How This Sneakerhead (and E-Commerce Guru) Identifies Game-Changing Shoes

The business of buying and reselling — also known as “flipping” — can be challenging, especially when trying to predict which products will rise in resale value …

But one young e-commerce guru, Isaac Davydov, figured out a strategy.

In 2019 alone, Davydov reached six figures just by reselling popular sneakers. Instead of buying a pair of shoes and immediately reselling them, Davydov waits for the sneakers to reach their maximum value before reselling, a strategy which he calls “holding.”

The obvious question becomes, how does he know which sneakers will explode in resale value? Davydov reveals his methods on how he identifies which sneakers will be the most successful on the resale market.

To Wear Or Not to Wear — That Is The Question

Davydov indicates one of his main methods of reselling is determining the shoes’ wearability. “Shoes aren’t just to be resold. Like at the end of the day, it’s to wear,” he plainly states. He isn’t selling to people of prestige and prominence, but rather, regular, ordinary people. If a shoe doesn’t possess the quality to be worn by a regular person, Davydov deems the shoe unfit to resell.

When the Jordan 6 Retro Travis Scott sneaker released, the overwhelming majority assumed it would be one of the most popular selling shoes. However, Davydov took one look and concluded that the shoes weren’t wearable for the average person— and he was right. The shoes resale price plummeted to about half of what they originally sold for. The shoes, in essence, weren’t “relatable” enough.

Forbes states that being relatable as an entrepreneur naturally draws in customers: “No matter what industry you’re in, you’ll be more successful if people can relate to you, whether they’re investors, employees, or customers.”

But this also includes the products you’re selling. Before selling a product, it is essential to determine its relatability to your target audience. People will either be drawn to your product, or they will take one look and say, “That’s not for me.”

A Professional of Prediction

Davydov has become successful largely due to his ability to predict the success of a shoe. He related his prediction strategy to stocks: he knew which shoes would go up, and which shoes would go down.

Once Davydov realized that he had a true talent in this area, his business began to boom, and his process of prediction turned more into an instinct rather than a long, drawn-out thought process.

Moira McCormick draws attention to the necessity of prediction in the world of e-commerce. “As an e-commerce retailer, you want to be able to predict what your customers are looking for when they land on your site.”

It’s also important to always be up to date with the changing trends and the shifting interests of your target audience. Essentially, you have to know what your customers want.

When describing growth strategies behind booming e-commerce businesses, an article on Sourcify states, “We are social creatures. We like to do things that are approved by other people,” emphasizing the importance of staying in touch with prominent personalities and any trends revolving around them.

Davydov also used this method to predict the success of a shoe. If no celebrities were caught wearing or promoting it, he concluded the product wouldn’t be popular enough to resell.

Quick Flipping? Hold That Thought …

When it comes to the resale market, most people use a strategy knows a quick flipping, or purchasing a product and immediately reselling it. While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, Davydov found a new strategy that proved to be more effective for his business.

Instead of focusing the purpose of his business on turning fast, small profits, Davydov took a more patient path and developed a strategy which he calls holding. It’s a much slower process than flipping, but it produces a higher return on investment.

In an interview with Business Insider, Davydov explains, “For every single shoe, there’s a different way to hold them. A lot of people think it’s just like, they release, you buy them from stores, and then you hold them. But that’s one way to, in most cases, lose money.”

Davydov goes on to explain that the holding process can be difficult when first starting out. The longer you hold a product, the more expensive it can be. He had to produce enough wealth before fully implementing his holding strategy by selling iPhones, restoring sneakers and doing a few quick flips on newer shoes.

This enabled him to gradually move on to bigger and longer holds. In one particular case, Davydov made a profit of over $20,000 on a hold of 55 pairs of Jordan 4 Retro Travis Scott Cactus Jack sneakers.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

With today’s rapid growing range of e-commerce businesses, it can be difficult to pinpoint what products will rise and fall. Davydov familiarized himself with the market he was selling in, as well as the audience he was selling to. Patience, experience, and staying in tune with transitory sneaker trends allowed him to predict the success of a shoe with just one glance.

Isaac Davydov rise to success started out fairly slow, but quickly picked up speed as he developed new strategies tailored to his business. And for such a young entrepreneur, he’s already achieved massive success.

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