Sneaker reselling has been an area of growth and opportunity in the sneaker industry for years. As sneakers and streetwear became more popular and mainstream throughout the 90s, copping the latest kicks for retail price on release dates became gradually more difficult. The demand for the latest kicks for both men and women continue to increase and with the digital advancements of todays world, the sneaker market has boomed and is steadily treading towards a multi-billion dollar industry.

Bloomerg Businessweek featured Chad and Adena as they discussed how online sneaker sales have changed the game over the years.

Read more on Bloomberg Businessweek.

Excerpt below:

The potential to get rich quickly, in an informal setting with little oversight, drew a new breed of extremely online Gen Z trader. Most were White men, according to Adena Jones, chief executive officer and one of two Black co-­founders of Another Lane, which launched its own digital marketplace for kicks last April. Jones and her husband, Chad, raised $160,000 to start their business by selling off shoes from their own collection. “Part of the reason,” she says, “was to have a voice in this culture that we started.” She’d seen sneaker reselling become highly ­transactional—“like buying wheat or oil,” in contrast with the approach of her husband, “who has been to the weddings of people he’s sold sneakers to.” 

Chad marvels at how quickly things changed: “For 30 years I was boots on the ground, camping out in front of shoe stores. Then all of the ­sudden this middleman emerged.”