As senior Jimmy Warner takes steps toward the future, he hopes to put his best foot forward—in his best pair of Yeezys. Warner is considered a “hypebeast,” someone he describes as “wearing overpriced, overhyped clothes to flex on their peers to try and show they have more money when in most cases they blew it all on what they’re wearing.” Though Warner may look like your average hypebeast, he has turned fashion into a paying hobby, reselling expensive sneakers that he has purchased through retail.
Warner’s family has been reselling clothes since he was little, yet he was never really interested in shoes until his friends began selling them. It was around sophomore year when he resold his first pair of shoes.
“You can either go line up at Footlocker for Jordan releases, or if you live in a big city you can confirm a purchase for Yeezys on your phone and pick them up from an Adidas store,” Warner said. “But if you don’t have those benefits, then you have to do what I do and go online and wait at the queue and hope that you get through.”
The longest Warner has waited in line was three and a half hours.
“It was for the Yeezy Beluga 2.0’s when they released,” Warner said. “I was just sitting at a queue that refreshed itself just waiting to get through. It’s always super boring, but, I mean, it pays off.”
Once he obtains the shoes, Warner resells them if he’s not keeping them for himself. For the Yeezy Beluga 2.0’s—Warner’s proudest purchase—he bought four pairs for $220 retail and was able to sell three of them for roughly $400 each.
Though the hypebeast model may seem like easy money, there are concerns involved with reselling sneakers. Scammers, sell-outs and stereotyping are all highly associated with Warner’s hobby and many people have purchased replica sneakers for the same high resale price as real ones, providing lesser quality and an overall waste of money.
“I’m grateful to get most of my shoes from retail, so I don’t have to pay resale or get scammed with fakes,” Warner said. “It depends how long you’ve known people and how good of a relationship you have with them. There are even people in our school that I wouldn’t trust to sell anything to me because some people are fake. If you know the person and if you’ve known them for a while you mess with them, they mess with you-then I think it’s trusting.”
Fakes are not something Warner has to worry about, but stereotypes are. He says there are some people in his life who hate to see him making money so easily. Warner recalled that people have asked him how he made $500 in one weekend and his response was, “I clicked purchase and that’s about it.” Some don’t understand the process of making money and some don’t understand the passion behind the clothing and shoes.
“I like to embrace it when people call me a hypebeast because, I mean, no matter what, if you’re gonna wear expensive clothes or expensive shoes, you’re going to get labeled as a hypebeast, so why not go with it?”
As time takes trends from Yeezy Boost 350s to Yeezy Boost 350 V2s, Warner’s life won’t include selling sneakers forever. When he graduates, he plans to attend Michigan State University and major in Computer Science, hopefully working for Microsoft one day. Though Warner claims he will always have an “inner hypebeast,” his career plans don’t include reselling as anything more than a hobby though he looks forward to dressing better in the future.
Warner has made roughly $3,000 over the two years he has been reselling, and he credits the start of it all to his family for inspiring him and supporting him.
“My parents really help me out too,” Warner said smiling. “Initially, when I didn’t have a ton of money, they would loan money to me to buy shoes and I’d pay them back once I resold them, which is hype: shoutout to them. They’re the real ones that started all of this.”
Warner has some advice for anyone looking into the reselling business.
“If you’re looking to sell shoes and clothes,” Warner said. “You shouldn’t be doing it just to resell. You should actually wear your shoes, otherwise you’re just a real hypebeast and you’re not in it for the full experience.”
Overall, Warner has recognized this as a positive step for him and he sees it as the full experience.
“I’ve really seen myself grow over the last few years because of it,” Warner said. “I feel like I’ve really changed as a person, actually. Straight up, I used to be super reserved and shy, but now I’ve really come out of my shell reselling has helped me learn how the world actually works. I feel like it has really shown me how important it is to have connections throughout life and importantly, how to manage my money better.”