Jordan Black Cat 4s – Great Shoe, Better Returns

Nike Air Jordan 4 Black Cats 2020 retro.  This was a predictable retro that was bound to happen from Jordan brand because you can’t go wrong with an all black Jordan 4, and 14 years is about time for a retro from 2006.  I’m not a big fan of the shoe because you all know I’m a white sneaker type of guy, but I can’t underestimate the numbers it would do on the after market.

Surprisingly this wasn’t a very difficult cop on release date…pairs were moderately available in store the day of, so I copped approx 30 pairs of these on release day (29 pairs to be exact).  I have learned through the years of reselling is that I’m not copping what I like (well partially I do), but to be successful you have to cop and speculate on what you think OTHERS will like in the future.  This pair wasn’t a sexy flip by any means, but the numbers were certainly decent in hindsight.

I actually gave out about 12 pairs of these in our fixed slot random boxes for $220 and the remaining pairs I flipped on stockX. The retail tag on these was $190 and just 3 months later today, prices are trending around $280-290.  Putting numbers into perspective that’s almost 50% above retail in 3 months.  For a non hype sneaker, you can’t get these numbers too often when you factor in how easy it was to cop on release day – this was great reselling sneaker.

There was no hype, which was great because that just made the shoe that much easier to get, but one thing that really drove this sneaker price up is the demand.  This isn’t a very hypebeast demanded shoe, but rather it’s a sneaker demanded by your average joe sneakerhead and trust me…there are a lot more of these guys out there than hypebeasts and resellers.  This shoe hits every criteria of being an everyday sneaker and that is why people actually want a pair – to wear!  You’re not going to wear your Nike Off white Chicago 1s everyday because those are for one off situations in the year where you wear to flex…but you certainly can and will wear these everyday.  This is the exact reason why I believe and know this pair will do numbers.  However, I did not expect it to go up in price this fast!  I was atleast expecting to hold this pair till the end of the year, but prices went up to what I expected them to go in only 3 months instead of 12.

Depending what type of re-seller you are, you have to weigh what you should keep and what you should get rid of on a regular basis.  I mean after paying for fees and shipping, my margin ended up to be approx 30%.  30% margin for 3 months is the one of the better case scenarios I can ask for relative to some pairs I would have to hold more than a year to achieve the same results.  I could speculate and hold out longer hoping it would keep going up (I still think this shoe will go up in price), but I don’t think it will go up at the same rate like it did in the last 3 months, which is why I decided to off load them all and invest in other pairs (ie. court purples) that will have a faster increase.

Last but not least…since late 2019, sneakers resell prices have just been ALL over the place and have become much harder to predict because not only are you just trying to guess demand, but you also have to factor in what’s going on in global economy as well.  Who knew the trade war between US and China with the increase tariff could warp China demand that much…need proof?  Just look at your traditional money sizes 8-9.5.  Those have dropped DRASTICALLY over the past months/year.   I’m not saying this is 100% the reason why because I can’t say for certain nor is there a factual scientific backing, but I am confident this was the reason causing the drop in prices if not the most obvious one.  What I’m trying to say is, a shoe you have today can be profitable, but that can disappear overnight, so IF you can profit and you think the profit is good…it might be a good decision to lock it in and look for the next best thing and repeat!

And if you made it this far into the blog…the answer to the question for the surprise sneaker drop tonight is 30 🙂