DAVE SKOP INTERVIEW
WWW.RAREAIRSHOES.COM
Thanks for putting this immense Price Guide together. What method did you use?
The method is known as a ‘weighted average’. This differs from a regular average because calculation is affected by volume. To obtain the prices, a large number of the world’s most well-known shoe websites were surveyed for current and past prices. On top of that, eBay auctions were scoured to give the widest spread of possible prices.
What drives price in your opinion?
It starts and finishes with supply and demand. The highest-prices are those that have limited production and distribution. Shoes that are limited but also have a global release drive ‘HYPE’ as people feel they’ve missed out in their region, such as the DUNKLE and the AF-1 Chamber of Fear. The other example is the ‘one city’ release such as the Pigeon Dunk where buyers compete with each other to supply the rest of the world’s demand. Although the prices skyrocket for styles like this, they come down even quicker.
The most obvious question is: why so many Nikes?
Shoes by DC, Converse, Puma and Vans just don’t have enough secondary market activity to accurately survey the prices. Nike still lead the way with the hottest shoes, although other manufacturers are trying to increase their share of the market. The fact is, many Nikes make it onto the secondary market where they are actively traded, hence giving the data to make the price guide a reality. With regards to adidas, the 35th Anniversary Superstars were fantastic in 2005. The next year they released the Adicolors too soon which I feel caused problems – too many shoes and this softened prices of their many models by 2007.
