these kicks last year?  Do you know if you purchased them from a foreign seller?