Nike Korea will take action against the resale of products, especially sneakers in the future. The new terms and conditions prohibit customers from certain purchases. Furthermore, the sportswear giant reserves the right to cancel orders in the future should there be any indication of an intention to resell.
This development follows the release of the highly coveted Air Force 1 x Louis Vuitton sneaker in July. The regular price of the sneakers was 3.51 million won ($2,500), but they were traded for 14 million won (about 10,000 euros) on South Korean resale platform Kream.
According to news outlet Econotimes, Nike’s changing terms and conditions will have a greater impact on retailers buying up inventory of well-known Nike products than on resale between individuals.
Limited Edition Restrictions
The new restrictions follow Nike’s warnings last year that the limited run of sneakers could be curtailed should resellers continue to snag pairs.
Nike informed its retail partners that they should expect “delivery restrictions”. This is due to concerns about the amount of sneakers that are getting to resellers and being sold at great profits on online platforms like StockX.
In order to strengthen its own direct sales, Nike has already ended cooperation with several retailers. In the US, the company has stopped supplying retailers such as Zappos, Dillards, Boscov’s, Bob’s Stores and City Blue.
Bots bypass purchase restriction systems
Many resellers use bots and special software to complete e-commerce transactions faster than is possible with manual checkouts.
Last year, Ann Hebert, Nike’s general manager for North America at the time, resigned after reports that her 19-year-old son used her credit card to buy sneakers and sold them at a profit. According to the BBC, he used bots to bypass purchase-restriction systems to buy popular limited-edition sneakers.
A retailer told the BBC: “I don’t think they (Nike) actually mind people doing something like this as it fuels the hype. You are a billion dollar company. Ultimately, they could do a lot more with their technology to prevent something like this from happening.”
This translated post previously appeared on FashionUnited.uk.