Shoe Grading?
When stepping into the sneaker exchange world one should be familiar with sneaker terminology. One might ask what is sneaker terminology? Sneaker terminology is used to describe both the brands of shoes as well as the different parts of shoes. For example, the Michael Jordan retro 12 sneakers made their debut in May 1997 and were released again in 2009. The 1997 release are the original and referred to as dead-stock. The different parts of the shoe consist of upper which is best described as the part of the where the shoelaces are. Next is the midsole which is the side of the of the shoe. The tongue is obviously the part of the shoe one loosens to put on correctly. Last, the sole which is the bottom part of the shoe and usually has some interesting designs. James Platt who is a former web developer decided to create his He now resides in the Bay Area where he launched his shoe grading website called the sneaker savant in 2013. Shoe grading is used to resale old sneakers. The higher the grade the more money one will get for their shoes. The lower the grade the less money one will receive in return for their shoes.
Ever since Platt was a kid he had a deep profound love for sneakers ranging from Nike, Rebook, Adidas, and Converse. According to Platt "Sneakers were a big deal growing up I grew up skate boarding," Platt said. Skate boarders are known for their eye catching sneakers. While working in Silicon Valley as a web developer he was asked by a colleague why aren't there any shoe grading websites? Platt pondered for a bit and then had an epiphany he realized where true passion lied. After getting laid off from his Silicon Valley job Platt started taking steps in making the sneaker savant a reality.
Platt grades shoes based on the conditions of four main areas: Upper, Midsole, Inside, and bottom sole. According to Platt the upper accounts for 50% of the shoe grade, Midsole 25%, inside sole accounts for 20% and bottom sole accounts for 15%. Each month Platt examines approximately 50-100 pairs of shoes for grading. Platt has had conversations with Matt Halfill owner of nice kicks which is a sneaker consignment website. People purchase preowned shoes that are not available in malls.on nice kicks the website.
In the end although Platt's site doesn't get the notoriety like some of his counterparts. He remains optimistic his site will become one of the top relied upon sites for shoe grading. The sneaker collection industry will always be prevalent. In essence getting a fair or close to equal value grade on a sneaker is very important in terms of reselling. So with this being said all Sneaker sellers out there check out the the sneaker savant website for shoe grades prior to conducting future business.
