Spend enough time looking into sneakerhead culture, and eventually, you’ll come into a term that may require explanation: Deadstock. The word is impactful in just two syllables, applying to some of the most desirable and exclusive merchandise in existence.
Daniel Patrick will be giving a glimpse at the world of deadstock and how it came to be.
What Does Dead Stock Mean?
Deadstock is a compliment that raises the value of a piece of apparel, but its origins are less flattering. Deadstock, a single word, comes from the phrase dead stock, meaning unsellable merchandise.
A given retailer has to deal with churn as new merchandise is cycled in and old pieces are cycled out. In an ideal world, a merchandiser would be able to exactly meet demand, but in practice, this never happens. It is common for retailers to wind up with more merchandise on their hands than they can sell. This becomes a problem when old merchandise becomes outdated.
When a retailer has excess merchandise, there are two options available to them. The first (and unthinkable option) is to toss the items in question. Sometimes this is the only available recourse. Calendars, day planners, and other time-sensitive goods are only usable for the year in which they were printed.
The second option, and more likely for the retail market, is to put dead stock items on clearance. Regular sales will never result in a business cutting a loss, but extreme clearance may have businesses taking a loss.
At some point, the opportunity cost of inventory taking up space forces extreme sales. This encourages items to be sold quickly to bargain hunters to free up space for new items.
What Causes Dead Stock To Appear?
Dead stock can occur in a store for a variety of reasons, none of them ideal. These reasons can range from the free-moving transition of fashion trends to business mishaps.
- Quantity: Misorders can happen easily. If the demand for a product does not meet expectations, the result will be merchandise that does not have a secure buyer. This leads to a longer time on the shelves, especially as seasonal apparel is cycled about.
- Circumstance: This is less a condemnation of circumstance as a measure of goodness and more so as a measure of accuracy. Specific fashion trends come and go.
Shifting fashion trends may leave a particular garment gathering dust as it no longer meets needs. Clothing sales plummeted in Q1 and Q2 of 2020 but have since ricocheted back as people are more active worldwide.
- Mismanagement: Dead stock can sometimes accrue because its existence isn’t even fully known. Inventory management, even on a software level, is fallible. If a piece of apparel isn’t properly accounted for, it can effectively disappear until an employee “rediscovers” it.
- Quality: Sometimes, the reason an item does not sell is due to inherent flaws. Gauging quality from a quick glance takes work, but more immediate judgments often disqualify apparel from being purchased.
None of the factors which cause dead stock to occur are positive ones. Dead stock speaks poorly of a business and can lead to financial problems in extreme quantities. Given this origin, it is surprising that the term has been repurposed in describing exceptionally desirable footwear.
It’s now time to identify the precise meaning of deadstock, in comparison to its progenitor, dead stock.
What Does Deadstock Mean?
Dead stock apparel may not be desirable but does share an important quality with deadstock footwear: Pristine condition.
Deadstock sneakers originally referred to pieces that were completely sold-out and no longer in production. The pieces were deadstock because finding them from retailers was nearly impossible. The meaning eventually shifted to refer to footwear that was, essentially, in brand-new condition and preserved its packaging.
Deadstock refers to authentic, unworn sneakers that are usually no longer available from direct retailers. This authenticity includes an untampered box and potentially even the tissue paper used to wrap the shoes. In all regards, the shoe resembles the way it would at a standard retailer.
When Did Deadstock Start?
Deadstock as a term is fairly recent, with an exact start date difficult to determine. The one certainty is that the desire for high-quality, unworn apparel predates the term by decades. The first running shoe was developed by an innovative track coach with base materials and a waffle iron. It would be a decade later, in the 1980s, when the first mainstream sneakers hit the market.
A new athletics boom, the NBA superstardom of Michael Jordan, and a new prevalence of streetwear fashion led to a revolution. A new pair of sneakers became a status symbol, more for their exclusivity and inherent appeal than the price point. While countless people immediately wore their new sneakers, some kept their shoes unworn and brand new.
The desire to keep items perfect is not a new one. Any valuable item from cards to cars has collectors who strive to keep them polished and perfected. In footwear, the untarnished white detailing of a sneaker and intact tags is a signature that makes deadstock valuable.
Deadstock, in a general sense, has likely been around as long as sneakerhead culture has been. Deadstock, in a particular sense, has only been around recently since digital retail impacted the way we purchase goods.
How Do People Buy Deadstock?
Just as crucial as the concept of deadstock is understanding how people purchase it. Retailers serve as the primary market for footwear but are not the primary source of deadstock. Buyers and sellers instead communicate through secondary markets, which are rarely physical.
Sneakerheads communicate around the globe, and the resellers market for deadstock footwear is primarily digital. StockX and Stadium Goods are both sites where buyers and sellers can communicate. These market values sneakers far above what a normal retail setting would charge for them. Extremely rare shoes regularly climb into the five-figure mark and beyond.
The upper echelons of the market are never as simple as adding a piece to your cart and buying. Digital or in-person auctions are the new normal for the most desired pieces.
The result is that when pieces go for exorbitant prices, it accurately represents what those with the resources will spend. Both newcomers to the auctioneering space and storied houses like Sotheby’s have covered auctions for unworn or vintage footwear.
Why Is Deadstock Valuable?
Deadstock sneakers are valuable because people are willing to pay high prices to buy them. This central tenant holds true for anything which is bought and sold, but every item has to have something backing its value.
Collector’s Value
Sneakerhead culture in its prime has been around since the 1980s, leading to decades of footwear to examine. Collectors may want to gather shoes from a particular line or focus on rare footwear from all different times. Even unworn shoes will slowly break down over time, making unworn vintage shoes a collector’s item more than anything else.
Exclusivity
Limited-edition releases of shoes and limited-run reruns both appeal to wearers who want a truly unique piece of footwear. The ability to possess an exclusive piece and the ties athletes and artists often have to these pieces is appealing.
Keeping it pristine as a collector’s piece or wearing it to show off your own style both bring style. The principle of exclusivity applies to high fashion, luxury streetwear, and any other highly desired, difficult-to-acquire piece.
Particularity
The biggest factor influencing the price point of the most valuable shoes is the piece’s particular history. 1-of-1 sneakers, totally unique pieces, are often custom-made and result in exorbitant prices on the market.
Worn sneakers sometimes fetch more than deadstock for the special place in history they hold. Courtside sneakers of NBA stars and the original waffle iron moon shoes both come to mind where prices rival deadstock.
Collaborations
The collectible sneaker market has always been marked by sought-after collaborative pieces. Michael Jordan and Kanye West both blazed trails in integrating athletes and artists' influence in the world of footwear. High-profile collabs are likely to sell out, making them prime targets for a reseller’s market.
The Future of Collecting
Deadstock has undergone a massive transition. This formerly denigrating term for unmovable inventory is now the highest honor for preserved, quality pieces.
Getting new shoes, rare ones, in particular, fills a desire that sees no sign of fading. Every day new collectors enter the field to hunt down contemporary classic shoes.
Old collectors downsize their collections, or footwear passes on to those who have no interest in keeping them. Old footwear deteriorates, and deadstock is worn for the first time, while new pieces appear to fill the market.
New accessibility makes this an exciting time to be a collector. An influx of new collectors jostling shoulders with seasoned ones makes this a competitive time to be a collector.
The one constant throughout this is that deadstock will always exist and continue to be made. Deadstock means that both collectors and stylists will also have new footwear and “new” old footwear to fill their closets.
Sources:
Air Jordans Sell For As Much As $20,000 On StockX, Stadium Goods I Business Insider
The Evolution of Sneakers Through the Years | Men's Health